A Question of Junk

I mentioned before about getting short listed into the lighthouse competition under the commercial category, long story short and far too much wine (again), i won it. Some how.

Not too many details here, thanks to everyone who came and well done to all the other winners :]

x

Dust

Dust is what my once blogtastic blog has been gather for a month, believe me i haven't been sitting around doing nothing,

The problem is with a retrospective look back is choosing a point to start so i'll start as far back as i can remember.

The previous post was all about my consumerism project based around the American giants Wal-marts shadow take over of the British food super market asda.


The project most likely go any further but the next time my main website has a major update small portions of text will be joint to each image, so i won't bore you with the details now. Also when i have a sort out my files i'll post all the bside images that never made the final cut.

Till then enjoy the images, so fresh there not even on the main page yo. x

Coming Soon

All will be explained :)

Oceana

Ok so a dew weeks back a friend whos setting up a new night at one of my local night clubs Oceana asked me to do some promo work,

I'm not gonna say no i'm always in there getting drunk ;)

Forgive the next on the images, free handed em from a few difference resources but it looks okay



Right so i shot a ski lodge room in the club, not much to say ect ect but if you wanna get drunk next to a moose head i guess this is your only option

For more info on the night head over too Its Facebook Page

They give out free toast too :o

.com

So finally, took me 3 days and alot of advice off my friend dan but finally i am a .com :D

http://chriscovephotography.com/

Few bugs to work out but the thing actually works and seems stable. Only thing that i'm kinda worried about is when you click on portfolio you get thumbnails of the contents of each folder on my mac screen (which is calibrated) they look fine but on some peoples screens they look a little blocky.

AH WELL :D

ENJOY

x

Park

So i needed a little R+R after a few weeks of work and the weather was nice and all so i went to the park and took some pictures of birds and birds without wings. (ones with fluffy tails)

Thats right kids, even when i'm relaxing i cant help but take pictures i'm a 100% freak.

Took the pictures on a 35m camera i got knocking about with a good old pentax lens, since the day was so sunny it was easy to work out exposures ect blah blah ect ect.



So..... yeah



Also believe it or not i won a duck grooming kit today,

:]]



I will put the Oceana shoot up soon as i can find the right text to go onto the images.

:]]

Also i have no idea why some random time showed up on my film? i messed with this clock thing on the back of my camera so i guess thats why ://

xxx

Get this...

When a young photographer such as me gets asked to exhibit at the NEC (biggest arena in Birmingham) It should be a time for joy and celebrating right? no.

Just for a sec go check out the fashion accessories post on this blog, check out the time spent crafting and editing those images.

Just a quick note, the people who put this together (the show) worked amazingly hard but a certain overseer kept messing them about.

This overseer wasn't the biggest fan of my work maybe the 30 hours i put into editing and selecting wasn;t enough? who knows.

Spot the difference now, click the image in this post, then compare the pictures on the all, to the same pictures that are on my blog. You'll noticed that have been reedited for a 6 year old.

Not only that they wouldn't give me a pass to get in to the show to see my own work, picture was taken by my spy. :]

S-punk

Question time,

What if i told you on your first ever modeling photo shoot would include top hats, harry potter coats, pipes and fucking laser guns..... AND i expect you to make it sexy? or else.

Next one, what if i told you not only am i the most unprofessional guy in the business but you'll have to put up with me breaking things, my bad jokes and stories, tour guides visiting the shoot and my crazy assistant Sgt Gogelz.

Finally, as a professional i use key scenarios to excite new poses, so pretend your on your first shoot and i shout somthing along the lines of:

Your on a beach! you just got out the steel mill, MAN ARE YOU TIRED... bet you'd love to be the on that PLEASURE CRUISE going past LOOK HOW MUCH FUN THERE HAVING.

Then expect a pose.

For some reason my new best friend Jen said yes and check it out:



This whole shoot was about steam punk, look it up. Its a Victorian new wave fashion style, and its fucking sweet. (nerds love it)

Sgt Gogelz provided the props and Jen provided us with the girl clothes (cos gogelz aint into cross dressing) (so he says) and i provided my self and stories about the H bomb.


Some shoots have a constant level, like a certain restriction on how they work, this stops inconsistency and all that other bollocks. I don't do my home work, i cant pretend i know jack all about steam punk cept i can make it sexy right? So we got our cool weird shots...

