Thanks for stopping by. My name is Pascal of Aoshi Studio. You are now on my blog where I will be sharing some moments of my life and will let you get a glimpse of my art.
I am first and foremost a wedding and portrait photographer but my work also includes wildlife and photojournalism in general.
Please take a moment to read along and feel free to comment or contact me. If you want to hire me or have more information, do not hesitate to drop me an email or visit my main website.
I really like cosplay. For those of you who are wondering what cosplay is, it’s a contraction of two words: COStume and PLAYing. It represents the fact of costuming yourself as your favorite character from a manga, movie or any other thing and play his / her role.
What I really like about cosplay is the intricacy of the costumes: there is a lot of work involved here as every cosplayer is supposed to make the costume by themselve. It is really creative and visually stunning. When I take pics of cosplay I know that I can always push myself and experiment a lot.
As I really liked one of the latest photoshoot I did on the theme, I wanted to show you some of the photos I took. The shots were taken in the Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris where there is this hill which lets you have a breathtaking view of the north of the city. The weather was really great and I wanted to get there late in the afternoon as I knew I would then have a gorgeous light to work with… And I definitely did!
I decided to launch a new category of posts about my sooooo exciting (don’t worry I am kidding) life where I would document things I think are great and things that totally piss me off. These posts will be about random stuff, everyday crap and they will be everything but impartial.
So let’s start with this first Hot ‘n Cold post. Are you excited about it? I sure am.
I like hanging out outdoors, I think that if it were possible I would just buy a 1/2 acre and put there a desk, a bed and a shower tap and that would be it. I could enjoy the sun, the wind, the fresh air 24/7. Hum but as I am also a urban boy, it would need to be right across a Starbucks or a place where I could buy some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and naturally I need to be able to shop in the vicinity. Can anyone here tip me about this dream place?
So Hot stuff this week:
The weather which has been great each time I wanted to shoot. I had clear blue skies, a gorgeous sun, some wind and NO rain. I couldn’t ask for more than that
Smoothies which help me going these days during my long sessions of editing at night
The lastest WAT90’s (We are the 90’s) party which was great as usual
Cold stuff this week:
The weather which has been terrible each time I wanted to hang out NOT shooting. Cold, rainy and crappy. My god we are supposed to be in June not in October!
People who harrass my friends for no good reasons
And for eye candy in this post, here is a shot of the so pretty Vanity.
I may have already told you about her: Aurélie is a very talented costume maker. For a historical costume exhibition, she was asked to design and sew three different Greek dresses from the Ancient Times. She had the opportunity to make some research for references, and she worked on both the dresses and on the jewelery.
When the exhibition was over, she even got to keep her work and as it was gorgeous, it was the perfect opportunity to make it shine by having it worn by three live persons and not three mannequins. So she asked if Me, Manou and Charlotte were up for a photoshoot and naturally we were! Naturally I wasn’t wearing one of the dresses, I was only shooting.
Up close I can tell you that the dresses were just gorgeous, the choice of fabric was perfect: the silk really caught the light and gave a lot shining reflect giving it form and volume and yet it didn’t look cheap, and the sewing work was flawless as it fitted the girls really well.
And I really wanted to make it stand out.
At first we wanted to shoot outdoors but as the weather was utter crap this day, we finally decided to shoot in the studio, and somehow I am glad we did because this way I had a total control on my lightning. I softened my main light to enhance the texture of the fabric and added some additional flash flavor for the atmosphere. My global setup was simple: one main light through a softbox, one fill light and for some shots a flash that I put behind the models. I shot at f/5.6 so that I could have enough details on the fabric but not too many, and during the editing I added this washed out tint as this is supposed to be Ancient Times fashion.
If you are looking for old fashioned news, try CNN.com, but if you want to see the fab of what happened at E. & J.’s wedding, you’ve come to the right place.
E. and J. went to college together and met during their senior year. In fact, J. caught E.’s eye when he fell asleep during class and she somehow managed to save his neck from the professor’s wrath (well I heard that’s how the story went). They have been together since then and very early realized that they wanted to spend their life together.
When I met them, I immediately told myself that these guys were meant for each other. They were modern, full of life, fun and very welcoming. In a matter of minutes we were chatting and laughing just as if we had known each other for years. I just love it when I click with my bride and groom, because I know that we are going to spend a rad day and that we will all have a lot of fun. And we did. During our preparation meetings, they told me a lot about themselves, and I feel like I understand them and know their personality.
One of my many sources Pascal92 sent us this. Spotted! E., her mother and her friend C. in a beauty salon. Purposely here to get ready for a really special occasion. Don’t believe me? See for yourselves. Lucky for us Pascal92 sent proof. Thanks for the photos Pascal.
