It's been a while

.... since I've last shot little Ella Bella. I finally had time to go through some of my b&w shots and found some I liked. It's sort of refreshing looking at these. I've been shooting so much "digital" where I go for very specific things and everything is so controlled that I sometimes forget the beauty in simplicity. This makes me want to shoot more film again. These were all shot with my TLR camera. I love that camera, I like the weight, the sound.... the uncertainty of the outcome.

Adya

Model: Adya
Hair & Make Up: Contessa Black

I had a blast on Sunday. I worked with two people who I had never met before which always makes me a tad nervous. As it turned out I had nothing to be nervous about. Both Adya and Contessa were extremely easy to work with and we had so much fun playing with the slime. I chose Adya because she has an interesting face. She's 18 but clearly looks much younger. Despite her age, she was one of the best models I had ever worked with. She really got into character and wasn't afraid to exaggerate expressions and poses.

I created the slime Saturday evening, Adam helped me. It is a wonderful recipe which my friend Robert Morris had passed on to me a while back. Supposedly it doesn't dye your skin should you choose to add color...... uhm, an hour later Adam and I were staring at our bright red lobster hands... yeah apparently red dyed slime does dye your skin. Lol. Anyway, besides the skin discoloration the red didn't look good, I didn't like it (anybody want 4 gallons of red slime?). We ended up making another batch. I was a tad worried because I had no clue if Adya was gonna be up for being covered in slime, as it turned out she was delighted.

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