Mucyo Gasana

I follow Peter Mckinnon on Instagram and youtube, he's mainly a filmmaker but has worked in photography for years, besides tips in everything from photoshop and lightroom to lighting hacks he also showcases behind the scenes footage of the projects he works on and the process. I specifically used Peter Mckinnon as an inspiration for this project because he is very good at set design, and setting a mood around the subject in his product photography.

Peter Mckinnon

Mucyo Gasana is a Kenya based photographer that works in editorial, personal projects, and collaboration projects. I did not use his work as a reference for this project since he specializes in portraits, but instead, I focused on the sincerity of his work, it's all about a message he wants to deliver. his series GIAWOC; God is a Woman of Color, is based on displaying African beauty, in an African setting without a European beauty standard influence. A really beautiful project.

Karl Taylor

Karl Taylor is a professional photographer with years in the industry, a photography educator, and a Hasselblad ambassador. He is an expert in lighting and composition and consistently works with large brands for their commercial campaigns. I used some of his tips for product photography lighting without professional lights in some of the shots I made for Soz Bags in this Plus+Plan.

For my plus plan, I chose to explore how my hobby of analog photography could be connected with my study or commercialized, with this purpose I found myself a couple of photography commissions that let me explore the market as well as find my own limitations and learning areas.

my three commissions were;
Soz Bags, for product photography for their advertisements. A brand launched by high school students selling upcycled waterproof handmade tote bags based in Rotterdam.

Ellis Holman, concept photographs of her Beautiful Broken project as a way to visualize the newer version she is working on currently. A decorative piece inspired by erosion and the natural passing of time.

Man Met Bril Koffie, location photos of their Take-out window for their social media advertisement.

For these photographs, I chose to use my Minolta AF-dl that has both 35 and 50mm lenses and flash. And a Fujifilm Xtra 400 color film that works well outdoors, indoors, and in shady scenes. I declined a couple of offers for commissions based on some requirements I couldn’t fulfill, like macro and close-up details since my cameras don't have the lenses of focal range.

In addition to the commissions, I also explored Other ways to commercialize my Photography, starting with Prints, mainly trying out the printing process, possibilities, and cost, but also probing the market to see if my photos would sell, I got 2 mid-size prints in Acquaintances houses for 20 euros each.
Other possibilities I researched were computer wallpapers, postcards, selling to stock photo sites, selling to sites and magazines, and other ways to sell on print like magazines or photo books, also the possibility of starting a photography blog and earning through ad revenue.
As part of my plus plan I looked into photographers I admire and how they work, see what I could learn from them. I am presenting three on this site; Mucyo Gasana, Peter Mckinnon & Karl Taylor.

Plus+Plan Leonardo Vomend

my background in photography

I have worked with analog photography for years, but mainly in Urban landscape photography, architecture, landscape, and sometimes portraits. Digital photography even longer with the same genres but especially portraits.
when it comes to studio and product photography I only started since I came to this school, but since the first year, I have done all of my projects as well as many from my classmates, for their projects, their portfolios, and personal projects.

I haven't attempted to make money off my photography yet, my personal photography, which centers on urban landscape and showcasing the true "colors" of a place is still evolving, and I haven't yet found My photography style. And I do not want to divert from it by doing commercial work generally, but I know that it could be an alternative source of income in one of the many ways to sell photography.

The commissions

SOZ Bags

For the bags, I looked through their Instagram and found that they were missing some things, especially details showing their waterproof material, some setting photos of the bag in a location, and some more casual street photos so I prepared a small set at home, as well as a rig to take pictures of the bag sprayed with water and recruiter a friend to help me as a model for the street pictures.

Beautiful Broken

For Ellis' project Beautiful broken I thought to keep it simple and just take different photos of the product in a house, minimal set design, just some changes to the surrounding to try to better frame it.
The indoor lighting in this shoot was not working well for me so my camera set off its flash in most shots, so the shadows cast are sometimes quite prominent.

Man Met Bril Koffie

The "commission" for ManMetBrilKoffie started differently than the other 2, instead of putting out a probe and getting answers, I contacted them myself to ask if they would be interested in some photos of their takeout window. I sent the pictures and I am waiting for a potential response, sadly I messed up the film selection and used a roll with 24 instead of 36 exposures so I ran out before I could take all the pictures I wanted, both the film and the developing cost money so I used just 1 roll.

Conclussions

SOZ Bags

Beautiful Broken

Man Met Bril Koffie

I got some good results with the bags, I am very happy with the wet photos, but I wish I could've taken more street photography with it, for the time being, I will keep the bag and hopefully continue with this.

I am pleased with the composition of plenty of the shots and the changes to the "set" gave pretty good results. Sadly the focus point is off so the vast majority are not sharp at all. Thankfully the request for these was about the vibe and setting as a decorative piece so the casual photos end up working very well for the intended purpose of adding visuals to the process of the newer better pieces.

I like these shots quite a bit, they give off an energy of a local place to visit, empty but inviting. A strong street photography aesthetic, almost like I found the place for the very first time on a visit to the city.

I am of course not surprised with the review, or the honesty from Ellis but I am glad she recognizes the possibilities, and this works very well for me to learn my limitations and growth areas with photography like that with my setup, I might try similar things with my other cameras to see if any of them would give me better results, or if I am better off doing different work.