Thursday, March 21, 2013

Izzy

I think that these two images work wonderfully as a diptych. Another thing- typically I can get the front rope work looking just right, but the back often looks half ass. The back is usually where everything ties together- practical, but not very aesthetic. Here the back looks even better than the front!








Sunday, March 17, 2013

Miera

I love the detail on these. I'm constantly striving for more detail, and these are inching close to what I'm looking for. I've always been a BIG fan of freckles, so it's about time they are starting to figure prominently in my work.








Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Lady Lazurus

I love the contrast between the look of vulnerability in the first image, and the come hither look of the second image. Both have the sleepy eyes and open mouth, and she's doing a similar thing to her breasts with her arms- but it can be such a fine line between what an expression and body language portrays. Frankly, I rarely have a problem capturing the come hither look- but getting a look of genuine vulnerability is much harder to capture.








Sunday, March 3, 2013

Adrian Louise


When I first started using the 4th floor as a studio as opposed to the 2nd floor, I was both looking forward to new shooting possibilities and lamenting the loss of others at the same time. I was losing the tall windows that people could stand in, as well as the shower that I built from scratch and loved so much. On the other hand, I was gaining a much larger shooting space, as well as access to the adjacent rooftop. At first I wasn't sure how to best utilize the rooftop. There is a stucco wall which looks pretty nasty because there is a vent that blows exhaust from the restaurant below. At first I really despised this, because it represents everything that I dislike about Chinatown. Someone with some respect for others could have easily blocked and/or diverted the exhaust. Instead it just blasts away directly at my bathroom window (and the surrounding wall), so that the window had to be permanently sealed up a long time ago. Looking at this wall just pissed me off. Actually, I initially tried shooting on that wall- with a flash fill-in because it's in the shade. I didn't like that look. So later I tried shooting with out the flash, and the raw images looked very flat. Thanks to the wonders of Photoshop, I was able to really give the wall some pop- and make the grime look as grimy as it deserved! That awful wall is now one of my favorite places to shoot against.

As a side note, Adrian Louise really dislikes her scar from an abdominal hysterectomy. Of course, I really like it. I love scars- they tell a story, and the more extreme the better. So I remove the scar for her pics, and leave it in for myself.