Make-up, hairdo, a beautiful dress and family tradition are the standard items for any usual bride preparation. But for E.’s wedding, the main item was about having fun, taking care of her mom as well as being taken care of. And boy, they sure had a lot of very touching moments.
Ah where to begin? Well let’s start with these pics:
Meanwhile, our favorite groom on the scene was seen at his parent’s place entertaining his boys. Word has it that J. asked his father, we’ll call him Groom’s dad, to help him tie his necktie. That was kind of cute and the funniest thing as they were browsing the internet to figure out how to tie this baby. Let’s spell it: F-U-N!
Guess that when you are from J. and E.’s entourage, you have friendship and family values?
While the ladies were waiting and getting ready, J. was on his way to, omg I am so excited to say it, pick them up and drive them to the civil hall. He was seen very handsome, carrying an enormous bouquet, I wonder if he was planning something special…
No one plan a party like E. and J., and their wedding was no exception. Everything was perfect and the reception was to take place at the Breteuil Castle. They were expecting all their friends to be there. They wanted everything to be perfect. I mean, hello! It was their wedding day!
Spotted! E. and J. getting out of their Rolls-Royce.
So now we are left to wonder what will happen to this wonderful couple? I am guessing happily ever after. Guys like them are bound to have a wonderful marriage. It’s your move guy. And we will be watching.
And who am I?
That’s one secret I’ll never tell.
You know you love me.
XOXO
Gossip Photog
Oh and before I leave, here is the slideshow of the whole event.
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Behind the Scenes:
I just love this pic of J. trying to put E. on the car it was so great.
Last Thursday, I was asked to shoot a live performance for Supermelon, an indie rock band from Paris (Go and listen to what they do on their MySpace). The live was to be at the New Morning which is a venue I really like: it’s small, very cosy and heartwarming and the sound there is really good.
They were performing and playing to win a spot for the final round of the Emergenza rock battle and they were really pumped up for that. The concert was really good, very dynamic, with all the members displaying lots of rhythm and energy . The audience was really into it. In the end, they didn’t get the spot for the finale and ended up at the third place (only the two first bands are qualified). Too bad. But still, it was a nice evening: got to hang out with friends and listen to the other bands, some of which were really good.
Now, before I show you the good stuff, I will dwell a little bit on the technical aspects of the shoot.
As I said, the venue was small and cosy but unfortunately that also meant that the surroundings and the background weren’t very interesting… Well in fact that’s an understatement, as the background of the stage was simply butt-ugly. The lightning was okay, the spots were not too harsh and they would stay even during the whole performance. Going into the pit, I knew the look and feel I wanted to give to the photos. I wanted to keep the sense of movement and energy the band conveyed on stage and I wished to picture them in an oldie / vintagie atmosphere: dark, grainy and washed-out.
So I decided to shoot with the available light, without using flash. The spots would be providing me more than enough light. I deliberately underexposed my shots by 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop. I cranked the iso up to 4000 to get some nice grain on the pics and I decided to shoot wide open at f/2.8 to throw the background away. I was shooting at 1/100th to get some motion blur. I knew that I would have lots of missed shots with this configuration but I compensated by shooting a bit more than usual.
I was just surfing and happened to be browsing my Facebook page. More particularly I was browsing pictures of me on Facebook and it made me wonder if I, at least, had some good photos of me. That got me to start looking in all my personal photo folders to try to dig at least one picture that would be eligible. And I have to say that I don’t have any.
I am always goofing around, flashing gang signs or else.
I don’t have a single good portrait picture of me.
*shocked*
I guess that the old saying still applies : The shoemaker’s children always go without shoes.
I definitely have to change this one of these days.
But in the meantime it let me stumble on some priceless shots of me and I really had a good laugh, and though some of them might be embarrasing I would feel guitly for not sharing them with you Internet.
I am currently working alot and dealing some cool upcoming projects, everything is moving fast and it is good. I am really glad that I went to NYC two weeks ago: these were long overdue vacations, and we had a blast!
Day 02 is over and it’s been great. We wanted to go the Museum of National History but in the end, as there were too many kids and we didn’t feel like queuing, we decided to go another day and we went to the Met instead (I said the Met -Metropolitan Museum of Arts- and not the Mets, Friends fans will understand me), after a quick stroll in Central Park.
The museum was awesome,with a really good spotlight on the exposed pieces, it was really interesting. We went to see the Egyptian collection which is impressive and spent time in the Asian and African arts sections as well.
After this cultural time we decided to practice a more down to earth activity… SHOPPING! So straight to Broadway Street in Noho… It’s only the second day and already I bought a lot of clothes. For dinner we went to get some Dim Sum in Chinatown, and I played my asian guy, stopping in front of every restaurant or every pastry in the streets drooling on the food there… Food and Fashion, two of my guilty pleasures…
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