I'd like to point y'all over to Crista Meola's blog, where she has a fantastic interview with Katherine Roll, a curvy model who has overcome a lot of societal bias in her career due to her size and the perception of beauty in America. Her confidence and celebration of her body just the way it is is quite inspiring!
http://christameola.com/blog/boudoir/a-curvy-conversation
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Lessons learned... and rocked!
Super jazzed about last weekend's boudoir shoot with the lovely Miss Annie out east, and the rest of the weekend cruising the Palouse looking for ghost towns and abandoned buildings. I've been busily editing photos, and reflecting on the whole experience, and as I mentioned in my last post, trying to focus on the things I did right rather than dwell on what could have gone better. Learn from newbie mistakes and move on to better things! That's today's take-away.
Before I get to a sampling of my favorite shots from the session, I'll tease you a little longer by discussing the things I learned, in a more-or-less chronological order.
1) Google Maps will get you reasonably close to your destination, but you should never implicitly trust it to find you the quickest or most direct route... several times, I followed "Go south on I-195 for four miles, turn right on side road X. After six miles, turn left on road Y, 3.7 miles. Slight right, becomes road z, 10 miles and merge onto I-195 south." Wait a minute.... didn't... wait.. what?
1.5) By the way, very, very, rarely, Google Maps will try to kill you. If it's springtime, and Google Maps insists you take an unimproved county road right after a rainfall, JUST. SAY. NO. Especially if you're driving a 2000 Saturn SC3 coupe. You will not make it to your next stop on time. Just saying.
2) When you choose to do something a little sketchy, say like advertise on Craigslist asking for boudoir photo volunteers and offering no session fee and five free prints in exchange for their time, you'll probably get weirdos (there are a lot of them out there) and more likely no responses at all. If you happen to post your ad on April 1, you'll get even fewer responses as you might like. Didn't even think of that until Annie pointed it out to me and said she almost didn't respond to my ad. Oops.
3) During any sort of model shoot, your model is obviously the prime focus of any shot, but the background is also important; if there's a lot of other stuff in the background, it can distract a viewer from the star of the show. So if you're using backdrops to cover up the background, make sure the backdrops actually extend out to fill the frame. Took a lot of shots where you can see the stands holding up the backdrop, or it only covered one side of the frame because of the angle I was shooting from (the shoot was in her home, so I was constrained by the size and geometry of the rooms we were in). Yes, with some effort, you can Photoshop out distracting elements, but if you don't HAVE to, it can save you hours of work (and if you don't like having to paint in a background at the pixel level, getting it to show through between individual hairs is a nightmare, especially if you don't do photo retouching regularly)
4) It's best to work with makeup artists and stylists that you already know, rather than calling one up out of the blue. Asking a complete stranger to show up at a client's house (which, being a split-level rental just off of the U. of Idaho campus, was two potted plants and a working doorbell away from being eligible for my abandoned houses shoot the next day) seems kind of sketchy. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Heather from Southern Glow Company for her bravery and for an awesome job on Annie's makeup, and I hope the next time we work together, it'll be less creepy *grin*
5) Be flexible! Turns out some of my favorite shots resulted from a moment of panic when I ran out of ideas and then grabbed a prop off the mantlepiece or shelf and threw it into the mix. When your model isn't just standing there posing but is instead interacting with something, it makes the shoot much more interesting -- action is always more interesting to watch, so get your model moving! It may seem silly at the time, but the act of moving about takes the model's focus off of you and onto what she's doing, and makes the shot more kinetic -- if she's jumping into the air, for instance, her hair will increase in volume due to the momentary release from gravity's effect. Even just having your model toss a pillow into the air and catch it can make for visually interesting moments.
Okay, fine, you want to see pictures. I'm not done editing the ghost town photos yet, so I'll post those in another blog, but you wanted to see the boudoir shots anyway, right?
Before I get to a sampling of my favorite shots from the session, I'll tease you a little longer by discussing the things I learned, in a more-or-less chronological order.
