Showcase Sunday: Portraits Flashback

Today I saw twice in my feed the #showcasesunday tag, an initiative by @nonameslefttouse meant to revive old posts adding a new prospect.
Cool concept, isn't it?
Well I think it is and I'll start with A portrait photo shooting I will never forget!

You probably know me as a farmer and occasionally travel and nature photographer but when I took this shot I had an advertising studio. The truth is that in a small market like the Greek, specialization was a luxury I didn’t had, so I was practicing almost every kind of photography.Which was all right, since I had some interesting variety in my job!

Nikos, on the other hand is a well-known Greek violinist working on traditional music. The day he come in, for his portrait, I was assigned by a magazine to illustrate the interview that he gave to them. The magazine was a new customer so I wanted to give the best possible result.

I had my lights all set up, so after the introductions Nikos stepped in front of the background and looked at me. I cannot describe how awkward the following minutes were. He couldn’t pose not even remotely natural and I was feeling so bad for not been able to guide him properly. The shooting was evolving into a catastrophe!

After dozens of useless shots I asked him to play something with his violin. I attached a telephoto lens to my camera and I stepped away, into the shadow. And boom! All the tension and the awkwardness burst out, leading to this picture!
I don’t know what you think of it but for me it was a great success. It turned out to be the magazine's cover and Nikos come back for more shootings :)

_{Camera: Canon EOS 5D

Lens: Canon 80-200mm f/2.8 L

Focal Length: 85 mm

Aperture: ƒ8

ISO: 200

Shutter: 1/180 s}

Of course not every portrait shooting was so eventful! Babis is a talented Greek actor and those shots are from a session I had with him in 2006, a couple of years before I turn to travel photography (and 8 years before I become a farmer ^_). As an actor he help me a lot by transforming his face at will, and as friends we had no awkward or embarrassing moments. I remember it as a pleasant and I think fruitful shooting!

_{Camera: Canon EOS 5D

Lens: Canon 80-200mm f/2.8 L

Focal Length: 200 mm

Aperture: ƒ11

ISO: 100

Shutter: 1/125 s}

Some other times it was during a commercial shooting that I made some extra shots in order to enrich both, mine and the model's, portfolio.

_{Camera: Canon EOS 40D

ISO: 100

Lens: Canon EF-S 60 mm f/2.8

Focal Length: 60 mm

Aperture: ƒ 8

Shutter: 1/125 s

Light: Soft box 1m x 1,5m}

And since I am in the Flash back mood let me share this one from a very long time ago, when there was actual film inside the cameras and not a digital sensor! Back then I was shooting with a Hasselblad 503 CW (still have it in a closet) and this shot was made with a 120mm f4 Makro-Planar lens attached and natural light. I used Kodak E100VS Ektachrome 120 slide Roll Film and that's one of the few scanned images I have from that era.