Will Robb Photography

Last week was pretty hectic as I was shooting Japan Fashion Week autumn/winter collection 2010, so unfortunately I didn’t have anytime to update my blog with what was going on. This was a 5 day day event with around 4 to 6 main shows on each day and I covered 3-4 shows a day. Some shows started less than 30 minutes after the previous show ended in a different venue which made it impossible to cover them all. My main client for fashion week was Tokyofashion.com where all the shows I shot are being featured with a short article related to each show and best of all, when you click on each photos you get to view a nice sized image. I’m always to do work with the Tokyofashion.com team, they are a really friendly group who are extremely easy to deal with, the ideal client. Also did some work for Sportswear International Magazine as well as The Japan Times with my good friend and fashion writer extraordinaire Paul Mcinnes which is always a pleasure. Not only is Paul a great guy to hang around with, he always tells me a lot of background about each brand and it helps give me an idea of how I want to shoot each show.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the most important thing about shooting fashion shows is having a lot of patience (and energy). Most of the time I try to be at each show at least 90 minutes early, 2 hours if I can. Once you arrive, you have to basically keep your spot and not move. I’m a newbie, I started shooting the shows last year so I am left to look after myself. The senior guys who have been at it for years usually either get an assistant to wait in their spot, or have someone leave their tripod or camera case in a spot to “reserve” it for later. Sometimes there are 50 photographers crammed into a few square meters and then one of the senior guys comes along and everyone has to move so he can go and get his reserved space and no-one bats an eyelid. When however someone new pulls that kind of stunt, all the senior guys give them a good ticking off for their lack or respect for others. Some groups of photographers from the same magazine or agency stick together and don’t talk much with the others, but this year there were a lot more freelancers like me and there were a lot of new friendly faces (many of them foreign like me as well) which actually made the waiting pretty fun.

The schedule was pretty hectic as many of the shows were scattered all over town. On the first day all four of the shows I shot were back-to-back in the same venue so there was no running about, but on all other days I was running (sometimes literally) around town to different venues, jumping in taxis, getting trains and even standing outside in the rain waiting for shows to start. Usually my first show would be around 10.30am, so I would be there 9ish to wait. When the first show finished I would head straight to the next show which would start at 12.30 or 1pm, eat lunch en-route and if possible, download and edit images from the first show as I waited for the second to start. After the second show, I would try to get to the press room in Roppongi Midtown, send off the edits from the first show whilst downloading and editing from the second show and as soon as that would be done I would go and wait for the third show which would start anything from 3pm to 5pm. After the third show, I would usually have to rush off to somewhere else for my fourth and final show of the day which would start about 9pm. Usually I would arrive there about 7pm and wait for two hours to try and guarantee a good spot, but sometimes that wasn’t enough as some people had been there for up to four hours. Often the night shoots were outside, often at a baseball stadium under the seating area and it was cold and damp as it was pouring with rain most nights, so not much chance to edit or send the previous show. So, after the last shows got finished, sometimes not until 10.30pm, I would head home, which would take just over an hour, then download and edit my last two shows and send them off before getting to bed about 3am and having to get up at 7am to head off to the next show. Some nights I got lucky and managed a seat on the train home which allowed me to download and start to edit which meant I could be in bed by about 1am.

For all the shows I had to take a pile of equipment with me, my 5D mk II and 5D camera bodies, my 24-70mm f2.8L lens, my 50mm f1.2L lens and my 80-200mm f2.8L lens. I also had a couple of flashes with me, but luckily most of the shows were well lit and I didn’t need to use them. With all that gear and my mac book, spare batteries etc and a tripod, I had a lot of weight to lug about. This combined with short quick meals and lots of running about made me lose a few kilos, I think I may market a fashion photographers diet.

Anyway, each show was very different, sometimes I was sitting at the front of the photographers pack, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the back or the side, sometimes We saw a show run through so we got an idea of the lighting and where the models would walk, sometimes we didn’t know what would happen until the show started so the order of the day was being prepared. Usually I would mount my 80-200mm lens on the tripod with my 5D mkII and use it to shoot the models as they were coming down the runway and I would also have my 24-70mm on my 5D hanging off my neck and use it to shoot the models as they got to the end of the runway. Most of the time the light was good enough to shoot at iso 400-640, but for some of the shows I had to bump it up to 1600 or even 3200, there was no way to bounce flash off any walls and when you are surrounded by other photographers shooting from behind you, flash ruins their shots and you are not going to make any friends, so no flash was the order of the day.

All in all I was happy with my work. I have to say though, by Wednesday night my eyes weren’t focusing properly and on each night after that by the time I was home and editing my eyes were in such a state I wasn’t actually sure if my images were well focused or not. I noticed a lot of the other photographers who regularly do fashion shows wear glasses, figures.

Anyway, here are some of the shots from the shows. First up, a small glimpse of about 1/4 of a group of photographers I was in amongst for one for the shows. Think about being in a group like this, just standing for 2 hours, if you’ve no one to speak to it isn’t much fun.

Here are some of the shots from a selection of the shows I intended, covering shows for both men and women’s fashion, some quite regular stuff, some not your everyday clothes you see on the street, but the variety is what makes it interesting.