Collab - Steampunk & Victorian shootday
Sometimes, when you don't choose a shooting location yourself, you arrive, you sigh deeply and think: "How am I going to make this work?"
But last Sunday I arrived at the castle of Tillegem and went: "Oh, this is a pretty castle.. I like that tower."
So I just looked for an angle from where I could set up camp and did just that after only a quarter tour around. There where doublessly better & more interesting angles. I could have changed spots as I usually do.. But with an ankle that's still healing from serious injury this wasn't an option. Hence, yes.. most shots have a very similar look.
After a wet, cold & weird Summer, this September has become a perfect Indian Summer; warm, sunny and with steampunkish dresses. The weather was perfect & most people were smiling.
INFO:
A photos will be downloadable from my extremely ecclectic Flickr (UPDATE: all done)
A video will go to my Clapper & Instagram
Updates on progress will be on the Facebook
VIDEO: Steampunks vs vampires
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Geert, who just loves bringing people together, had urged
everyone to costume in a steampunk, Victorian, Edwardian, vampiric, ..
style to better mix with a castle-setting in the background. Thanks man!
Talking about backgrounds:
I really don't mind turning backgrounds into post-apocalyptic or grimdark settings that have nothing to do with the shooting location. Honestly, for such shots I even prefer working in the (home)studio like we did for this one.
However.. if I drive 200km to a castle, like the way it looks & it fits the subject.. then I enjoy using it as a backdrop. I might add & remove some things.. but I prefer keeping the original castle as baseline in at least a score of the shots.
Probably a highly unpopular choice.. but have you ever known me going for the popular option?
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And okay.. putting a camera with one of my fave prime lenses on a tripod, keeping the angle fixed on my favorite tower was at several times also very needed due to the pain. So if you get bored with these same angle shots, just know that with my other cameras other shots & effects were created.
Actually I was having one of those smoke & mirrors-days.. alas: to much wind for the small smoke machine.. so it's mirrors only. Which means that out of the 5 ideas for shots that I really wanted to make, 3 got done. That's a not bad average. Usually it's 1 out of 3. Thanks to everyone who indulged me.
Thinking up things. Setting stuff up for such ideas. Making things. Directing & combining to realise an idea. Creating something. (Not limited to only photos!) That gives me energy.
People & human interactions cost me loads of energy. (Introverts & ambiverts will probably understand such statement.) This Autumn is once again stuffed with fairs, photofairs, workevents, store-events, .. all with loads of people who need my advise or just want to talk.
Hence I'm sorry if I wasn't very chattery and only focussed on my tiny world.. conserving & creating energy was the magic word and some might have noticed that in the late afternoon after making 1600 stills I had way more energy than in the morning.
Thanks to everyone who helped me to get energy.
While waiting for me to select & process the shots in between the other giant backlog, look at some..
SAMPLES:
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All 142 photos can be found on my flickr.
A link to this article: https://tinyurl.com/2023tillegem
Namaste
& till Photo Days, FACTS, Comic con, Marché d'horreur, Verbeke, Uchronicité, Kerstmarkt Bonheiden, ..
