I've had quite a few people inquiring about the picture of the barber that is currently on the front page of my website.
It's an image that is part of a long term project I started at the end of last year with local businesses. The man in the picture is Jose Ramos who owns the Browns Bay traditional barber shop. I had walked past his shop so many times and was always fascinated by the array of paraphernalia on display.
So I decided to approach him and see if he would be interested in having a portrait done. With all the detail inside his shop I knew the exact style I wanted to achieve, the challenge being that the shop is actually a very narrow space.
Not wanting to interrupt his flow of customers, I only had a small window to get the shots I needed. I set up a single speedlight in a brolly box and got my camera and tripod ready to go. In the space of two minutes I took some shots of the environment and then only had time for three shots of Jose before his next customer came in. No pressure, phew!
The image was then made up as a composite with the background getting treated first and Jose placed into the image and blended to the environment. This gave me the most flexibility with the tight timings onsite and allowed me to cheat the perspective of such a small space.
It has really surprised me the amount of people locally who have commented on this image after Jose posted it on Facebook. It has certainly got many other local businesses interested in working with me on the project, which is all good!
I will post more of this project as it comes to fruition! And for those of you who know me, no I didn't get a hair cut!