1) Google Maps will get you reasonably close to your destination, but you should never implicitly trust it to find you the quickest or most direct route... several times, I followed "Go south on I-195 for four miles, turn right on side road X. After six miles, turn left on road Y, 3.7 miles. Slight right, becomes road z, 10 miles and merge onto I-195 south." Wait a minute.... didn't... wait.. what?
1.5) By the way, very, very, rarely, Google Maps will try to kill you. If it's springtime, and Google Maps insists you take an unimproved county road right after a rainfall, JUST. SAY. NO. Especially if you're driving a 2000 Saturn SC3 coupe. You will not make it to your next stop on time. Just saying.
2) When you choose to do something a little sketchy, say like advertise on Craigslist asking for boudoir photo volunteers and offering no session fee and five free prints in exchange for their time, you'll probably get weirdos (there are a lot of them out there) and more likely no responses at all. If you happen to post your ad on April 1, you'll get even fewer responses as you might like. Didn't even think of that until Annie pointed it out to me and said she almost didn't respond to my ad. Oops.
3) During any sort of model shoot, your model is obviously the prime focus of any shot, but the background is also important; if there's a lot of other stuff in the background, it can distract a viewer from the star of the show. So if you're using backdrops to cover up the background, make sure the backdrops actually extend out to fill the frame. Took a lot of shots where you can see the stands holding up the backdrop, or it only covered one side of the frame because of the angle I was shooting from (the shoot was in her home, so I was constrained by the size and geometry of the rooms we were in). Yes, with some effort, you can Photoshop out distracting elements, but if you don't HAVE to, it can save you hours of work (and if you don't like having to paint in a background at the pixel level, getting it to show through between individual hairs is a nightmare, especially if you don't do photo retouching regularly)
4) It's best to work with makeup artists and stylists that you already know, rather than calling one up out of the blue. Asking a complete stranger to show up at a client's house (which, being a split-level rental just off of the U. of Idaho campus, was two potted plants and a working doorbell away from being eligible for my abandoned houses shoot the next day) seems kind of sketchy. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Heather from Southern Glow Company for her bravery and for an awesome job on Annie's makeup, and I hope the next time we work together, it'll be less creepy *grin*
5) Be flexible! Turns out some of my favorite shots resulted from a moment of panic when I ran out of ideas and then grabbed a prop off the mantlepiece or shelf and threw it into the mix. When your model isn't just standing there posing but is instead interacting with something, it makes the shoot much more interesting -- action is always more interesting to watch, so get your model moving! It may seem silly at the time, but the act of moving about takes the model's focus off of you and onto what she's doing, and makes the shot more kinetic -- if she's jumping into the air, for instance, her hair will increase in volume due to the momentary release from gravity's effect. Even just having your model toss a pillow into the air and catch it can make for visually interesting moments.
Okay, fine, you want to see pictures. I'm not done editing the ghost town photos yet, so I'll post those in another blog, but you wanted to see the boudoir shots anyway, right?
Once again, thanks to Annie B. for stepping up and giving me a chance to refine my art! I had a blast, and from all accounts, she did too! (Just got a nice email saying if I come out to Eastern Washington again, she'd like to do another shoot with me.. and maybe pay me this time! Doesn't get better than that!)
Friday, April 19, 2013
Ruminations on Beauty
A number of factors have come together recently that have given me a brief moment of clarity. Hopefully, I won't muddy things up too badly in my attempt at putting this experience into words.
