Here is quick video and shot of the final set built for last weekends band promo shoot at Garage Studios.
The set was built by in M.Halls and Joe Long over an evening to create an atmospheric landscape in which to shoot the band on sunday.
Clayton Strange shoot @ Garage Studios from Garage Studios on Vimeo.
At Garage we really believe in pushing others creative photography in as many different ways as we can, whether its through our courses, 1:1 training, internships, portfolio advice etc.
We also sponsor some individuals and collectives to help them achieve their goals through free equipment hire, studio hire and scanning/printing or technical advice. and have just started to sponsor a 3rd yr Degree student at Brighton University (more details soon) and provided free technical help and studio hire to an MA Student who is doing great studio work for those with Learning Difficulties.
One of the other projects we help sponsor is GangUp Magazine, founded by one of our in -house photographers Kevin Mason. We dont have any control over editorial content- but offer full use of the studio, our cameras and free lighting hire. Issue 1 of this bespoke magazine sold out within weeks of its release and the team are busy finalising Issue 2.
We are happy to support them as the team of 5 produce, pay for and cast all the shoots themselves and are getting some great editorial images and seem to be leading the way for Fashion Photography in Brighton. The magazine this issue has a guest photographer 18 yr old student Eleni Mettyear, as well as shoots by Kevin Mason, Louie Banks and Sam Hiscox, with concepts and styling from the other 2 founders Emma SandhamKing and Stevi Jelbart of Ophelia Fancy fame.
The next issue is scheduled to Launch at the end of March, and no doubt there will be another riotous party. If you want to keep up to date with them as they shoot then you can via their blog. Please be aware we dont have any editorial control, and all links may be Not Safe For Work
If you would like to learn how to shoot Fashion Editorial with Kevin Mason we have space on our next course- details of which can be found here.
Eleni Mettyear
Sam Hiscox
Kevin Mason
Louie Banks
At Garage Studios we like to think we can teach some pretty varied courses- and this one is probably our most advanced and demanding but exciting courses, Fashion Editorial.
Shoot by Kevin Mason this week for GangUp issue 2. Concept and Styled by Emma SandhamKing
In the space of two intensive days of training we can start you on the road to shooting Fashion Editorial for submission to magazines, websites and commercial clients. This course is run by Kevin Mason, and his assistant Natasha Alipour-Faridani, and professional Stylists Stevi Jelbart and Emma SandhamKing, alongside a professional Hair/MakeUp artist. Together Stevi, Kevin and Emma have founded GangUp magazine a bespoke fashion photography publication, and they have been published in numerous magazines.
The previous two students on this course shot this work on the links below…
We provide experienced, published models and work through all the knowledge required to shoot a full editorial story, and complete assistance from our full team- that will leave you confident at tackling a 8-10 page editorial with narrative.
You will need good lighting skills, and confidence in your composition and general camera work and a basic understanding of styles/types of fashion photography would be an advantage. We can only take a maximum of 3 people on this course- to ensure everyone gets the attention they need.
We are so confident in the strength of this course and how much it will improve your photography especially with such dedicate 1:1 training. Please view the links for further details and dont hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Kevin and Natasha had a shoot with Brighton band Pope Joan for the March Issue of the Brighton Source this Saturday night.
It was a fairly late start due to everyone involved being really busy all week but turned out to be a real blast. Kevin has shot the band before, an ill fated location shoot for the student Guide and was eager to get something he knew the band would really like this time around. James Kendall, Source Editor and Matt Barker, Source Graphic Designer have suggested a more stripped back series of covers this year- which fortunately is a direction that Kevin wanted to take after all the full blown set pieces of last year. But sometimes its actually harder to shoot in this way- a lot of the time previously the set could ‘do the talking’ whilst hopefully not overpowering the subjects but adding something to an impactful cover. When you get presented with 4 blokes in a band, well its just about the worst number, and with no girl it can all get a bit tricky. It suddenly becomes about engagement with the subject and every little detail becomes more crucial.
Fortunately Pope Joan have a very strong look, very precise sartorial excellence. They wanted something that worked along a ‘family portrait’ aesthetic, and we decided to push it to somewhere a bit more forced and static. We only shot Polaroids (on the 340 Land Camera) and 2 rolls of Portra NC on a Bronica ETRSi 40mm.
I have included the full uncropped image here, as was intended but obviously it will be a much tighter crop for the cover itself- losing the black boards..
We have also dropped a little lighting diagram in using a template from Kevin Kertz which can be found via
this link
The main light is a Beauty dish directly above the camera, approx 8-9ft high, we then used a little fill from a Softbox camera left to ensure both seated and standing band members were fairly evenly exposed. We have two Bowens 500w on our lighting rig pointed at the Grey Colarama, and flagged these off with the Black Polyboards so there was no excess spill onto the band. The Black boards also add a harder more defined edge to the subject. Kevin actually did most of the lighting here whilst Natasha sat and drank beers and behaved in general like a very entertaining Art Director….
