When I was a kid I had a good group of clicks of Playmobil (actually, from Famobil , which was how they were marketed in Spain).As usually happens with the toys, we forget and lose them.They disappear and some people become nostalgic and idealize them.It’s not my case, I still like them, but I know they’re just plastic dolls.There is another group of people who, far from living in the past, turns them into their current hobby and gets to organise huge exhibitions.In Valencia, in Nuevo Centro concretely, is mounted one of these, with several times.I was particularly struck by the setting up of a village in the American West.
Of course, if you come with the camera you may have some fun.As this was a playful matter I decided to process the photos with an especially old look, as if they had been shot with a plate machine, which was the technology of that time.I am not trying to make artwork, especially since I was not the one who worked out the scenarios, but it seemed fun.
I took more pictures, but they did not stick with the treatment, so I might use them for something else.But for now, I leave this here.I hope you like it.
If you need photos, even if they are not for clicks, you can contact me at sergi@archerphoto.eu or on +34 644459753. Photo sessions for individuals, business photography, product photo or premises.And of course, portfolio photography for models .
It’s always worth going through big video games competitions. And more if you have them close to home, as was the case of Dreamhack Spain 2017 (it happened in Valencia again). This time I was not working for the Valencia CF eSports, which had just dissolved its League of Legends team. However the trophy of this competition was for @Elite_Valencia , another local team sponsored by a local specialized in electronic sports that achieved a historical triumph.
However, Evangelion was representing the football club. who had bad luck at the start and after two consecutive defeats, despite a good late streak could not pass the round. If I’m not mistaken, he was the only representative of Valencia CF. @HariSeldon_HS, also a Spaniard, would end up doing the victory against the British @MnM_xl3en . The joy of this triumph was also contagious amongst fans.
Other competitions and results in Dreamhack
In CSGO NiPGaming won against the also Swedes @RedReserve and in Starcraft2 @ElazerSC2 beat Snute. TRUE and SpeCial were stuck in the semi-finals, which surprised lots of spectators.
In the competition of Smite we saw @TeamDignitas winning 3-2 to @TeamRivalGG in the last match of Summer Finals.
And without more delay, some photos of the competition: there was oriental food, cosplay, contests and a huge LAN area, but it looked much less than the competitions, of course. I may reinforce this post with a video, but I can’t promise.
Finding the Hearthstone pairings sometimes required additional hardware.
All rights reserved by Sergi Albir. If you want to use any of the photos, contact me at sergi@archerphoto.eu. And if you need photos for your team, your profile or your company, I’d also be happy to talk to you.
This post in Spanish: https://www.archerphoto.eu/dreamhack-valencia-2017/
Dreamhack Spain 2017: results and photos
Crane operator waiting.
Spectacular lighting as always.
Some black and white is required in my posts.
Dreamhack Spain 2017: results and photos
HiRezHinduman and HiRez Aggro, casters in Smite Summer Finals
San Juan (St.John’s Eve) is an impossible night in Valencia. If you try to get to the beach you can stay dull in a horrendous traffic jam. If you arrive at your destination you will see hordes of young and not so young people in a huge botellón (youngsters drinking outside around their cars) on the beach. There are also people who just try to walk or put their feet in the water, but in general I do not like them. It reminds me too at New Year’s Eve the year, but with the beach.
Lindy Hop, St.John’s Eve and Valencia
So, I decided to get close to taking pictures of people dancing to Lindy Hop (a dance that started in Harlem, New York, in the late 1920s) in Valencia. At first it was planned to go to their place in Ruzafa, but my contacts in the dancing mob told me that they planned a street coup: they would go to the Turia bed to dance, taking advantage of cops would be distracted watching the beaches and / or night street parties that sprinkled the city. I think this is one of the worst nights to be a cop.
Despite the infamous heat during the day the night was fantastic. And for some reason the mosquitoes had no interest in Lindy Hop. Just armed with an iPad and a not-so-big speaker, without any pretensions, there were around fifty people who were going out dancing in a strictly natural way. Zero organization, zero problems. Most are known and the atmosphere was cordial. They barely talked to me, except for my contact, but neither was making any effort, just photos. I am usually a commercial photographer but this was more a documentary job.
So, I spent this night from the 22nd to the 23rd of June shooting a few photos. I will only show a small, clear selection of everything I did. More than 600 photos with only sodium vapor lamps as lighting. As an extra difficulty, late at night, I do not know exactly the reason, all but one of the lights went out. So I got a look with harder shadows, but if during all night I was shooting in high ISOs, in the end, even more.
If you have liked my photos and you are impelled impetus to contact me to hire me, you can do it at sergi@archerphoto.eu or send me a message on +34 644459753. If you just want to leave a comment, I’ll thank you. It is strictly forbidden to share these photos on Instagram or Pinterest.
