Tag 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.

Art Does Not Apologize

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Every artist I know has a clutter problem; we’re not hoarders (a show I’ve never watched, by the way, because somehow I got the impression that at least one kitty corpse is unearthed in the debris each episode, and that ain’t right) but when we come across things we might be able to use someday, we really can’t – actually, we shouldn’t – pass them up. My artist friends and I all have stories about how we try to contain the chaos that is the never-ending collection of “I could totally use this for something” junk that, no matter how hard we try or how many resolutions we make, eventually takes over our lives.

My friends also share stories of significant others who must learn to tolerate the art-cluttered home – one of my favorite stories involves a garage sale and rows of cheap mannequin torsos. I’ll admit this is the one way in which I have an advantage over some of the artists I know: my husband is an artist himself, so he actually contributes to our clutter more than he complains about it. But thinking about those less-than-tolerant SO’s to which the necessity of a gross of mannequin torsos must be justified – and oh man, am I envisioning the amazing uses for mannequin torsos right now – brought to mind the quote that is the title of this post: Mandy Patinkin shouting at Hugh Grant in a scene from Impromptu. I tried to find a little snippet of just the quote itself on YouTube but all I could find was this three-minute version of the entire scene, still totally worth watching.

I have closets stuffed with insane vintage costumes I’ve never worn but have every intention of doing so, someday, while my actual, wearable clothes are crushed up front like David Beckham fans in China. For example, here is the “coat closet” in our hallway:

Four poor coats crushed by the weight of vintage caftans and square dance outfits. Eventually I had to move the petticoats out altogether and move them into my husband’s suit closet – I adore petticoats but they do NOT store well. On the floor you can see several sets of fleece blankets and flannel sheets, which I use as backdrops for my photos.

And by the way, that navy blue sequin coat is a real coat, not a costume, and I do wear it regularly; what I like most about it is I saw a picture of Kelly Clarkson once wearing the same exact coat, AND it’s from Ann Taylor Loft, which cracks me up – go Kelly!

Speaking of flannel sheets:

This is one corner of my office, which is also my “studio,” piled high with sheet sets. Meaning when it’s time to take pictures, I move all the office furniture out of it, pile it up in the family room, and tack a fleece sheet to the wall. Really high-tech stuff, don’t you know. Oh, and the big gray and purple Athleta bag has a massive afro wig stuffed in it that I could not get back into its box once I took it out.

And at one time I did use all those weights, thankyouverymuch. I just haven’t touched them in about a year. But I am going to. Next month. Seriously.

Once the office furniture gets shoved into a corner of the family room, it will stay there anywhere from two days to a week, which is really lovely. This is why all my wigheads are also in the family room, perched on a bookshelf:

Believe it or not, this is quite logical. Since the aesthetic value of the bookshelf is already ruined by the office furniture piled up in front of it, why not just pull out whatever wigs I’m going to wear in the photoshoot and plant them there as well? I can just pop out of the office real quick and yank it off its stand when I’m ready to wear it. It may not be attractive to the visiting family member, but to me at least it’s practical. I do eventually move the furniture back into the office – because when it’s time to use it as an office again, I do need a chair or two – but I see no reason to move the wigheads, since I’m just going to get them back out again a few days later. There’s only so much effort I’m willing to put into maintaining a socially acceptable living space, folks. It is this same attitude that has resulted in a Christmas tree that stays up in our living room all year (and by the way, the necessity of moving furniture from room to room also requires said furniture to be easily transported, i.e. really cheap. Thanks, Fingerhut! I love a sofa that comes in a box and I can carry over my head).

Speaking of practical:

Ridiculous shit like this is just everywhere; massive platform shoes, Dynasty-era ballgowns, and Lolita bows the size of airplane propellers I will never wear in public and, in this case, I might be wise to never wear, period. The sign on the floor in this photo, by the way, says “Life is Short, Buy the Shoes,” which is prophetic considering how short my life would be were I to actually try and walk in these. Weird, random, seemingly useless, and occasionally disturbing surprises abound in our house, like this little pile on another bookshelf:

That’s two more cameras (a Canon PowerShot G12 & an ancient, tiny Canon PowerShot SE-or-SX-something-or-other that I do still use on occasion), some filters, a portable softbox, a curling iron for wig-styling, and…a meat cleaver. See, friends often find random items in CVS or Toys R Us that they (rightly) think I could use in photos and send them to me – that’s how I got the cleaver, which is plastic, by the way. And I think I also spy a bright blue belly dancing scarf used in one shoot and tossed back there when it began to bore me.

Since we’ve mentioned wigs a few times now, here’s how they contribute to the clutter:

Wigs in bins are tucked underneath everything in my house that actually has an underneath. And that’s an industrial-strength fan used to blow hair, scarves, skirts, etc. around in photos – attractive when sitting on the floor like that, I know, but since every available Underneath in our house is occupied by wig bins, there’s nowhere to put it that would keep it out of sight. More wig storage:

Yes, that is the Underneath of my computer desk. The bright pink tag in the left-hand corner, by the way, says “Gothic Lolita Wigs,” which is my favorite online costume wig store; I think they have the best costume wigs by far for the price. Just because a wig is costume, people, does not mean it has to be crappy.  I probably own one of every style they make – in fact, I spy two in this photo that are still in the shipping envelope – damn, I forgot to open them!

Yep, more wigs, and wig-related products. This is what goes on in my bathroom cabinets instead of, well, whatever is supposed to go on in bathroom cabinets. See, I’ve been filling my house with art junk for so long, I don’t even know anymore what else I could possibly put on shelves besides all this mess. This is why I never have room for things like sheets (the ones I will put on our bed, not the flannel ones I hang on the wall) or soap or mouthwash or deodorant, or any of the normal things one puts in bathroom cabinets. Nope, all that stuff just stays out on the counters, so everyone can see my hygiene products.

I took  more pictures of places wigs are stored, but I’m getting bored with that, so let’s move on to my husband’s contribution to home decorating:

Guitar gear stuck in another corner of the family room, directly opposite the wigheads on the bookshelves, in fact. At one time he would lug all that stuff up the stairs to our “guest room” (i.e., guitar and recording equipment storage area), but pretty early on he figured out that was a waste of time considering eventually he’d be lugging it all back down anyway (Remember: Christmas tree up in the living room all year, people).

Lastly I will leave you with a gear placement that might actually be practical, if it ever rained in my office/studio:

I have two more sets of these umbrella stands shoved into our walk-in bar, which is of course not used as a bar but for more, you guessed it, storage. There is also a huge muslin backdrop in there that I’ve never used (but totally will someday), two plastic tubs full of wacky Christmas ornaments I occasionally wear as earrings (in photos only) or stick into a wig (again, photos only), a few extra tripods, some gold and silver reflectors, and two exercise balls that are actually used for exercise (very dusty). On the plus side, we’re not drinkers, so it’s not like this misappropriation of living space has resulted in bottles of booze sitting out on the coffee table.

I don’t know what to say about all this in summary, other than if you come over to visit, you’re going to have to deal with clutter. And as Mandy Patinkin says, art will not apologize for that. But, in spite of what the movie clip may imply, art will NOT harm you! Well, unless you try and wear the shoes.