Dark Daze photography blog

Looks like this season is all about the bite Chomp Chomp!! found myself sending links this week to a photography mate the talented Mr.Hiscox whose work had just been bitten to death by what i can only assume is a fan, and its not the first time this month, and now i woke up to find an angry red mark on my trigger finger too where i guess i was bitten in my sleep….. (and theres even a little skirmish on flickr at the minute due to one of the rash of female self portrait artists upsetting the apple cart and not paying huge love to the constant flickr recycling machine- I mean how many different ways can a girl climb, fall, rise out of bath before plagarism is shrilly yelled by a legion of keyboard fans…. oh the power of the internet….)

Anyways I am actually in a really good mood, did a killer shoot yesterday with Elin, dragging Tash, Emma and Bryony around for half a day- but i just got the prints back and damn they are good. So thanks ladies for being a brilliant team and helping make the difficult sublimely easy. Oh and thanks to the Brownhorse for the loan of the Olympus OM 1, which you aint getting back buddy- unless you prise it from my cold dead hands, and LomoKev for the Contax. An all film shoot, no lights, or photoshop or fuckery- just a beautiful model and a very overcast day.

Elin. Friday afternoon.

So heres some background to the delicious new shots we have been banging out at the studio, it seems long time collaborator M.Halls has got his fire back and decided to unleash it here- with some help, prompting and cajoling by myself.

So here is one of the finished images, of the brilliant model Skin, who came down from Scotland for this shoot…..

Neon fashion by DarkDaze @ Garage Studios

So heres a bit about how we did this….

Matt had been shooting some bikes for a Fixed Gear book that is coming out soon, the same one i went to Italy for a few months back, and the product shoots werent that exciting- bikes being pretty 2d and hard to shoot. I suggest painting the light in on some long exposures, with a torch maybe, or a bit like my mobile phone lit portraits- but next time I came in found matt waving a big flourescent tube about over the bike. The shots began to look really exciting. I managed to convince him that we should use this idea for the next Source cover- but jazz it up a bit- and taking this idea further he put thin strips of gel over the tubes- and on an 8s exposure, walked the light around the band- or as in the shot below to accompany the interview- just walked behind them. We used a Bowens 500w to freeze the band members in place- and told them to keep still- and hey presto- a fairly sharp image.

Skin, a brilliant model, and stunning girl came down from scotland and wanted to book in a shoot- and had with her some pretty good latex dresses. Now I get hella tired of a lot of the trad fetish shoots out there- all that girls in bathrooms and lying on lino floors kinda steez- its a bit played out now- so we decided to push this towards a fashion editorial edge. I asked Stevi and Emma to help with the styling and see what they could bring and not only did they want to push the 80’s look that I was going for, and put it together perfectly, but also made a killer hat brim, modelled on the classic kylie cover shot- which you can see Skin wearing above, plus they threw in some ace accessories.

So back to the technical, I lit Skin with a Bowens 500W, high up and to camera right, you can see it in the set up below. Its a great clean light, and metered at around f8. We then tested the flouro tube behind which seemed to need about 2 seconds to drag it across the frame behind and leave a smooth trail. Then as in the pic below we had 2 small tubes one each side, that carve the looping shapes into the left and right of the frame. To ensure that we didnt get fringing or a blurred face, all tube lights were kept out of frame until the flash had fired. Skin then waited a fraction of a second, for Matt to start moving the background light to the right of the frame, as she hit a certain point she blocked the backlight, and as you can see in the shot above, makes a shadow effect on the lightwall. At the same time, the handheld tube on the left of frame was swinging upwards which pushed back some of the detail of the face- by throwing too much light onto the camera sensor and overexposing that edge.

It probably took about 25 attempts to get this lead shot above right- but was worth the effort, its a lot of timings to get spot on, and marks to be hit. We did a couple of more set-ups but this is the shot of the day for sure….

There will be more info on the Garage blog soon with the Source images as well, but thats how we did it, in case you wondered.

Now go rip us off peeps. Or better still, cos we all got to eat, come and discuss your project with me, matt or adam- we can throw it all in, Production, Art Direction, Photography, models etc…. you ask and we get it……

DD x

A wide shot, of the set-up for DarkDaze shooting fashion at Garage Studios

DD shits a tripod leg

there is more of this lady Elin on flickr
including a polaroid that everyone that has seen it in the flesh has fallen in love with…. boy/girl/young or old she seems to catch everyones breath for a second.

