Hello from Morocco! Behind the scene shots of work from Morocco, HK and Vietnam

[JM Tran]

Hello everyone I have been away from AP for over a month shooting for 2 designers from Singapore over in HK & UK and Morocco, and for some celebrity stuff in Vietnam in Saigon and Hoi An. It was amazing to be in Morocco and go from the medina in Marrakech to the snowfields to the Sahara desert within a week, one of the highlights of my trip. I have attached a variety of behind the scene shots from the last few weeks. I'll post up separate threads of the commercial/fashion shots we did later

STATISTICS FROM TRIP

-14 international flights in 31 days
-1x assistant and 1x wardrobe person traveling with me the whole time
-15 locals employed casually or for free for various roles and as extras
-45kg total load from 2 backpacks (checked luggage and carry-on) for myself alone
-2x Canon 5D2 bodies
-3x lenses = 35, 85 and Sigma 12-24 for specialized shots
-Broncolor Mobil A2R pack with 2x Mobiled 1600ws lights
-2x light stands and shoot-through brollies

[ricktas]

thanks for the look at what you are up to. Looking forward to seeing some of the finished photos. Morocco is such a unique location, bet you loved the experiences.

[Cyza]

a really interesting insight into the life of professional photography, thanks for sharing

[Mary Anne]

What a fantastic place it is, and Thanks for taking the time to show us the beauties in and the beauty of Morocco
Amazing all that climate change I cannot imaging snow, that's too cold for me.. Take care now

[geoffsta]

It's good to see you kept the cost of transport down (#5)
And thankyou every so kindly, for showing us exactly how you go about your work. Not many pro TOGs would do that.

[SamNabz]

Sounds like you are having a great time J M.

14 international flights in 31 days!!? Very impressive.

Thanks for sharing a glimpse of what you get up too on a pro shoot, and the amazing places you get to visit.

I look forward to seeing the commercial/fashion shots.

[JM Tran]

thanks for looking guys, regarding the snow - in Morocco it is the only place in North Africa that has a ski field! Up in Oukaimeden only 1.5 hours drive from Marrakech. Unfortunately for us, we went on a day when it was a national holiday - so every family and their donkey decided to drive to the mountain ski resort - all the way from Casablanca and Fez etc. I had never seen such a long convoy of vehicles snaking along the mountain passes and roads until that day!

we also experienced some cultural problems arising from the photoshoots there, due to some places where women have to be indoors by 7 or 8pm - and wearing the stuff we used for shoots only drew death stares from the older Islamic generations. So we tried to keep it as private and indoors as much as possible.

[Roosta]

Envious as always, some great teasers there mate, having a great time I guess, no Self Portraite or silly shot of the models snapping the tog yet?

Morocco must be amazing, never picked it for snow tho, learn something new everyday.

I notice you've got the Lappy and LR open in the last shot, do you have it set to transfer straight to LR once you've taken the shot for better viewing, or just download to Lappy once shoot finished ???

[JM Tran]

Envious as always, some great teasers there mate, having a great time I guess, no Self Portraite or silly shot of the models snapping the tog yet?

Morocco must be amazing, never picked it for snow tho, learn something new everyday.

I notice you've got the Lappy and LR open in the last shot, do you have it set to transfer straight to LR once you've taken the shot for better viewing, or just download to Lappy once shoot finished ???

Hello In controlled environments - mainly indoors - I tend to shoot synced straight to the laptop to be opened on LR straight away, so it provides another form of back up as well as letting the hair and make up ppl and myself see how everything is, and improve upon it. Just something standard I do for these types of stuff.

I dooooo have other shots, but they might not be that safe to post up on AP lol

[Roosta]

JM, What do you use to link, cord or a blue tooth type device ? and if not hard wired, will it work with other Canon bodies ????

[JM Tran]

JM, What do you use to link, cord or a blue tooth type device ? and if not hard wired, will it work with other Canon bodies ????

I just used a normal USB2.0 cable connected to the 5D2, as thats the only device type for syncing with it. Not really a fan as it is very slow when you are cranking out raw files at 25-30MB and taking a shot per second. I prefer using firewire on the high end digital MF cameras for faster upload and preview. I am also looking forward to the spate of new pro cameras with gigabit ethernet connections for even faster upload - will be invaluable for this type of work and with file sizes getting bigger and bigger each year.

[Roosta]

Thanks mate,I thought thats what you might be using. The new transfer rates should be great for your line of work..