On certain
days, at certain times, and during certain seasons, certain
parts of my house get lovely natural light. This day
was one such day -- as I was running out of momentum with
the light from my favorite window, I looked around the living
room & found some lovely natural light hitting the big
comfy chair. I invited Floofie to cross the room &
work there. |
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I like the
simplicity of this image.
Floofie
has the kind of figure I most like photographing -- she
is svelte & slim & fit. I like photographing
slim models for a lot of reasons:
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Perhaps I like photographing them because their bodies
are the opposite of mine: I am hardly slim &
fit & youthful & healthy. (Just kidding).
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I like that every shadow & every shape represents
a component of the human architecture. Each shape
is a product of millions of years of evolution (or,
if you are so inclined, of divine design). Thus,
every one of these photos is a photograph of humanity
-- it is all of us.
While
I do like this image, it's a little too simplistic for my
tastes. I am inspired to use this image as the basis
of some artistic effects experiments:
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As I look at
these pictures, as I am drafting this page -- there's something
a tiny bit "off" about these images. The
light is very good. The compositions are fine.
Floofie's figure looks amazing, and we are finding ways
to show it off well. Still, there is something a little
bland going on. I'm going to attribute it to tis being
our first sitting together. First sittings are the
toughest for me. I can tell that the next time I work
with Floofie, I'll want to find a way to make the sitting
more exciting and to give Floofie an excuse to move more. |
That's much
more like it. I'm a big fan on defined midsections,
and Floofie's is exceptional. I like how this light highlights
her overall fit figure, and I'm particularly please how
she is framed by the green comfy chair. |
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I live in a
lovely, large Victorian house that's nearly 120 years old
-- the city has grown & has engulfed my house.
My neighbors are tall office & apartment buildings.
The street our front is moderately busy throughout the day.
Here,
I made an exposure just as that red car was passing by.
I could have cropped or edited it out, but I decided not
to. Most of the people passing by probably never give
my house a second look. Some do, just because it's
a lovely house, and it's unusual to see a freestanding house
downtown. None, however, have any idea about what's
going on here in the living room. (I've looked --
it's impossible to see into the house from the street --
there are screens on the windows, and they tend to block
the view -- in addition, this living room is on the second
floor; the angles are just wrong.
Hey you,
in the car! Look up here! You are missing a
lovely nude beauty! But they never do stop & look.
Their loss.
Maybe
I'm just weird, but I do think about stuff like that.
I walk by a building & I imagine unusual activities
going on inside (often involving nude women). If I'm
not doing that, I'm imagining unusual & interesting
factious history for the building. Or I'm wondering
whether I can get access to use the building for a nude
photography session.
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I'd like to
say that I'm applying these artistic effects because I'm
inspired -- Floofie is a painter. But the truth is
that I like these artistic effects, and I think they are
great fun to play around with. Here is a "before &
after" pair. |
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When I engage
a model to pose for me, I like to think up a few different
concepts. That way, I can be prepared, and I can give
the model some advance notice about the kind of things we'd
be working on. I had in mind that Floofie & I
would work primarily with my strobe lights while taking
the occasional advantage of the natural window light.
As it turns out, I enjoyed & appreciated the natural
window light so much that we used it a lot.
But being
stubborn, we crossed to the other side of the living room &
set up the strobes for a few images. I had carried
all that lighting equipment down to the living room -- that
a bit of effort, and darn it all, we were going to use it.
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Floofie's figure
is breathtaking. I'm not a big fan of the light I
crafted today, but this image, with Floofie leaning forward
slightly & creating such interesting shadows, is very
pleasing to me. |
The original &
another artistic media variation of the above image is available
in the Out Takes gallery. The Out Take brush stroke
variation is a sitting favorite.
(The
Out Takes Galleries are available to those who have made
a donation
to the upkeep of this web site. See
this FAQ question for more details.)
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