Portrait of Jan Herrador, october 09 in Malans

This is Jan, the 11 year old son of my sister. He played the main actor in the short film "Arturo And The Amazing Flying Pigment" we shot over this summer (more about it here soon). Despite not having ever had any experience or ambitions to act, he did a brilliant job. I love what he does with his hair right now.

One night in Paris

From my hotel room window - entry to the gare de l'est. The wet cobblestones with the reflected light on them look a bit like exotic fish to me.



The gare du nord - I will always love these old grand railway stations.

Photo Booth Improv

I was about to shoot a wedding in Switzerland and the bride and groom wanted to have a photo booth for guests to take their own pictures. It was, however, not possible to hire lights and bringing them from London was out of the question. So we scrapped this plan, until I had the idea of a slimmed-down version of a photo booth. I planned to use my flash and to reduce the actual booth area. In order for people to be able to do it themselves I had to give them an idea where the light area is going to be - and that is how the picture frame came in.

My father, Peter Leisinger (www.peterleisinger.com in photo above), built me a magnificent golden cardboard frame with which I traveled though Switzerland on the train. If you ever want to have a fun journey take a big golden frame with you. You will be amazed how many reactions you get.

The framed, slimmed-down version of a photo booth, was a great success. Here some of the shots:

Andrea & Mario

Cat-napped

We have been adopted by a cat. One day he strolled into our living room walked right through it, meowed, and settled somewhere on the floor. We were conquered, overthrown. Now he spends most of his time either in our house or in our garden, demanding attention, food and entertainment and a bit like a teenager he goes in and out.

We call him Mr Cabbit - a amalgam of cat & rabbit - rabbit because in his sleep he tends to have his legs up in the air - looking a bit like an upside down turned rabbit in a mid-air-jump.







We have spoken to his rightful owners and they did not seem to be worried or upset. He is in for quite of a shock in about a month time when our real teenager-to-be, admittedly in many years but nevertheless - will arrive.

But it is quite amazing how some things just suddenly move into our lives.

Portraits of Noriko

A few months ago we were in Switzerland shooting a short film and my dear friend Noriko came from Japan to stay with us and help us out a bit. We had a great few days and as always we only wished she could have stayed longer. On our way to the airport I shot these few frames with my Rollei.

Back with the end of summer

I am back in London and ready to slowly put photos and film snippets up on my blog to show you what I have been up to.

I will start with one of the last things I have done, which is a portrait of Warren Fitzgerald, writer and musician living here in London. He needed a photograph for the back of his latest book "THE GO-AWAY BIRD"published by Blue Door (HarperCollins) in May 2010. We had two sessions.

The first one with natural light and on film.



On the second session we wanted to create something darker, moody with lights. Here some of the photos we got out of it.





It was great fun playing around with the lights and then later experimenting in photoshop.

And because I love environmental portraits we also went to a location I have had in mind for a while.

I am part of the Foto8 Summer Show - COME AND PARTY WITH ME!

Hello

how about celebrating Friday & summer whilest looking at photos? I have one image at the Foto8 Summer show which is opening this Friday 24th July - from 6:30 onwards.

All information should be in the image below.

If not, go to http://www.foto8.com/home/content/view/352/191/

I would be delighted to see you there.

Published photo story in The Big Issue - This is how it looked like.

This is how the story looked like as an article in The Big Issue June 22-28.

Published “SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL”: SAME-SEX COUPLES ON PROPOSITION 8

My story on the effects of Proposition 8 - “SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL”: SAME-SEX COUPLES ON PROPOSITION 8 (see earlier entry) is being published in this week BIG ISSUE magazine.

This is a story I and many of my friends have been following over the last year as it unfolded and we were stunned by the outcome - not only in November '08 when the Proposition 8 passed, but also this year in May, by the California Supreme Court's decision.

I strongly believe in equal rights and I am very pleased that this story got published. To me the question if adult couples who want to commit to each other should have the right to marry and gain equal rights though that process, is an absolute no-brainer. Even more so now, having met all these loving couples, their children and community.

But please read more about the story in the article itself in The Big Issue June 22-28.

Check it out if you can!

claudia