But this here is one of those outtakes, when you just kinda dont need to shoot the actual shot anymore….

Elin at Garage Studios by DarkDaze

you can see more of the shots at the Garage Blog but most of them are by a dope young photographer called Louie Banks… go on over and have look….

If you happen to be in Cali this Saturday and Sunday, then first up I straight envy you, and second you should try and get to these shows.

Help a man fight the system, all print sales go towards Revok’s Legal fees.

see more at his myspace revok

ambitious ideas maybe not quite pulled off with panache by me and matt…… but you’ll see soon enough….

have an outtake…..

jeez posts flying out all day every day right now…..

but we need some Logo and Design work done. I keep saying we, like some odd Royalty or twisted Thatcher, but as you may know me, DD, have joined forces with two other equally deluded and talented egoviduals. We are launching a new brand, cutting edge creative photography, the kind that will make your eyes bleed and twist some Lovers and Haters out there. At the same time we are moving into the much dreamt about studio, big enough to drive 3 BTP wagons into, a shooting space that people paying London rents can only induce ulcers thinking about. So we need logos, colour swatches for the brand, the whole modern day, buy into us, Neuro Lingusitic Programming , Orange “I am everyone…”, marketing tool ID flex.

If you want more details, please send a link to any work you have done, or things you love, etc. We have some cash, but more importantly we have shoots for you, love to spread etc etc.

If you are a colour obssessive, a font fiend, if you see Gary pieces when you shut your eyes, then maybe you are the person/team for us. Be quick tho as we have sent this out to the real cream of the cats that I have met along the way in my pantone photo dreams so far.

Big things all, big things.

after some months of meetings, finance meetings, solicitor meetings, accountant meetings and more I have signed the least on a new studio. Well not just me, in fact with two other killa kids. We arent quite ready to introduce the world to our full plans yet, but what I am looking for is some potential names for the studio- plus we are also looking for studio assistants and on-shoot assistants. Even if you have contacted me before about work experience, please send any details again- including, if possible, a link to your work via the contact page on this site. These are all unpaid positions but we have some great projects and shoots coming up- so its a chance to get some diverse shooting experience, or even if you just want to come and help us paint walls, and build stuff before we open.

so heres a list of what we are looking for :
names for the studio
studio assistants
anyone interested in set design
potential models (but pls look at the quality of girls already on this site before sending stuff in)
make up artists
anyone wanting to help promote the studio pr etc.

Matt Sewell interview
just a little headnod to a buddy I havent sunk a beer with in a long long time, but check his work and interview here, its refreshing to read someone being honest and not just feeding the media/pr/bollocks machine.
His main site is here Sewell

very strange result last night at secret wars, will post some pics when i get over the shock.

further to the post, there have been comments, click on them below, and dont miss out, be good to know what people think. They open up a lot of questions about what a battle really is, what criteria the winner should be judged on, should a crowd vote be worth 1/3 of the final score, who and how many judges etc….. dont just sit there throw down some thoughts, the second comment from mike has links to the final shots, which i couldnt get, cheers mike for adding them here. Ask your friends, send the link to others , what do you all think? battle battle people!!!!!!!

if you dont know what Secret Wars is then, the idea is to cats battle in Black and White only, for 1 1/2 hrs in front of a crowd, on the same size board, no sketches allowed in the final, just straight up attackage. The winner is chosen by 2 judges and one decibel reading crowd vote. There was £1000 at stake, plus other good stuff.

some kind of disclaimer here, about DarkDaze does not endorse all the stuff below but had to let it all ride in the fairness of debate….ya get what I’m saying innit….
Secret Wars

wen’s final: kick in the nuts

Originally uploaded by mikesten

odisy’s final: art fag got served

Originally uploaded by mikesten

will post some remaining Cali rambles soon, but hiding out in Berlin now with a hot girl and bag full of polaroid film. Its what my mind needs.

Thanks to everyone that got in touch about the Cali Blog, I’m amazed that you actually waded thru the turgid words, but more love for doing so. DD