As you can see its a nice clean light, and you can see by the shadows on the floor how the polyboards help contain the image.
Heres a Polaroid 340- on peel apart fuji film- its got a nice feel, but maybe a bit too soft for printing…
Final Image –
A couple of weeks ago we decided it was time to update our equipment page to give a more accurate representation of how much equipment we’ve accumulated since opening – and also to show what we have available for hire here. Our intern Tom built up a set over a few hours consisting of 20 stands, 7 monoblocs (one was out on hire), 2 table lamps, 2 reflectors, 2 colouramas and loads of lighting attachments..
Here is a timelapse video that we set up whilst we were building up the set so you can see how we constructed it –
Studio Equipment Timelapse from Garage Studios
If you are interested in hiring any of our equipment, or the studio itself, please have a look here to see the full price list.
A week ago I storyboarded a promo video I wanted our intern Tom to make- I’d seen the capability of his Canon7D for video and his talent at shoots. We needed something that showed the scale and facilities of the public hire part of our studio business, as well as some of the equipment we have, plus our location in the heart of Brighton, just 5 minutes from the station. Working with our fourth Photographer and Lighting specialist Natasha he spent 2 days (or 9 hours of taking photos) making this stop motion video. Oh and you may wanna turn it down a bit- this is his idea of a calming audio track….
Its fantastic to be able to give a brief to someone who can run with it and make an inventive and watchable promo. This is the first of many I am sure, but if you like it then please tell your friends or reblog it for us…. Cheers Tom and Tash.
if you want to see our equipment, or hire the space then please use the contact page or come and visit us in the North Laines…
Garage Studios Promo from Garage Studios on Vimeo.
Garage Studios are pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Kevin Mason for the Brighton Fringe Festival this May.
The exhibition dates will be:
Friday 7 May 6PM - 10PM
Saturday 8 May 10:30AM - 8PM
Sunday 9 May 10:30AM - 8PM
Saturday 29 May 10:30AM - 8PM
Sunday 30 May 10:30AM - 8PM
Bank Holiday Monday 31 May 12PM - 4:30PM
The exhibition is FREE entry and there will be a Invite Only Private View on Thursday 6th May, and details of how to obtain invites will be released closer to the date.
About the Work.
YOUR LIFE IS MY VANITY PROJECT
The Vanity Project by Kevin Mason, is a bold ongoing photography series that began after a chance encounter with the subject, Georgie Hobday, now 17, in a local coffee shop. This stunning set of images, shot in and around Brighton, documents an at times unnerving obsession, of deliberately forced encounters, and begins to examine the interaction and journey between photographer and subject. A fascinating study in the shifting role between subject and subjected shot on numerous film formats in a non-controlled environment. The project is now on Week 18 of its hourly , once-a-week schedule, and will continue to build until the exhibition finishes.
Your Life Is My Vanity Project – Kevin Mason at Garage Studios
This is Kevin’s first full exhibition in over two years and we are very excited to host it at Garage Studios. Please contact us for further details or Press release images. You can view some of the work from this series on the following link. There are a lot of images so it may take a minute to load.
This wet/sleety/snowy morning in the heart of Brighton’s Lanes saw the unveiling of ‘Lost’ – the winning entry by Grant Dejonge who triumphed in artrepublic’s Street Art Competition recently.
The eerie installation, situated on a wall next to my hotel on Jubilee Street, was chosen from over 250 entries and is the product of a successful campaign launched by the Brighton and London-based gallery, as well as raising the profile of homeless charity Street Smart along the way.
Residents and visitors to Brighton will be able to appreciate Grant’s augmented art work throughout 2010, and will surely be the topic of debate and opinion over the months ahead. Whatever your initial views, it’s worth a gander.
Last Saturday our current intern, Tom Chambers , went to the Brighton Tattoo Convention up at Brighton race course, where the convention hosted 175 spaces for tattooists, suppliers, merchandisers and other traders, and provided a place for hundreds of people to get tattooed over the weekend.
Last year Kevin and Natasha managed to *ahem* secure a room upstairs and shoot some portraits with the basic rule that whatever you entered the room wearing/holding thats how you would be shot. You can see one of those images here.
Tom decided to spend the day on the convention floor wandering among the stalls. It is an incredibly popular event and made taking photos at the convention tricky at times, as it can be cramped squeezing through the colourfully inked crowd with people in your way, and when there is a chance to get a shot, a coy carp covered arm moves into your line of view.. But he did grab some candid photos, as there were some weird and wonderful sights to capture – including some traditional Maori tattooing techniques inside a boxing ring, where the tattooist uses a comb-like instrument and a tapping stick to imprint the ink rather than using a gun.
Here’s a few photos but you can see the full album here.
