Hi everyone, I'm Wanda Martin, Canon ambassador. In this video today, I'll talk
a little bit about what to do with our newly found free time while we are staying in.
I know these times can be challenging for all of us, so for us creatives and photographers as well
but I'm trying to look at it positively and I'm trying to approach this as,
like, finally we have all this time to experiment with things that we never
actually had the time before, and we can't just dig through our archives,
finding projects we completely forgot about, finishing editing and
retouching films or photographs we had shot before. We can be updating our
websites, social media and portfolios. Social media is actually
pretty important because now everyone is looking at it. What I'm trying to
encourage everyone to do is just let's keep on creating new pictures as well.
This video is going to be all about how to stay creative at home and how to be
inventive and, you know, let's just keep on creating beautiful images while you
are staying in. So, if you are interested in still life, you can create
beautiful set design out of the pieces you find in your home and now you
can just be waiting for the perfect light that you wanted to capture forever.
Of course, you can learn new things about lighting, so by the time
you'll be out there shooting again, you're going to have new skills in your
skillset. If you are doing portraiture, like myself I'm a
portrait and fashion photographer, it can be quite tricky, especially if you
live alone. If you don't live alone then just take portraits of your
flatmates, your partner, your children, but if you don't have anyone around then
again you can think a little bit about taking self-portraits, because this is
the time for self-reflection anyhow. I'm originally from the countryside of
Hungary, and when I was 16/17, I didn't know anything about the technicalities
of photography. I just wanted to learn,
and I was not confident enough to ask people to be my models, so I started
taking pictures of myself. I started recreating famous paintings and
obviously right now I'm not necessarily proud of those pictures anymore
but still, it's a great way of learning a lot about the medium of
photography, learning a lot about lighting, learning a lot about
composition, posing and even post-production. A different kind of
approach to self-portraiture can be very interesting. You can't have only your
shadow on your picture or a more abstract version of yourself, your
reflection in a mirror, or just a very tight crop of your hand or
something that also tells a lot about yourself, like how you want to be
represented in a picture. When I started working professionally, I didn't really
have time for those kinds of personal projects anymore, so I stopped, and I feel
so refreshing to revisit my roots. I started taking
self-portraits again. I'm using a fisheye lens, which I never used before.
Why am I taking self-portraits? I'm learning new things and I'm trying out new things
playing around. This is the main thing, you don't actually have
to take this that seriously because you know there's no client standing next
to you looking at the pictures you're are taking, it's more about
playing around. You can just take thousands and thousands of pictures
until you are satisfied and until you feel like this is actually
something I would like to show to people or you don't actually have to show it to
anyone, it's still a great learning process.
Let's talk a little bit about the location itself because you are
staying home and you might look around and you look around and wonder:
"what am I supposed to be shooting in this house? I know every corner of it,
it's boring." But I'm trying to suggest here, let's just try to look at these
normal everyday locations as a potential photoshoot location. This is
our photoshoot location now, and let's try to make every little corner more
abstract. You can just shoot it from an unusual angle
or with a new lens or a bit different lighting or a tight crop.
I can use every corner of it, staircase, the bedrooms, the sofa, the bathtub even,
every place is exciting in a way. You just have to try to look at it
differently. Also, the main thing is, you don't actually have to spend money
on a shoot like this. You can just be inventive and you can create amazingly
exciting things from the things you find at home. All of us have to face
challenges sometimes, even when it comes to a professional photoshoot.
When it comes to an editorial shoot, for example, we know how budgets can be
very limited. I had photoshoots like professional shoots
shoots in this house before. You don't have to have expensive lighting
equipment or expensive equipment either, you can use a flashgun if you
have but you can just use all the beautiful natural light coming in or
I found this torch. You can just use a bubble wrap in front of it to make it
softer and you have already a nice spotlight, or you can use some candles or
some matches or just be inventive. Be creative and use everything you
find at your home. It's just crazy exciting. So I have this backdrop stand
for example and I have some printed backdrops, but before I had the backdrops
or before I had the backdrop stand you can just be using a washing
line and you can hang up some pieces of fabric as a backdrop or even
some bed sheets or your curtain and you can already have this greatly
functioning DIY studio in your garden or in your living room. And if you
don't have a tripod, that's totally fine too, you can just make one
out of some piles of books. Just keep on creating, keep on taking your pictures.
Try to be inventive, try to be experimental, just try to use anything
you find in your house. Basically, just play around and have fun.
That's the main thing. There's no point doing photography or taking
pictures if you're not fully enjoying yourself while you're doing it.
Honestly, I'm very excited to see some pictures you take while you're
staying in, so if you want to share some with me,
just use the hashtag #CanonConnected.
Thank you for watching, take care.