Over the past year, the soap and beauty product company Dove has been leading a campaign called Real Beauty, in which they discuss aspects of how our culture has created and fostered an artificial and generally unattainable ideal when it comes to how women "should" look. The most recent was rather poignant for me, called "Real Beauty Sketches." Briefly, women were seated next to an FBI forensic sketch artist, separated by a curtain, and asked to describe themselves as accurately as they could. Then, a stranger would be brought in and asked to describe that same woman after having met her briefly before the sitting. When confronted with the two sketches side-by-side, many women discovered that the face staring back at them from the left side of the board -- representing how they saw themselves -- looked heavier, sadder or angrier, and generally less attractive than the sketch drawn from the recollections of a stranger. (To see the video, click here: http://youtu.be/XpaOjMXyJGk)
I've also been working through a program called Strengths Finder, which as the title suggests is designed to help identify my strengths and what career and life choices I could make that would best capitalize on those strengths in order to advance in my career and be happier overall. It struck me that on a physical level, this is exactly what we probably all need to do when it comes to our own self image. Because of the distorted and extremely narrow view of beauty in America, the vast majority of the population feels it is too fat, too short, too tall, too dark, too light, nose too big, eyes too small, hair too short or long, and so we need plastic surgery, colored contact lenses, expensive clothes and cosmetics, and extreme diets and exercise regimens to try to achieve an ideal of beauty that many of us never reach, and honestly never should. We don't spend enough time focusing instead on what is beautiful about each and every one of us, and work instead on accentuating and building upon what is right about our bodies. In a lot of ways, my work in boudoir photography can help do just that.
I know what some people would think about that statement. "Oh, you're just taking dirty pictures of girls! That's demeaning and objectifying, not empowering!" They say that because they've missed the point; this isn't pornography, but a way for a woman to express her beauty and sexiness, just as much to herself as to the people to whom she chooses to show her boudoir photos. Talking with other boudoir photographers, I've heard lots of stories of how a nervous soccer mom or a recent cancer survivor came into the studio seeking to reconnect with themselves through the lens of a camera, and were stunned to see just how beautiful they really were, just the way they are. A little makeup, a nice outfit (or lack thereof), and an objective set of eyes were all that were required to bring out the hottie from within the veneer of the everyday.
We get so self-conscious about our appearance that many of us choose to hide behind clothes that don't fit properly, make excuses not to go out on the town with friends, and avoid being photographed whenever possible because we don't feel attractive enough to be seen in public or immortalized on film. The face we see in the mirror each morning is never going to be good enough, because we view it through the additional distorting lens of our expectations of ourselves -- the self we SHOULD be, but haven't quite made it to just yet. But once I earn a woman's trust enough for her to let go of those expectations and enjoy a moment of sexiness in my studio, I hope to show her that not only is there nowhere to hide when her clothes come off, but that there isn't anything to hide, anyway -- she's beautiful just the way she is. Yes, she's a little wider around the midsection than Heidi Klum, but guess what? So are the rest of us. What about her expressive eyes, her warm smile, her amazing legs? Why not focus on those?
So you think you're too fat to do a boudoir shoot? Too old? Too flat-out ugly? There isn't a single feature of your body that you like at all, and think there's no way I can make you look beautiful on camera? Challenge accepted, lady. Give me a call, schedule a session, and when you meet up with me again to look at the finished photos, if you absolutely hate everything you see, I will give you your session fee back. There will never be any obligation to buy prints and products after a shoot, and no minimum order -- first and foremost, I want you to enjoy the experience of a boudoir shoot with me, and I want you to walk away feeling beautiful and sexy. In fact, that's the ultimate goal of my boudoir business: I want those photos of you to look so amazing that you can't walk away without buying them all, and feeling they're worth every penny. Then I want you to take it from there, and extend the confidence you feel knowing how good you look to permeate all the other aspects of your life. When you look good and feel good, you're more likely to take better care of yourself, both in terms of physical as well as emotional health. You are bolder, and more likely to strive for greater things, and you not only hang out with other beautiful and powerful people, but also find it easier to see the beauty in everyone around you.
My message to everyone reading this (yes, both of you) is simply this: You are beautiful just the way you are. And if I've got to bring my entire studio over to your house in order to prove it to you, then that is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm waiting for your call!
