A Model, A Desert, and a Very Small Mountain or AY MY BACK!

I had one of those "for the sake of the art" moments today.  While shooting out in the desert, in the heat, with a tolerant and amusing model, I bent over to pick something up...a sync cord...or a water bottle...something...and my back went crunch. And then we shot for another 25 minutes or so.

It was a good time. Concept was somewhere in the land of Bear Grylls meets Lawrence of Arabia meets normal guy.

In my crippled and invalid state this afternoon, I decided to fiddle around with an image from the shoot...shits and giggles, as it were.

It's a little bit technicolor, a little fashion editorial, a little blah blah blah.

Without further ado, the photo...as usual, click for a larger view.

Editorial Series no. 1?

Editorial is such a fluid term. In the vaguest explanation I can possibly think of, it means there's a story of some sort going on in a series of images.

I've been working on technique and concept, but not as much editorial, even though editorial is really where I want to end up.

This series is what I would consider an editorial, a simple one, given it's a studio series involving a model and shoes.  But there is progression, there are inferences to be made, yada yada yada.

I won't talk too much, let I lapse into "art student" territory. Which nobody wants, except for professors and art folks. But this isn't an art blog.  This is a photo blog.

I've also chosen to go with a sort of "glazed" look for this series. Why? It felt right.

As always, click for a larger view.

Confessions of a Dirtbag Retoucher Redux - Brandon 2b

More from the same shoot...the two other sets...close-ups of makeup, and a preview of a more editorial set.

Confessions of a Dirtbag Retoucher Redux - Brandon II

In yet another stunning act of procrastination, I'm just now getting to images from a month ago. Shot the same day as the Twiggy series, this is another shoot with Brandon, from the shadowy wall series a bit ago, when everything went to shit, but the two of us decided to go ahead and shoot anyway. This time makeup was go, and a better studio space was go. I have a bunch more to retouch...two more sets...but this is the first set, figured I'd post as I go...which has the benefit of making me look productive.

This shoot was fun...we had some good wardrobe, and it gets better from here.

I've also been working on retouching as well, and I find that this lighting, as well as the beauty dish used on the Matthew-Jonathan shoot, make for a nice file to work with. Enough skin texture to work with, not too much effort going in and destroying excess texture due to overly hard light, but can still be made punchy. Refining that, as always...a balance of hard and soft has to be out there someplace.

As always, click the image for a larger view (in this case, a bit bigger than usual for a collage):

An Experiment

Not sure if this image will even be a select from this set...but somehow I got sucked into retouching it anyway.  Trying new things and such.

This is Monique, she was in town and got in contact with me for a shoot. We had a lovely time, and sometime this year I'll put up a collage of what we accomplished...look for it mid-June.

The experiment (click for a larger view):

I'll elaborate on the experiment involved at a later date, assuming it's successful.

More Twiggy

More photos of Twiggy...a collage representative of the set.  As always, clicky for a larger view.

Twiggy, no, not THAT Twiggy

Here, for your consideration, is a headshot from the most recent edition of the Sunday photoshoots I've been having. I think, just in time to return them to their owner, I tamed the small softboxes I was using.  Hopefully my pre-order number for a nice pretty new Paul C. Buff Einstein 640ws studio light will be called, and I can at long last have a truly fantastic portable lighting setup and the beauty dish I've been coveting for years. Until then, we make do.

This week on the blog we have model Twiggy Bladez, with makeup provided by Trinity.  I'll keep this short and sweet by saying that I really enjoy working with people who do their job well...makeup artists who make skin just shiny enough to look natural, and models who move well.  It's a good thing, to quote St. Martha of the Home.

There will be more from this shoot as it comes to exist, in the next few weeks I imagine. As always, clicky clicky for a larger view.

Confessions of a Dirtbag Retoucher - Matthew-Jonathan Collage

Excuses, excuses, excuses. I've had 'em all the last couple weeks. But I've finally finished retouching images for awesome model Matthew-Jonathan.  Variety is the theme with this set.  We start at fairly classic fashion, clean backdrop, full length, some crazy accessory, one big light, and posing or jumping in the air.  Next we get a little closer, and a little weirder, attempting to at least a teensy bit channel Vogue Italia...I played with the color a little.  And finally, the primal and feathery artsy beauty sort of shot.  All makeup and feather-crafting by the lovely and amazing Ellen Wilkins.

Without further ado, here is the collage of images from this shoot...as always, click for a bigger image:

Charlie

Here are the final images from Charlie's set.  I decided to play with replacing the sky on one of them. I think it works well on that one, but didn't work as well on others. But that's what this is all about, experimenting, seeing what works, and figuring out how to go forward.

And I hafta say it one more time, it was awesome working with Charlie...great model, great guy. Photographers should be so lucky.

Without further ado, the usual collage (click to enlarge):

Charlie, and Matt + Ellen

My shoots seem to bunch up, rather than spreading themselves out.  It's odd like that. A horrifying thought: if things had worked out on every front, I could've ended up with 4 or 5 shoots this week.  Two was enough, I think...especially since as soon as I deliver these sets to the models and makeup artist involved, a new project starts up with a buddy, trying to discover the new "it" lighting.  WAY too many models lined up for that, which is awesome...if any flake, we're covered, if none do, all the better.

The first model is Charlie Quiles. He was in Vegas for a while with some friends, so we set up a shoot via Model Mayhem. We ended up with a desert nomad fashion sort of concept. The location is desert on the way out to Lake Mead, from the north side of town. We made our way down into this great canyon/cravasse/ditch sort of area, and made it out alive, bonus.  Charlie was totally awesome, providing kick-ass props, personality, talent, and a damn good attitude (how many models would've bitched about schlepping through soft clay on location?) and sense of adventure.

Second model, Matthew-Jonathan, the first model I've worked with whom I've met via myspace.  Also working on this shoot was the lovely and delighful makeup artist Ellen Wilkins. We shot at Lillie K's XQuizit PiX studio; she and the studio were awesome in every conceivable way, and I'll definitely be using the studio again and recommending it to anyone who will listen. The makeup and talent were fantastic on this shoot...ideas flowed, and we were all on the same wavelength. Again, torturing a willing model, this time by gluing feathers on him.

Until I finish the sets of Charlie, and Matt + Ellen, here are a few tasters of what we were up to. As usual, I'll do collages when the jobs are all done.