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“The Recital” is your highest scoring image on DPC, a fairly recent image. Were you surprised by how well this image was received? How did you come up with the soft pastel colours? How hard was it to get the composition right?
"The Recital”
I was very surprised. I entered it expecting it to bomb. The dresses were already a pastel pink. I simply worked to soften and lighten the background. The diffuse glow was set on a very soft shade of pink... and I think this affected the overall image as well. The composition... no work involved... simply cropped out the excess in post processing. The angle of the image is how it was shot. I tend to rotate the camera at all angles when I'm shooting. I think it’s a subliminal awareness of the background and lines. My attention is always focused on the subject and trying to capture an emotion or motion... as well as fit everything into the frame... any background awareness is unconscious to some degree. Composition is somehow subconscious.
My personal favourite of all your images is “Natural Beauty”. A fantastic portrait that really displays a lot of qualities that many people strive for in portrait photography. Lighting, expression, composition and colours are all wonderful. Can you take us through this image, and how you achieved this result?
"Natural Beauty”
I had just received my new soft box light that I loath so well. I told my daughter to change into something and pose for me. She argued, ran away and hid! I finally talked her into wearing an old ballet costume and managed to get her to pose for about 8 frames. I adjusted colors and upped the blues to emphasize her blue eyes. The light was simply... soft... and softened her skin nicely.
Many of your images are nude. Can you explain how you achieve such somber, erotic and dramatic images, and propel them above day-to-day nudity.
Those who know me would say... because I am somber, erotic and dramatic. :) Nudes are my favorite form of playing with photography. It is my attempt at expressing levels of myself that are not frequently shared or seen. A chance to touch on idealism about the way things could be. I am in awe of light and shadow and the way it plays against the human form. I experiment with light and try to break boundaries and rules, trying to find something new. But then... I also do this within myself... always trying to find something new. A new perspective, a new experience, a new thought... and this is the line where photography becomes a direct reflection of myself. It is my need to express and release the known and unknown of my own existence. And also, to explore myself.
You originally won a ribbon for “Nico”. In an explanation you said you never actually thought it would be in the top 3. How did you feel when your ribbon got taken away? Who is the model? Can you explain the setup for this portrait?
"Nico”
In a small sense, it was quite the bummer to lose a red ribbon... I had never achieved such a thing before. Although, I never expected it to do so well and had long ago quit caring of scores... so this really didn't bother me.
Nico is a young model who came to work with me on a few nudes and head shots... or whatever I felt like doing. It was my first time to meet her and after we started talking, I learned that she was only 18. Suddenly I had no interest in doing nudes and instead had a very short session of portrait work, figuring it might offer her a few headshots for her portfolio. I tried very hard not to infuse her images with sensuality... although, I think I failed at this. She was not a very experienced model and was really rather stiff... but I think the lighting and angle made up for it. And yes... I did put that collar around her neck... I wanted to add a little edginess to the pictures. In that image, she was standing but leaning forward with her hands resting on a short black bench. The lighting was a photo flood to one side... and a boom for hair light.
Where did you get the inspiration for “Butterfly”? Who is the model? how hard was the post editing job on this?
"Butterfly”
I’ve got a friend who creates fairy’s out of images of nude women. His work inspired me to try it myself. I used the butterfly wings of a DPC entry ;). I can't remember which one... there are so many. And so many great ones for doing something like this! The model is a friend of mine. She is also a stripper and a physicist and the first woman I photographed nude. I had been introduced to her for the first time when she bared all in a french quarter courtyard in the cold, drizzly, January rain... in front of the neighbors, I might add. Needless to say, she is very free with her body. She is also the model in “the red shoe diaries” and “silenced”.
The most difficult part of processing was cutting away the wings from the original image... very time consuming. After that, it was a simple act of layering, blending and shading. I enjoy playing with little experiments like that, but find I rarely have the time for it anymore.
What has been the hardest image to photograph, out of all of your entries on DPC? Why?
"Death”
I don’t see any image as hard to photograph. “Death” was the most time consuming to set up. It involved buying a $5 used nightgown from a thrift store... one that I feared someone may I have died in. I then drove to the graveyard wearing this nightgown and nothing underneath, walked barefoot through the dead people dirt and found a tomb to lie upon... set the camera on a tripod and hit the timer... quickly laid down, making sure my hair was hanging, crossed my arms over my chest and mimicked death. I think I scared the surrounding neighbors enough that they didnt bother me. That particular cemetery is not in the most savory of neighborhoods, but it is generally free of any security patrol to stop me from my artistic endeavors.