Over the past year, the soap and beauty product company Dove has been leading a campaign called Real Beauty, in which they discuss aspects of how our culture has created and fostered an artificial and generally unattainable ideal when it comes to how women "should" look. The most recent was rather poignant for me, called "Real Beauty Sketches." Briefly, women were seated next to an FBI forensic sketch artist, separated by a curtain, and asked to describe themselves as accurately as they could. Then, a stranger would be brought in and asked to describe that same woman after having met her briefly before the sitting. When confronted with the two sketches side-by-side, many women discovered that the face staring back at them from the left side of the board -- representing how they saw themselves -- looked heavier, sadder or angrier, and generally less attractive than the sketch drawn from the recollections of a stranger. (To see the video, click here: http://youtu.be/XpaOjMXyJGk)
I've also been working through a program called Strengths Finder, which as the title suggests is designed to help identify my strengths and what career and life choices I could make that would best capitalize on those strengths in order to advance in my career and be happier overall. It struck me that on a physical level, this is exactly what we probably all need to do when it comes to our own self image. Because of the distorted and extremely narrow view of beauty in America, the vast majority of the population feels it is too fat, too short, too tall, too dark, too light, nose too big, eyes too small, hair too short or long, and so we need plastic surgery, colored contact lenses, expensive clothes and cosmetics, and extreme diets and exercise regimens to try to achieve an ideal of beauty that many of us never reach, and honestly never should. We don't spend enough time focusing instead on what is beautiful about each and every one of us, and work instead on accentuating and building upon what is right about our bodies. In a lot of ways, my work in boudoir photography can help do just that.
I know what some people would think about that statement. "Oh, you're just taking dirty pictures of girls! That's demeaning and objectifying, not empowering!" They say that because they've missed the point; this isn't pornography, but a way for a woman to express her beauty and sexiness, just as much to herself as to the people to whom she chooses to show her boudoir photos. Talking with other boudoir photographers, I've heard lots of stories of how a nervous soccer mom or a recent cancer survivor came into the studio seeking to reconnect with themselves through the lens of a camera, and were stunned to see just how beautiful they really were, just the way they are. A little makeup, a nice outfit (or lack thereof), and an objective set of eyes were all that were required to bring out the hottie from within the veneer of the everyday.
We get so self-conscious about our appearance that many of us choose to hide behind clothes that don't fit properly, make excuses not to go out on the town with friends, and avoid being photographed whenever possible because we don't feel attractive enough to be seen in public or immortalized on film. The face we see in the mirror each morning is never going to be good enough, because we view it through the additional distorting lens of our expectations of ourselves -- the self we SHOULD be, but haven't quite made it to just yet. But once I earn a woman's trust enough for her to let go of those expectations and enjoy a moment of sexiness in my studio, I hope to show her that not only is there nowhere to hide when her clothes come off, but that there isn't anything to hide, anyway -- she's beautiful just the way she is. Yes, she's a little wider around the midsection than Heidi Klum, but guess what? So are the rest of us. What about her expressive eyes, her warm smile, her amazing legs? Why not focus on those?
So you think you're too fat to do a boudoir shoot? Too old? Too flat-out ugly? There isn't a single feature of your body that you like at all, and think there's no way I can make you look beautiful on camera? Challenge accepted, lady. Give me a call, schedule a session, and when you meet up with me again to look at the finished photos, if you absolutely hate everything you see, I will give you your session fee back. There will never be any obligation to buy prints and products after a shoot, and no minimum order -- first and foremost, I want you to enjoy the experience of a boudoir shoot with me, and I want you to walk away feeling beautiful and sexy. In fact, that's the ultimate goal of my boudoir business: I want those photos of you to look so amazing that you can't walk away without buying them all, and feeling they're worth every penny. Then I want you to take it from there, and extend the confidence you feel knowing how good you look to permeate all the other aspects of your life. When you look good and feel good, you're more likely to take better care of yourself, both in terms of physical as well as emotional health. You are bolder, and more likely to strive for greater things, and you not only hang out with other beautiful and powerful people, but also find it easier to see the beauty in everyone around you.
