portraiture

Outdoor Video & Photographic Team

20 Years in Business!

Posted by Naomi on

Today we’re celebrating being in business here at Outdoor Video & Photographic for two decades! What a phenomenal journey it’s been, including more adventures and highlights than we could possible summarise in this post. Huge THANK YOU to every one of our team, clients, associates, suppliers, family, friends and followers for all that you’ve contributed along the way!

Special mention to Dave’s daughter Terri-Lee, pictured with us above, who was the original inspiration to launch the studio side of our business, and to Dave’s son Michael for his expert creative input over the years. It was a wonderful, full-circle moment for Naomi to recently photograph Terri’s daughter Mykaela, who we can hardly believe is already fourteen, in our studio:

If you know a teenager who would enjoy a beautiful confidence boost, we’d love to help. And also if you’re an aspiring photographer or videographer who wants to fast track to being a passionate, capable amateur or a budding professional. Dave has spent 40 years honing his craft and has decided that this is a great time to start sharing his experience and knowledge!

Here’s an introduction to the brand new series of tutorials that he’s putting together, each addressing a different element to assist aspiring photographers and videographers to raise their game and for the few who really apply themselves, to start their own business in the industry. Take a look and be inspired to join him here on our blog and our YouTube channel:

Dave will be giving away gems of insight and experience about technique, technical challenges and shortcuts as time moves on, but they say it’s not clever to give everything away because the recipient doesn’t appreciate and utilise the product as they may if they invest in it. So, we won’t be giving Dave’s courses away, but will make them affordable and extremely good value.

Please let us know if there’s any particular aspect of photography and/or videography that you’d love to learn about, from studio to wildlife, ground and aerial, and everything in between. We welcome any positive, constructive comment or input and hope that this content becomes a go to source of inspiration and information in our exciting world of photography and videography!

Talent in Studio

Posted by Naomi on

There’s a special buzz here at OV&P when we have talented people in our studio – an excited sense of knowing that they will go far in their lives and achieve significant things. This is the feeling that I had recently, while photographing Daliso Masongo (pictured above and below), and also his sister Mwila Masongo a few weeks earlier.

Mwila scooped 3rd place in the Commercial Model of the Year category at the IMTA (International Modeling and Talent Association) convention in New York last month, on the basis of the modeling portfolio that I shot for her. To view some of the gorgeous images from her photo shoot, follow this link to my Facebook album: Mwila Masongo in Studio.

Daliso is currently a sports management student, in addition to being a model at Ice Models Johannesburg. He has a flair for acting too, which contributed great fun to his shoot. It was a treat to work with him (and have some help from Mwila who was in studio as well), as we planned how to combine outfits, backdrops, props and poses for his portfolio.

Daliso Masongo's Portfolio by Naomi Estment

Exceptionally tall and athletic, Daliso had some great ideas of his own, including action shots such as his leap into the air that you can see above. He put me through my paces, not only while shooting his photographs but also with regard to editing them afterwards because he jumped so high that his head was above the top of our backdrop!

All in all, we aimed to capture Daliso’s vibrant personality, as well as his model looks, and to include versatility in terms of expressions, postures, style and mood. For this reason, we also shot some photos outside, capturing a completely different atmosphere to the studio shots. The selection of images featured above share a sample of this. What do you think? Did we succeed in achieving our objective? We think so, but would love to know your feedback, so please leave a comment below to let us know 🙂 Thank you!

Amore' Vlok, 2017 IMTA Contestant, photographed by Naomi Estment

Modeling Portfolio Magic

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Do you or someone you know need a professional talent or modeling portfolio? Or do you simply enjoy beautiful portraits? Either way, you’re in the right place! If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you’ll know that personal portfolios are a specialty of ours, that I particularly love to shoot. This time of year is always exciting too because models, actors, singers and dancers all over the world are preparing for the IMTA (International Modeling and Talent Association) convention, which takes place next month in New York.

International Model of the Year

I’ve recently had the privilege and pleasure of photographing three stunning contestants from Figures Models Randburg. Above is a photo of Amore’ Vlok, who won the Figures Models SA International Model of the Year award, including an all expenses paid trip to the convention. She wanted some versatility in her portfolio, including indoor and outdoor images, so we set up a special portable lighting scenario in our garden, which is adjacent to our studio. This made it super quick and easy to incorporate natural, shallow-depth-of-field shots, as well as co-ordinate changes of outfits and backdrops. Here are a few more photos from her shoot:

Modeling Portfolio of Amore' Vlok - by Naomi Estment

Capturing Personality

As you can see, Amore’ brought along a hat, which really suits her. This is something that I suggest clients do for their individual portfolios, so that we can try it out and include a few photos with a hat in their final selection. Without fail, I find that it helps to bring out personality and inject a bit of fun into the shoot. We generally include a mix of casual and more formal clothing, which we go through together in order to match different outfits, hairstyles and make-up with various backdrops, props and lighting arrangements.

Talented Young Stars

It was a treat to photograph Amore’, who brims with talent, both on camera and in person. She is fabulously tall, giving her a great advantage on the ramp as well. To see more of her photos, view my Facebook album Amore’ Vlok in Studio. While you’re there, have a look at the albums featuring modeling portfolios of two more gorgeous contestants: Mwila Masongo and Nicole Morgan:

2017 IMTA Contestants, photographed by Naomi Estment

Each has their own signature brand of beauty, which I’ve no doubt will shine in New York just as it does here in Johannesburg.

Please join me in wishing all three of these talented young stars everything of the best for their trip!