Truthfully, I rather freaked myself out later that evening when processing the image. I turned my skin a deathly shade and suddenly saw my own death... spooky. That night I had horrible nightmares and figured it to be my punishment from the graves.
Please go through the composition of “Illuminant Shroud”
"Illuminant Shroud”
This is very simple. The challenge was negative space... so I tried to crop myself into a portion of the frame that would create negative space around me.
“The Dentist” is a great shot, with classic humour. I have to ask, have you used that fake needle to scare any patients? I think the lighting is superb, with that old 50's style movie poster look. Did you use the light that is normally used by the dentist?
"The Dentist”
Yes, the only lighting of this shot was the use of dental chair overhead lights. That room had three lights and I was able to aim each one in a different location. We did indeed play with the needle to scare the patients... but they were entertained enough just watching us as we quickly tried to make the shot in the middle of clinical time with an office full of patients. Our Doctor is very forgiving sometimes. :). We are known to be a bit silly at the work place.
“The Stowaway” gives a unique sense of isolation that I think everyone can relate to at some point. How did you come up with this unique idea? Where was it shot? Who was your model?
"The Stowaway”
The model in this is my daughter. I have an old family trunk dating back to the early 1900's. It is filled with the clothing, shoes, bank statements and miscellaneous items from that time. I pulled everything out of the trunk, moved it onto my backdrop and dressed my daughter up in some of the old clothes. This might be one of the last shoots where she was actually willing to pose for me. :)
I think your most underrated shot is “Almost Androgynous”. Tell us how you came up with this piece, and what you think about it personally.
"Almost Androgynous”
Interesting that you should mention this shot. As I discussed earlier, my intention with nude photography is to break a few boundaries of expectation... experiment with lighting... and even cast a particular mood. Looking back, the processing of this image could certainly be improved, but I still like the lighting and the pose. Men are by far more difficult to shoot than women... somehow. It is easy to understand what positions will most flatter a woman’s body. Men are different... men are challenging. This particular man did have an unusual softness about him. I had other much more traditional black and white images of him... things that would have been more socially seen as sexy or a nice nude... but I chose to experiment... to try something different. This is the one image where scoring really affected me. With my love of nude photography, the negative comments on this were very discouraging and made me question myself. This was the turning point in learning to never have an emotional connection to an image that I enter. And that If i do have a connection it, go into the challenge expecting it to be misunderstood. I have since gotten better at the lighting coming from both sides and have far improved on the concept. I have never studied lighting, never read a book on it, never watched for the lighting techniques in someone else’s work. I wanted to discover light on my own... which is what I am still doing. I never played with studio lighting until about 11/2 years ago. Everything I’ve learned has been through experimentation, trial and error. Honestly, I still do not know what I am doing with light... I continue to play during shoots until it finally works for me. I have a method now for portrait lighting, but the nudes are still a learning process. I guess this is why I have such a light monster with tangled cords in my home studio... everything gets played with at some point during the shoot. And truthfully, I never want to find that moment when I have found a method that works without ever experimenting with something new. This is why I continue to play... why I refuse to always do the obvious.
“The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test” is a great piece. Please share how you set the lighting up for this shot.
"The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test”
The light on this was cast by a simple party style light projecting machine. It has a disc in it that heats up a liquid as it spins... creating a strange cast of continually moving and shifting psychedelic patterns. It was actually difficult to shoot this... as I had to wait and wait for the light circles to pass over her face properly before getting the shot. And of course with shutter lag time... who knew what the end result would look like.
If you would like to explain any more of your images in more depth, please feel free.
"Once Upon a Time”
It might be interesting to note the conditions involving “Once Upon a Time”. I was shooting a wedding in the rain, everyone was drunk... including myself. I ducked into a small area of a building to change my lens then looked up to find such a wonderful old stairwell... and what a perfect opportunity to try out my new fisheye. The camera was handheld at 1/4 shutter... not bad for being a bit tipsy... and perhaps such inebriation helped my vision. :) |
