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Taking a Slash.

cybele — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:34:43 +0000

Well, finally, after months of holding out, I can blog my Slash pics!

We shot this down at the Street Press Australia HQ in Melbourne. Slash was in the middle of a media junket, I was prepared for anything. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he didn’t show at all. Well, bang on time his tarago rolled up. Enter Slash, and his manager, and minder. It was all very professional. Everyone had to leave the room while I shot, but aside from that, there were no rock royatly demands. He was polite, fun, quite au fait with the whole process. I wanted to shoot Slash with a couple of hot models, them yearning for his attention, he, completely disinterested, been there, done that. My darling Melbourne counterpart Rhys Ripper helped out, bringing his talented crew along. Adam Nash, stylist extraordinaire arrived on set, cape in tow, with a menagerie of black black black. The gorgeous Jessica Crema was on makeup, while Jamie Richardson was on hair. Two of the three models didn’t show, interesting. Maybe they were too young to realize who SLASH was??? Well, model Alexandra Ford made up for it ten fold. Anyway, enjoy the shots.
Wailing on his axe.

Once Slash had left the building we continued shooting Alex, she was just too beautiful to let go. Rhys and I have used her for a spread in the next Academy For Men. Keep your eyes peeled. She is one hot lady.

Heaps more pics. Have a geez.

Daniel. Daniel Boud standing in for Slash. Who can say no to a ring flash?

Me and Mr Slash. This is what I look like when I am star-struck.

I gotta say, I don’t know if SPA and Drum were more excited about the Slash shots, or these ones of Alex.

Once again, thanks to all involved.

Slash. The one. The only.
Model: Alexandra Ford @ Chadwicks
Prodcuer: Rhys Ripper, Academy for Men
Make Up: Jessica Crema Represented by Studio Arts
Hair: Jamie Richardson Represented by Studio Arts
Stylist: Adam Nash Represented by Studio Arts
Photography: Cybele Malinowski, Blue Murder Studios
Assistant: Daniel Boud

POP

cybele — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:14:58 +0000

Photography: Cybele Malinowski
Hair and Makeup: Julia Green
Stylist: Fernando Barazza
Models: Sarah Lorimer, Ditte and Meg W (Chadwicks)

Thank you to everyone involved. We are currently editing a fashion video featuring Dittte, which should be up in a week. Exciting stuff, my first video!

POP your cherry

Nookie

cybele — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:43:42 +0000

I have started shooting for the wonderful Nikita and her label Nookie. These shots are from our first shoot, shot about 4 months ago. It was an epic day. I packed up my portable studio and set up shop in the Nookie warehouse. We shot around 120 looks in 8 hours, the model Annissa kept her smile and sassy attitude till the very last shot. Professionalism is very necessary for such a demanding day. Jodi was on hair and makeup, a lovely lady who I met at Semi-Permanent last year. With such a cool crew, the shoot was, although exhausting, a complete joy. Since then I have shot another season for Nikita, another hot shoot, which I will be able to reveal in October. Heaps of pics to geez over.

Label: Nookie
Model: Annissa @ Chadwicks
Hair & Make-up: Jodi Gardner
Photography: Cybele Malinowski

click on more

Ah Berlin! Formerly known as ‘The Kingdom of Prussia’

cybele — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:53:23 +0000

So, finally going through my massive backlog of photos from last year’s trip to Europe, in an attempt to pump myself up enough and bite the bullet and buy tickets to the US this year….. and seriously, there is nothing like a holiday, with no clients, no briefs, just you and your camera and a whole new city to discover. Here is the first installment of a few series of pics from Berlin, Paris, Athens, the Greek Islands and lastly London. Enjoy!

Street Press Covers 2010

cybele — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:41:53 +0000

Since ‘Covers,’ Daniel Boud and my joint show at Mart earlier this year, a few new covers have been added to the list, so, here are some of them.

If you’re into photography, and what goes into making these covers, read on! Some behind the scene pics, how we made the Cloud Control kids tiny enough to fit on a model train set, and wrapping North Maroubra cliffs in a big stripy tarp.

So, here we go. I thought I might go through the process of these 3 shoots in particular, to show you what goes into making a cover for street press. There are a few golden rules:

1. make sure the subject(s) is clearly visible (though sometimes it’s nice to flip this rule this on it’s head)
2. leave plenty of space for the masthead and the bottom inserts
3. the image has to be clearly visible from far away, so nothing to complex or distracting.

Tame Impala cover:
Originally I wanted to make an infinite kaleidoscope with the boys, which coincidentally, is what their album cover is based on.

So, we shot each band member on green screen, and played around with the kaleidoscope effect. In the end, it was a little too complex (see rule 3 above), for a mag cover, so we had to come up with a new plan, with the images we had shot already. A little daunting, seeing as I had shot each member separately, specifically for the kaleidoscope. So, I pulled out some of my favorite travel and landscape shots, and played around with layering the boys on top.

Here are the backgrounds we had to chose from, and the final result. The first three are from a series called ‘Pinhole,’ taken from a plane window during my last trip to Europe at the end of 2009. (which reminds me, I still have to upload all my photos! From Paris, Athens, the Greek Islands and London….keep posted!)

And these are some shots from the Nevada and Calofornia desert, shot during my trip in 2008.

