This month’s cover features a photo from Mårten Svensson and model Serene Chen. Now that December has come winter has officially started. For a lot of people this means snow outside. However for some it means short and dark days insteads. In this Editors Choice we want to show you what some talented photographers are able to pull off despite a dark and rainy winter in Sweden. All in ONE shoot!! In this Editor's Choice we will again have a 'Why ZZ Loves It' section, in which we talk more about what we loved about the shoots and what stood out to us. Enjoy Reading!
Mårten Svensson
- Photographer-
"My name is Mårten Svensson. I am a farmer and a photographer born in Lund, a city in Skåne (the south of Sweden) 40 years ago. This year I took the leading role of running the family farm, so I moved back to where I lived from age 5 to 19. The busy farm life combined with my wife and two kids aged 4 and 6 takes up most of my time but I manage to keep my photography business running on the side. Model photography is a hobby, but I take it seriously. It's good practice for the photography I do get paid for. If I had time I would hike, kayak, mountainbike, chill with friends, cook, work in the garden and perhaps dive or free dive. But time is short so I stick with work, family and photography.
Most of the time, I’m not after a particular image. There is no master vision. There is only inspiration. Because of this, I seldom pose my models a lo and I seldom tell them exactly what to do. Instead we decide on a location and some sort of mood and just have that as a starting point. Then we see where we end up, what works and what we like. Another consequence of this method is that as long as we get great photos it doesn’t matter what those photos are. Sometimes I start out with an idea based around flash use only to find the natural light more inspiring and only using that. Other times it's the other way around. It's a treasure hunt. I know that with the right model and the right location I can get great photos, I just have to find them.
By photographing this way I can get inspiration from the model, from the available light and from the location. I can try to use them to the max and not get stuck on an idea that doesn´t work in the particular environment or the light that day. I don't get disappointed and I can carry on shooting, looking for the next great photograph.
There is a downside though. The models must be ok with this kind of improvised shooting. Some models really want a clear plan of what to do, what poses to prepare. I respect that – people are different.
The model for this shoot, Serene Chen, fit my shooting style perfectly. This was our first session but I had a really good feeling about her. She has a way of getting into an emotional state and just pushing that emotion right through the lens, to the sensor and then all the way to the viewer. Combined with her sense of style and wardrobe, I pretty much knew we were going to get good photos. Serene didn't disappoint. She delivered useful images from the second frame, the first frame was me finding exposure.
The location is not some hidden beach, it’s a well known natural reserve located pretty close to the model's home. It offers a sandy beach, rocky beach, a lighthouse, and interesting paths in the forest. There are endless locations and we got more ideas than we had time to shoot. The parking lot was full of cars so we just hiked a little longer to avoid other people.
So what do I bring in terms of gear and how do I shoot? Well, I bring pretty much everything but leave most in the car. My most used camera is the Canon 5D mkIV since the R5 is way too expensive. My favorite lenses for model work are canon 135 /2 L and tamron 45 /1,8. I also use canon 85 /1.8 (yes, the oldest cheapest, I have to replace that) and canon 35 /1.4 L. Usually a few zooms and a backup camera body are in the car as well, but don´t get any use on model shoots.
I have two elinchrome quadra packs and four heads, but I usually only use one or two. A variety of softboxes from 60 cm to 135 cm octa and some umbrellas from 70 cm to 150 cm are usually in the car somewhere but since I mostly photograph outdoors I mainly use my small 70 cm deep octa because of the problems wind causes with larger modifiers. My preferred light stand is a sturdy boomstand that can get the flash in better positions compared to a normal stand. Last but not least is lead. Like 7 kg of lead to keep the light stand standing.
If you payed attention you realize that my favorite lens is a design released 1996. That's as old as some of the models I photograph. I don't really care, I like the results. Would a newer lens be sharper? Yes. Would my photos be better? I don´t know. There is no doubt that better photographers than me have created way better photographs with way worse gear than I have. I mean, I´m so old that my first camera was analogue and could only set the shutter speed, I had to dial in everything else and get focus right. So the gear I have now is really spoiling me.
Overall, I don’t stress too much when I photograph a model. Experience has taught me to skip ideas that might be hard to pull off. Just go to the next idea. Move. Have fun. Find better light. Like the photos with the leaves and branches – we saw the spot, we liked it from where we stood but it didn't work. It was backlit and too many branches and leaves would immediately reflect any light I would add to the scene, ruining the photo for me. Still feeling like the location had something special, we explored the scene for a minute and found a good spot with really great light. No need to do anything extra. A few years ago I would have worked on the first idea, and had spent a lot of time and energy (failure to get the shot costs energy for both model and photographer) for nothing. Now I moved on and found something useful instead.
