Money Trees - Photo Shoot

For the song 'Money Trees' I am planning to take pictures to go with the quotes..

'Everybody gon' respect the shooter

But the one infront of the gun lives forever'

and "Money trees is the perfect place for shade'

My original plan for the 1st quote was to have my model Holly staring straight down the camera aiming end of the prop gun towards the lens. This shot was also going to have a second person in it who where un-able to see. (As we would be viewing them from behind so we would not be able to see their face or emotions). The second person would be the victim in this picture as the set up would look like they where about to get shot.
This photoshoot did not go to plan, as I was unable to arrange a second model for the day that I had the studio booked. Meaning that I had to improvise and still try and get a picture that would go well with the quote. 

To take these pictures I used 3 different cameras. I used my digital camera, my iPhone camera and also a disposable camera. 

Props that I used to create these pictures where; 

Fake money that I printed and cut out. 

Here are the contact sheets of all the images that I took... 

                  

Contact Sheet - Camera 

Above is the contact sheet of all the pictures I took for 'Money Trees' on the camera. From looking at these you can notice how some of the images are really dark and then how a set few are over exposed. This has happened because whilst trying to capture the falling money I thought it would be a good idea to have the camera on continuous / burst mode. I thought this would be a good idea to capture the fast falling money, but the studio lighting couldn't flash as fast as the camera could take pictures. So some of the pictures came out really dark and some of them came out really over exposed.

Out of all the pictures that I took on my camera these are my favourite... 

Although this picture is really dark and hard to see I do like it. I like the fan style that the money is being held in, and also her attitude, the way she has her and in her pocket and the glare that she is making. Although this picture doesn't really go with any of the quotes that I have chosen, there may be a a quote in the song that I could take to go with this image. 

I also like this photo, again the way my model is holding the money and the glare that she is holding with the camera, but I think that this picture doesn't have the same 'gangster' feel to it. I'm not sure if it's because it's a brighter image, but I feel that this picture is too 'nice' 

Here are some videos that I took on my iPhone whilst in the studio. I recorded these in the slowmotion setting to capture the money falling, meaning I could take screen shots from the video when it's moving slowly. For some reason when I uploaded them on to this blog the slow motion doesn't work and the video just plays at normal speed. 

Here is a contact sheet of all the images / screen shots I took on my iPhone for 'Money Trees' 

Contact Sheet - iPhone

I didn't get a whole lot of images for this quote. I wasn't best pleased with how the images had turned out. I had such good plans for these pictures and things went wrong one after the other. I thought that this was going to be more simple than it really was.

Out of the pictures that I've got on my phone these where my favourite... 

This image is a screen shot taken from a slow motion video recorded in the studio.
Although these images are blurry, and the lighting isn't all that good but I like the money has been captured falling around her. I do wish that the money was falling all around her instead of more to the left. I also think it would have looked better if the note that was floating in front of her was a £50 note instead of a £5 note. Out of all of the screen shots I've got this was one of the images that captured the money falling best. 

This image is a screen shot taken from a slow motion video recorded in the studio.
I also like the way the money is falling in this picture. Although I wish there was more of it visible as some of the falling money is covered by my models hair.
I think that both of these images are appropriate to go with the quote.. "Money trees is the perfect place for shade'
I think the fact that the lighting is quote dark also plays on the fact that the lyrics are talking about shade. 

I don't yet have the contact sheet for the pictures taken on my disposable camera. I will upload them once I have them. 

My original plan for the second quote was to go out on location to take my images. I was going to have my model Holly posing in front of a tree (because the quote says money trees) and then I was going to to throw loads of fake money into the shot to make it look like the money was falling from the tree. Although this plan was easier said than done. I was unable to go trough with these plans as it snowed meaning that I would not be able to throw my fake money out side or it would get ruined. 

To work around this I decide that these pictures would have to be take in the studio. This is the only place that is guaranteed to be dry meaning I can pick-up and re trough the money as many times as I needed to get the right shot. 

Props that I used to take these pictures where...
A fake gun.
Here are the contact sheets of the images that I took..


Although these pictures are different to my description when I had a quick couple of minutes in the studio I took a few snaps of the prop gun. I thought that these could be quite a powerful shots on their own. I feel that a picture of just the gun, captioned with the quote 'But the one infront of the gun lives forever' will be simplistic yet will be made strong and given meaning once captioned with this quote. 
I took these quick few snaps with my Cannon 600D and the studio lighting was on the most basic set up with just one soft box on the left and facing it to add even lighting. I needed to take these images quick to save time, as I running behind on some of my photoshoots due to delays and problems.