And this is the end result. We made two. One for Sydney Drum Media, and one for Melbourne Inpress

Now, to the Dead Letter Circus shoot, far less complex in post-production, but where you save time in post, often you put it in on the day of the shoot. Justin, my brother and co-conspirator took a 6 x 12m yellow and white tarp to the cliff tops at Maroubra, and proceeded to ‘wrap’ the sandstone formations. Sounds pretty simple huh? Well, not quite. To hold the tarp down, we took some 20 shot bags (photo speak for sand-bag), each weighing around 10kilos. I could barely move my arms for the following 3 days as a result. And, although 6 x 12 sounds pretty large, once you put it next to the shear scale of a cliff, it becomes somewhat dwarfed.

This is me, showing you how big it was. The one that got away.

And here is Justin, with the tarp in our first setup. See his triceps? Big workout. And look at how tiny the tarp looks? We didn’t end up shooting this one, for that reason.

We decided to move the tarp, and the 200kilos of shot bags to a smaller part of the cliff, so as not to dwarf it quite so much. This is the final result.

And finally, the last cover of this epicly long post: CLOUD CONTROL!

Firstly, I just want to say, I love this band. First discovering them one drunken night, when Dan and my pal Imogen watched Rage into the early morning, their song Death Cloud sang a sweet melody that instantly caught my attention. Anyway, enough gushing, back to the cover photo!

So, looking at their artwork, by the lovely ladies at Greedy Hen for their forthcoming album, I wanted to play around with the motifs of Swiss Alps and miniatures. Off to HobbyCo I go! When I studied architecture, I used to have to go there to buy balsa wood, 1:100 turf, woodchips, clay and other model-making equipment, and I remembered they had some awesome train model sets. I was thinking of shooting there, but seeing as I could buy my own mountain with train tunnel, why the hell not?

Justin spent about a half a day perfecting the model, adding turf for the foreground, maples, conifers, shrubs and a couple of cute deers. I then shot each band member separately, in many different poses and angles, shot the model from every which angle, and placed it all together in post.

Here are shots of the model without band and background. I had to shoot it from all angles, and tried many different lighting techniques, some to emulate daylight, others to make it look like the whole scene, and band were lit from the moon in the background.

In the end, the mag chose the daylight pics ( back to rule 3 again), but I have included the nightime shots, to show you the totally different feel you can get from a simple change in the lighting setup.

Here are some more treatments we worked on for the inset.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this pictorial story on shooting for Street Press covers! Any questions, hit me.

End of Summer. Part ii

cybele — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:37:09 +0000

End of Summer. part two.

featuring Brooke Vardie
hair and make-up: Julia Green
styling: Sibel Alpsal
Please email for labels and stockists.

End of Summer. part one.

cybele — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:45:24 +0000

End of Summer. part one.

featuring Sarah Lorimer
hair and make-up: Julia Green
styling: Sibel Alpsal

I get so lonely baby. Reflections on models at Fashion Week.

cybele — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:48:40 +0000

A sinewy model treads boldly down the catwalk, her lofty limbs walking down the corridor of faces, watching intently, in the glow of their iphones, ready to tweet the next big thing. A song drifts through my head. Elvis solemnly cries “I get so lonely baby, I’ll be so lonely baby I could die.” I mean, it really must get lonely up there. From the frantic frenzy backstage, suddenly they’re walking down the aisle, the eye of the storm, all eyes on them, every tremble, every smile, every step, the model walks closer and closer to the incessant flashing of the photographer’s pit. Some models brave it, stand bold and proud, making eyes with the photographers, switch their weight from one leg to another, once and twice, sometimes thrice, a coy smile as they turn away and make their way back down the corridor of fashionista faces. Then there are some who stutter down the catwalk, they seem to speed up as they come to the lair of photographers and their rapid firing cameras. So fast, in fact, that the photographers must up their shutter speed, just to catch them. And then they race back down to the safety of backstage. What goes through their minds? Do they rationalize that the scrutinizing eyes are actually inspecting the clothes, the styling, the hair and makeup, can they separate themselves from the spectacle? Perhaps a yogic state of meditation? Calm blue ocean. Calm blue ocean. We may never know. It’s all part of the mystery. I get so lonely baby, I’ll be so lonely I could die.

Flannel, RAFW 2009

cybele — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:13:09 +0000

As I decide what to wear for the Flannel show at RAFW 2010 I procrastinate by pulling out some shots from Flannel’s show last year at RAFW. This year I have decided to put down my camera, and go as a guest. So I can focus on the clothes, rather than my somewhat shitty auto-focus.

Blow Up- Academy for Women, Issue One

cybele — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:51:56 +0000

My dear friends at Academy for Men have continued their proliferation into Stephen Hawkings expanding universe and have started up ‘Academy for Women.’ I am all about strong women at the moment, A la Robert Palmer; ‘Simply Irresistible.’

Head to Academy for Men to download the mag!

For the cover shoot we shot a hot little number, taking reference from the amazing Antonioni 60s film ‘Blow Up,’ with a 90s Guess vibe for styling. Think Anna Nicole Smith (played by Michella), fake nails laden with layer after layer of fire engine red, pulling through her uncompromising peroxide hair, as David Bailey (as played by the gorgeous Jonathan) woos her with his camera, she submits and then overrides the woos, her own sexual power defeating both Bailey/Jonathan and his camera.

I have included the tears from Academy for Women, plus a few additional shots with an alternative treatment.

Photography: Cybele Malinowski
Hair and Make up: Julia Green
MUA Assistant: Bec Needs
Styling: Sibel Alpsel
Models: Michella @ Chadwicks, Jonothan @ Chadwicks