Marcelo Silva

Photoshoot at Carlton gardens featuring Angela Galisteo

If you've been following this blog you'd know that I've been networking with models from Model Mayhem and these connections sometimes turn into professional relationships and even friendships. 

Angela is a Spaniard whom has found herself in Australia, I'm Chilean born so she and both speak spanish and I've joked about the bilingual bond in the past but this defiantly wont be the last time we'll be shooting together.

I've had the urge to shoot around parks recently so we chose to shoot at Carlton gardens. So I made a mood board on Pinterest and I gave Angela creative freedom on what to wear. 

We chose to shoot in the morning so that we wouldn't have so many poeple looking at us or showing up in the background of our shots. Given the lack of clothes Angela was wearing we where worried that people where taking pictures on their phones but I couldn't help but notice the people around us where playing Pokemon Go!

We had a great shoot together and these are the shots we came up with. 

High/low key photography feat. Belle Follie

I wanted to practice some High key photography so I called up Belle Follie (given that we got on so well last time) for a shoot. 

I wanted to put more of a focus on her shoulder tattoo so I instructed her to bring a collection of sleeveless tops. 

This set up involved two speedlites and a white back drop for high key pictures. for the low key pictures we used a black backdrop.

Iron Lady (Cosplay Photography)

As you all know I'm really into cosplay photography so today's blog post will feature miss Alice Shortcake (check out her Facebook page here).

Today I shot with miss Alice Shortcake (a Melbourne based cosplayer). I saw her Ironman cosplay a few months ago and I was quite impressed, I just knew I was going to be able to go nuts in photoshop.

This shoot required a lot of research on my end. I wound up reading every Ironman comic ever made (by read I mean looked at the pictures) for inspiration of what poses. When we got together I brought an Ipad that had all the pictures I saved as research so that I could get the right poses out of Alice.

I was please with how this shoot came out, Alice and I have a good rapport and she gave me all the time I needed to get every shot I wanted. We had a lot of fun. I was also please with the locations around Melbourne we chose (we shot around docklands and the CBD).

Marcelo Silva.

Canon 24mm STM

I recently purchased this lens because it's cheap and I don't own any Canon STM lenses and the technology behind them has always fascinated me so I got the 24mm F/2.8 STM. Another reason this lens intrigued me was it's form factor (it's a pancake lens). I also like to shoot with primes so this lens and I where meant to be.

Canon 24mm f/2.8 STM

The silent stepper motor was something that I just needed to test out the second I got my hands on it. I'm happy to report it works well. You absolutely cannot hear it focussing in live view mode (it's great for filming). One of the down sides of this lens is that it's not the best at focusing, don't get me wrong it's it's good but it doesn't compare to the better lenses.

One of the reasons I wanted this lens is because my now ex girlfriend had an olympus OMD-EM-10 with a 17mm prime lens at the time and I was dead jealous about how easy her gear was to carry! I'm happy to report that this pancake has filled that whole in my life. This lens has become one of those lenses that I always have in my bag because it's so convenient to carry.

One of the things I don't like about this lens is that it vignettes like crazy so this lens isn't going to work well for those who don't edit their pictures. Like most wide angles this lens also suffers from distortion but it won't be a big issue for me as I shoot raw and process all my pictures.

Push come to shove I love this lens I've taken lots good pictures with this lens it's a great every day lens to carry on you.