Shapes

I took this image in LA at the university where my brother teaches. This was one of his lecture rooms. I loved the lines and shapes this room formed, everything so sterile and geometric.

Just spreading the love

My super smart brother just released another book. Don't ask me to explain anything... lol.

Check it if you think you're smart:
Innovating Genesis: Microgenesis and the Constructive Mind in Action

By Dr. Rainer Diriwaechter

There Will Be Blood

I watched "There Will Be Blood" last night and I decided this movie is going to leave a lasting impression on me. I can't say I cared about the story but this movie to me was so rock solid in every other department. The cinematography, lighting and sound were very impressive. People often use composition and especially lighting to set a mood but this movie also heavily relied on sound. I loved how they had this constant almost disturbing violin/cello melody playing quietly in the background, often even while the actors were talking.

The cinematography was just beautiful. There's this one shot where Lewis's fake brother was sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was all in shadow (silhouetted against the background), then for just a minute he lifted his head so that his head was then in the light, he then lowered his head back into shadow again.... brilliant. They did a few things with lighting that had me thinking. For example, there's one scene where Lewis was denouncing his son and they had the son lit in a rather cold blue light. The background lighting was warm and yellowish/orange. I thought this was interesting as I would probably have done the reverse. Since the son was the nice, caring person I think I would have showed him in a warm light. This had me thinking and I'm guessing they did this to show the son from Lewis's perspective...... yes, all speculations but I love analyzing stuff like that.

Jacqueline

Model: Jacqueline
Hair & MakeUp: Alexandra

First off I need to say a big thank you to my co-worker Gareth. He let me borrow all his camera stuff. I've been having some real bad luck with my equipment and this shoot almost didn't happen as I was scrambling on Thursday to find someone who would let me borrow their beloved camera stuff. Let me tell you it wasn't easy and I almost gave up had it not been for Gareth. He was super supportive and even brought me his stuff on Sunday. So without him this whole thing would not have happened. Thank You!

I needed a break from Madame X and really wanted to shoot with someone new. Hence enter Jackie. She was awesome to work with. Very patient completely let me do whatever I wanted and followed direction amazingly well. Alex as always did an awesome job with hair and make up. Alex is not just talented but is simply a joy to have around.

Madame Jane

Image 2 of the on going Madame X series. I figured the second shoot would be a lot easier since I already had done it once. But it turns out the second one was far more challenging. Mainly because now I had the first one to compare it to. While it is not my intention to make all of the images look identical I did want them to feel close. Getting the dress to look similar was the biggest challenge because this dress is a hack, it really is just fabric cleverly draped and pinned together in the back so there was no way we got it to fall the same way. Then I also used a different umbrella with my lighting setup. Last time I used a gold umbrella to reflect the light. I decided to use a silver one this time around because I wanted the skin color to be a bit more cool. This of course changed the whole color tones of the photo. Oh and my fancy lens broke that very morning (do to my clumsiness) and so I had to shoot this with a different lens which also didn't help. Anyway, it's different, nevertheless Jane looks great.

Model: Jane
Hair & Make Up: Alexandra
Wardrobe: Nane

...... back to sculpting for a bit.

Something different....... I'm finally, finally getting back into sculpting again with the lovely Alena. I started this a year ago and stopped because I got too busy with work and my photography stuff. Lately I've been feeling a bit burnt out with photography and thought it was time to get back into sculpting, so Monday nights are dedicated to sculpting again.

My last update was in July, this was right after I baked the head.
http://bunkertales.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

Here's what's new. HAIR! the face looks a tad messy because it's been baked and got some glue stains on it..... I glued the hair armature on and now am working on blocking in the hair. It's obviously still very rough, my first pass. I have to say, doing the hair is far more difficult then I thought it would be and I can't believe how much clay I've been using. Monday I'm going to add the weights to the inside of the base because the poor girl is slowly tumbling over.

Madame Nikki

This is the first photograph of a series called "Madame X" (obviously) that I'm working on. This shoot only worked out so well because of the amazing help I had. This was a team effort and I can't thank the people involved enough.

Model: Nikki
Hair & Make Up: Alexandra
Wardrobe: Nane