Interior photography shoot.

Hey ya'
I have a client whom I love her name is Karla Seliman she is an Interior designer here in Dubai and such a great one too. So it is always so much fun to photograph her creations. I have photographed 3 of her designs so far and we have another one booked in soon as well. The first time we met I brought my daughter along and now she gives me grief every time I come to photograph one of her villas and I am not bringing my daughter, I leave her at home or at nursery mostly for my own sake since I am not sure how I would be able to concentrate with her running around in a designed house (my house does not look anything like the ones I photograph ever :( I wish it did lol )
When I photographed this apartment down in the Marina I used all natural light so I had my camera on a tripod and used a remote trigger to make sure I had no camera shake since I needed to use a long shutter speed on most of the photographs. I always photograph in Manual mode but of interior photo shoots i try to keep my aperture on around 11 or so if I want the whole room in that is not for a detail shot. I then adjust the shutter speed accordingly so that it matches up to my aperture setting. I also focus about a third into the room as well to make sure that you get the room sharp. You always have more depth of field behind your focus point than in front of it that is why you do not want to focus at the back of the room since then the whole room will look a bit out of focus.
There were of course more rooms than what I am showing below but I don't want to bore you :)  here is a sneak peek for you guys.
If you have any questions regarding how I captured these in more details or would like to book me for a photography job then don't hesitate to ask me.
Catch you all later.
/Helen xx

Karla's mum have painted this Art work I just love it don't you?

Cover photo shoot with Mr. Donald Trump

I had a very fun experience last week when I photographed the cover for World Wide Golf Magazine in Dubai. My subject was in fact a golfer but not one from the PGA Tour like I am used to photograph for them. This time it was none other than Donald Trump that was in town for  less than 24 hours. He jetted in early morning and set off again the same evening. Talk about a hectic travel agenda he must have. He was here to give a press conference about his new project that he is developing together with Damac here in Dubai. They are building Trump International Golf Course as well as housing developments around the golf course where his daughter Ivanka Trump is very involved in all the details from house layout to the bath room fixtures.
I was not sure what to expect of my photo shoot part from I knew that I needed to be quick and super efficient and clear with what I wanted him to do once he stood in front of my camera. All lights and everything needed to be set in advance. These things are of course a no brainer its what I do all the time but this time I knew there was no margin for error since we were all very pressed with the time we had with Donal Trump. He is of course by being who he is very used to being photographed so were probably the easiest subject to photograph but I did never think of it that way before hand. I was more worried about would he want to do what I wanted him to do in front of the camera? Well there was only one way to find out and that was to ask and show him what I wanted him to do. It all went according to plan very much thanks to my lovely photographer assistant I had on the day without him I am not sure I would have been able to pull it all off as smoothly as I did. So a Big Thank you to Sherif Karas for flying in from Cairo to help me out. As always when you never want anything to go wrong or not work according to plan it of course does but my assistant got everything up and running before Donald Trump entered the room Phew. I was slightly nervous for a few minutes but thanks to also having direct communications with Samir at Advanced Media we got everything sorted in time. This just shows you how important it is to know your gear inside and out because when something does not work the way you want it you need to know what to do or in this case who to call :)
The magazine wanted a plain white back ground so I had opted for two Profoto 1x6 light strips to light up the background evenly. I then had a Profoto Octa soft box as my main light just slightly above Mr. Donald Trump, and a plain white paper back drop. He is a tall man so even me that are tall had to stand a little on my toes to not shoot from too low as well as to make sure the back ground did not end just at his hair line. I had the background stand as high as it went but would have wanted it to go just a little higher to be perfectly happy. I used the Profoto Air remote control to control the lights separately straight from my camera which is very handy.
I can't really show you any of the photographs that I took on the day of Donald Trump since the magazine is not out yet but I will be sure to share it with you once it is out.

Here is a snap of me when i am testing the lights my assistant is holding my camera.

This is me and Donald Trump after the shoot which took 10 minutes all together .)

As a fellow golfer myself I am very impressed by Donald Trumps golf achievement on the tee I think it was on hole 11, he hit a ball for the press to see, straight down the fairway in his suite and tie.
Most people can't to that after a few golf holes and practice swings and wearing proper golf attire.

Hope you are all well. I am for sure! Feel like I am living the dream today at least lol :)

Over and out for now!
/Helen
www.shippeyphotography.com