Lights, Camera, and....

 

 Progress!!!!

My background stand, two backgrounds, three lights and two umbrella-style reflectors came in on Friday. No longer will I be a slave to the sun for decent light!

I've been meaning to buy lights for awhile but never really had much incentive... until last week. I got a text asking if I would be interested in taking new pictures for a podcast that I will keep unnamed until it's more official. I said of course and then ask when it might be. He said he wasn't sure at the moment. As far as I know, it could be next week or a month from now or maybe it won't happen after all. But I want to be prepared and hope for the best.

I kind of hope it's a few weeks away, or even a month. This way I have time to mess around with the lights and figure out what works best.

More updates to come.

Ambitions

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a New Year's resolution.

I really need to kick it into gear when it comes to photography, so I'm going to try to do a project every month. Hopefully I can continue this for many years, not just one.

At this very moment, I'm designing the layout for a magazine page (tomorrow I'll take the pictures.) I'm very excited as well as very nervous about this project. I've never done anything this big before. So much pressure, but so much reward.

Next month I'm finally going to buy a good camera from my friend. Depending if top secret people message me back, I'll be able to start either the project I'm going to do based off Eugene Richards or Larry Sultan. If top secret people don't message me back, I'll either do the collaboration I have lined up or do a project with cyanotype and other alternative processes.

That's basically it; I just wanted to update you guys on what was going on. Until next time.

HOW TO: Cyanotype

I'm going to use cyanotype to make t-shirts for my family reunion that's coming up.

I was introduced to cyanotype about a year ago and used it on sketch paper. It is recommended that you only used paper which is at least 40 lb because of the soaking process. The paper I used was 65 lb and that worked really well. If you do use fabric, make sure it's 100% cotton. If it's spandex or something like that, the chemical might not be absorbed and it will not work that well.

Also, since I used a stencil instead of a negative, I was able to leave it in the sun unattended. If you use a negative, then you'll have to keep an eye on it as well as use a contact printer.


How To video here: http://youtu.be/pKt3PnEvNlE

OMG, NAKED PEOPLE

I was clicking around on deviantART and ended up on a photo of a woman's butt. After favoriting it, I noticed two similar comments. First being "I don't see how butts count as art..." and the second one being "This website is for art only, NOT RAUNCHY SEXUAL CRAP!!" I replied to both comments saying that Robert Mapplethorpe is known for photographing nude men, Larry Sultan had a series of photographs taken on porn sets, and Helmut Newton currently has an exhibition at the Annenberg Space For Photography featuring photographs from his book Big Nudes.

But these type of comments got me thinking:
Why is it more socially accepted that the nude figure is only art if it is done by hand?

There are many famous paintings and sculptors of the nude figure and (most) people consider those art, yet if someone took a picture of someone in the same pose, (some of) those same people will view it as porn and smut. This is bullshit. It still takes a lot of work to take a good photo, regardless of what it's of. There's lighting to consider and perfect, composition, developing whether it's film or via photoshop, and so much more.


So remember: photography IS art

photo credit: Helmut Newton

Photography Goal

Lately people have been asking what type of photography do I want to do. On a more professional level, the main thing I've done is take pictures at live events. Though fun, it is also a bit nerve racking. A lot of things are out of control and I do not want to disappoint the people who hire me. Through various classes, I've learned about different forms, techniques, and methods of photography and find most of them fascinating. I'm still trying to figure out what type of photography I want to make a living out of, but there is one thing I know for sure: I must do something on/about the LGBT community.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the LGBT community. Some people think all gay men are super flamboyant, all lesbians are really butch, that there is no such thing as bisexuality, and that all transgendered people are prostitutes. These stereotypes are not only wrong, but really harmful. They are giving homophobic assholes an excuse to keep gay marriage illegal. We have come a long way since the Stonewall riots, but there is still a good ways to go until we are equal.

I want to show all the sides of this wonderful community to the world. My end goal is to publish a book, but two mini and more realistic goals are to post a documentary on YouTube and later have an art show dedicated to this cause.

Diptych

 
My class assignment was to create a pair of images (diptych) to convey a meaning for the viewer that exists only when the two images are placed together.

The first image is of my friend messing around with a bb gun. The second image is of my cousin as his hooker persona Miss Baby. Locations are no where near each other and are actually about a month apart. For this assignment, we were allowed to use pictures we've already taken so I looked though everything I took in raw. I kind of felt bad I never used the ones I took of my friend so I looked for something that worked well with it. The more or less meaning I was going for is kind of obvious, but I'll leave the exact details up to your imagination.