Latest photos from Claude Schneider
A few days after the first Cambridge Contemporary Dance photoshoot, a second shoot had been scheduled at the Senate House. We’d learned from the earlier shoot that “light”, leaping photos looked good, and the main door of the Senate House made for a striking and identifiable background.
I took several more leaping shots on the grass, with the idea of compositing them into something specific…more about that in the next post.
Falling from the sky
The Cambridge Contemporary Dance company are putting on a show in December as part of Cambridge University’s 800th anniversary celebration year. The show has the rare privilege of taking place in the Senate House, the university’s main ceremonial building. The show is called “Light Matter”, so a couple of the ideas played with the weightless connotation of the word. I’ve photographed many of CCD’s dance shows in Cambridge, and have produced publicity photos for them in the past.
This one is my absolute favourite
Greek goddesses
The last image was a composite of 4 stacked photos, as it’s too hard to get all dancers to strike their mid-air pose at exactly the same time. It also allowed them to wear the same costume (of which there was only one), giving them a uniform appearance.
After my travels through the forests and lakes in Sweden, I found myself in Stockholm with no cash and a few hours to kill. Having already visited Stockholm the previous year, I didn’t feel I need to do any rushed sight-seeing, and knew my way around a bit. After an hour of walking around, it struck me how strongly so many people have similar facial features – the “Scandinavian Look” that Sweden is famed for. So I set myself a challenge, to take street portraits of several young people that, combined, would exhibit the Swedish look. Here are 6 of my favourites:
One girl in particular caught my eye, not only because of her skateboard, but also her piercing blue eyes and striking red hair. In a nation full of blondes, that definitely stands out.
For the third summer in a row, I travelled to Sweden for an intensive dance workshop. Unfortunately, I sustained an injury in the fortnight before flying out that rendered me unable to take part. Not one to waste an opportunity (or a non-refundable flight), I hired a car and drove around the myriad forests and lakes in South-Eastern Sweden for 4 days.
In addition to a dozen or so huge national parks, Sweden has hundreds of small nature reserves, all (relatively)-well documented, mapped, and sign-posted. So it was rather easy to hop from one to another, walk freely through the forests, feel at one and alone in nature, and admire the breathtaking scenery. Two main images remain firmly implanted in my memory – forests where every boulder, rock and patch of ground is covered in multi-coloured mosses; and expanses of blue lakes bordered by forests on all sides.
Many more forest and lake photos from Sweden can be viewed at CantabPhotos
After the outdoor photos with friends, we had some fun taking photos diving into the swimming pool.
Dancer
Supermen
Superman
Superheroes
Dancer 2
Back Arch
I enjoyed the recent sunshine at a friend’s house, with a few other friends. Needless to say, some of them were actors, so wanted to try to get a few headshots in case any were usable for Spotlight. And of course one of my favourite muses, Sarah, was there, and I’m always happy to photograph her.
Crashing a headshot photoshoot – great result though!
Patrick and Emma were students in Cambridge a while ago, and decided to get married in Christ’s College as they’re still based in Cambridge. Hidden away at the back of the college are beautiful gardens, and an old unused bathing pool, that made for excellent bride and groom photos.
Next to the statue of a young Charles Darwin
One of my Cambridge-based web development clients, Adder, invited me to photograph their 25th Anniversary Ball, held in King’s College, Cambridge. The weather was perfect for a drinks reception on the backs, between the landmark of King’s Chapel and the River Cam, with entertainment provided by the only Penny Farthing stunt riding identical twins, Felix & Felix.
The magnificent vaulted ceiling inside the dining hall
This is the 5th time I’ve photographed Erica, and you can see why. She graduated from Cambridge this summer, and I thought I’d missed my last opportunity to have a photoshoot with her (she’s one of my favourite muses). So I was pleasantly surprised when she said she was back in town and free for a shoot.
I don’t normally fully-process as many photos as I did this time, so was curious to see how long it took. For those who are interested, here are some numbers:
3 hour shoot, 500 photos taken.
90 photos selected for processing (available on CantabPhotos).
7 hours’ Lightroom processing.
4 hours’ Photoshop retouching (mostly cleaning up the backgrounds).
I did a number of reviews of the photos, and got them down from 500 to 170, then 90, 50, 25, and finally these 14. Each of them is different enough in lighting, pose, and colour-processing, that I couldn’t reduce my selection any further.
