Robert Harris Robert Harris

SISTERS IN DANCE /// REZE-TIANA AND CARI-JUANÉ WESSELS

Meet these gorgeous girls, Miss Reze and Cari! Two sisters i got to work with who are both amazing dancers. I had the chance to photograph a little of their dancing, and get to know them a little bit.

Heres one of Reze:

and one of Cari:

These were taken late last year, very simple set ups, in their garden at home. Both of the girls do Ballet, Contemporary and Jazz, and they used to do Irish dancing. Cari also does Spanish dancing, of which Flamenco is her favourite. 

It was an absolute pleasure working with them.

All of it was shot with simple speedlight set ups and shoot through umbrellas. I shot them all around 1/800th using HSS to sync the flashes. Flashes were both set to 1/2 power to maximize the light, and keep recycling time to a short time.

Gear we used for this shoot:

  • Canon 5d mk iii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon 85mm f1.8
  • Peak Design Slide strap.
  • Yongnuo yn500ex speedlights x 2
  • Yongnuo 622c triggers
  • Kata Backpack
  • 2 lightstands
  • shoot through umbrella

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Optical Noise photography:

Reze and Cari

Craig Anderson (Foto_fotography) Assistant

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Have a good day everyone!

cheers!

 

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dance Robert Harris dance Robert Harris

I-POLE SOUTH AFRICA! /// POLE DANCING PHOTOSHOOT

Hey guys!!

Another one of my shoots from forever ago, or so it feels.

I had a pole dancing photoshoot with the gorgeous ladies from Ipole SA. I felt weak watching the strength these girls have. We were just trying to create some nice shots for their website and social media. I got to work with Michelle Ben-Israel, Aviva Hanan and Madonna Jane.

We set up in their studio in Sandton, using just a black sheet mounted to the mirror in the studio. We used one of the black poles, which made separating the pole from the background tricky, but luckily I like using flash. This put a highlight on the pole and helped the situation.

We used 2 yongnuo yn500ex speedlights, with shoot through umbrella for diffusion. Trying to create dramatic light, and to minimise the light hitting the background we lit them from the side mostly. Some of the shots we used another speedlight from the right to fill in some detail. 

Funny enough for this shoot we didnt at all use High speed sync. Because we wanted the background black anyways, we used a high aperture, and 1/200th shutter speed. this made the shot empty and completely black, even though the studios lights were on. Then when we used flash, it made only what the flash hit visible to the camera. 

You would think that the slow shutter would create motion blur, nut it cant, because the flash is only on for a split second, there is no time for the camera to capture the movement, it will only record what it saw for that quick moment. Some of the shots were even shot as slow as 1/20th, because for the same reason as I mentioned above, there wouldn't be time to show motion in the shot. 

They are also part of Pole Evolution. Which is a competition hosted by them and SA Pole Fit Academy which is owned by Megan Clare Snijam. So do check that out, they having Pole evolution Battle this year on 14 May 2016!! Check out all the links to their pages listed below to keep updated on where and when that will be.

Please also check them out if you are or were ever interested in learning to do this. Its a great fitness session, and builds a lot of strength. 

Check everyone out! and enjoy the images!

Gear we used for this shoot:

  • Canon 5d mk iii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L
  • Peak Design Slide strap.
  • Df 400 speedlights x 3
  • yongnuo yn500ex
  • Yongnuo 622c triggers
  • Kata Backpack
  • 2 lightstands
  • black sheet
  • clamps

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check out my sponsors:

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Please follow us all on social media:

Optical Noise photography:

Ipole SA!

SA Pole Fit Academy

Craig Anderson (Foto_fotography) Assistant

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Have a good day everyone!

cheers!

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dance Robert Harris dance Robert Harris

BEING ON POINTE /// PHOTOSHOOT WITH NATASHA HEUSER EHLERS

I have such a big admiration for dancers in general, but with ballet dancers. There's something incredibly powerful about how strong they are, about how poised and controlled their movements are, and the willingness to keep going over and over, especially when trying to get the shot during a photoshoot.

I had a chance to work with the ever so gorgeous Natasha, a ballet dancer based in JHB. We actually did 2 photoshoots within the span of a month, as her shoot was meant to be done in PTA with the iconic purple Jacaranda trees that we often see in South Africa, but due to a time issue that was delayed and we did her first shoot at Gold Reef City casino, which worked just as well. So during this talk you will see images from both her photoshoots. We hope you like them like we do :D :D :D!

I really enjoy working with this girl. When it comes with dancing we need to work hard to get my timing in sync with the dancers time. Plus make sure the flash is actually hitting the model and all the settings are correct. So we often doing the same jump a bunch of times to be sure it looks awesome, and mainly make sure the technique shown in the dance move is correct. So im glad dancers are willing to do it "one more time" like a hundred times HAHA.

With dance photography, to me its most important to get the timing right. With any dance style there is always correct technique. Your photo can look amazing, lights and colours are awesome, but if the technique is incorrect, then its a bad bad image, and most dancers wont like the shot nor show it to anyone. Toes being pointed, lines from legs looking right, hands and so on, all contributes to making a dance shot work. I often ask the dancer if this is right or not and can we redo it. As much as i know a lot about whats right n wrong, the dancers knows more. So ask!

ok now for gear and what we did to light the model.