One of the purposes of a photographer’s website is to display the photos he or she does.If not, our pictures have much less public exposure.So from time to time I release some post in which I show some samples of the photo sessions I’ve been doing lately.They are not all I do, of course. Frequently clients want photos to be exclusively used for their promotional use.It is reasonable that some lawyers whom I’ve worked want to keep their images exclusively on their websites.I hope you like them.
2017 photo sessions
Marisol in València.Lucía before San Juan’s church.Sofía at Gym Rafel X-Force.
In other cases, especially aspiring models, seeing themselves on a photographer’s website can come in handy: it encourages them and occasionally gets them some work.
Gema in black and white.
Photo sessions for everyone
As many people ask me, I will say that I am not only working for models or companies: if you want to have your personal portraits, whatever your profession, appearance or reason is, I will be happy to work for you.If you need, we will incorporate make-up and hairdressing.We can even look for costumes for your session, whether in studio or outdoors.
Sara in her photo session in 2017.Marisol, sports look.
I usually do photo sessions in València, Madrid, Castellón, Alicante and Barcelona, but it is not uncommon for me to go anywhere else.If you are, I do not know, in Zaragoza, Tarragona, Vitoria or Seville, to say a few places, you can also call me to make a book or to photograph companies.
Contacting is simple: sergi@archerphoto.eu or a Whatsapp to +34 644459753 and we can talk.If you want to see my photos more regularly, the most practical thing is that you come here often (you can subscribe to the RSS) or pass by my Flickr, I usually upload photos every day: http: // flickr .com / photos / archerphoto .
Very often I receive pictures of boys and girls who want to know if their photos are suitable for present theirselves to an agency. Most occasions are not. Maybe they could be good, but often the images I receive are terrible. I decided to write this post that answers the question “Do I need professional photos to work as a model?”.
Can I go to an agency with a book made by a non-professional photographer?
Yes, you can, but you do not want.
Nowadays business are selling millions of digital cameras. Many of them give a very high image quality. Huge resolution. Stabilized lenses. All of this is fantastic, but it does not make the person holding the camera a good photographer. It is important to say, too, that there are excellent amateur photographers and terrible professional photographers. Why should you choose a professional photographer? It’s simple: a person who spends a lot of time on a trade and gets to eat from it is quite likely to have the skills you need.
Let’s suppose an amateur photographer does very good pictures, are they worth it?
The problem is that you do not know. It is possible that you think your criteria is enough to distinguish a good photo from a bad one, and which photos are suitable for a modeling agency, but let’s be honest, you probably can’t tell. It is likely you don’t have enough experience, you have not looked at enough photos and you do need help to know which is better. If that’s not the case and you really have a spectacularly good eye, you should probably look for a job as a director of photography in a newspaper. In short: although they seem good to you, that pictures are probably not good enough to get you jobs.
Should I work with any professional photographer I find?
Let’s talk about cars. Let’s say you have big company and a known brand and you need a driver who gives you enough reliability to play a decent role in a rally. Almost certainly your decision will not be to choose to a taxi driver or a bus driver for that task. You will find a specialized person. It’s the same for your portfolio.
I do not like the idea of investing money in a session. What happens if I go with photos that my classmate has made me with the super camera that her father gave her at Christmas?
Chances are nothing will happen. As is. You send the photos and nothing happens. They do not call you, or they answer you telling you they don’t want you. On many occasions they will not explain to you that your pictures are bad. If you send photos that look right for you, but they are not professional material, you will be transmitting a bad image, mainly in two aspects: you are not a person to take this work seriously (and nobody wants to work with models that do not arrive on time, simply don’t show or make excuses) and also you don’t have the look to be part of that agency.
Carmen Álvarez in her portfolio
But there are agencies that will take any photo…
And so it goes. You just have to pay attention to the impression they convey. It is true that there are very different profiles, but that does not mean that any kind of photo works: perhaps everybody can be worth, but whoever he or she is, they will always want to see him or her well.
OK. I need professional photos to work as a model. Why shouldn’t I take the pics they offer me at the agency?
The main business of the agency is not taking photos, but finding work for models. The most common thing for agencies, even if it is not convenient for them, is that they choose novice photographers to cover their needs. Badly paid and inexperienced, you will be charged as a really good photographer, and that difference is a whole benefit for the agency. It is always better for you working with an independent photographer whose income depends on the photos he makes and how good he is. Your reputation is at stake.
In my town there are only three photographers and none of them seems to be specialized in fashion.
Life is hard. Maybe you’ll have to catch a bus! The portfolio is an essential part of your career. And anyway, the jobs that you may find as a model will not be in your village. If you can not find a suitable photographer in your population be ready to move.
