Photo Jamming at Norm Yip's Studio

Last Wednesday, I trekked out to Norm Yip’s photography studio in Chai Wan for Photojam! Norm is an established photographer who specializes in Black and White portraiture of unclothed male models (oh la la!) He has published several coffee table books of his work.

Photojam works on the same concept as the Art Jam. It’s a free-style photography session for photographers wanting to get experience shooting models in a studio setting. I’ve actually done a similar thing inside my flat before. I turned my flat into a makeshift photo studio last year (I have constant lights and backdrops) and got a few cool shots. This is one of my faves :

My flat is tiny and too small to be a photography studio, so I disassembled everything and haven’t dusted off my SLR since last year. I thought Photojam would be a terrific way to get some more studio experience.

When I arrived at Norm’s, the real model, who was sourced by Norm’s stylist, was still getting ready for her close-up. So I had a chance to snap a few pics of my friend Massi who is an entertainer/actor.

We also had a chance to interact with the other photographers over a glass of wine. We checked out each other’s equipment and discussed photography and concepts for photo shoots. A lot of people were using Nikons and the ones using Canon all had professional L lenses. One had the 1D and one had the 5D body. I may eventually splurge on the 7D which apparently takes big screen quality video with a depth of field capacity and is cheaper than the new 5D MACH 2 which is semi-pro.

One guy brought props with him- a red umbrella and a whole bag of mentos candies. His idea was to have the model jumping with the umbrella while it was raining mentos. “Candy Rain”. It might have been a good concept had the model not been wearing sky-high Fendi stilettos and a conservative, constricting dress.

The model didn’t speak English nor Cantonese since she was from the mainland and it was difficult for the photographers to communicate the concepts to her. She was very pretty- however dressed the way she was- she was more ready for a commercial Chinese magazine rather than anything artistic or even fashion-y.

Each person got 8 minutes to shoot with the model. There were flash boxes set up and each person was given their chance to put the slave trigger for the flash on their SLR. I wasn’t particularly inspired and was happy to observe instead.

I concluded that a good photo shoot requires a few things- firstly, the model needs to be fluid and expressive. They should be willing to take risks and come up with innovative poses off the top of their head. It probably helps if the model knows what angles works best for him/her. The styling of the shoot is also super important. In this case, the outfit was too elegant and conservative to be inspiring- at least for me. I did love those Fendi shoes though! Thirdly, the photographer needs to be able to put the model at ease, to communicate their concept and ‘direct’ the model properly. A good photographer isn’t afraid to shoot from all different angles (lying down or up on the ladder etc..) The photographer should also have a good technical grasp of the settings on his/her camera and be pretty good at holding the camera still- concepts that at this point, I myself, have not mastered. Overall the Photo Jam was great fun and a fantastic learning experience for budding photographers. Check out the video below to get an idea of what we did during the photojam.
 

If you want to learn more about Photojam or have a gander at Norm's exquisite photos- check out his website. The models alternate every week between male and female. Photojam takes place every Wedesday evening from 730-1030 PM.

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