NICOLAS HENRI PHOTOGRAPHY http://nicolashenri.ch/blog This is the Blog of Swiss Photographer Nicolas Henri Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:25:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en Postcards with Love http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/03/postcards-with-love/ http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/03/postcards-with-love/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:24:12 +0000 nicolas_henri http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/?p=458 Today I need a smart idea from you guys! I went a little overboard with printing promo postcards for photo09 in January. I chose the image “LOVE” as my promo for the event… but I still have some 4′000 left. Now I’m sitting in front of the box wondering what to do with them?

Next year I’ll want another photo as my promo, so these need to go… any ideas folks? Randomly drop them downtown? Dump the hole lot in front of an advertising agency? If you send me your address I’ll put a stamp on it and send it your way… “from Switzerland with Love!”

Help me out here!

]]> http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/03/postcards-with-love/feed/ Birth http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/02/birth/ http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/02/birth/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:39:42 +0000 nicolas_henri http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/?p=452 Today I feel like new things need to begin, so it seems more than appropriate to present another one from the series GLAUBE | LIEBE | HOFFNUNG (Faith, Love, Hope). It is entitled GEBURT (Birth).

Chantal, our six year old model for this image, was a real trooper and professionally endured the massive strobe power we threw at her. In fact, this image was shot in bright daylight, while I pulled a heavy key shift to create the nightly feel. I underexposed the background by 5 stops and compensated the Elinchrom strobes accordingly.  I had one bare strobe head sitting in the hole in the ground in front of Chantal and large softbox to her right.

The location was the backyard of a friendly farmer in Germany. Besides his farming business he runs a holiday lodge which overlooks the location. While I was digging the hole the night before, all of his guests were standing on the balcony watching me. Until the shoot the next day, conspiracy theories about the strange proceedings went haywire. Dead dog, treasure hunt and terror attack were among them…

At the end of the day it’s a seemingly innocent picture about planting new and exciting things in the secrecy of the night.

]]> http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/02/birth/feed/ Stampede of the Damned http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/02/stampede-of-the-damned/ http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2010/02/stampede-of-the-damned/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:33:43 +0000 nicolas_henri http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/?p=443 After a really busy week I was thrilled when I found the new album by Mabon in the mail today. Their new record is entitled “Stampede of the Damned” and I was fortunate enough to shoot the cover for it:

Album cover for "Stampede of the Damned" by "Mabon"

Album cover for "Stampede of the Damned" by "Mabon"

To create the cover image we shot all of the band members individually against a black background in my studio. Each exposure lasted 6 seconds, while I had the modeling lights of my Elinchrom flash heads running. Within those 6 seconds of exposure I asked the band to move around, kicking and screaming as if in agony. During the long exposure I manually triggered the strobes to freeze a few moments in time, while the rest of the movement was smeared due to the long exposure. The resulting images looked something like this:

6 Second Exposure with multiple strobe bursts

6 second exposure with multiple strobe bursts

6 Second Exposure with multiple strobe bursts

6 Second Exposure with multiple strobe bursts

Multiple frames likes these of all of the band members where then composed into one burst of humanoid emotion… at least that’s what it felt like while I composed the final result.

The final result after compositing the individual shots

The final result after compositing the individual shots

Once again this project proved to me that working with musicians is one of the most rewarding things to do as a visual creative. Mabon’s new record is available now through their website!

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