So far, the post. I hope I have made it clear that, in summary, it is necessary having professional photos to work as a model. Surely you already know that I am a professional photographer and that I dedicate myself to making books for models, so if you need one, you can contact me at sergi@archerphoto.eu or on the phone, with Whatsapp, +34 644459753. Tell me where you write from so I can provide information as quickly as possible. I work as a photographer mainly in València, Madrid, or London but if you prefer that we take your photos somewhere else, we can talk about it.
I have always liked seeing pictures of people working. It is always interesting: watching how they did things in the past tells us many stories and gives us a perspective on where we are and where we come from. Without needing to be more transcendent, all this comes because, talking with my friend Arturo Blasco, we talked about the possibility of making a series of photos about a version of the winemaking process. Specifically, a process that is somewhat more traditional than the one usually done conventionally, because at Bodegas La Purísima, which is the company where he currently works, they would dedicate an effort to produce one of these wines and he would direct the operation. So I went with him, I spent a day in Yecla (Murcia) seeing how they carried out the whole process.
Felipe Martínez checks the state of the selected vineyards.Forcallat is one of the varieties of Yecla, Murcia..
Making wine
Depending on the weather, sugar level in the grape and other factors, it is determined when the harvest is due. One of those factors that Arturo told me about is polyphenolic maturity. This maturity determines the quality of the grape. It is necessary to evaluate if the color is present and if the nugget when biting it is crunchy and without astringency. Arturo prefers to take the grape to the mouth and chew it. In this way, he says that it is like seeing a color photograph of what the wine will be.
Making wine. The vintage is made in a rather traditional way.
In this regard, if collected too far in advance the wine that is obtained will have a lower graduation. This, which for anyone would be only a detail, for the farmer has a key importance: the price is fixed in a significant part by the degrees of alcohol. In this way, when the grapes enter the cooperative, this variable is measured.
Mariano receives the grapes and makes the relevant checks to determine the price per kilogram.
After transportation
Once the grape is in the cooperative begins the process of elaboration: in ancient times the grape was treading, but today mechanical processes are used. In the case of the grape ink, falling into the hopper goes to a crusher. This paste is pumped to its final destination so that the skin and nuggets get better contact with the must. In this way wine acquires color and body. Hence, in this case, it was sent to a couple of small vats, on which will work later.
From left to right, Oscar Soriano, Felipe Martínez and Arturo Blasco about to pass the must to one of the vats.The process of filling the vats with the previous protagonists.
These vats, which I was told were small for the industrial volumes they usually work with, had a capacity of about 300 liters.
Dry ice
Once in the vats, Arturo wanted to lower the temperature to 5ºC. This way the fermentation does not start yet, and thus the mix is acquiring color and aromas. To lower the temperature in a plastic tank has been forced to use dry ice (carbon dioxide in solid form, which is about -60 ° C). When carbon dioxide comes into contact with the must, it goes from solid to gaseous state immediately. The high concentration of this gas, makes a mist appear that offers really impressive images. The process is quite spectacular, and although it seems to be doing something more typical of a Harry Potter movie, he’s only making sure there are no thermal differences between the surface and the inside.
Arturo Blasco pouring dry ice into one of the vats.Not Harry Potter. Dry ice is used in both industrial and film making.
The must is left to macerate from that moment, and will begin to become wine. During the process most of the residue will be deposited in the bottom and ready to be filtered and bottled. Or to transfer it to the barrel.
Acknowledgements and contact
By the way, if you are interested in knowing more wine, Arturo writes in El Correo del Vino. It is imperative for me to thank him, not only for having taught me the process, but also because he has lent me a helping hand, proving that I did not commit any important wrongs by telling this. Here you can take a look at his articles related to oenology: http://www.elcorreodelvino.net/seccion/index/72. Also Felipe Martinez was explaining in detail each part of the elaboration.
I’m Sergi Albir. I am a professional photographer (you could say also a commercial photographer, if you like it better) and if you need portraits, videos or anything, you are in Valencia, Madrid, Edinburgh or Tierra del Fuego, and you want to contact me, an email to sergi@archerphoto.eu is the fastest way to find me. Well, and a Whatsapp to +34 644459753. Both things are worth it.
It’s been many years on the radio. I just love it. I have done many hours and I have had enough fun. I walked around Madrid and called Miguel Coll to lunch. Bad luck, because he was leaving for Alicante. But he asked me if I wanted to get to the studio to taking photos the next day to Carrusel Deportivo, which in case anyone does not know, is the most important sports program in Spain. Actually, probably the most important program in Spain. Period. And, uh, I had never been to the studios of Gran Vía de la SER, so I did not hesitate to go see the team led by Dani Garrido. Juan Ochoa, Ponseti …
Dani Garrido.
I love taking pictures of people working. And especially with radio people, because, in addition to being very expressive and intense, they can not escape. They’re sitting around doing stuff, buddy, and that, that’s great for a photographer. You know they will fall, at one time or another, in an interesting gesture, a look, a hand, a breath, a smile … Like fishing in a barrel. Well I think. Fishing and I run parallel paths. I have never been interested and the times when, as a child, they tried to make me fish, the failure was discouraging.
