So it’s been over half a year since my last post. In addition to questioning the continued output of the blog, much of life has gotten in the way of posting. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting some of the photographic work I’ve done in the interim time. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to attend to my writing as much as I’ve wished. I still have the fully plotted novel I’m working on sitting on a shelf awaiting completion. Of the many essays I’ve wanted to research and write, I’ve not begun a single one.
While my previous goal was to use this blog as a means of conversation, I find my drive to electronically publicize my work has diminished since undergraduate education. I value interacting with people more than electronics. Just processing photographs puts me in front of a computer for more hours than I’d prefer. But it appears that generating traffic to a blog site requires a higher level of dedication, both in posting and networking.
Now that I’m reaching the limits of allowed photographs on MM and OMP, I’ve decided to begin using the images posted here as an extension to show more from shoots I participate in. Today’s images come from a shoot done last summer.
Today’s images are of a model named Antonita(MM#1282645). At the time I worked with her, she was still relatively new and wanted practice in developing facial expression variety. I’ve noticed newer models tend to have similar difficulties with facial expression variety as well as knowing what to do with their arms & hands. As a photographer I’m often stymied as to how to deal with those issues when they come up in a shoot. I can tell when something looks bad—or when a model is likely to dislike an image—but explaining what to do is much more difficult. It is much more simpler to explain slight adjustments than wholesale instruction on how to get an exact pose. This is why I now always have examples available for a model to look at when I set up shoots. Modeling is a physical activity as well as an art. Descriptives without images would be akin to attempting to describe the paintings in the Sistine Chapel without the listener having ever seen any of them: much is lost.
Antonita worked hard at our shoot. In addition to the headshots we shot with a mirror up so she could view herself, we worked through some fashion, glamour, and artistic photography. It took her some time before she was confident enough to try the artistic shots, some of which were topless. Despite the fact that some of the silhouette images were her best poses and shots of the day, Antonita decided she wanted to pursue a different direction in her modeling and hasn’t used those images in her portfolio.
What would be nice is to be able to find another model willing to shoot them with me now that I’m much better at the process. My skills in shaping light and shadow are ones that improve the more opportunities I have to use them. I now also have better equipment which both gives me greater control over what occurs before the lens, and allows more precise post work.
Coming up in the next post… Group shootouts: Skill builders, Networking meccas, or Time wasters?
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