happy hour

© Joselito Briones

this is a stillframe from one of the videos that i've been working on, taken last tuesday, in the dining room that i made up to look like an office space. it's supposed to be friday afternoon happy hour at work, of course - and anyway the beer i gave them is alcohol-free.

i managed to upload a few of them already, but they won't get inspected until after about a month.

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yashica in veronica

katja was sooo kind to alert me on this use of one of my photos, in the popular dutch tv magazine "veronica". this one was taken in brooklyn late last year, the model is yashica.


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the latest harry potter movie - rather boring and uneventful that i'm just putting the whole blog entry in the title field.

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new shoot

© Joselito Briones

i did a shoot today with joel and (mostly) a friend of his, dan (photo, above), a language teacher from L.A. so far i've been lucky this summer to work with nice guys. and so far they all fit in my clothes that no expensive purchase of wardrobe for the shoots has been necessary.

today's shoot was also a challenge. i've pretty much covered the dress-up kind (for now) so i thought i'd do something more stocky. guys at work, working and doing other stuff. that's not the challenging part tho, they both did well and were very professional - it's the dressing up of the set that killed me. it's a short-notice shoot, so there was no time to scout for a real office location (and it's not like i can afford to rent one right now), so i made one up at home. the home office we have is kinda all over the place and not very photogenic (because it's a real working office - ha!) so i decided to dress up the dining area to make it look like an office. it took me all day yesterday, until the wee hours of the morning, to redress the space and i think it did look like a genuine office in the end. i haven't got the energy anymore to put it back to how it was after the shoot, so i'm spending all day tomorrow to do just that (sooo not looking forward to it).

is it worth it? that i saw it was possible (i knew it was possible, of course - just had to actually see it) was good. photography/stock wise probably not. i spent way too much time arranging the set that by the time it was time to shoot i was exhausted and with very little sleep. i ended up shooting only a small variety of set-ups, and in most cases my eyes were too tired to be sharply focusing on what i was doing. i think i'm too old to be doing the one-man-kick-all (to borrow a chinese expression) kind of thing. i don't really have any choice tho. it's not like i'm getting enough from stock photography to afford hiring a team. i did that a few months ago in miami and, well, my projection based on my average sales for those photos is that it's gonna take me at least a year to recover the money i spent on the shoots - hopefully they'll get downloaded beyond their first year so i can get something for my time and effort. it's always been comforting to think that i'm enjoying the challenge and getting whatever fun i get out of it, but to think of it in practical terms (as stock photographers were advised, soundly, at one point - to think of it as a business decision) - it really is downright depressing.


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infectious drive

© Joselito Briones

more photo of Joel. i didn't really have anything in mind for the kind of photos to take of him, but he seemed determined to do a shoot, his drive kinda infectious. besides it's not like i'm busy doing much else.

yesterday i finally got enough of the same drive to travel all the way across the street to the doctor's office. mati's been constantly reminding me that i have to go get some vaccinations, can't remember what kind, it's all written in the yellow card that all germans keep with them, and i've since been issued one from autumn last year when i got myself a flu vaccination. anyway, doctor said i don't need anything right now, and to come back after september, when it's time to get another flu shot. not to waste the energy i spent getting out of the apartment, crossing the street, and going up the elevator to his clinic, i asked him if i could use his office as a photoshoot background, to which he said he doesn't mind, but not now. come back after september. what is it with this doctor and after september? downstairs from the doctor's clinic is a drugstore. well i was already there so i thought i might as well ask them about using their place of business as a photoshoot set, too. the owner was reluctant (she seemed shy, if anything) so i left her my card and asked that she think about it.


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catalog photos, iphone delivery

© Joselito Briones

i've finished some of the photos from the shoot with louis. basically i tried to make them as simple as possible and catalog-like, with blank (so whoever downloads the photos can put their own design) and plain-colored t-shirts and mix-and-match clothing items.


***
the postman's ringing of the doorbell woke me up today. i had to hurry up to put something on (not easy when you're still half asleep) because they usually leave in about half a minute after ringing the bell. he's here to deliver the new iphone - mati's gonna use it and i'll be using mati's, but it's registered under my name, so he asked for my i.d. i couldn't be arsed to look for my passport, so i showed him my nyc driver's license which was just in my wallet, in my pocket. he looked at it for sometime, then said it won't do (you'd think once he saw that it's a driver's license and if a license won't do, that he'd just straight away say that no, he has to see the passport - but no, he scrutinized the license). he asked to see my passport. so. fine. still half-asleep i rummaged through my drawers to find it. couldn't find it for sometime so i phoned mati to ask if he's seen it, but couldn't reach him. all this time the postman was scanning and rescanning the package (maybe he's hoping to get different results each time). finally i found my passport and handed it to him. he actually read through all the pages - when all he had to do is look at the first page where my info is. after a while he said, "your name in passport is (first name + middle name + last name), the iphone order is for (first name + last name), sorry you'll have to reorder". at which point i really can't be bothered anymore, so i said ok. he just stood there tho, like he's expecting me to argue with him or something. i mean what more does he want? that i produce another passport that satisfies his requirement? he just stood there. i didn't want to close the door on him so i just started to walk away, giving him a chance to re-scan the package if he wished, at which point he saw that i wanted nothing to do with him anymore, so he left. i closed the door and went back to bed.


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potato salad

© Joselito Briones

today's dinner: potato salad with mixed mushrooms, sage, pepperoni, white wine, parsley and shaved parmesan cheese. i did the traditional german potato salad the other day (one with ham and gherkin) so i thought i'd try something else tonight.