With dancing we always shoot with very high shutter speeds. from 1/800th to about 1/2500th. You would be surprised to see how much motion blur you get on feet when they jump up and fling their legs  to position. So we used speedlights which are able to do HSS. We used 2 yongnuo yn500ex flashes mounted to one bracket and triggered wirelessly using a trigger. This allows the flash to sync over the usual 1/200th max sync speed.

For the bridge shoot We used a normal shoot through white umbrella to diffuse the light, but not too much to take away much of the distance from the flash. 

For the shoot with the Jacaranda trees we shot during 11am sunlight which is very bright, but luckily we were then easily able to use the high shutter speed along with the flash. We left the flashes bare, no umbrella this time. We just covered the flash head with wax paper which just diffused it a tiny bit, but maximised the distance the light would travel in bright sun.

Gear set:

  • Canon 5d mkiii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon16-35mm f2.8 L
  • 2x yongnuo yn500ex speedlights
  • yongnuo 622c triggers
  • light stand
  • wax paper
  • white shoot through umbrella
  • peak design slide strap
  • kata backpack

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check out my sponsors:

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Please follow us all on social media:

Optical Noise photography:

Natasha

INSTAGRAM: click here  (@tashehl)

    Craig Anderson (Foto_fotography) Assistant

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    Heres some more photos! Until next time!

    cheers!


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    Shoots / behind the scene Robert Harris Shoots / behind the scene Robert Harris

    Bboy shoot(Quaid & Teji) /// Menik FN-600 strobe test!

    Hey awesome people!

    A few weeks ago I set up a test shoot with two Bboys in Johannesburg. Quaid Jones and Teji Bola. We did the shoot in Rosebank. Shot in the roads round the mall. Really had a good time out with these guys. 

    Dancing has been such a huge part of my life over the past almost 13 years, so working with dancers will forever be a passion for me. This also makes it a lil easier for me to understand the dance moves, and the anticipate the timing to get a photo which best portrays the movement! SO all i needed is gear which can do what i need! AND I FOUND AN AWESOME FLASH!! A Menik FN-600 strobe! 

    I bought this flash from Camera light SA, through the online store. In the past I Have been using speedlights for everything, and i still do. Speedlights have awesome uses. They are easy to use and actually produce awesome power. I have been using Yongnuo 500ex flashes which has HSS features which is needed for shooting dancers at high speed.

    Now the problem came cause we struggled to make the flash travel far enough. So we would mount 2 or 3 speedlights to one and use them all at 1/2 or .1/1 power. This however kills the batteries and only worked so much.

    SO i invested in this strobe! AND ITS INSANE!

    I so far have never needed to use the flash at full or half powered. The flash travels very far even with HSS turned on. I LOVE this flash. 

    I still use speedlights for fill and kicker lights. The flash uses Bowens mount diffusers. Which allows me to use giant softboxes and thats awesome!

    So for this shoot we used the light bare with just the reflector dish attached. Most shots were taken with 1/8 and 1/16th power. and was still too bright. 

    heres some of the photos:

    Heres a short Instagram promo video we did, check it out :D

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    Heres all the gear used at the shoot:

    • Canon 5D mkiii
    • Canon 50mm f1.8
    • Menik FN-600 strobe
    • Yongnuo 622c triggers
    • Kata backpack
    • Slide strap from peak design

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    Assisted by Craig Anderson (foto fotography)

    Videography By Karla alberts (youtube channel)

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    The menik flash is available directly from Cameralight. please use me as a reference! :D

    Direct link to flash /// click here

    Cameralight SA (facebook)  ///   (online store)

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    My sponsors:

    Peak design

    Photogadgets

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    As always thanks for reading!!! 

    talk soon guys!

    heres a few more shots! enjoy


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    dance, Shoots / behind the scene, general Robert Harris dance, Shoots / behind the scene, general Robert Harris

    welcome back !! 2016 !! Dance Photography first up

    hey all you awesome peolpe.

    I have been a bit busy but im back to post a few things this wek.

    I would like to welcome everyone into 2016, and i hope to create great memories and art with alot more of your his year !

    i have a bunch of cool things happening, and I have changed a bunch of my gear so im shooting a lil different.

    First off, I shot with a few dancers the past few weeks. 

    Alex Smith from artistic intelligence crew in south africa was first. I shot this using natural light and some speedlights. 

    • my canon 5dmkiii
    • Canon 50mm f1.4
    • Df 400 speedlights.
    • and one pop up octobox.
    _MGL0290ssdd.jpg

    Here is a behind the scenes clip we took which was for instagram hence why its 15 seconds. filmed by the awesome Karla Alberts!

     

    I wont share them all but if you keen to see more remmeber to check our instagram @opticalnoise and facebook account for more

    https://www.facebook.com/OpticalNoisefanpage/

    Hope you guys like them. 

    please check out my sponsors too

    will post more work a lil later. 

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