Instagram is a great resource for watching people create images and I am taken by how many are helpful enough to show you how to do product photography. Its just a pity that the majority of Instagram is 'bots' trying to defraud you out of money with Bitcoins, or asking you to look at semi nude photos of women and all the other bullshit.
I hope you enjoy the New commercial stuff.
Just a few digital art special I made from six of the images featuring Mercybongo at our recent shoot. They are a mixture of flowers and model, I do mean to get back to doing a bit more digital art as I had been doing when Covid came along, but its getting inspired to do it. Maybe in the new year?
Model: Various
Music: 'Somewhere over the rainbow'
– Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
Model: Mercybongo
Music: Cuff It - Beyoncé
I finished of the year in the studio with a truly great model who is reasonably local to me and happy to have weird ideas run past her for shoots. Mercybongo is a lovely African lady who put herself to out of the way the day before the shoot and have her hair specially braided at Shadrines Beauty Salon This help enormously as on the day Shadrine could weave small pieces of rope into her hair.
Mercy was a pleasure to work with and we already have plans lined up for more shoots in the new year so I can not wait. The big rope was supplied by Phil Lynam at the excellent Boardroom Studio, so a big shout to him. As well as a thank you to both Mercy and at Kavour Beauty.
Here is another new project I have started and its one that litreages me. I have already touched on it a bit in other projects, but here is its own folder. Abstract or Abstractism is something I am drawn to because I like symmetric patterns it can throw up. Featured here are some random stuff to start with like a radiator, some silk cloth and a weird designed building in town, now sadly vacant.
Music: 'Cornfield Chase' – Hans Zimmer
Music: 'Together' – Austin Farwell
Why not finish the year on a high with some pictures of flowers, not quite seasonal enough for some, but I am immensely happy with them. Its been a great year for flower photographing with help of course from Chris and the ladies at Flowers To Yours and the Brambles Florist. If you haven't seen the highlights sideshow above please do so. You will not be disappointed. So a big thanks to all at Brambles and a special thanks also to my wife Amy who helps me with everything these days.
Seasons greetings and see you all again in 2023 x
Welcome back to my little corner of the web.
This last month has been a busy one with two fashion shoots under my belt and a new phone to sort out!
I had the distinct pleasure of working with a lovely new Muslim model who is local to me named Aasiya. The weather was with us on the day and we took some snaps around town. I was pleasantly surprised with her and am looking forward to hopefully working with her again early in the new year and beyond. I also managed to fit in my old friend and champion boxer, the undefeated Nicolie Campbell (aka 'Pretty Boy Assassin') at the studio for his seventh shoot together. He just keeps getting better and is a genuinely nice and decent man. Which leads me on to my mobile phone …
A week or so ago I picked up my charged up Alcatel mobile phone to make a call and the damn thing fell in half in my hands. Just fell in two. I had not previously gone caveman on it or sent it into orbit around the room, so all I can think of is that it was just a cheap jack pile of pantihose waste! (I only got the thing because it was cheap and simple, calls and text only. For a truth be told, these new all singing and dancing smart phones have a way of intimidating me) On top of which if that was not bad enough, this came after the previous week when somehow I managed to drop my brand new Nikon D850 camera into the vegetable soup that Amy had just served up. I could not have made this up if I planned to ! But I must say that it added nothing to the taste of ASDA's own vegetable soup, nor put me off eating it. So no harm done there then.
So all in all it has been a memorable month (Amy did a sterling job in cleaning the soup off the camera with no harm done). I hope you enjoy this months collection of pictures and don't forget to come back next month in the festive season, or Mariah Carey season as I like to think of it.
x
My wife has a habit of bringing home bits and bobs she finds on her journeys. They could be interesting stuff that she finds in charity shops like vases, which always come in handy or twigs with dried up leaves on them. She recently found on sale this ceramic candle holders that looked a bit like the faces from Easter Island with a view to taking there pictures. So now you know what I am doing this weekend? But last month she brought home a darkened wet twig that was all gnarled and had some ripe crimson red berries on it. You would not give it a second glance if you see it on the pavement, but Amy noticed it and we took some pictures of it. I added a frosty look in Photoshop to the three images and this is what the results look like. Thank you to Amy and enjoy this months Still Life / Fine Art?
Model: Nicolie Campbell
Music: 'Paint It Black' – The Rolling Stones
I hooked up with champion boxer, Nicolie Campbell for our seventh shoot together and he was looking good after his recent fight. We were at The Boardroom Studio and used nearly all natural light for this session to some great results. He never fails to take a bad picture and always looks good. There are plans now to do a 'Tribal' look shoot next year before his next fight. So I am looking forward to that and will have to do my home work to think on some ideas and concepts.
