NOVALAC CAMPAIGN

Credits Deputy Creative Director: Paola Morabito Creative Directors: Luca Scotto di Carlo e Vincenzo Gasbarro Art Director: Domenico Stragapede Account Director: Anna De Gaetano  Agenzia: DoC Artist Management and production Fotografo: Silvia Coluccelli Assistente fotografo: Francesco Dedola

This is one of the photos that I took for the new Menarini - Novalac campaign. If you want to know more about it check this out... Otherwise you can jump directly to the backstage photos below. You should be able to spot Rachele sneaking into the location in between pictures. You'll fall in love with her black eyes, as deep as an ocean.

 

I FOUND OUT...

Italian version here!
I've been away for some time and in the meanwhile...
I realized that the North Sea is really poetic. Well, it's cold and windy too. But it might be exactly because of these two characteristics that it is so full of poetry.

I realized that kids find it very entertaining when I wear a wig and bear-ears and take pictures of them,

and that the photographer and her assistant might actually find it even more entertaining.

 I realized that I find it disgusting when I see 8, 9 or 10-year-old girls made up like 20-year-old ones in fashion photos. I say NO to lipstick and mascara on kids' faces. I also say NO to kids posing as adults. 

I say NO to de-kidding kids.

I discovered some unauthorized solid waste dumps. Actually it was not me who discovered them. What I actually found out in this case is that my pictures might help to stir some people's consciences. I don't believe this can really happen though, it seem kind of utopian. Anyway I gave it a try and it was a starting point for a long inner search process that I am not yet able to talk about. I'm only publishing here the photos of some locations where I realized a part of my project. 

I also found out things about each one of you. Don't worry though: being an honest and reserved person I won't say a word about it. I promise. Over.

MY NEW WEB SITE IS ON LINE!

My new web site is on line! have a look here www.silviacoluccelli.com

TIME LAPSE MEK JUNIOR

I started the new year by hiring two new assistants. I met them last December at a Christmas market in Zürich, and we got along well since the very beginning. I need to tell you in advance that they are a couple of rather bizarre characters, very silent and a bit hairy as well. On the other hand they are very good at dealing with children. I was thinking of taking a picture with them so that I can introduce them to you. I'll do that in the next post though... This is "lesson no. 1" of the year 2012, fully dedicated to time lapse photography. 

Do you know what that is?

... If the answer is "yes" don't waste any more time and watch this video.

... If the answer is "no, but I absolutely want to know everithing about it, in a detailed and technical way", than you'd better stop reading this post (unless you want to get a bad stomach ache) and check this link.

... If you don't know much about it but you are looking forward to reading a general overview, than you are in the right place with the right photographer. Well, maybe... 

I cannot promise you that at the end of this post you will be able to master all the tima lapse techniques but at least you will have got a general idea of what it is (actually, as I know myself too well, you might even end up being more confused about it than you are now).

Time lapse photography. If we want to explain it in a few words we can say that it's a sequence of photos taken at regular intervals and finally played back in a video.

Roughly the step-by-step procedure can be summarized as follows:
- Take your reflex camera and place it on a tripod.
- Choose an interesting subject that changes in time (for example a place where people walk, a road with some traffic, the sky with moving clouds ar anithin else that you might fancy...)
- Take photos at regular interval (one every five second, every minutes or any other interval that might suit your subject and your goal) for a lenght of time of your choice.

In order to do that you don't really need to squat next to your camera pressing the button every n seconds (did you really believe that?) Actually, if you are lucky, the menu of your camera will include a function that allows you to have it automatically take photos at regular intervals. By itself. No need to use finger. In case you're unlucky (like myself) and despite all the money you had to invest your camera doesn't feature this automatism, a viable solution is to purchase an intervalometer (it's some kind of remote control): this device can be connected to your camera and will allow you to shoot time lapse sequences (stillno need to use your finger).

Once we have all the exposures that we deem necessary (not less than a hundred anyway) we will use them to obtain a film, by playing them back in fast sequence (you don't need a very expensive or complicated  software to do that, I use iMovie, for instance).

- I raccomend adding a soundtrack because even if the photos are very beautiful the final result might end up being a bit boring.

There are a lot of amazing time lapse films online: searche the web and check some of them out. For example this one, or this other one, both of them great. This is also an interesting project (basically the guy made a time lapse film of his own life, taking two pictures a day fot seventeen years.  Congrats on his perseverance!)

Than I have one that i made myself. You are not spared some of my work this time too. I actually already wrote about it a few posts ago (here, to be accurate). I did show you the pictures I took for the Mek Community Catalog and- if you were paying attention- you might remember that I wrote about having made a time lapse movie with the kids. The movie was published last spring in the iPad version of the catalog. Who doesn't have an iPad hasn't been able to watch it anywhere.

Yesterday I retrieved the whole sequence of photos, I choose a soundtrack and here is the final result. I set an interval of one shot every 5 seconds for one hour. The kids pretended to be photographers working on still life shots, including post-production activities, etc. It was not easy to coordinate them invisibly for a whole hour. I have to admit that at the beginning I was worried, but at the end they turned out to be great (much better than I could possibly expect). Pietro's finel breakdance moves were just the icing on the cake. Here you are! If you want to watch it in a higher definition you can check this link.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

My initial idea was to dress up like Santa's assistant. Actually I look more like the albino version of Cleopatra or, just to stick to the Christmas subject, I'd say I can see a resemblance with the Befana.

All Right, all right... I know that between the two analogies you would choose the latter. How nice of you!

Well, this is just a quick post to wish all of you and your dear ones a wonderful Christmas and - as until the beginning of next year I'll be running the famous "Padova Gastronomic Marathon" and therefore I will not be able to pop by and write another one - a great 2012!

IN THE MARSH WITH GIULIA

Before summer was over I went to a marsh near Varese to take some photos (and to let mosquitoes eat me alive). I had been looking for such a location for a long time, to take pictures that would only be mine, which means not ordered by anyone and without any sort of constraints.

When I came across this place I got a sudden inspiration and I called Giulia at once, before the light bulb went off.

Giulia is fantastic, not only because of her smile, sweetness and helpfulness but also because every time I meet her she shows up with a huge bag of candies (last time I met her she gave me 3 kg of them. Come to think about it there must be a reason why my bottom gets bigger after each photo session).

Short preview below...you can find more shots in my website!

BEHIND THE SCENES

During a photo session, in between shots, I keep taking backstage pictures even if I haven't been asked to do so. After all it's still better than what happened on my last session in France where - in order to mingle with the kids - I played football with them, risking to see my leg turned into a bagpipe.
I definitely like to take photos of children when they are having a break, I like to look at them off the set and take pictures while they are in "their own world".And this is what happens.

Someone plays with my hairy assistant, trying to make him eat my nose. 

Others, like Ginevra, roll up on the couch, trying to make me smell their feet while I use one hand to tickle them and the other to take photos (a juggling course would definitely help).

Some of them run around me yelling unintelligible things, probably thinking that I am deaf (which, in part, might actually be true).

Then there is Stefano who - even if I have finished taking pictures of him at 11.30 in the morning - prefers to hang around the studio until 2 pm because he knows that it's worth it. He will be able to meet his favorite female models and take photos with them: he might still be a kid but he already knows what he likes.

Back to Ginevra who can't stand it anymore, decides to take revenge and starts to chase me with her own camera.

Actually I heard that a balaclava hat firm is looking for new faces and a few pictures of me might turn handy (alright, this was a subtle one).