Tag: blackandwhite

Wading Through the Work

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It’s been harder to get back into editing than I’d expected. Mostly I think that comes from the number of photos to work through. It’s easy to sit down in front of my computer planning to edit, but feel overwhelmed by the amount of work waiting. I’ve finally started “faking” myself out by working through only smaller sets at a time. Focus on smaller tasks, and it’s helping. It will still probably be months before I get through everything, but I do finally feel like I’m making progress.

Winter is normally a slower time for work. Fewer people travel in the winter whether models traveling through the area for work or vacation. It’s also easier to talk yourself out of a quick trip when it’s barely above freezing and dark before 6 PM. This January was unusually quiet thanks to two rounds of snow interrupting the shoots that I had planned. Not adding things to the queue right now does help make it easier to catch up.

An example of my recent progress, a photo of Kylie Kohl from back in June.

Kylie Kohl

Some Film with Melissa Troutt

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A few years ago I bought a Canon AE1 film camera at a flea market. I’d actually purchased it for the lenses with the camera, and didn’t really see much need for the camera itself. I used it as a prop in a few shoot, but the camera needed some work to be usable for its real purpose.

Melissa Troutt Film

Truthfully I never got around to that because I just didn’t have any interest in film at the time. Over the course of this year I did though decide I was interested in at least trying some work in film, and remembered the camera. With a little work it was ready to go. After a couple of misfires the first time I tried to use it in a shoot, I had better luck the second attempt with Melissa last month.

Melissa Troutt Film

The change of waiting weeks for developed film in this case was interesting compared to the normal instant feedback that digital makes the norm. There were several photos that I just missed an exposure level or something that in a digital format would easily have been corrected. I’m mostly happy with the results though, and I’ve done a couple other shoots including some film since then that will come later. Film interests me right now, and I think will be part of my equipment list for at least the near future.

Photo May: May 1a – An Early Image

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So the start of my month of photos came a day early. Actually the Tumblr version of the May 1 post went up a day early due to a bug in the tool that sends my posts here to Tumblr. Hopefully this one goes out as it should. So bonus photo to actually show on May 1.

Going way back for today’s image, early 2009. The model is Melody and she travelled through on her way to Nashville from somewhere in North Carolina, but I honestly don’t remember much else about the shoot. My main focus of the shoot was a concept inspired by a music video I’d seen a few days before. Here though is a more art nude styled image. I like the pose here, but wince a bit looking at my lighting and a lot at that background.

Melody

Candles and Bree

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Working outside takes a bit of luck. The weather from November through February rarely allows outdoor work. Even as late as May an unusually cool snap can bring cancel or bring a planned shoot to an early conclusion. So it’s a bit of a surprise that I’ve worked with Bree Addams a few times, and we’ve been able to shoot outdoors each time. It was a near thing last time thanks to threatening rain, but the shoot worked out very nicely. This time though we scheduled to work inside for the first time.

We started working with candles as the sole light source. I used candles in one of my first nude shoots, and have always liked the combination of the relatively dim and unsteady light with the nude form. The light is very distinct from any other light source and can give some interesting effects. Having all the light on the floor around Bree lets the dark areas dominate the image, especially toward the top of each photo. I like the way it brings focus to her and the different perspective of being lit from below instead of above.

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I used a textured floor to give something else for the candle light to play on. The flooring actually comes from foam core that was dimpled by stilettos in a shoot several years ago. I’ve found it handy for just these types of situations and keep it around. I like how these came out and the results inspired me to try some color variations in a shoot I’ll be posting images from soon. Also did some more traditional art nude work that day, but those will come later.

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See more from the shoot.

Work with Leigh Anti

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I’ve just come back from a wonderful trip to Arizona. I’ve a lot of photos form the trip to process, both some landscape work along with some excellent models I had the chance to work with out there. Look for those coming in the next weeks.

Today though, a couple of nice photo from my recent shoot with Leigh Anti.

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Leigh-Anti-2013-10-10-10

Noir with Shelby J

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Had the chance to work with Shelby back in April. We did a number of styles of work, but my favorites from the shoot came from some later images. Both are interestingly implied nudes where Shelby is only lit by a single light that’s been tightened down to a small circle of light. The first is the noir styled image. I intentionally left the light visible here as I like the effect of it almost as a camera at the side and I think gives the overall image a bit more interesting feel that ties in with her expression. I’d consider this an implied shot even though her nipple is just visible under one arm.

Shelby 1

From just a bit later comes another image. This one I leave color thought the lighting is similar, in this case reduced to a bright strip with barn doors on the strobe. I like the intense look from Shelby off the camera here. Again an implied shot.

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Overall a nice shoot and there are some other photos I’ll come back and share at a later time.