(no subject)
Funny thing, guess I'll share this with some of my viewers as it gives a bit of an insight to my photography. I did some semi-artistic-nudes of myself the other day. Sort of self portrait stuff but not to show anyone, after all, we are talking about a 40 year old body here. He! There were a number of points that eventually forced me to do this.
The first point I needed to experiment with was how demanding of a photographer I am. At first I did a few, then I said "that's all wrong, if I were really the photographer I would not let this poor model look so stupid on camera”. I started getting very demanding, "head up", "relax your eyes", "Look towards the light", “Relax your eyes”, “Didn’t I just tell you to relax your eyes”, “Are you finishing the rest of that wine”... and on and on. And you know what? I'm not such a bad photographer to model for. Ha! I'm very patient, relaxed, and pass out the wine at liberty; I like to think that these are the most important qualities - especially the last one.
The other thing I wanted to experiment with was poses for nude males (semi-nude that is). It's quite complicated when all I do is stare, drool, think, fantasize, drool, pant, and think about women every nanosecond of the day, think about it! All I could apply here was... ummm, composition but I wasn't looking into the camera! So blind as a bat I did what any good photographer like myself would do, I cheated. Uhem, yes, did I forget to mention that quality? So I thought back on a few male poses I saw, in Photo, and other fashion mags. What came to mind was one of Sylvester Stalone by Avedon, wonderful pose. Now the point wasn’t really to copy it, besides I’m way too lazy to scan the entire pile of Photo mags, The image brought about a certain message or feeling, and no I don’t have those kinds of feeling for good old Rocky, or any male for that matter. I think that’s what makes photographing people so interesting; every little gesture they have or give creates a whole, mixed or pure in theme. You can scrutinize some for artificials’, naturals, unforeseens’, and just plain errors that lead to serendipity. I like to think that this quality to delve into an image is what makes a good photographer, more so the fine balance of letting go but keeping certain items under his/her control. It’s not just the simple “different angle” that so many keep saying and preaching. I know it’s something I seem to do naturally, and I know when I preach a bunch of rules that I picked up from here and there it just gives for a bad shoot. It’s just a synergy, after all the picture isn’t the photographers, it’s all those that were involved, take them all away and you are left with nothing… or maybe just a backdrop. Both model and photographer are the picture. When I refer to a self portrait, I see it as a best attempt of split personality; I’m the model, now I’m the photographer…
And to keep in mind that we are having fun here, as well as demonstrate synergy, here is the pic of the day!
This lollypop girl was her idea... the happy monkey was mine. He! He!
Later,
Andrew.
The first point I needed to experiment with was how demanding of a photographer I am. At first I did a few, then I said "that's all wrong, if I were really the photographer I would not let this poor model look so stupid on camera”. I started getting very demanding, "head up", "relax your eyes", "Look towards the light", “Relax your eyes”, “Didn’t I just tell you to relax your eyes”, “Are you finishing the rest of that wine”... and on and on. And you know what? I'm not such a bad photographer to model for. Ha! I'm very patient, relaxed, and pass out the wine at liberty; I like to think that these are the most important qualities - especially the last one.
The other thing I wanted to experiment with was poses for nude males (semi-nude that is). It's quite complicated when all I do is stare, drool, think, fantasize, drool, pant, and think about women every nanosecond of the day, think about it! All I could apply here was... ummm, composition but I wasn't looking into the camera! So blind as a bat I did what any good photographer like myself would do, I cheated. Uhem, yes, did I forget to mention that quality? So I thought back on a few male poses I saw, in Photo, and other fashion mags. What came to mind was one of Sylvester Stalone by Avedon, wonderful pose. Now the point wasn’t really to copy it, besides I’m way too lazy to scan the entire pile of Photo mags, The image brought about a certain message or feeling, and no I don’t have those kinds of feeling for good old Rocky, or any male for that matter. I think that’s what makes photographing people so interesting; every little gesture they have or give creates a whole, mixed or pure in theme. You can scrutinize some for artificials’, naturals, unforeseens’, and just plain errors that lead to serendipity. I like to think that this quality to delve into an image is what makes a good photographer, more so the fine balance of letting go but keeping certain items under his/her control. It’s not just the simple “different angle” that so many keep saying and preaching. I know it’s something I seem to do naturally, and I know when I preach a bunch of rules that I picked up from here and there it just gives for a bad shoot. It’s just a synergy, after all the picture isn’t the photographers, it’s all those that were involved, take them all away and you are left with nothing… or maybe just a backdrop. Both model and photographer are the picture. When I refer to a self portrait, I see it as a best attempt of split personality; I’m the model, now I’m the photographer…
And to keep in mind that we are having fun here, as well as demonstrate synergy, here is the pic of the day!
This lollypop girl was her idea... the happy monkey was mine. He! He!
Later,
Andrew.