My message to everyone reading this (yes, both of you) is simply this: You are beautiful just the way you are. And if I've got to bring my entire studio over to your house in order to prove it to you, then that is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm waiting for your call!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Branching Out
Very soon, I embark on a new chapter in my photography career, for I have recently found someone who has expressed interest in a boudoir photo session. Although I don’t know if I will ever reach a point in my business in which boudoir photography will comprise the majority of my paying clients, I would certainly like to leave that possibility open and available, so I’m jumping at this opportunity to work on this aspect of my art.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, boudoir photography deals with images of the (usually) female form in a more intimate manner than your standard art nude. It celebrates the beauty of the human figure through depictions of female sensuality, rather than strictly sexuality – rather than a form of pornography, in other words, boudoir photography focuses more on a woman’s appreciation of herself and her own beauty. It may or may not involve either partial or full nudity, and is not restricted to the bedroom (despite the name “boudoir,” which was a woman’s bedroom or sitting room, the art of boudoir photography is more about intimacy of the woman, regardless of her location). It produces images of women being and feeling sexy, being comfortable and relaxed in their own bodies.
That’s a very powerful idea, and one that I emphasize in my approach to boudoir. There is something of a stigma attached to boudoir photography by virtue of its involvement with nudity; American society still feels attached to its Puritan roots when it comes to art involving nudity, and seems to shy away from anything even remotely sexual in nature. It has only relatively recently become more mainstream for women to accept and embrace their sexuality and to simply enjoy being in the skin they’re in. So rather than a somewhat fringe and risqué behavior, it is slowly becoming more acceptable and even desirable for women to get photographs of themselves that celebrate just how beautiful they are, no matter their size, shape, age or color.
There are a million reasons why women choose to have boudoir photos taken, and extend well above and beyond that “special present” for their husbands or boyfriends – many do it for their own benefit, their own enjoyment. Perhaps a woman has lost a lot of weight recently and wants boudoir photos as a way of celebrating how much better she looks. Maybe other significant life changes have happened and a woman wants them as an affirmation that she is still a vital and beautiful human, or maybe she’s feeling at the top of her game and this is just one more way to show she’s got the goods. Many women have boudoir photos taken as a group and make a sort of party out of it, as a way to share an experience with their best friends that is completely safe but just a little bit naughty.
Whatever the client’s reasons, it is the job of the boudoir photographer to create art with a client’s body that emphasizes the positive energy and natural beauty she possesses, and to make her comfortable with the idea of others paying attention to her, either directly or through the images that are created through the camera’s lens. Many women (particularly moms) seem to have difficulty justifying doing anything for themselves, in the belief that spending time or money or effort on themselves is somehow selfish, or they give so much of themselves to others that they have forgotten how to appreciate their own bodies. They place upon themselves the onus of meeting the needs of their families before their own, so having photographs taken that say, “Look at me! Look how amazing I am!” seems like the ultimate indulgence, but it’s actually in many ways exactly the opposite: when you feel good about yourself, you’re more confident and ultimately more effective in your everyday life, so taking care of yourself and really feeling your self worth gives you the power to strive for greater things in all aspects of your life. So the boudoir photographer can be a sort of combination of coach and cheerleader, encouraging women to explore and discover (in the words one of notable boudoir photographer) their own “fabulousness.”
Of course, I have the added challenge of being male; female boudoir photographers have a somewhat easier time getting their clients to relax and enjoy the experience of a photo shoot because having a strange woman in their home is a lot less threatening than having a strange man there (even one as handsome as me *grin*). So part of my learning curve is how to put my clients at ease that I’m not just some creepy guy who wants to take naked pictures of them, and that, I believe, will come with time, as I build a reputable and high-class portfolio of boudoir work that people can see ahead of time. When possible, of course, it would help to have Chris present as my assistant, and the makeup artist and hair stylist as well (since I am by no means above conscript labor in getting shots onto the camera if I need bodies to hold lights, reflectors or the odd electric fan), but I’ll need to get comfortable working with a client until she’s basically forgotten I have a gender (or, ideally, that I’m even present in the room), and she’s just enjoying being herself and for whatever reason, a flash keeps going off nearby.
I obviously can’t know that I’ve prepared adequately until after I walk away from the finished shoot, but I’m fairly certain I’ve got what I need to make this session a success. I’m pretty excited, and I’ll let you know how it went when I return. Wish me luck!
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