Please enjoy the pictures?
Model: Aasiya Azeemali
Music: 'Hypnotized' – Fleetwood Mac
Aasiya is a new model to me who contacted me through Instagram. A point to add here is that she is the first model to contact me through this platform that was an actual human and not a BOT created by a computer or a scammer in anyway, which makes a refreshing change on top of which she was lovely. She arranged to meet up with me and brought her Mum with her and we went out shooting in a few locations in town. Aasiya is a Muslim model and a hijab wearer, which was another first for me and we got some great pictures together.
I have asked if Aasiya would like to be my first model back in a February shoot next year at The Boardroom Studio on Derby with Shadrine my makeup artist from Kavour Beauty? She has agreed, so all looks good to go on that front.
I hope you enjoy our work together?
I have added a few more this month from the flowers selection we got from the Brambles Florist to the Lujon Fressoniue gallery. I know this is not to every ones taste as the images are rather dark, but I will go with it some more as I like the outcome. In December I have the added bonus of some fashion shoot extras that I shall be taking in the studio as well as the flowers. So don't miss that.
I am really pleased with this months flower gallery, the Brambles Florist staff came up with an even greater selection of flowers this month. A dried thorn plant that photographed wonderfully and a deep red gerbera. Now I know I have done gerberas before on many occasions but this was a double gerbera and a beautiful deep red. Amy placed it against a deep green background and it worked out with the opposite colour theory. Have a look at this months selection and see. So thanks as always to Chris at Flowers To Yours and his staff at the Brambles Florist for their help. Not forgetting a mention to Amy for all of her assistance.
See you all next month for a festive season offering. X
Welcome back to Lujon Rael Portfolio this month.
We aim to please our viewers and friends, but must start this month off with some sad news of the passing of a dear Uncle. Ly Va Sinh (or Uncle as we affectionately refereed to him) passed away earlier this month with his family by his bedside when the end finally came. Originally from North Vietnam, he came with all of his family to the UK via Hong Kong back in the late 1970's. Which was no mean feet on a boat as they did then. Anyone old enough to remember the late 1970' and early 1980's would be aware of the 'Boat People' fleeing to safety back then. My wife included on that same boat as Uncle.
He was the mayor of his town in Vietnam and was always welcoming to Amy and myself whenever we would be in his house. Uncle had a warm smile that lit up his face when he was pleased about something and he also possessed a good sense of humour. I can remember once Uncle offering me some Chinese Rice Wine. I knocked the whole glass down straight and he paused to see my reaction. It was like having a red hot poker in your throat and Uncle thought it was so amusing to watch me flap my arms about like a demented chicken in a clumsy attempt to cool my mouth down. On another occasion Uncle laughed enthusiastically when I put some orange peel in my mouth cut to make them look like monkeys teeth. So what I am saying here is that Uncle was a very good and loving man. He leaves behind a very large extended family of several generations and all of whom love him and miss him. But he is with his beloved late wife and in a much better place now I believe. And in no more pain. The martial arts star Bruce Lee once said 'To reach true immortality, you must first lead a life worth remembering.' I think that applies here and it is no glib statement to say that Amy and I will both miss him. But we will remember him … and so I would like to dedicate this months blog to the memory of Uncle Ly Va Sinh.
For Uncle and the Ly family ... the love of the loved ... Safe journey home x
In other business, I had a great shoot this last month with Marie Jean Saxton at the Boardroom Studio in Derby, that went well. The results of which can be seen below, I am at loggerheads with Clinic 8 of my local Hospital again as they called me in for an appointment at 9am Sunday morning, only to be told they had cancelled it weeks ago and had not got around to telling me. They had also booked me in for an appointment today to have dye washed through my veins. Something I did not know about as nobody discussed it with me. This appointment was then cancelled later that day in a phone call from the hospital. They apologised as it was a mistake and they did not infact need to do this invasive procedure. Which was just as well. Because after yesterdays debacle, I had already made up my mind I was not going to turn up anyway, so there !
Clinic 8, a place where dreams do come true !
Hope you enjoy this months blog.
I have been steadily getting bits and bobs together to build up my commercial section of the website. This entails a lot of watching short reels on Instagram about product photography and how to do it. So far so good. It is actually more fun that you might think, as well as the fact the unlike models product does need a fag break or paying. Here is a small offering for this month with thanks to Amy and Ebay.
Here is something I have not done in a while.... Still life !
I read an article in the British Journal Of Photography magazine and admired the accompanying images of some very model take of still life. Spartan and colourful presentation in simplicity. So Amy and I set about recreating a few in our table top studio. I would not say they are good as the images in the article, but they come a close second and worth a look.
