SHOOTOUT CHALLENGE : 1977

I was honoured to be asked to take part in the ShootOut Photographer Challenge, which pits photographer against photographer in an epic battle. The brief for the challenge is fairly simple, you have to pick an opponent, organise a shoot with a model and a location, then present your arsenal of photographs, to see how different the results are from the same conditions. "One Model. One Location. Two Photographers.

Photographer #1: Neil Richards Website | Facebook | Instagram
Photographer #2: Stacey Johnson Website | Facebook | Instagram

This shoot wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing team, everyone played a pivotal part in making the shoot such a great success! A huge thanks goes out to Jarrad and Ed at Grandfather's Axe and Joel Priestland for the eleventh hour location scouting.

Stacey's full post can be seen here on her Website

1977

Organising the shoot, proved to be an almighty task. Stacey and I are good friends, and we have shot together a few times, so we know the others style really well. It didn't take long to come up with a theme for the shoot, we both love the vintage aesthetic (although only one of us was actually born in the 1970's!) - so the first part was simple.

Pulling together a team was a little harder, Stacey knew Kahlii beforehand so Hair & Makeup was sorted, but finding a model and location was a little trickier. As soon as Danielle contacted us, we knew we had the right person - she was lovely and personified the vintage look we were going for. It was only AFTER the shoot that I discovered she was a seasoned actress!

Stacey met with Flare Street, who kindly supplied their amazing flares for the day, selecting 3 different styles. The rest of the wardrobe was pieced together by the four of us, with accessories and props to match the era.

The one thing that we stumbled with was the location.
At the eleventh hour we finally had the perfect place, Jarrad and Ed were so accommodating allowing us to shoot on the Saturday in the Grandfather's Axe showroom.

LAST FIRST

This was my favourite look from the shoot, but chronologically the last. We had very limited time to shoot, so getting in effectively 4 different looks was tight - especially when there were 2 of us vying for Danielle's attention.

Stacey and I arrived early to test get the shooting locations arranged, test the lighting (a simple softbox on a stand), move any obtrusive objects and make sure everything was ready to roll as soon as Danielle and Kahlii arrived.

I don't get to shoot very often, but I have soon learnt that the beginning of a shoot feels very different to those last 5 minutes - something about getting comfortable, trying new things, creative ideas firing off, and being less worried about the technical side of things - that's when I seem to capture my favourite moments.

SOUTH BY JAVA HEAD

The first look we tried was based around a mustard / brown / cream theme - so 70's it hurt! We set up shop in the back corner of the showroom, with a hint of natural light, centred around the amazing leather chair.

I brought with me some of my paperback book collection, and picked out 2 Alistair MacLean titles ('South By Java Head' & 'Night Without End') that had perfect colour accents to match our looks.

There was a very brief period of time, probably only 2 minutes, when the sun shone brightly though the back window, giving Danielle a halo of light - Stacey and I both rushed to capture 'lightning in a bottle'.

NIGHT WITHOUT END

For our second look we moved into the red / burgundy / mustard palette which really changed the look of the flares and played against Danielle's natural skin tone and hair colour.

We borrowed a step-ladder from Ed, to get some overhead shots of Danielle reclining on the leather sofa, using her fur coat as a plush cushion.

CHAMPAGNE & SAILOR HATS

The third look felt a lot more 'boho' to me, with a hint of 'Russian Sailor'.
In the pub after the shoot, I asked Danielle what the the origin of her surname (Horvat) was, and she told us that her dad was from Croatia - which suddenly made sense of her Eastern European looks.

EXQUISITE FLARE

The patterned flares from Flare Street really brought this outfit to life, the purple and burnt charcoal colours matched in Danielle's lipstick and eye makeup (well done Kahlii).

The shooting location was also not our first choice, we ran out of time, we couldn't move the lights, so we used the dividing curtain (between the showroom and the back room) as a backdrop and the nearest chair just so happened to be perfect. I say perfect, but it did keep swivelling by itself!

THANKS

My expectation for the shoot was 10% organisation, 90% photography, but it soon became 90% organisation, 10% photography (with 100% extra for editing). It was a steep learning curve, and I am really grateful to all the people who helped to pull it off, including my nemesis Stacey, veteran ShootOut shooter Elleni and my wife Rishma who pulled extra baby duties to allow me to be part of this project.

THE TEAM

These three were an absolute delight to work with and I sincerely hope I get to do so again soon. Plus you all owe me a drink ;)

Photographer #1: Neil Richards Website | Facebook | Instagram
Photographer #2: Stacey Johnson Website | Facebook | Instagram