The natural light came out fine, I saw no reason to make it complicated. If I had an assistant I would have used my deep octa 70cm a lot. And the images would have been different. Would they be better? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I like the result we got in the end. It really captured the feeling of this session. And it was great to meet Serene. That's one of the best things about this hobby – to meet strangers I would not meet otherwise and create together. This way I get a glimpse of what their life looks like. In some way, perhaps I am not really making model photos, but photos of models."
Most of the time, I’m not after a particular image. There is no master vision. There is only inspiration. Because of this, I seldom pose my models a lo and I seldom tell them exactly what to do. Instead we decide on a location and some sort of mood and just have that as a starting point. Then we see where we end up, what works and what we like. Another consequence of this method is that as long as we get great photos it doesn’t matter what those photos are. Sometimes I start out with an idea based around flash use only to find the natural light more inspiring and only using that. Other times it's the other way around. It's a treasure hunt. I know that with the right model and the right location I can get great photos, I just have to find them.
By photographing this way I can get inspiration from the model, from the available light and from the location. I can try to use them to the max and not get stuck on an idea that doesn´t work in the particular environment or the light that day. I don't get disappointed and I can carry on shooting, looking for the next great photograph.
There is a downside though. The models must be ok with this kind of improvised shooting. Some models really want a clear plan of what to do, what poses to prepare. I respect that – people are different.
The model for this shoot, Serene Chen, fit my shooting style perfectly. This was our first session but I had a really good feeling about her. She has a way of getting into an emotional state and just pushing that emotion right through the lens, to the sensor and then all the way to the viewer. Combined with her sense of style and wardrobe, I pretty much knew we were going to get good photos. Serene didn't disappoint. She delivered useful images from the second frame, the first frame was me finding exposure.
The location is not some hidden beach, it’s a well known natural reserve located pretty close to the model's home. It offers a sandy beach, rocky beach, a lighthouse, and interesting paths in the forest. There are endless locations and we got more ideas than we had time to shoot. The parking lot was full of cars so we just hiked a little longer to avoid other people.
So what do I bring in terms of gear and how do I shoot? Well, I bring pretty much everything but leave most in the car. My most used camera is the Canon 5D mkIV since the R5 is way too expensive. My favorite lenses for model work are canon 135 /2 L and tamron 45 /1,8. I also use canon 85 /1.8 (yes, the oldest cheapest, I have to replace that) and canon 35 /1.4 L. Usually a few zooms and a backup camera body are in the car as well, but don´t get any use on model shoots.
I have two elinchrome quadra packs and four heads, but I usually only use one or two. A variety of softboxes from 60 cm to 135 cm octa and some umbrellas from 70 cm to 150 cm are usually in the car somewhere but since I mostly photograph outdoors I mainly use my small 70 cm deep octa because of the problems wind causes with larger modifiers. My preferred light stand is a sturdy boomstand that can get the flash in better positions compared to a normal stand. Last but not least is lead. Like 7 kg of lead to keep the light stand standing.
If you payed attention you realize that my favorite lens is a design released 1996. That's as old as some of the models I photograph. I don't really care, I like the results. Would a newer lens be sharper? Yes. Would my photos be better? I don´t know. There is no doubt that better photographers than me have created way better photographs with way worse gear than I have. I mean, I´m so old that my first camera was analogue and could only set the shutter speed, I had to dial in everything else and get focus right. So the gear I have now is really spoiling me.
Overall, I don’t stress too much when I photograph a model. Experience has taught me to skip ideas that might be hard to pull off. Just go to the next idea. Move. Have fun. Find better light. Like the photos with the leaves and branches – we saw the spot, we liked it from where we stood but it didn't work. It was backlit and too many branches and leaves would immediately reflect any light I would add to the scene, ruining the photo for me. Still feeling like the location had something special, we explored the scene for a minute and found a good spot with really great light. No need to do anything extra. A few years ago I would have worked on the first idea, and had spent a lot of time and energy (failure to get the shot costs energy for both model and photographer) for nothing. Now I moved on and found something useful instead.
The natural light came out fine, I saw no reason to make it complicated. If I had an assistant I would have used my deep octa 70cm a lot. And the images would have been different. Would they be better? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I like the result we got in the end. It really captured the feeling of this session. And it was great to meet Serene. That's one of the best things about this hobby – to meet strangers I would not meet otherwise and create together. This way I get a glimpse of what their life looks like. In some way, perhaps I am not really making model photos, but photos of models."
Why ZZ Loves It
Location Location Location
Creativity can come in many different ways. In this Editors Choice we really like to emphasize how Mårten managed to squeeze everything out of the location. Just look at the diversity in these photos. Beautiful orange leaves, a serene looking pebble beach and the typical swedish rocks. ZZ loves how he used all these different types of surroundings in one shoot and got amazing pictures from all of them. Despite different colours and lighting the model Serene and her wardrobe is clearly the highlight. This is a worthy shoot to contain the ZZ cover of december. Mårten we are very impressed and hope to see more work like this from you.
