Lets hope you have made it all the way through your course pretty much unscathed; you have passed your assessments and made the grade - you still have the creative fire burning in your heart; you are going to be a fashion designer. This commitment is great news because - Your graduate show is NOT the End it is the real Beginning of your journey into fashion; your graduate show is not just the start of this new career, it is also your first big PR Event; your first big chance to show your work to people; people whom you don't already know but... once the show is over are you ready to meet them? Probably not. That's what I took away from this student/graduate show, even from a couple of designers I sort out backstage after the show, to get their details, one week and a bit later and I can't read your email or your name you wrote in my little notebook. Where were your business cards; I gave you mine, where is the follow up? Guys, Gals, it's your big moment; I know you have been busy but if you really want to make the most of it - Be Prepared for your own success...
OK so I know I have been promising this blog post on the Raffles Fashion College Graduate runway show for over a week; its been a big selection of work to go through and much to my horror I realise that as I made my way into the show a little late (more on that later) I seemed to miss out some of the earlier designers showing work based on the "Ashen" theme. This means that I did not get any shots at all - not a one of prize winner Fatima Asanovski's designs, though I did manage to grab a portrait of her after the show (and a clearly written name and phone # thank you). My shots (mouse over the pictures for detail pop-up) have been identified where possible from the "Junction" source book provided by Raffles; but not everyone made it into the book. I am guessing that this being Fashion, not everyone had their designs ready in time to go to print. I don't think there was anyone out back sewing models into dresses but these things do happen and going-to-print lead time obviously got the better of quite a few.
Here are the pictures; not the whole show, just a selection of my 30 favourite shots; congratulations to all the graduating students and I look forward to seeing more of your designs in the future. And if my readers make it to the bottom of the post I have a little wish list of things I would like to see at Graduate shows; all graduate shows, and some details of how the Fuji X-Pro1 camera went on this fashion outing..
And one final thing, if you were not in the graduate book and see your designs below and would like them credited please email me; I am more than happy to do so.
My Wish List for fashion parades...
I missed the start of this show because I did not hear an announcement that the show was starting; I was happily viewing the photography portfolios, great work, and it seemed every photography graduate had made a business card; nice! But where was the announcement for the parade? So, without further...
My Fashion Show wish list with an emphasis on Graduate shows..
- Clear announcements to get the punters into their seat for the start of the show.
- Designers Names Up-In-Lights! It's not enough to group the designers names on-screen at the start of each design section. If there is no MC telling us who's range we are viewing it needs to be up on the big screen at the time of the designers range. No ifs, No buts. A little more work behind the scenes but not too much to ask surely.. if you don't know who it is, how can you follow-up.
- Everyone in the Book. Seems like a No-Brainer to me; even if they have not got-it-together for the print deadline, surely they can have their name in the book!
- Email. In the book; another no-brainer, the students not just the college; know what I'm sayin'... and Web and Phone #'s too if they are up for it. Do you want to work or want to be invisible... It's Industry night not stalker world.
- Cards, preferably with a shot of your best design. Email and phone#. You know, so someone can offer you work or help up the ladder.
And the BIG ONE..
- After show refreshments WITH the Fashion Design Students! Lets face it, who knows who's got the 'Right Stuff' or who you want to meet before the show? But after the parade; well that's a completely different story. Whole new worlds of opportunity are going begging with this current set-up of; grab-your-gear-and-run as soon as the show is over. You don't need a bar full of drinks, just a meeting space and maybe some light refreshments. Who knows what great things are just waiting to unfold... I wish I could take credit for this idea but it was not mine; I'm just glad someone.. suggested it to me.
The Fujifilm X-Pro1 on Runway..
If you have been scrolling down scrolling down looking for information on how the Fuji performed, scroll no-more, here is the news. While I started out with the 35mm lens I quickly changed to theXF60mmF2.4 R Macro to get tighter shots from my position a few rows back in the bleachers; ISO was 1250; I decided to shoot aperture priority mostly at F2.8 to soften background detail. The strength of the lighting varied quite a bit but my ISO gave me safe hand holding speeds of 200th up for most shots though the tight blue crowd shot was made by the camera.. at 1/18th! Although I could see that there was good contrast in the lighting on the runway I was wondering how well the "slower focusing" 60mm would do. But as you can see for all but one or two shots the speed required for this runway show and the accuracy of focus with the lens nearly wide open was fantastic. The sharpness of the files was so good I could have marked the garments stitch work myself; and there were a few that would have been shocked to see what the camera saw!
So the camera worked very well indeed in this situation, I did however experience some hunting right toward the end of the show; with the Fuji 'hunting' is very slow indeed and I decided to try switching to manual focus; just to see how it would go - nothing to loose.. Much to my surprise, I found it really quite easy to pull off the shots with manual focus with the EVF; the models 'popped' into focus easily; and while my efforts were not quite as accurate as the cameras auto focus they were close enough, and no hunting; the last three images of this blog post were photographed in this manner.
Street Fashion Sydney - shot with the Fujifilm X-Pro1.
Telling Stories in Pictures all over..So the camera worked very well indeed in this situation, I did however experience some hunting right toward the end of the show; with the Fuji 'hunting' is very slow indeed and I decided to try switching to manual focus; just to see how it would go - nothing to loose.. Much to my surprise, I found it really quite easy to pull off the shots with manual focus with the EVF; the models 'popped' into focus easily; and while my efforts were not quite as accurate as the cameras auto focus they were close enough, and no hunting; the last three images of this blog post were photographed in this manner.
Street Fashion Sydney - shot with the Fujifilm X-Pro1.
Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863
2 comments:
et....c'est superbe :-) passez de bonnes fêtes!
AMEN TO THE STUFF TO ADD TO THE GRADUATE BOOK !
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