Lloyd K. Barnes Photography

I dream of languages anew
Grammars undiscovered
A word for a half glance in a dream in the desert
While thinking we met in another lifetime
With fog descending in silence

Model: Chloe G.

Beautiful Chinese opera inspired makeup: Nikki Simpson

Hair Styling: Nikki Simpson

Photography by Vancouver photographer Lloyd K. Barnes

I Dream of Languages Anew written by Lloyd K. Barnes

Music: dream mechanics – blow and blow

Here is a gallery with more photos from the photoshoot

What is language?

According to Dictionary.com:

Language [lang-gwij]

Languages can be chemical – pheromones or the genetic code of DNA. In the short story “The God’s Script” in Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings, by Jorge Luis Borges, an Aztec priest searched for a divine message in the spots of a jaguar.

I’m intrigued by the idea that one language could express ideas that cannot be expressed in another. There is a visual language used in photography that communicates ideas and emotions that cannot be expressed by words. Is is possible that anything can represent anything else if we know how to translate or decode the message?

Credits:
Model: Stephanie Peregrinus
Bodypainting: Meg’s War Paint
Music: ®Evolution by Melange Promenade

Video created using Animoto.

Here’s a video slideshow created with photos shot using a 400 watt UV cannon as the main light source.  In an earlier post about black light photography, one of the readers suggested trying a UV cannon, a special effects light often used by clubs and DJs.  In my other shoots, I used four 40 watt fluorescent tubes. They worked well, but it would be nice to have a more powerful light source to allow me to use a faster shutter speed and lower ISO.

American DJ UV Cannon

The black light cannon worked well, but was different to work with compared to the fluorescent tubes. The main advantage of the UV cannon was how is easy to set up. You just point it at the model and plug it in. It takes about 10-15 minutes to warm up and gives a good strong light. It can be moved around and repositioned, although it should be turned off and cooled down before moving it to avoid damaging the bulb.

I was surprised that it doesn’t give off as much light as I thought.  I expected it to be much more powerful than the 160 watts from the 4 fluorescent tubes. In practice, it was not really more powerful than the four fluorescent tubes, mainly because I can put the tubes very close to the model most of the time, which is not practical with the UV cannon.  Also, the UV cannon is a hard light source that casts a sharp shadow, making the light quality quite different than the fluorescent tubes.  I surround the model with the tubes, reducing shadows and creating a more even light. I placed a white nylon diffusion panel in front of the UV cannon to help soften the light, which further reduced the power from the light.

Overall, the UV cannon would probably work best placed in front and above the model in a butterfly lighting setup. It also would be best to use when you want dramatic shadows. It’s high power would also work great for lighting backgrounds and sets. I’m continuing to explore different ways to use it.

I’m interested in hearing from other photographers who have done UV photography – any suggestions or ideas? What is your favourite UV light set up?

Here’s the same video on YouTube for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch:

Here are a some some photos that I took on the roof deck of The Studio by Mika Does Makeup with model Ariel K. Marie. It was pretty cold up there so it was a very quick shoot! It’s a beautiful location with a great view, so I’m looking forward to another shoot when the weather gets a little warmer. I hope that you have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine's Makeup by Mika

Click to see more Valentine's photos with Ariel K. Marie

Credits:

Video created with the help of Animoto.

Model: Rachel
Makeup: Talysia Ayala
Styling: Vincent Lee
Photography: Lloyd K. Barnes

Thanks also to Tiffany May Photography who collaborated on this project, providing much inspiration, creativity and assistance!

Production

For the background, we used “Super White” seamless paper, available from Savage or B&D. It glows blue under black light. We cut different sized hearts out of pink fluorescent bristol board and hung them from the studio’s ceiling with fishing line. We set up four 48 inch 40 watt fluorescent black light tubes – one on each side of Rachel,  one overhead and the fourth on the floor to surround the model with black light.

Here’s what the setup looked like (the fourth tube on the floor is not shown):

Skin tends to look very dark under black light, so to help make the model’s face more visible, we positioned a White Lightning X800 strobe with a grid in front of the model, and for some the shots we used a hand-held white LED flashlight to light the model’s face. We also used a white disk reflector, which gave off a blue glow, to help light the model.

Camera settings
Initially, I used ISO 100, f/1.4, 1/25th second exposure with a Sigma 30mm lens. I then wanted to get some shots with a longer focal length so I switched to my 50-200 mm using ISO 200 and 1/10 sec at f/2.8. I used a tripod and a cable release to minimized unwanted motion blur. I wanted to minimize noise by using the lowest ISO that I could get away with. Depending on your camera, you may be comfortable going to higher ISO and faster shutter speeds.

Post-processing
I used Lightroom 3.3 to adjust the colours, exposure, noise reduction, and some local brush adjustments. I completed the editing in Photoshop CS4 – mainly retouching and removing the visible fishing lines that the hearts were attached to.

Check out my previous posts about black light photography if you are interested in seeing more!

Black Light Love

Valentine’s Day Black Light slideshow:

Black Light Love – Images by Lloyd Barnes

Bollywood Glamour - Amisha with makeup by Makeup Royale

Previously, Amisha and I did an Indian wedding photography session. The results were great, so we decided to go with a Bollywood fashion and glamour theme this time, with sarees and salwar kameez outfits.

