Dum Di Dee Dum

Dee Ellis
22
Grahamstown

By far the best photography sessions that I have done have always been those were the subjects are having fun. And by a long way, the person who's had the most fun in front of my camera (with Mike & Vicky coming a close joint second) has been Dee.

Someone who is far from shy, Dee lit up underneath the lights in more ways than one. From the first click of the shutter, it was fun and giggling, funny faces and rock star poses. I was head banging and Gangnam-Styling and non-stop smiling from start to finish. Even the attempts at serious poses were short-lived, and the photos came out all the better for it. Looking at them brings a smile to my face, and hopefully to those of others.



And the studio session was just the beginning. It was quickly followed by drinking games galore as the fun and laughter spilled over into the rest of the house, truly making it an evening to remember (or forget, depending on one's alcohol tolerance.)

So I want to say a giant THANK YOU to Dee this time around for helping me have a most memorable photo shoot and a fantastic Saturday night.

Studio Time

As any reader of this blog may know, one of the big exciting things that I have been looking forward to (in terms of photography) recently was getting my own studio. After months of waiting and preparing, it has finally happened!

The wheels were set in motion by Grant's parents, who came down for Shaun (aka. Bob)'s graduation in April. They came bearing late birthday presents of studio lights, and I was absolutely thrilled. It was the best birthday present that they could possibly have gotten me! And it was a countdown as to when we could get started. There were things to do, places to go, people to see, and it was most annoying because I just wanted to get a photography studio set up!

And then there was a blissful long weekend of nothing that was planned. And it was perfect. We spent Friday morning finding the equipment, only to find that we weren't quite sure what was needed. So we returned on Saturday morning a little more prepared and bought a lot of PVC piping. We then started trying to fit it together to make a frame for the backdrop. Which, we quickly found out, wasn't sufficient. We needed more piping and, it being Grahamstown on a weekend, the shops were all closed. So we returned on Monday morning to get more piping and to get a backdrop, and by Monday afternoon it was done!! I had a functioning backdrop that was not about to fall over any time soon, a simple stool for subjects to sit on and lighting to brighten it all up. The only thing I didn't have was a volunteer.

Edit: I spent about half an hour this evening trying to put together a diagram of the backdrop, but my paint skills are failing me. If you would like to hear about how exactly it was put together, please feel free to drop me an email or leave a message and I will let you know.

It took a while to rectify the shortage of volunteers, but after much convincing and promising of lunch and movies, I convinced Katherine to come in and give it a try. And she was lovely about it! Didn't mind at all sitting under the boiling hot studio lights (considering that it was cold, it was probably the most comfortable place to be in any case), didn't mind us moving things around her or the fact that the cat also decided that the chair was the perfect place to be and refused to budge off her lap. And this resulted in studio photos! The first, and hopefully not the last! Wonderful photos that I am absolutely thrilled with considering how much work still needs to be done.

Let me know what you guys think! Also... who's next?