Tag Archives: portraits

Medusa shoot

Posted on by
13

I had some time to work with one of the wigs I got from Target today. I also did some more light experimentation, but those shots are so different from these that I am going to create a separate post for them later.

I don’t have a whole lot of preliminary stuff to say about these, because it’s quite late and I’m tired, so I’ll just show you what I’ve had time to process so far. Between this shoot and the tutu pics from last weekend, I have a ton of stuff still to work with, so I may lay off doing any more shoots for awhile until I can catch up.

For this first one, I decided to change the color of the snake wig to match the backdrop and the dress. That’s not something that always works out, but it was easy to pull off this time. I also have a plastic shower curtain hanging up behind me; the creases in it can’t be steamed out, unfortunately, but it still creates an interesting backdrop, and I managed to pull off some cool stuff with it in my light experimentation shots I’ll share later:

medusa3

Not bad, but I do like the bright green of the wig so I didn’t do this again.

For the second one, I cut up this cheap old Cleopatra hat so I could use the silly-looking snake that adorned it as a tongue. This really didn’t work all that well so I don’t plan on processing any more of these. But the Cleopatra tongue-snake did match the silliness of the wig, so it was worth a shot.

medusa2

I’m torn on this next one. I love the color but at the same time, I think it might work better and as black and white shot. I can’t make up my mind which one is the real winner. The goggles, by the way, were purchased off Amazon a few years ago, and have been used in several shoots. This dress was an eBay vintage find; it was pricey but it’s great for photos:

medusacollage

I pulled out all sorts of old props and doodads to throw on with the wig; one of them was this bellydancing scarf I picked up somewhere. In this shot I’d flung it around a bit and I liked the way it was moving across my face here:

medusa4

The sequined gown I am wearing in most of these shots, by the way, belonged to my mother-in-law. It is full-length, all sequins, weighs a ton, and cannot be pulled over my hips to save my life. As a result, I had the whole thing yanked up like some sort of weird miniskirt during the shoot. Also, it is backless with one of those little hooks at the neck to keep the entire top from falling down due to its weight; there was no way I was going to be able to fasten that hook on my own, so the dress is being held together at the neck by a chip clip. Nothing but the classiest for me – YEP.

More pics to come!

7/21/2013: Photo Day

Posted on by
2

I literally spent all Saturday taking photos; I set up the studio early and then worked in a few hours of shooting intermittently throughout the day, alternating it with doing laundry and other domestic duties. Sounds thrilling I know.

I took about 400 photos and there were several costume changes.  I’m still obsessively working through the results, so I don’t have much to say right now. But I did want to pop by the blog and share a few I’ve processed so far:


I realize the ground is slightly tilted in this photo, but I promise it is perfectly level in real life. 


Love the lighting here.


I always have to make myself look stupid at least once.

Cape Collage

Posted on by
4

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?

Elaine-elaine-benes-32474492-300-400
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:

collage_red2
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:

collage_red
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.