Anyway, I went to the studios of Gran Vía to Madrid to do a lot of photos on Saturday, February 18, 2017 and I really enjoyed watching both these cracks work and shooting freely there. Both they and the technical team are undoubtedly the best of Spanish radio, and also people who have a splendid work environment, despite how complicated it is to run such a program.
Carrusel Deportivo: pictures of radio people
As I told you, here you have the pictures, all of the processed in black and white just because I felt like that.
From behind Dani Garrido.
Borja Cuadrado.
Juan Ochoa.
Iturralde González.
Jacobo
Borja Cuadrado.
The team at work.
Carlos Marañón, Álvaro Benito e Iturralde González.
Miguel Coll.
Dani Garrido.
Ponseti.
Dani Garrido.
My name is Sergi Albir. I’m a professional photographer. If you want to contact me, sergi@archerphoto.eu, o +34 644459753.
If someone asks me, I usually say that “running is cowardly”. A few months ago they helped me with the phrase, complementing it. So now I say that “running is cowardly and guilty”. Well, once the inevitable joke is made, I can tell you that I was working with some friends, writing content for SuamSport, its application, which is really interesting.
SuamSport
The application consists of several parts: on the one hand is an exhaustive race search engine in Spain. Not only you can look for them, but you have the right information and filter them according to our needs. So far it would not be bad, but the app will train us. It will recommend us adequate exercises to be competitive in these races or just to get in shape. Don’t say goodbye! We’re not finished yet! It will teach us how to do those exercises properly with athlete videos developed and supervised by professionals, which focuses on critical points (but only in them, avoiding us a huge speech about the critical importance of psoas stretching related to the fourth vertebra). A couple of phrases per exercise and a short video that loads VERY fast on your mobile (they are optimized precisely for that), and you are ready.
SuamSport, iOS and Android
SuamSport is available for iOS and Android and you can try it in beta already. What have I done? Videos and photos. What should you do? Install the app now and try it out. After that, surely you will end up telling a friend that whenever you see is running from one side to another, preparing a marathon or something worse. And, uh, they also have a website with additional content.
One of the questions that often appears in some informal conversations I have with people who are not in the world of photography and fashion have to do with how much a professional model wins. It’s a question that has a similar answer to if you were asked how much a professional athlete earns. Depends on the category. There are models and footballers who earn absolutely nothing and perform their activity for reasons other than money. Sometimes because they are in shape, sometimes because they like to show off or because they think that at the beginning of their career they can not ask for money because they do not contribute too much to generate money.
How much do models earn?
In any case, there is a huge variability between what a semi-professional or professional model charges for a catwaik, which can be between 50 and 300 € and the fantastic figures that move some stars. Figures that can make you dizzy. An example: Naomi Campbell won in 2013 about 49 million dollars. This is not a common trend, but Gisele Bundchen made in 2007 about 33 million dollars and Kate Moss, that same year, hardly 9. Miranda Kerr usually does, to put another example, around 7 million dollars to the year.
If we look at 2016, the list of the best paid stands out much more to -again- Gisele Budchen, but probably because she includes her income in businesses in which it she has participated and actively invested. In this case, the figures are in sterling pounds, because my source is – I’m sorry – the Daily Mirror.
Top 7 in 2016
Gisele Bundchen, 308 million pounds. Adriana Lima, 8.1 million pounds. Karlie Kloss, 7.8 million pounds. Kendall Jenner, 7.7 million pounds. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 6.9 million pounds. Gigi Hadid, 6.9 million pounds. Cara Delevigne, 6.9 million pounds.
It’s not just the catwalk
However, today, the most important part of the income is obtained in publicity campaigns, being the image of the top brands or attending events. From there, it is difficult to define what a “professional model” is. Some girls – and guys – who have not posed for any publication, but have a lot of followers in social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, with profiles in many Similar to a model, earn comparable figures. Kendall Jenner has an important part of her income, for example, for that reason. She gets between $ 125,000 and $ 300,000 for every Instagram post. From there, of course, you have to pay expenses like professional photography, makeup, public relations and others. In spite of everything it is evident that it is a good business.
So determining how much a professional model earns is extremely complex if it is not defined before we speak. It is not standardized work such as a local police or air traffic controller. The figures of what is charged per day of work – by a normal model – can be misleading: not every day there is a catwalk, and yet you have to go to the gym, stay in shape and invest money to stay wonderful .
In any case, I am not a model, I am a professional photographer. If you need a portfolio to make a name for yourself into the wonderful world of professional models, that would be the first step you should take. My email is sergi@archerphoto.eu . My phone, with Whatsapp included is +34 644459753.
