Photographing Hiba and Shayan on their first visit to Romania
Photographing Hiba and Shayan, a mother and daughter from Beirut, on their first visit to Romania[...]
It looks like I am becoming preety popular in Lebanon as this was the third time someone from there wanted me to photograph them. This time it was Hiba and Shayan, a mother and daughter from Beirut. They were travelling to Amsterdam, but because they couldn't find any direct flights, they decided to stop in Bucharest and while here, get a photoshoot done.
They were only here for two days and because it was their first time in Bucharest, they wanted to see as much as possible, so in order to save time we agreed that we wouldn't go far away from the hotel where they were staying. Therefore I took them through the Old Town and showed them around a bit as we were shooting.
Shooting in the Old Town so early in the morning, around 9.00-10.00, was a good opportunity to get access to some cool little places which are usually buzzing with people. In our case all we had to worry about was the vans and small trucks making their way through some pretty narrow streets to make deliveries to the various shops, restaurants and cafés scattered around everywhere.
One place which they really liked was the Carturesti Library, which I shot in before, albeit only architectural photos, so I never thought of it as a great location for photographing people, but it was amazing and this is where I took some of my favourite photos from that day. Again, shooting there just after it opened helped, as this is another place frequented by a large number of people every day.
Before we met for the photoshoot, Hiba told me how much she loves nature and trees and that she knows Bucharest has some really nice parks, so for the second part of the photoshoot we went to the Cismigiu Gardens, which is one of the nicest parks in the city and the closest to the Old Town, which was perfect given the amount of time we had.
I guess it's pretty obvious in the next photographs, just how much they loved it!
Portrait Session at the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
A really cool portrait session at the JW Marriott Hotel in Bucharest. After photographing Helena, from the previous post, her sister, Nancy, got in touch saying she would like a portrait session as well [...]
After photographing Helena, from the previous post, her sister, Nancy, got in touch saying she would like a portrait session as well. I obviously said yes and we started discussing ideas for locations. Initially she said her preferred location would be the Capsa Hotel on Calea Victoriei, in Bucharest, because it has this beautiful staircase which she really likes. Unfortunately however, we tried asking for permission to shoot at the hotel, but they said no...So we had to come up with something else. Nancy mentioned that when her family is in Bucharest, they usually stay at the JW Marriott Hotel and no one has ever said anything when they were taking photos of eachother or of the hotel itself. Granted, doing a portrait photoshoot normally looks a bit different than just snapping photos with your phone, but we decided to give it a go anyway, this time without asking anyone about it beforehand. As Grace Hopper said, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." And it worked, we ended up shooting at the Marriott and no one even seemed bothered about us. Maybe they thought we were tourists staying at the hotel. The perks of shooting with tiny Fujifilm cameras and lenses!
Now I wonder whether taking the same approach with the first location would have worked.
Below you can see a selection of my favourite photographs taken on this photoshoot. This time I decided to try something a bit different and so I went with a Black and White edit for all the photos taken inside the hotel, mainly because the lighting was pretty poor and not very flattering, but also because taking the colour away removes all distractions and really adds to the images.
Enjoy!
Nancy wanted a few photos with her dad, so we got him involved as well and I am so happy with these next images as you can really see the love and special bond that they share.
For the second part of the photoshoot, Nancy changed her outfit and we headed outside of the hotel where we took a few more photos in which I wanted to get the city and traffic lights into the compositions for a nice artistic effect.
Photoshoot with Helena, a lovely girl from Lebanon
This is a photo session I did with a lovely girl, originally from Lebanon, who was in Bucharest and wanted a photoshoot trying out different outfits. We chose the Cismigiu Gardens as it is a great location especially in autumn [...]
I got an email recently from a young lady from Lebanon who said she was in Bucharest and would like a photoshoot in a nice location. I asked for a bit more information, about her, about what she wanted exactly, how she found me, etc. She said she found me on Instagram and that she wanted to be photographed in a few different outfits, kind of like a fashion shoot.
No doubt that initially I thought 'I am not a fashion photographer' and I wasn't sure I'd be the right photographer for her, but then I realised that she came to me after seeing my work so she must have liked my style so I said to myself 'why not, it could be fun'. And I was right!
Therefore, after exchanging a few more emails we agreed to meet in the city centre and go take photos in the Cismigiu Gardens which is such a good place for photoshoots, especially this time of year! - you can also see the 'urban ballerina' shoot I did in the same location by clicking here.
Below you can see my favourite photos from what was a really relaxing and fun photo session.
We even took a boat out on the lake which taught me that rowing and trying to keep the boat from spinning around while taking photos at the same time is not easy! Managable though with a bit of patience and definitely worth it as the lake looked lovely with the stone bridges going across and the willow trees hanging in the water. Plus the lighting! Oh, the lighting was just gorgeous that afternoon!
