Wednesday, November 27, 2013

:thankful:

More shots from the last photoshoot. I'm pleased that I keep finding more that came out really good, although there are a few that would be contenders if not for one element that I can't fix, even digitally.



So we have this holiday of sorts tomorrow, I suppose I could try and find things to be thankful for...I'm thankful that I still have a creative pulse, especially after years of almost being at zero, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling. I'm thankful for the two who posed for the last two photoshoots I've been documenting here, that's been a tremendous kickstarter, and hopefully a sign of more to come. I'm thankful that I'm aware that I have so many more ideas in store, I just need to master the time, place and money thing to make it all work. I'm thankful for those who appreciate my art. When I was younger, it didn't matter as much but I find that I need more positive feedback, or just feedback in general, as time goes on. Otherwise these would never see the world beyond my own walls. I'm thankful that you actually read this far!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

:point and shoot:

Further progress on shots from the recent photoshoot. As stated before I may go back and do further digital modifications, but I'm finding that I do that less and less these days. And I see others go in the other direction and it looks, well, a bit quaint to me now. Just because you have 100 filters in Photoshop doesn't mean you have to use them all. I learned that pretty quick.




Recently I also succumbed to the allure of Instagram. I may be a bit of a camera snob and a bit annoyed at people thinking that their phones are equal, but actually it's quite frightening what quality you can get from them these days. Heck, they're even marketing one mostly as a camera that just happens to be a phone as well. And as far as Instagram, I'm trying to remain "arty" with it, as opposed to posting pictures of food and such. Okay, I did do one shot of sangria. At first there was some annoyance at all the filters that can do the work that used to take me hours to obtain, thinking that people don't have to "work" for it anymore. But you know what, why not make it easier?

I'm rocketnumbernine in case you're curious.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

:chrysalis:

Working away at shots from the last photoshoot. I was trying several different settings on the camera, still learning the ins and outs. I found it curious that some of the settings that were recommended for what I was doing seemed to give the shots a blueish cast, which didn't look awful, but not what I was aiming for. That was easily enough corrected, though.


I am pleased that I am doing minimal corrections with each new shoot, but the ultimate aim is to not have to do any at all, unless I'm seriously altering them, and unlike other photos I've done in the past, I find that I don't want to go too crazy here. Although there is still the possibility of further work on them down the line. I don't think I'm done with the pics from the August shoot either.





















While I do do some touch-ups to the models' appearances, I try not to go overboard. Unless the concept calls for it, I don't want to alter reality too much here. Of course I want them to be flattering, but I'm not a fan of what I see a lot of where the model's skin looks as smooth as plastic. It's images like that that give people self-esteem issues, I'm sure, even though it's common knowledge by now how much digital alteration goes on these days.

However we get to the end result, I'm fine with it as long as we enjoy it while we're doing it.


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

:precarious:

This past weekend I succeeded in doing a photoshoot at a location that I had found only a few months ago; usually it can take months or even years for such things to come to fruition in my world, so this is encouraging. The weather even seemed to work in our favor too - it had been rainy all morning but stopped by the time we got there and it wasn't too cold, windy or sunny. In fact the sun didn't come out from behind the clouds until after we left. Spoooky.

To fully capture how these cliffs looked I would've had to either shoot from a boat or use some bizarro lens, but I believe I did my best. I'm still sorting through the shots.

  
 







Despite all the seriousness you see in these shots it was a fun shoot. One can strike dramatic poses overlooking the sea for only so long before you start cracking up.


After all that, in the evening I went to catch the Cinematic Titanic show, which is a live show put on by former cast members of Mystery Science Theater 3000, of which I may be still a tad bit obsessed. This is the farewell tour, alas, as their separate lives make it too difficult for them to get together or tour regularly anymore, but they did it for six years or so, and were thrilled to finally meet their fans. They said they really didn't get much direct feedback back in the day. Except for maybe the letters and artwork people sent in to the show, which they often showed on-air. With that in mind I remembered that I had done a drawing myself, so I managed to unearth it and gave it to Joel himself. He seemed pleased by it.


Mind you, this was done in the proto-internet days, no YouTube or even DVDs, so I drew this from a freeze frame off of a VHS tape.

My experiment in giving away free downloads on deviantArt of my Halloween pics is over, and what was the most downloaded? Can't say I'm surprised:



Let them eat cheesecake, I suppose?