One day I get a call from a friend asking me if I was available for a 3h shooting at a beauty salon. I said yes, even though I had no idea of the conditions I was walking in on.

We set up a meeting to find out more about the project and meet the model, but the main thing for me was “what type of light will there be available?”. Once there I noticed the tight space I had to work in and the fluorescent tubes overhead (there was enough window light to get some nice shots for some sort of beauty contest but it was not the case here)

1. I had to take 1-2 good pictures of every service the salon had to offer.
2. To do that I had to rearrange the furniture a bit. (I hope Monica, the owner, wasn`t too upset about that. They offer almost every imaginable service and it`s not their fault the gear takes so much space).
3. I had to refrain from using wides or ultra-wides. I managed to get most of the shots using a 50mm lens @ f/1.4-2.8.
4. The tricky part was to get the green light of the fluorescent lamps to be white again. That you can do in two ways:
   • you either get some really large sheets of green gel and cover all the lights in that particular space, or:
   • you gel your lights (in this case 3 x Nikon SB800) with half-cut green gels and switch you camera`s WB to fluorescent.
5. The lighting solution for this was 1x SB-800 in a large umbrella on a stand as the main light, and 2x SB-800 left and right nuking the walls and ceiling @ half-power (creating some sort of a product photography tent from the inside). These were fired remotely with one SB-900 on the camera. I wish I had 2 more lights for some accents but for this one, it`s good enough.

The picked 25-30 pictures will go on the salon`s website.

Iulia was wonderful to work with, and although it was early in the morning for both of us we managed to be in sync for the whole session. We were out of there in just under 3 hours.

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For English, please scroll past the photographs.

A long time ago… in a galaxy far-far away m-am dat si eu pe role.
Eram mic, tare mic; cred ca eram prin clasa a 5-a sau a 6-a (asta imi amintesc pentru ca prima data m-am dat pe rolele lui Radu Goia). Erau o pereche de role cu roti dintr-un plastic cauciucat … ceva mai tare. Aveau o forma de ciubota de platic … ALBASTRU! Eram ca un semafor. N-aveai cum sa dai cu masina peste mine, ma vedeai de la 3 strazi mai incolo si ma auzeai siiiigur din celalalt oras.

UPDATE (26.07.2009):

The proof!

Pe vremea aceea era COOL sa stam pe bordura in fata la restaurantul Moara si sa ne dam pe role pe centru … eram cei mai tari. La vremea respectiva nu aveam rolele mele proprii si personale si ravneam dupa o pereche de Rossignol sau una de Roces – mai tarziu am invatat ca erau din categoria Agressive -  (cum avea Hurjui – prietenii stiu de ce-) si tot timpul cand mai venea careva cu role noi prima intrebare era ” Sunt din silicon?” . Pentru ca pentru noi, la momentul respectiv “silicon” = dead-silent plus ca “te dadeai mai bine” si “mergeau mai mult”.

Au fost vreo doua veri foarte frumoase cand aveam crush-uri de cate o saptamana pe cate-o fata si abia asteptam sa ne udam cu apa prin parc. Ceea ce si faceam caci si atunci erau caldurile ca acum…

La un moment dat s-au prins ai mei ca imi trebuie si mie perechea mea si ca nu e COOL sa imprumuti … si mi-au cumparat o pereche de Roxa “cu roti de silicon” si cu aceeasi forma de ciubota de plastic care se prindea cu doua barete. Era deja prea tarziu, era sfarsitul clasei a 6-a si Radu se mutase in Canada; lumea incepea sa se prinda ca nu e FUN sa stai cu curul pe bordura si THE NEW SHIT era sa te plimbi cu taxi-ul prin oras. In fine … fitze de clasa a 7-a pe care le-am evitat strategic cu succes. Dar oricum … am scos untul si din rolele alea.

Prin clasa a 10-a m-am mutat la casa, aproape de liceu … si nici ca am mai simtit nevoia de role, care oricum stateau degeaba de vreo 2 ani.

Timpul a trecut repejor. Mi-am vazut de evolutia speciilor si dupa ce-am reusit sa ma “implinesc” vreo 20kg cu toate predarile lu` Peste Prajit in recentii 4 ani de facultate, am hotarat ca e vremea sa fac ceva miscare.

Zis … “Ma apuc de alergat!” si m-am apucat mai mult de-o gramada.

Astazi am vazut un mosulica pe la vreo 70 de ani, care se tinea foarte bine pe role (“ca cum” s-ar spune … dadea clasa!) si mi-am rapit 30min din timp, am cercetat piata prin nelipsita cautare pe google “best rollerblades”. Am citit despre cele 3 mari stiluri de role (fitness, freestyle si aggressive) iar la ora 6 seara plecam de la SkateWorld cu perechea de mai jos. K2 Exo 80 M

English version:

At that time the COOLEST thing we could do was to sit on the sidewalk in front of Moara (Windmill) Restaurant … we were THE best. I craved for my own pair but that happened later. Every time a friend came with a new pair of skates the first question that popped out of our mouths was “Are they made out of silicone?”. Because we knew that silicone wheels meant “dead-silent” skating and “faster than everybody else”.

Those were two nice summers. We boys had weekly crushes on different girls and we chased ourselves through the park with water bottles just to get the other person wet. Our intelligent way of saying “I like you”. Now that I think about it … I laugh my ass off.

One day my parents bought me my very own pair of rollerskates, `cause it ain`t fun to borrow. It was a pair of Roxa `blades with silicone based plastic weels and the cheap plastic boot with the foam sock on the inside … and not to forget those two plastic belts to keep it alltoghether. It was allready too late. I was graduating 6th grade, Radu allready departed for Canada, and all the kids figured out that it`s not that fun to sit around anymore. The new shit was crousing through town in a taxi. Bottom line … 7th grade brainfarts that I succesfully avoided. Nevertheless that pair of Roxas got their share of usage.

When I started 9th grade my parents bought a house close to the highscool, and the `blades became obsolete.

Time got by pretty fast. I went on with my highschool life, 4 yeas of college and 20kg (~40 pounds) later I realised it`s time to do some workout.

Yeah … like that`s ever gonna happen! I wanted to do some jogging but that was meant to be a failure.

Today an elder man (~70 years old), went past me at a blazing speed and he looked COOL! Than I used 30min of my time researching everything I needed to know about rollerskates starting with the obvoius 1st step: I googeled “best rollerblades”! `ve read about 3 three main types of skates (fitness, freestyle and aggressive, and at 6`o clock I was leaving SkateWorld with the above pair: K2 Exo 80 M