LATURNA the lady of the Lake in Plitvice Croatia
SHOOTING LATURNA by JAMES
A commentary about my days shoot on location with Agnes in Croatia creating a shot for the 24 page Lambertz Calendar.
Agnes was a superb model and works all over the world. She had just joined us from her Vogue feature shoot in Brazil. The weather was warm and the shots had been rolling off all day. Although initially the client wanted a fishing net in the image! We persuaded him to also try without it for a more editorial look and feel to the final image.
Keeping The Boat Still
Keeping the boat still in the water was a challenging and so to get around this we enlisted one of the guys to hold his breath behind the boat and submerge himself to hold it in position for a few shots and the then pause for a breathe. The sun was going down and had the glory glow which if not controlled can look a little Sports Illustrated which is not a bad thing if that’s what you are shooting, however it can make shots look a little archaic if not controlled correctly.
We did try some bounce flash and direct flash but i decided to shoot without any lighting or reflector. The Hassy kept on performing and capturing dozens of images. In fact i think we shot more at this shot that any others.
How it all mapped out.
After a lovely lunch and coffee, the team all head off to our location whilst Marco went to hire a boat for an hour or so. The lake was glassy still. and giant black trout were looking up at us from beneath the azure blue waters. If you have never been to this location in Croatia we would say please do so as it was simply stunning.
Gentle breezes and the faint waft of Lemon Thyme was in the air, the soft curling waves on the side of the shore could make you think you were at the beach however the water was a little cold. The model was on fire and worked intently to create the some great looks but also we wanted some new portfolio work, and after all the shots had been signed off both the video and photographers sloped off with the model for some one-on-one shooting fashion and editorial.
Time moved on and we had one last shoot to do of Sandy in the water and which can be seen here on this page The park would close at around 6pm but maybe we could push the limit to get the shots?
I think I left the shoot using my own direction to find out car but had taken the wrong path and ended up a mile down hill of the lakes? and it was a long walk up hill again which seemed to take forever. The crew were all relaxed and eating biccies again as I rolled up shattered and sweaty from the trek! Phil loaded up and we headed back to the ranch for dinner and a beer or 3!
PLITVICE Lakes Croatia
The sixteen lakes are separated into an upper and lower cluster formed by runoff from the mountains, descending from an altitude of 636 to 503 m (2,087 to 1,650 ft) over a distance of some eight km, aligned in a south-north direction. The lakes collectively cover an area of about two square kilometres (0.77 square miles), with the water exiting from the lowest lake forming the Korana River.
Video: The shooting of LATURNA
In the video
The video is some super slow motion shot on the Red camera and is en editorial feature of the model Agnes who was on fir ethos day. The video is more a portfolio piece which has a nice essence to it with some haunting music.
TECHNICAL SPEC
- Temp: 24c
- Camera: Hasselblad H4D
- Lens: 24mm & 110mm
- Shutter: 1/180
- Aperture: f2.8 / F2.2
- ISO:100
- Any Problems: none
- Model: Fel (Czech)
- TeamNader – James & Phil + Mary
- Producer Marco – Lambertz
- Styling – Andrea
- Makeup – Chris
- Other team members x15
Agnes was a great model, the location and lighting was sublime, we therefore decided to shoot some random images for our own book whilst we had the opportunity. Some other shots used in the Lambertz Calendar 2014 can be seen here