shopping | mareymercy.

I woke up this morning determined to take pics with my new black backdrop, but the truth is I felt inspired by nothing. I’m tired of my costumes, tired of doing my makeup, and tired of posing for portraits and jump shots and whatever else I might pose for. In short, I am tired of myself. Along with learning Photoshop for reals, it is most likely time for me to start working with other models, so I can actualize some of the photographic visions I have in my head that involve locations other than my little studio. I want to be solely behind the camera, and process shots of people other than myself for awhile (by the way, I had some sort of allergy explosion tonight and I am hopped up on Benadryl, so this won’t be the most well-written post I’ve ever created. Sorry).

I have no idea yet how to go about all of this, so this morning I dragged myself to the grocery store to get the week’s shopping done, fully intending to come back home, suit up, and show up for photos even if I was frustrated and bored by the whole prospect. I don’t mind telling you, I was pretty grouchy about all this. I’ve been through it with other art forms as well, but the truth is that trying to create when one is out of inspiration is the pits. But I was determined to keep on shooting.

Then, on the way to grocery store, my best friend called and asked if I wanted to go shopping, and I jumped at the opportunity. She’s my best shopping partner, and I knew going out with her for a day would be way more enjoyable than shooting yet more photos of myself (oh how times have changed, a year ago I would have blown off leaving the house to get more pictures). So, I turned the car around, told my husband I’d get the groceries later, and got dressed to meet her up at the Galleria. Turned out to be the right choice.

We shopped, we ate a fabulous lunch, I picked up some makeup and a few bits and pieces here and there – then on the way out of Nordstrom I spied this, and just had to try it on:

It was a size medium and a bit too big, and it was wicked hot, but it was on sale for $43 and my friend talked me into buying it when I initially decided to put it back. I’m really glad she did, because it is kinda fabulous in a hideous sort of way (and no, there were no birds or other animals harmed during the making of this jacket – it’s fake). The jacket inspired me to take some photos when I got home, but it was about 3:30 before I got the chance to get started, so I quickly slapped on a ton of this white glitter pigment I bought at MAC years ago and barely ever wear, and slopped on a ton of sparkly eye shadow to complete the “look.”

The end result of the makeup was weird, and the shoot was fairly frustrating. As I said, that jacket is ridiculously warm, and it was about 70 degrees today where I live, plus my husband in his middle-agedness has decided the house needs to be perpetually 80 degrees. And from what I could tell through my LCD screen, the shots weren’t coming out so hot anyway, but I played around with lighting to get a decent effect out of all that glitter. When processing, I realized a lot of them were pretty cool, but I tried to stick to just a few to process.

I ended up using a silver reflector and a remote Speedlite off to the side to get a more glittery effect, and the result of that is a lot of shadows I am not used to for portraits, but I forced myself to live with it so I could get some good contrast in the shots.

Usually that much shadow around the eyes would make me crazy, but I decided to go with it when processing. This hasn’t deterred me from my new plan of enlisting friends as models and venturing out of doors for shoots, but at least I got some use out of my new jacket, and some new photos for the week. Plus I got to test out the new black muslin, which was OK, but I found it shows wrinkles more than the white one I used for so long and finally took down (I edited them out the shots by darkening the background). At least I don’t have the white balance issues with this one, where the backdrop turns out a different tint in every shot. Black is pretty much going to be black every time, so that’s reliable. And I do think it gives shots a much more dramatic feel.

I think my next backdrop should be gray, though, to get a happy medium. Black does some pretty harsh things to my lights, although adding silver reflectors, which I don’t normally use, probably messed with me some too.

I wanted to try some black and whites with the makeup, since I thought all that glitter would make a B&W look really intense and grainy. It did, but in general taking out the color made the photo boring anyway. I think that’s because the black background and my reddish-brown wig together so exactly mimicked the colors in the jacket that it appealed to me. But here’s one I decided to go ahead and transform into black and white:

Overall, not bad for shots I didn’t really want to take or enjoy taking. I think this last one is my favorite of the bunch:

I made a trip to Party City Friday to pick up a mask and a fake mustache or two for photoshoots (don’t ask), but I was also thinking it would be a great place to snap iPhone photos. I could not have been more wrong. It was way too practical and organized to generate any sort of interesting photo opportunities, which I should have expected of a place frequented by harried parents trying to plan last-minute festivities for huge groups of exuberant children on the cheap and in a big damn hurry. Except this one, which came out kinda cool:

This being a typical strip center for my area, it had the usual stores – PetSmart, WalMart, Party City, Marshalls, Best Buy, Famous Footwear…you get the idea. So of course, they also had an Ulta, which turned out to be no more photogenic than the PC. They always have way too many salespeople in that store lurking about, forcefully offering assistance and preventing any real picture-taking time. Or maybe they just do that to me. Come to think of it, most of the pics I shot today are quite blurry because I felt I was being watched everywhere I went. It must have been obvious to everyone that I wasn’t hanging around to spend money. Gotta brush up on my stealthy pic-snapping skills. Or maybe just bathe.

Lips on sticks. Someone’s getting way too literal.

I sauntered into the store next door without really looking up at the sign to see what it was – turns out it was a Pier 1, which I admit I thought had gone out of business (I avoid strip centers like this to the utmost of my ability). I knew what it was, however, as soon as I opened the door because of the overpowering Yankee Candle smell and the abundance of throw pillows scattered onto every available surface.

This reminded me of a joke: Why are fish so smart? Because they don’t buy shit like this.

Honestly, I would rather gouge out my eyes with over-priced black lacquer Pier 1 chopsticks than spend time in a shop like this. My interest in decorating anything is so far below zero it’s almost antagonistic. I just don’t understand why most of the items in these places exist, or how and when people decide they need these things. For example, I encountered these party dishes that had every dish’s purpose labeled in chalky cursive script right on the plate. I don’t get who sees this and thinks oh, I just have to have that. It’s kind of insulting, when you think about it, plus you’re buying plates that are going to order you around when really it should work the other way. I’d end up rebelling against those party dishes. I’d use them in all sorts of degrading ways for which they were not intended, just to show them who’s boss. The tray that says “a smattering of olives,” (yes one of them said smattering) would end up being a dustpan, and it would damn well like it, too, or else I’d put it in the dishwasher which I assume is exactly where one is NOT allowed to put such a fussy item, in spite of it’s being a dish and all. And I’d correct the lack of capitalization too.

See what I mean? Antagonistic.

I’d hang this one on my front door, just because

Sorry I don’t have more to say, or if what I said here sounds lame. My carpal tunnel (or whatever it is I have) is killing me tonight – too much time clicking my mouse editing pics – and I can barely type at this point. Did I mention I am turning 44 this month?

Signing off for now, yours always & etc.,

A Chunk of Cheese