Category: Photographic

A couple of days ago I posted a gallery of my wife dressed up as YoLandi Visser from South African rap outfit Die Antwoord. If you don’t know them check out their videos on YouTube, starting with I Fink U Freeky, then go and buy their albums on iTunes. Heads up if you’re at work or near kids right now – they’re pretty direct. And kind of sweary.

(that’s a lot of links to swallow in the first paragraph so I’ll give you a second to check them out…

… before we continue)

Well that first shoot was a practice run for this Thursday, 5th of July, when she’s off to see them in London with her best friend, Carike, who is from South Africa herself and has been translating the lyrics when they lurch violently into Afrikaans. They’re both going to be dressing up as YoLandi and have been putting their costumes together for weeks, culminating last week with a delivery of brightly coloured plastic watches just like the ones YoLandi has on in the new video, so we got together at the garages behind our flat and had a joint photoshoot.

I really like some of the shots Hollie and I got first time but we both agreed that given who she’s playing the light was a bit too soft and warm in general; one of her favourites is harshly and simply lit.

This time I ran the flashes bare, no umbrella or softbox or even a gel, and we used more daylight. The location helped a lot too, and the YoLandis sparked off each other pretty good for the camera. I still feel like I ended up making the photos inside the garage look a bit too ‘lit’; overall I prefer the ones towards the end of the shoot when we were completely outside, but have a look and decide for yourself.

By the way, if you still haven’t checked out Die Antwoord, fair warning that pretending to be YoLandi Visser means makin’ out like a bad ass mofo, yo, just so long as you know it’s all fo’ show… 😉

This silhouette shot was initially a total fluke as the flash lighting the foreground didn’t fire. Loved the effect and got a couple more. The flash was at the bottom of frame so I Photoshopped it out quickly. Obviously that’s purest South African moonshine in the bottle and not water.

Gold shoes, gold rings, gold medallions, gold leggings, blonde wigs, custom t-shirts, slap-strap watches… they look totally ZEF.

I love all these ones at the garage doors. Just one flash here, high camera left, behind and above me, filling in a slightly underexposed ambient, on a Daylight white balance. I really love the mood of these shots.

This is one of my favourites of the whole shoot.

We took a break to have biscuits and coffee sat on the floor of the garage, and go through some pictures. I had Die Antwoord playing on my iPad while we were shooting so the YoLandis got some more practice in.

After elevenses we moved to the end of the garages. I had the lights set up roughly where I wanted them and ran back to our garage to grab my bag. Grabbed this one quickly, on the move, to see if the triggers were up and running; it gives you an idea of how the next bunch were done.

Hollie used to be a cheerleader; still got the moves!

This last one wasn’t planned, but a neighbour pulled up on his bike as we were finishing so we grabbed one posing with it – it’s extra cool because we noticed that it says NINJA on the bike – perfect!

Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as we enjoyed making them. Thanks for reading!

My wife and I are big fans of Die Antwoord, a rap double act from South Africa. They’re coming to the UK next month and Hollie and her friend, Carike, have not only got tickets, they’re planning to go in costume as Yolandi Vi$$er herself and I thought that would make for a brilliant photo opportunity or two.

Last weekend Hollie and I did a practice run in the hallway of our apartment building, and while I’m not sure I’ll necessarily duplicate all these lighting setups for the ‘real thing’, we definitely got some great shots. I shot RAW and in CaptureNX 2 I did some exposure and white balance tweaks to give them a colder look than the glossy warm and golden look they were shot with, which in retrospect I didn’t feel was suitable for the subject matter as Yolandi generally presents herself as a ‘real’ person dripping with attitude, as opposed to a glossy, slick production.

I think the best Die Antwoord pictures are often taken in natural light so for the next session we’re going to head out to the garages behind our building and do something there with maybe the occasional flash shot thrown in for variety, but focussing instead on letting Hollie and Carike bounce off each other without having to worry about staying in the light. They bounce off each other a lot, you see…

In the meantime here’s my favourite shots from the shoot.