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This is my 5th Advertising campaign for international childrenswear company Fred Bare

Some background: The brief was rock and roll, instead of using obvious themes with music or guitars i opted to feature a kaliedscope theme, it's a very subtle spin of psycadellic rock and roll theme

i had to build the kaliedoscope out of perspex instead of using mirrors for safety issues
i had alot of technical worries such as the reflective quality of the perspex, the distorion and positioning the kids inside the kaliedscope. I ended up positioning the kids just outside the kaliedscope for safety which caused other issues with the visual

I used a beuty dish straight direct. These are the editorial images, i shot most of the campaign against different coloured backdrops which ill share a little later











original photo lots of reflection from the beauty dish with perspex backdrop, changed it to printed matte backdrop
to kill reflections


1/2 of the kaliedscope rig, my dad pictured here helping me build it

they look like really fun images and i love the last shot the most with the structure.

WOW, that looks awesome...stupid question, but did you use a special type of perspex?

WOW! These look great!
There must be a lot of satisfaction in creating such wonderful images after spending (presumably) quite a lot of time building this setup.

hi
thankyou very much for the comments
i do get alot of satisfaction innovating, coming up with new ideas and building custom sets.

the perspex is referred to as 'Mylar' Mylar is actually thin mirror film used in hydrphonics but the perspex brand of acrylic glues it onto a 3mm perspex sheet and they markets it as silver mirror perspex which is way more expensive than buying a mirror

Wendell,
What a wonderful concept.
Can you elaborate on how you came up with this idea and had you done something similar in the past or was this new ground to you ?

It's a bit hard to see the images on the Blackberry but they look like they came out fantastic.

Do you happen to have any shots of the setup (other than the mirrored frame you have shown) ?

Great stuff !!

The results are stunning Wendell. Genius at work - again!

You do realise that I'm your number 1 fan don't ya!

Once again brilliant images.. see this is why they pay you the big bucks!

hi Aussie dave

i dont have any more shots of the setup
but the last image with my dad shows half the kaliedoscope i made 2 which caused issues, for example you can see the perspex seems in the shot and they are hard to photoshop out

i figured with the angle i was shooting with i needed 2x 3x perspex mirrors to allow enough depth for the effect

I also figured a 3 mirror kaliedscope was easier than making an octagonal one, which would of been crazy to rig up

the idea i came up exclusively for fred bare but its such a waste to just use it once so i'm going to use it again for an adult fashion editorial story.

As mentioned before when i think of rock and roll i sthink psycadelic so i thought the best way to interpret that theme was to make a keliedscope

Also i just used 1 light for all of these its a beauty dish pointing straight on to the model through the kaliedoscope really simple, inadvertantly the light bounces off all 3 mirrored surface and makes for a nice ringlight effect

thanks for all the comments, it's much appreciated

here are images of my first concept which to me didn't work the strings in the background represent guitar strings for the music theme and the radiant coloured perspex represented the psycadellic theme. The highly reflective properties of the perspex just reflected the warehouse i was shooting in and i didn't have time to rig up a black curtain around the whole structure so i trashed this idea, although in this setup you can see i only used 1 light.
you can see in one of the shot the black curtain i had didn't even help solve the issue.

here is stefanie one of my assistants during testing stage




i'll definately use this radiant perspex for another idea because it cost an arm and a leg

Bindii wrote:You do realise that I'm your number 1 fan don't ya!

Get back in line Bindii!

Wendell, these are great, I remember you telling me about this project I had trouble picturing what you had in mind. Very clear now.

Top stuff wendell, that is one fine idea there - should patent that!

Wendell, what can i say you are Brilliant as usual, love them all. You are very inspiring to many of us and we always look forward to see what you come up with next.

Cheers
BBJ
John

wendellt wrote:i'll definately use this radiant perspex for another idea because it cost an arm and a leg

Inspirational Wendell!
a fantastic concept that catches the eye and exudes fun and fashion!


R2 BTW as long as you were paid more than an arm and a leg, you should be a head!

Brilliant images! an inspiration to us all. Thanks for posting the setup shots.

Was the background a seamless with a pattern on it? or a plain with pattern done in PS?

Brilliant simplified light. What made you go for the beautydish rather than a large softbox?

Where did you get the persplex from? I am also looking a buy a small piece for a product type of setup...

Aside from the excellent concept and execution (bravo!), I also like that
the kids look like kids and not minature adults. Very important in my view.

Fantastic work all round Wendell.

hi i got the perspex from Australian Plastic Fabricators i think the site is www.apf.com.au

thankyou so much for all the comments it's much appreciated

Fantastic idea and excellent results! Always unique work from you. Your tallent is amazng!

Alex

hi suren forgot to answer your question
the backdrop is printed on a nylon large format printing but the print wasn't quite large enough to fill the kaliedscope so i photoshopped(cleaned it up a little
doing the pattern in the backdrop in photoshop would defeat the purpose of making a live set
there are photoshop filters that make kaliedscope patterns

i also opted for a beauty dish because i have a grid for it so the light was directional which i needed to minimise light spill and hence light reflections on the kaliedoscope

anyway as a matter of fashion shooting i prefer the beauty dish over the softbox light is slightly harsher makes for more definition for clothes detail, beauty dish is also more compact and easily movable whereas a softbox is harder to move around

Extremely creative

wendellt wrote:hi suren forgot to answer your question
the backdrop is printed on a nylon large format printing but the print wasn't quite large enough to fill the kaliedscope so i photoshopped(cleaned it up a little
doing the pattern in the backdrop in photoshop would defeat the purpose of making a live set
there are photoshop filters that make kaliedscope patterns

i also opted for a beauty dish because i have a grid for it so the light was directional which i needed to minimise light spill and hence light reflections on the kaliedoscope

anyway as a matter of fashion shooting i prefer the beauty dish over the softbox light is slightly harsher makes for more definition for clothes detail, beauty dish is also more compact and easily movable whereas a softbox is harder to move around

Thanks Wendell for taking the time to type these answers! Now I realise that the backdrop would be difficult to do in PS because you'd have to take care of the infinite reflections as well!!

Also thanks for explaining the rationale behind the light choice.

Wow large format nylon prints; You must have had a clear idea of what your photo would look like, before the shoot.

One word!

Genius!

Inspirational!

Exceptional images Wendell. Exciting with, as usual a bucket load of creative flair.
cheers
marco

It is a fascinating look inside a professional photographer studio. It's like "...OK I've seen the magician's trick...now I want to see how is done", but in reverse.
What I would like to see now, in due course once your employer is happy with the brief, is their chosen final photograph for their promotion campaign and which, according to your artistic sense, would have been your choice. Sometimes marketing and artistic sense don't see eye-to-eye.

phillipb wrote:

Bindii wrote:You do realise that I'm your number 1 fan don't ya!

Get back in line Bindii!

I'm beginning to wonder about you two ...

Wendell, great concept, and very well executed.

You are truly turning in some stunning images.

Wendell,
The link you gave us is for a real-estate firm.
This one works: http://www.pacwestcorp.com.au/
I came across others too.

hi

thanks for that but this is the place

http://www.ausplasfab.com.au

must agree with others, you are also my favorite photography all time on here. great set of image as usual.

This is a cool shoot and idea Wendell.
I's making me dizzy.

anggaleng! panis sila.