Category Archives: Photography

Cape Collage

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What is honestly on my mind tonight is that I’m thinking about getting a perm. So I’m posting a set collage because I really don’t want to be that person who writes an entire post about getting a perm. I’ll save that post for after I do it and need to unburden myself of the regret and anguish I will most certainly feel when the damage is done (but seriously, I am reading that “the perm is back” and of course it’s “not your grandmother’s/mother’s/other-women-my-age perm”). Secretly I have always wanted to look like Elaine Benes from Seinfeld, and really, who doesn’t?

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In other news, OMG I just found my Halloween costume for this year

Anyway, since I’ve got nothing else rattling around inside my head tonight, I thought I’d access the pixlr collage app again and share one of my favorite sets. But after making that collage, I remembered that I did a previous set using this same Red Riding Hood cape I got from the grocery store’s Halloween section for $10. I’d totally forgotten about that first shoot until writing this post tonight, so I dug out my external drive and MAN do I have a shit-ton of photos. Sadly, all the older ones are poor quality because when I first started editing I didn’t understand about shooting in RAW and not saving a file to a .jpeg until absolutely finished with it; I would literally open and save and close and open a file as many as 15 times, reducing quality every time. Still the creativity was there, and I’m struck by how much cool stuff I’ve been able to do with such a cheap, simple prop:

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Original red cape shoot, taken sometime during the summer of 2011

Notice that all these are portraits and no wide shots? That’s because with my old camera and its kit lens I couldn’t get decent photos of my entire body that had any sort of clarity. All I did for the first year of shooting was portraits because of that. As a result I was often only in costume from the waist up, and below that I had on my sweatpants and houseshoes.

Here’s the set I was originally thinking of posting; it’s from October of 2012:

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I’ve learned a few things since that first set. And yeah, one of those shots isn’t red. Screwed up the collage but looks better that way as a standalone photo.

In looking over my sets from this past October, I see at least three that stand out as favorites. Since that time, my costumes have gotten more elaborate, and I’ve come to spend more time on my makeup as well; I’m wondering if my creativity has been stifled by some of that rather superficial focus. Perhaps I’ve come to think too much of the costumery and not enough of the photography? Not sure. I did notice in my last shoot, with a costume on that was easier to move around in than my usual,  I had a lot more interesting movement and jump shots than I’ve been getting lately. So maybe there’s something to that. Not that my later stuff isn’t worthwhile, or that there isn’t room to focus on the fashion or costume aspect of what I like to do. But I’ve come to believe I have to always have on an elaborate costume and drag makeup, and that’s really not the case. It certainly takes loads more time to prepare for a shoot with all of that (the makeup takes me at least an hour since I’m not very skilled) and often by the time I’m ready to actually take the photos some of enthusiasm and energy has waned. So maybe some less elaborate costumes are in my future. It’s hot outside right now, which makes my studio hot also, so too much makeup or fabric is hard to tolerate anyway.

Now, off to look at Google images of perms. I’m sure mine will make for fascinating photos.

 

7/13/2013: Errands!

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If that title doesn’t draw you in I don’t know what will.

After yesterday’s post about balance, Friday I decided to take care of some items on that lengthy to-do list I’ve got going. I went to get my car inspected since it was due last month, but there wasn’t one photo opportunity in that auto shop that I could find. However, I got more photo opportunities at the Firestone dealer I had to visit when my car failed inspection due to four worn-out tires (I knew they were bad, but I didn’t think they were fail-car-inspection bad). This place provided a few interesting shots (very few), so I thought I’d share them.

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They said I needed four, but I’m a rebel so I only got three

This Firestone dealer is in a little old building off of what at one time was a small-town main drag, so it’s all homey and nice, with French doors everywhere, and a wraparound porch with rocking chairs. Of course I didn’t take any photos of that stuff, because I was too busy being fascinated by the bathroom, which was the HUGEST auto shop waiting room bathroom I have ever seen. I tried to get some pics that would accurately represent its scale, but they kinda don’t and they’re boring so I’m not going to post those. But I did get this cool pic of its glass brick window; I love how the light shone through just enough to create that contrast with the wall.:

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Those fragrance sticks had no scent left whatsoever. Still, pretty window.

And I liked the pics I took of the overhead fixture in there too – the tungsten light gave the shot a nice warm glow, and I didn’t have to edit it to get this tone (although I did edit a bit, I didn’t change the tone of original):

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I know it’s just a light fixture, but in my defense, tires are expensive so my mind was elsewhere

That’s all I got really. Except that I did also listen to a few sessions of a lecture series on treating anxiety that I signed up for back in June and never accessed. Hopefully I learned something I can use tomorrow when I pick up my car and get the bill.

Outtake Awkwardness

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As I’ve mentioned before, it cracks me up a little when people make comments about how graceful or fit I must be to create some of the photos I do. I can assure you that is not the case. I can also assure you that for every near-perfect capture of my body in motion, there are at least two that capture my body in a state of calamity. I’ve thought for awhile that I’d like to share some of those photos; I just never had time to process any until today.

I actually was a little disappointed looking through my sets for awkward poses, as there weren’t nearly as many truly amusing ones as I thought there would be. Not that there weren’t a lot of bad shots (I usually take around 300 per shoot), but most of them were too typical to  be useful to me – stuff like blinking when the shutter clicks, for example. I wanted to find some flops that were particularly interesting, and those were hard to come by. Most of them were just boring, but I did manage to scare up a few before I had to go do laundry or whatever it was that took me away from the project. I’m going to keep looking and share more later if possible.

This first one did actually make me laugh out loud, though:

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I don’t even know what I was trying to do here.

This next one happens a lot – a great shot ruined by an awful face. Always gotta watch out for those facial expressions:


Nice grimace.

This is just one example of a poorly timed shot, where the shutter caught me landing rather than leaping. I have so many of these it was hard to pick one; I thought this shot looked particularly uncoordinated so I went with it.


Pretty ungraceful.

This next one comes courtesy of the synthetic wig hair that blew into my eye right before the shot.

If you’ve never had wig hair in your eye, you really should experience it. Just don’t take a picture when it happens.

This is an example of the problems inherent in trying to actually do what you want the photo to show you doing. When I take a picture that appears to show me spinning, I am not spinning in actuality. What I do is set my  pose to how I want it to appear in the shot, then just reach down and spin my skirt and toss my hair as the shutter goes off. If I try to actually spin, the end result is something like this:


It looks as if I am storming off my own set.

And here’s how a shoot progresses if you don’t remember to comb your wig every few shots:


Be kind to your wigs, kids.