Behind the Scenes with Geisha Mamefuji

View fullsize

With all that’s going on in the world right now, it’s hard to believe that it’s been over a month since I had my first photo session with geiko Mamefuji, something I never thought would happen, as anyone who has read my post Mamefuji and What Might Have Been will know.

I will write more about Mamefuji and her return in a coming post, but today I wanted to give you a peak into how I light a photo session with a geiko or maiko on location at a tea house in Gion Kobu.

When I look at my photo of the scene, I’m struck by how small the room (zashiki in Japanese) looks, especially with all my equipment in it! The room itself is only 8 tatami mats, which is large for a room in Japan, but quite small for a photo session with 3 lights on stands, 3 panel reflectors, a background stand, and a camera on a tripod.

I can gain an extra 4 tatami mats (2 on each end of the room) by having my friend T-san remove the sliding doors (fusuma) at one end and opening the shoji that leads to the veranda. You can just see the shoji peaking out from behind the pink seamless in the photo.

When I arrive in the zashiki, it is completely empty, and the sliding glass doors that separate the veranda from the niwa (small courtyard garden) are open to let the air circulate, even though it is February. My first order of business is to close the glass doors and pull the curtains. On very sunny days, the light often reflects off the roof tiles and can appear as bright splotches on the seamless, which I definitely don’t want!

Next I turn on the air conditioner/heater in the upper left corner of the room. I don’t want Mamefuji to be cold while we are working! And it’s time to start unpacking.

I always set up my lights first, and on this day, like most of my sessions, I am using 3 strobes, a key light and 2 rim lights. The key light is a large softbox with a grid on it to camera right; it is the black rectangular shape taking up the right side of the frame in this photo.

You can see the reflection of the softbox in the blue gel on the rim light to the left of the seamless. There is a second rim light to the right of the seamless, but it is blocked by the softbox.

The quiet time when I’m setting up my lights is one of my favorite parts of a photo session. I am in a meditative state, making sure all the stands are set sturdily and that all the cords and cables are kept neat by securing them with velcro to the stands.

I then set up the background stand and choose the color of the seamless I will be using. I knew Mamefuji would be wearing a pink kimono, so I chose a pink seamless for the background, one I rarely use. I keep a list of what colors I have used with what maiko or geiko, and I try not to use the same color with the same woman too often.

Once the lights and the seamless are in place, I set up my tripod and take my camera and lenses out of their bags. All zashiki have a small alcove called a tokonoma, which is used to display a kakejiku (a hanging scroll) and often an ikebana flower arrangement. When I am photographing, the tokonoma is my staging area; all my lenses, my light meter, my backup camera, and other small pieces of equipment go there, no flowers! You can see a roll of green tape on the tokonoma in the back right corner of this photo.

Each time I take the lights or the background stand or reflectors out of their bags, I roll up the bags and take them outside the room. Some, like my camera backpack, go on the veranda (it’s the black blob beneath the softbox in the lower right corner of this picture). Others go into the storage area outside the zashiki. The room is crowded enough with me, my equipment, and eventually Mamefuji, so I have to keep things as uncluttered as I can. It’s not easy, especially if I move the lights or reflectors, as I often do during a photo session.

This post is already quite long, so you probably think I’m almost done, right?

Actually, I’m just beginning. Everything is set up, meaning my camera is on my tripod and the lights are on their stands, but nothing has been positioned yet.

I still have to put the softbox on the key light, and then put the grid on the softbox. The rim lights need reflectors, barn doors, and gels. And wooden clothespins to hold the gels in place on the barn doors.

At this point, I haven’t even thought about setting up the large panel reflectors you see to frame left, one silver and one black in this case. They come last.

And here is where the questions start. How high do I want the key light? And how near or far from the camera, and Mamefuji, given the obvious constraints caused by the size of the room (and the height of the ceiling, which I can literally touch with my outstretched hand. It’s probably 8 feet tall).

There are similar questions for the rim lights. I’ve decided I’m going to use blue gels on the rim light to contrast with the pink of Mamefuji’s kimono and the seamless. This just feels right to me. But how blue is blue? I start off with very pale blue gels, but they are not blue enough for me. I end up using two layers of pale blue gels rather than one layer of stronger/more saturated blue gels.

And how bright or subtle do I want the rim lights?

I love this time, when I get to refine the lighting. Sometimes I don’t have too long to do this, but I love it when I have even 20 or 30 minutes to just play with the lights, moving them slightly up or down, left or right, closer to where Mamefuji will be dancing or a bit farther away.

This is the time when I’m learning, and might even discover something new.

By the time I’ve gotten everything as much to my liking as I can, I have maybe 10 to 20 minutes before Mamefuji will arrive. I go downstairs to the tea house’s home bar, where T-san is waiting for me.

I have just enough time to scarf down a sandwich or an energy bar or two.

And hopefully catch my breath. I can relax. The hard but fun part is over.

Now comes the real fun: catching up with Mamefuji after four years.

T-san and I wait in the doorway for Mamefuji to appear around the corner.

It won’t be long now!

I hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and as stress-free as possible in these very anxious times. And I hope this post has helped you forget about all our worries, at least for a little while.

Stay well!