Here’s a music video slideshow with the images from the session:

Credits
Model Amisha Sampat.
Hair & Makeup: Makeup Royale
Designer: Carma Collections
Photography by Lloyd K Barnes
To create this video, I used Animoto, which is a great way to put together photos and video clips to make a music video style of presentation.

You can also check out the photographs in my Bollywood online gallery.

The video is also on YouTube so you can watch it on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.

Credits:

Model: Charity
Makeup: Jenny Ruth
Hair: Candice Styles and Dani Barnes
Styling: Dani Barnes
Soundtrack: “Gone With the Storm” by One Dice

I love the art of Sylvia Ji and was inspired by her Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) paintings. We had an amazing team for this shoot – everything came together to create some very cool images. The overall theme was “death” but I wanted to combine Winter – which is symbolically associated with death – with Day of the Dead, sugar skull inspired imagery. Jenny did a fantastic job with the makeup, and Dani and Candice were awesome with the hair styling. Dani’s styling was perfect and Charity was beautiful and inspired

I chose “Gone With the Storm” by One Dice as the music to accompany the video slideshow, which fits perfectly with haunting vocals and strings and cold, icy piano!

Click here to see the gallery of images from the shoot. I hope you enjoy them!

Here’s the video on YouTube for iPod, iPhone and iPad users:

Dress with Vintage Peacock Print Train

Monica Fraser is a graduate of the Vancouver Community College’s (VCC) Fashion Arts program. She was one of the designers at the VCC graduate fashion show that I wrote about in an earlier post. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to photograph her designs in the studio. In this session I photographed three beautiful outfits, each designed around the motif of the peacock.

I was fortunate to be able to work with an awesome model, Charr, and talented makeup artist Tessa Mitz as well.

The first outfit featured a 2.5 meter train made from a vintage print from Vienna over a natural linen dress with a gold silk bolero jacket with pearls and feathers and a golden belt.

Linen Dress by Monica Fraser

The next dress has a handmade bird motif print by Monica Fraser. The fabric is white cotton dipped into caustic soda, waxed, then repeatedly dipped into indigo dye. The dress was finished with feathers, Swarovski crystals and a whimsical bird nest!

Indigo Batik Dress

The third outfit was a beautiful vivid blue silk dress made using four different types of silks with shredded silk on the top to look like feathers. It also has a long tail with Swarovski crystals hanging from it. To go with the dress, is a long black hand embroidered coat with a beautiful peacock design made from silk threads in Vietnam.

Vivid Blue Silk Dress

Feathered Silk Detail

Hand Embroidered Silk Jacket

Charr Wearing Coat by Monica Fraser

Congratulations to Monica for a fantastic collection! Thanks also to Charr for modeling the outfits and to Tessa for the beautiful makeup and hair styling.

Here are a couple of photos from a recent fashion shoot with model Joleen and makeup artist/hair stylist Elizabeth McLeod. The makeup was inspired by Audrey Hepburn photos from the early fifties and the hairstyle has a vintage forties look.

More details and photos from this shoot will be posted soon!

This is the second part of the shoot that I did with Charity, Jennifer Ruth and Celina Prado. In Part 1 we did 2 pop fashion looks.  In Part 2, here’s a futuristic fashion theme with black lights, smoke and neon colours!

We used two outfits for this shoot. The first was a black dress with neon pink stripes on the sides (H&M, $39.95), Red Dollhouse boots (Winners, $18) and a rainbow purse (Value Village, $5.99). The second outfit was a white top (H&M, $14.95), Orange knee-high socks (Winners, $2), Harajuku Lovers purse (Winners, $88) and blue Dollhouse heels (Winners, $16). Proof that you can be fashionable on a budget!  Here are some of the photos from the shoot.

It was a lot of fun and as a photographer, I really enjoy using unusual lighting like the black lights and effects like the fog machine!

Futuristic Fashion - Look 1

Futuristic Fashion - Look 1 - Black Light

Futuristic Fashion - Look 2

Here’s the video for iPad, iPhone and iPod:

Metallic dress - H&M, $39.95, Necklace - Smartset, $12, Bangle - Aldo, $4.95, Dollhouse heels - Winners, $16

Celina Prado is a fashion design student at LaSalle College who worked with me on a fashion shoot, along with makeup artist Jennifer Ruth and model Charity. We did two pop fashion and two futuristic fashion looks. Here are the pop fashion photos.

The first look featured a satin metallic dress with turquoise accessories and blue heels. Click here to see more photos of this look.

For the second look, Charity wore bright pop art colours – a coral tank top and blue tights, with a Jessica Simpson Havana tote.

It was awesome working with this team! I have worked with Jennifer Ruth for several shoots and her work is superb. I have also worked with Charity previously and hope to do so again in the future. This was my first shoot with Celina, but hopefully we will also team up again soon.

My next post will be about the two futuristic fashion looks that we shot the same day. Here’s the link for the futuristic fashion sets.

Music: Restart the System – Ejay Ivan Lac

Coral Tank Top - H&M $29.95, Blue Capri Tights - Winners $5.99, Bangle - Aldo $2.95, Jessica Simpson Tote - Winners, $160, Apple Bottoms Sneakers - Winners, $49.95