Then some down right sexy ones :O..



Even Sgt Gogelz couldnt help him self...

Your a fucking ANIMAL Gogelz.

Was an amazing shoot as you can see. I get pounded every day with critics on my work but its shoots like this and results like this why I'll never give up.

I've not even got through half my images and look at the results already!

1 canvas, 1 soft.box.key.light(sync)

1 flash w/barn door (green filter)
1 model
1,000 bad jokes

Alot of people ask me "Chris you devlishly charming young man, why are you not out documenting soical stuggle? why do you not use your camera and photography skills to cover wars or poverty?"

My reponse: we all make life choices, mine was to work with sexy wimminz in top hats and sgt gogelz!

lololololololololollololl



Yo jen? IS THAT A HASSELBLAD :O

badabing

P.s: None of the shots on my blog are ever final, this aint no Marge Simpson porno deviant art polly pocket website. nit pick all you want when the pictures are sent to print THATS when there perfect.

Unless the fashion department get ahold of them.

nerds.

Etching.

Me shortly before visiting the textile department to educate them in not fucking with my prints

Kumphlow

Fashion Acessories

Last week i got an email off a girl asking me to help them out for NEC show there putting together (link), how could i refuse. :]

It was a fashion accessory show and i worked with the same people who made the skirts i mentioned in last months blog so it was great to work with them again.

The standard was through the roof again :D.

Right so i did have my Hasselblad for this shot but i used digital again, because i cant afford the 70 rolls of film it would of took me to shoot the whole thing. It consisted of hats and shoes. For some reason i ended up shooting the shoes half way through the hats, and i didnt have time to change my lighting setup so heres the quick fix i used:

table and black roll over it to add height, worked a treat:

Take a look at the production shot with the table again and you might notice the terrible fucking state the canvas is in, it has 2 totally different shades of black :/, made it high holy hell to get some shots, hopefully it'll get sorted soon.

Big challenge here as with Lucas's's shoot as black on black, how to you do it? i dunno to be quite blunt, just practice! (i do know but cant be bothered typing it out, if you really wanna know email me :])



The makeup and costumes were mind blowing and i'm really glad to be part of it, the shows runs 12-15th of march i think so make sure to go! There's a cat walk with the work being shown and there's a load of other stuff going on too and I'll be there, that's reason enough right?



A good tip if your shooting a massive collection in one run is to mix up the lighting with the makeup, so when the makeup changes (which can take time) change your lighting slightly (look at the first and second shot) this gives a different feel to the shots, even if they are a collection and always make sure your showing off what the designer wants to show off! in pieces like these some parts of the build are meant to be hidden, always check!

So whats next? Loads too much to list, enjoy the images and keep checking for updates :]


So whats next? Loads too much to list, enjoy the images and keep checking for updates :]

Lucas and the Cigar

Lucas asked me last week if I'd do a shoot for him.

I'd never turn that man down. :]

Simple concept, Old school gangster get up, always best to keep your ideas simple and build up during the shoot, keep props handy. :D


Our studio technicians get touchy sometimes but today they were good enough to let us smoke a fat cigar during the shoot, made for some atmospheric shots.

We needed a sofa for the shoot, cos all real gangsters know its good to get there sit down on! Getting it was abit of a mission, anyone whos ever seen the family guy blue harvest episode can imagine what we went through to get the sofa down 6 flights of stairs.



Half way through the shoot lucas took this wicked frame of me!


Yeah this was all shot on my 450d DIGITAL camera, but i get my hasselblad back tonight so it'll be all film.

Very sexy shoot, if you wanna see more come ask to see my portfolio!

Next up jap style fashion shoot tomorrow, exciting :]]

Landan

Blah blah blah long train ride blah blah blah

Yeah so cultivate, was amazing not gonna tell you why because its a should of been there sorta thing. Met some cool people, but now i'm VERY glad i don't live in London, it really is the grey city.

I was at the London communication college at the Elephant and Castle section of London, kinda ghetto but had a nice Jamaican charm to it. Couldn't find a fucking bite to eat for the life of me tho.