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chris

© Joselito Briones

last week was floren's, today is chris' birthday. photo taken when mati and i visited them in hong kong late last year. we had lunch in their balcony. chris flipped burgers for us. ha! (he grilled 'em in the balcony). happy birthday chris! 

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mannequin

© Joselito Briones

today's shoot went fairly smoothly, to the point that it was also a bit boring. same seamless paper background as the other day, and lotsa clothes changes. that he wears exactly the same clothes size as me (at least when i bought the clothes) was a big plus. model louis is a skaterboy whose facial features look so delicate. summer holiday for german students started this week, so he was able to do this shoot.


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more from yesterday's shoot

© Joselito Briones

i rushed some photos from yesterday's shoot because i haven't uploaded anything for a week, and i was able to do 4, here's one of them. another shoot tomorrow (if the model shows up). good thing josephine came in today and ironed the clothes for the shoot tomorrow, else i would've had to do it myself.


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today's photoshoot

© Joselito Briones

i finally decided to get one of them seamless background hanger, just so i won't have anymore excuse not to do studio-type shoots. it was delivered this morning. just in time for a photoshoot using a seamless paper background! today's model is Joel, who's swiss and who's just come back to europe from one year of music studies in the lala land.


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Where do you want me to look?

© Joselito Briones




*****
Any photographer who has ever done a shoot with models would have been asked this question at one point. It's easy enough to remember that your point of view will be exactly the same as that of the people who will see your photo. The answers:

"Look at the lens."
-(keyworded and disambiguated as "Looking at Camera (composition)")
Easiest and direct, this is where the photographer makes the most connection with the model. There is instantaneous feedback between the two, and both are immediately satisfied. Ads that use this kind of photos are direct and confrontational - hard sell. It says to the viewer, "You! Look here, you want this. Trust me." Needless to say, for this kind of images to work, you need trustworthy-looking models, or at least ones whom a viewer will not feel threatened by. Exception is when you deliberately want your message to be threatening.

"Look away from the lens"
- (keywords: Looking Away / Sideways Glance) Probably the most popular stock pose. The viewer is totally comfortable looking at the photo because he knows he is not being addressed, yet if the body of the model is still mostly facing the camera, there's still some sort of connection between the the subject and the observer. Like safely watching someone - there's a chance of direct contact but at that particular moment that the photo was shot, the viewer is within the comfort of anonymity. Add a hint of a smile and the ambiguity of connection between subject and viewer is enhanced. If the model's body is also turned away from the lens, the dynamics is lost and the viewer really is just an outside observer - even with an interesting expression, the subject is perceived to be reacting from a third person in or out of the frame.
- (keywords: Looking Away / Looking Up / Candid) The subject is mostly reacting to his/her own thoughts and feelings, or carefree and unaware of his/her body language, usually on the positive side.
- (keywords: Looking Away / Looking Down) Introverted and shy. It could be someone who's very personal or very sly. It also suggests that the subject is completely aware of being observed.

"I don't know, anywhere."
- The photographer is either very inexperienced that he doesn't know what to do, or he's very confident that he kows he can make it work whatever the model does.

"Let's try a few varations."
- The photographer has been making stock photos for sometime.




*****


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floren

© Joselito Briones

it's birthday greets time! this one goes to floren. photo taken of him in his seriously posh home office, something i'm so hugely envious of.


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clones

© Joselito Briones

ok, last ever photo from the uk, promise. this was the intended effect from the previous photo of michael.


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michael

© Joselito Briones

this is the only solo photo of michael i took from the trip, also in harthill hall.


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chris

© Joselito Briones

another one i haven't posted a photo of from the UK trip group, chris. this one was taken at the gherkin restaurant.


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jerome

© Joselito Briones

i've just realized i haven't posted a photo of jerome yet, so here it is, taken in baslow hall.


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wil in haddon hall

© Joselito Briones

and yet another one of wil. so by now you know why there wasn't many of him to begin with.


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one more of wil

© Joselito Briones

he's been complaining that there isn't enough photos of him from the derbyshire trip, so here ya go.


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i thought i'd write you a letter...

© Joselito Briones

one of marco's more inspired performances, photo taken in harthill hall.


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hoshi hoshi

© Joselito Briones

i had my hair cut today. i wanted to have it really really short, but chika decided to cut it little by little while asking if i really wanted it shorter. as always, she did a great job. the short length made my gray hairs more visible, which is fine. it's perfect for the summer.

photo above is of their poster in the hackescher markt s-bahn station, close to where their shop is.


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P.S.

i remember i did another post about having a haircut in their east village branch in new york... and waddaya know... it's the same haircut as i have now!

baked chicken

© Joselito Briones
fresh from the even


© Joselito Briones
ready to go

i made this last sunday. basically chicken breast filled with basil-butter, then wrapped in bacon, then baked with potatoes and cherry tomatoes, and capers. that leafy thingy in the photo is of course rosemary. the recipe was from some charity thingy back when we were still in london.


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the gayest usb hub of all

© Joselito Briones

i bought this one last weekend, made by LaCIE, because i can imagine the effort that the designer must have gone through. ha!. it also comes with a usb lamp and propeller at the end of those stiff cables. seems to work, if a bit difficult to set up. i can return it within two weeks if it turns out it doesn't do its job, so i thought I'd show you now, just in case. ah who am i kidding, i'll prolly keep it.


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