Photo by Frank Gasteiger

Archive for category Portraits

Date: April 25th, 2011
Cate: Editorial, Food, Portraits

Life in the land of milk and honey

A few days ago we got an email from Lisa Harper, saying:

“Thought you might get a kick out of the attached article (or part of it) from the biggest newspaper in Singapore that was published yesterday. Recognise the photo?!”

Lisa Harper - Singapore/The Straits TimesWe took the photo which is featured in ‘The Straits Times’ just a few weeks ago during a corporate portrait photo session with Lisa. Thanks to the article published, she is now fielding enquiries from Singapore.

Lisa is a farmer’s daughter and ex-scientist who is now a cheese-maker. She and her mother Julie run and manage Sherrington Grange, a large elegant farmhouse offering country accommodation and cheese making. Lisa’s brothers Hamish and Rob produce Manuka Honey.
Making cheese is something the Harper women have done for generations and Lisa’s cheeses are made from local Marlborough products; award winners and absolute delicious.
I am always curious when Lisa calls for a photo shoot of a new creation and the following cheese tasting becomes the highlight of the day.

Although beforehand Lisa told us she doesn’t like having her photo taken, she did do a wonderful job and for sure, she can say “cheese”.

Sherrington - Goat Cheese

 

 

Date: February 7th, 2011
Cate: Editorial, Photoshop Composing, Portraits

Garden Marlborough and WildTomato(s)

A few days ago, during a meeting with the WildTomato-Marlborough team, Jack Martin, editor and publisher of the magazine mentioned how fantastic my group-photo for the Garden Marlborough feature was and he got lots of great feedback for the image.

WildTomato - Garden Marlborough feature

The photo wasn’t an easy task. We had to take the shot at a particular day in September on a particular time, just before the volunteer committee meeting of Hunter’s Garden Marlborough team.
Bev Doole, who wrote the story, had requested from the committee to bring their favourite garden tool.

It was a grey evening with no sunlight to utilise and only a few minutes to get the shot in the box.
To light the group I decided to use a simple three lights set-up. Two SB-800 Speedlights, positioned behind the group and facing toward the camera to create a rim-light / hair light for the ladies and one SB-800 camera left as main light.
All lights were triggered by another SB-800, mounted on top of the camera.

The day after the shoot, I found out that the image would run over a double page spread and would need a 20 mm bleed in the middle. Sigh… thanks for telling me today.
So I ‘photoshopped’ the volunteer’s president, Viv Peters, a bit to the left to make room for the bleed. I also replaced her head with an image where the head is a bit more tilted.
It just looked more friendly.  And because it was so much fun, I replaced a few other faces too.
Below is the original image. Find out how many faces got changed and get the change to win a … ;-)

Date: October 18th, 2010
Cate: Commercial, Photo News, Portraits

Motivational poster for a rising NZL football talent

We recently set out on a thrilling assignment to create motivational posters of an outstanding young New Zealand football talent.

Date: July 5th, 2010
Cate: Architecture, Commercial, Portraits, Wine

Montana photo shoot

The brief for the job was simple. A dozen shots of the new chief winemaker Patrick Materman at the winery between 9 and 10 a.m.

Hold on, a dozen portraits in 1 hour ? We are talking business portraits here and not snap-shots !?
That is 5 minutes per portrait and includes moving from location to location !?
Well…

Anyway, it turned out that we had not even one hour for the shoot because Patrick was busy with another event. But in the end we were able to produce enough images to make the client happy.

The day was grey and miserable with dark clouds over Blenheim but the client insisted on some architecture photos of the entry to the winery.

A bit of Photoshop magic did the trick and resulted in quite a dramatic image. Dark clouds all around and just a bit of blue sky behind the tower. Is that a sign from above…?

Date: June 6th, 2010
Cate: Architecture, Editorial, Portraits

Heritage Magazine – Autumn 2010

So, its been a long time since my last entry, I know. I have an excuses! I was just too busy … I swear !

Shooting for the Heritage New Zealand Magazine again, I got commissioned to supply images for four stories, with the renovation of Nelson’s Theatre Royal getting the biggest exposure.
It is the oldest operating wooden theatre in Australasia and fell silent when a geotechnical investigation found it to be unsafe.
However, in June it will reopen, better than before after a $6.5 million restoration project but with its heritage core intact.

Tamara and I used a mixed of ambient light and portable flash lights to create a “theatrical” feel for the images. Ben, the magazine’s designer commented on the photographs: “Frank, really happy mate. The theatre images are perfect, fill of drama and composed very cleverly.”

Many thanks, Ben !!!

Heritage New Zealand magazine - Issue Autumn 2010

Date: February 24th, 2010
Cate: Portraits, Wine

Formal portrait for Sogrape Vinhos, S.A

Sogrape Vinhos, S.A, requested formal and informal portraits for the Consolidated Accounts and Financial Report 2009. So I had the pleasure to photograph Tom Trolove, General Manager of Framingham Wines Ltd.

Although Tom didn’t choose the exact image below in the end, I think he looks just great in this shot. Almost like a suit photo-model for Giorgio Armani …

Tom Trolove, Framingham Wines Ltd.