At the half way point in the seminars we took a break and i took to the streets to look around, outside the college there was an old woman who had fell over being looked after by 2 by passers, she had fell pretty bad a bust her chin up. Camera in hand i stopped and thought that maybe sometimes a picture inst relevant.



Would of been a fucking amazing picture no doubt but morals got to me and i carried on. After the final talks i went back outside and the tissue used to stop the blood was still on the floor, covered in blood. I took a frame but i didn't come out very accurate, somehow double exposed the frame, ah well. Back to the Grey city on march 14th of another meeting.

And as for the creative review guy last Friday, he was about as helpful as a toaster in the bath. :]

x

Noir

(not that bellend off mightyboosh)

Been falling behind with some high end stuff, had my creative review crit today was pretty good,just need to carry on and get some more solid projects down.

So heres some new stuff from a shoot last night, carrying on from that shot with the car under the street lamp.

Takes a very 50's detective feel, still unsure about it but it will probs be my final piece for a site and spacial project.

I'm still indecisive about if text should be included or not, a written narrative depicting a monologue said by the female protagonist who features in 2 pictures.

using long shutter speeds at night with people in can be tricky, a way i got around this was by shooting silhouettes, this also gives a really nice atmosphere.

Antique

The the first 2 films off my Mamiya range finder came home today, for a camera from 1972 (the year my hasselblad was made) that has been bashed around in antique shops for years and year it aint half bad.


Range finders are tricky to use, i find this one real easy though, feels good in my hands. I still prefer using my external light meter to the ttl one (one thats built into the camera) but it's allll good. :]

I also tried microwaving a 35m film canister then shooting the film. Weirdly enough it had no effect. I later realized i could of blown the microwave up putting metal things in it, :(

New additions

Got some interesting stuff coming up next few days, shoot tonight with Johnny, Creative review talk tomorrow and London for the weekend, scary stuff.

My Hasselblad is in repairs and will be out of action for at least a week, i figured why its in there i may aswell get it serviced so it'll come back brand new :]]!

Anyways when i dropped my hassy off in the repair town i hit some local charity and antiques shops and found found these 3 camera gems!.

Box Brownie, Mamiya Crown and a Ilford Sportsman, all in working condition! I'll post up some results for the shoots with those later, and i'll post some stuff from tonights shoots soon as possible!

xx

Crit

I had a crit today (when a group get together and talk about work) and found out alot of my pictures lack contextual meaning, which is going to have a impact.

I can't name 10 artists and 3 books and a poem about my photos, i guess my fashion stuff is just as you see it.

When i walked away though i kinda felt like i didn;t serve my images with full justice, they DO have meaning, i was just almost too scared to tell them the concept behind them.

I'll get better at it, it was a great session and i took alot away from it, aswell as new concepts for images.

In other news my hasselblad is broken! the last problem is back and now i need to go get it fixed which i will do Wednesday :[


In the mean time heres a few holga images i've been busting out!

All done by flipping the camera. :]

Urgh...

Noo ideaaaa :[[[!

Selective

+

Big week this week,

London weekend for seminars held at the Cultivate festival, Friday a meeting with art magazine Creative Reviews editor. OOOOOERR :]


I know I'll only be getting 10 minuet max on Friday with the editor, i want him to know my life story in images so how do we do it?

We love our work and want to show everyone everything but we can't.

I like 1 image a minute approach but i still have no idea what to show, a mix of new and old can show inconsistency, its not a show of how much you;ve improved but a show of who you are at that current moment in time.

Hard stuff right, one right image in the right review can boost a career, a bad one can set you back.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off and just plan to look at my body of work and hopefully the right ones will come out.

Check out the creative review website! : Here

Pola-nerd

me and my holgaroid

Right we all love Polaroids right?

in the "lalala look at me with my Polaroid camera at your party"


I met Kristof Dillinger today, a guys who leading the way in experimental photography and the guy lent me his Holga Polaroid back loaded with film (thats really fooking expensive now) so i ran off out shooting around uni.

Weird vignetting :/

Double Exposure

Its always cool to play with film your not paying for, so i started to over crank up the overlays and creating shapes.

Quad Exposure

We tried some pola-transfers, when you take a picture let the Polaroid develop for a few seconds then slap it open onto paper or any surface and roll it on so you get a cool transfer, didn't work for us for some reason! ah well. :[