Lucy from Australia via New Zealand

 

Lucy hails from Australia, but lives in New Zealand and travels widely. I was fortunate to shoot with her this year after her expedition with Exploregon, a semi-annual photographic excursion led by my friends Floofie and Jordan. Lucy had just finished the late summer expedition to the Oregon coast and had time to shoot with me before leaving for other areas on the West Coast. I had planned to join the coastal shoot, but my left knee simply wouldn't let me do the hiking required for the adventures planned. 

My knee, however, didn't give me any issues in the studio as long as I had a chair or stool that allowed me to occasionally sit. Floofie was kind enough to rent me her studio and I opted to shoot Lucy in a fine art style with various chain jewelry for ornament. 

I used a combination of window light from the double doors of the studio balanced with light from two Newwer LED panels. Near the end of the shoot, I changed the color temperature of the panels for a warmer effect. 

Lucy is a lovely and charismatic model. We listened to her music and chatted during the entire shoot and we achieved some lovely results from our session. I look forward to shooting with her again should she come back this way.

Compositing with Floofie

Athena Before

I've been trying my hand at compositing images lately, but the issues I've run into are the backgrounds. While green and blue screens are great for video compositing, they suck for still photography. The light bouncing off the backdrop creates color contamination around the outlines of the model that is difficult to remove during the editing process. Black is better, but then you have the problem of dark hair or clothes blending into the background causing problems with selecting just the model. White could work with very controlled lighting and distance, but is a real pain to set-up. So, I decided to experiment with a couple of different gray backdrops that I have in my inventory. 

Athena After

I started with Floofie using a patterned gray portrait backdrop. Since I'm still working on improving the goddess concept, I chose the costumes and props for that inspiration and added some new items I thought would add to the fantasy. I shot this is my home studio (basically my living room where I set up the backdrops and lights withing the confines of the room's furniture). It's not ideal due to the space constraints, but hey, you've got to work with what you've got. 

After having Floofie play dress up for a couple of hours while I took a few hundred shots of her poses, the more challenging work began. Now, I've been working with Photoshop since version 6.0 was released 23 years ago, and I've taken quite a few lessons and attended several seminars. I don't consider myself an expert, but I mostly know my way around the program and I can usually get decent results. Selecting images and compositing them into a coherent and harmonious final shot requires more complex conceptualizations than simply editing an image.

Celtic Witch Before

When compositing, not only must you separate the initial image from the background, you also must consider the angle of the light hitting the subject, the color of the light source, the density of the shadows, and any reflections in the subject. Once you've chosen the background, you then have to match the perspectives and then harmonize the colors between the background and the subject. I'm definitely still learning, but I think my results are much better than my original attempts a couple of years ago.  

Celtic Witch After

The images you see here are simple composites, though. I'm certainly not to the skill level required to add multiple elements to the composite. I'll need to get much better before I attempt that. Anyway, you can see my results in the images posted. 

2021

Joey in 2021

When summer break (and my freedom from school arrived) I was sure I'd be able to get out and do some glamour work, but if you read my last post you'll already know that the shoots I was able to accomplish were done before the summer break. No one was going anywhere that year - we were wearing cloth masks and gloves to go to the grocery stores to survey the sparsely stocked shelves and very limited and rationed supplies of toilet paper, paper towels, and sanitizer. Models adapted and remote shoots became a process. It was not a great summer. 

When the school 2020 -2021 school year the school district was far more prepared and the online school work was far more structured and interactive and we all became super proficient with Zoom meetings and submitting lessons online. Those lessons included written assignments, videos, photos and believe it or not, nature walks. The lessons were time consuming, starting at 8:30 am and finishing up usually after 5 pm. Of course, everyone was still social distancing and very few, if any, models were posing in person. In December, when vaccines became available, I hoped things would get back to normal, but the limited supply meant younger, healthy people (like models) were the lowest priority and so for modeling and glamour photography nothing changed. 

Bree Summer 2021

Fortunately, as 2020 segued into 2021 vaccines became more and more available and in the summer near the end of the school year, things were looking a lot better for glamour. I managed to get five shoots done in the summer of 2021 - examples of which you can see in this post. Only one of the shoots was with a new model, Cat, but three of my favorites came to my rescue with their willingness to shoot. 

Unfortunately, in the late summer, early fall, the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus became predominant and out of an abundance of caution, my family decided I would continue to coach my granddaughters until at least Christmas, and then until Spring Break, and then, ah, heck, just finish the school year. Now, I won't say things are back to normal by any means. Vaccines and boosters are readily available to those who need and want them, and while I try to be apolitical in my blogging, the anti-vax idiots are keeping the virus dangerous with by incubating new mutations of the virus in their bodies, and yes, continuing to fill up hospital beds and morgues. 2022 is looking a lot better, though and I've been shooting pretty steadily for the past few weeks. More about that in my next post.

Cat

Joey in September

Floofie (Kira) in her Studio

2020 - Global Pandemic - Year 1

Lust - Merrique

The twentieth year of the second millenium of the Common Era was almost a total bust for me photographically.  I did exactly two glamour shoots the entire year. One was a Patreon set for my friend, Merrique, and the other was a socially distanced, outdoor shoot during a lull in the pandemic. The rest of the time was primarily spent coaching my kindergarten and 2nd grade grandkids with their online studies while we were doing our best to deal with the pandemic conditions.  

I did do a bit of editing and cataloging and, of course, I continued to take photos of my family events and portraits of my grandchildren as opportunities permitted. I did a fair amount of walking and biking, but most of the summer and into the fall we were plagued with heavy smoke from the many wildfires in the surrounding areas which made landscape photography nigh impossible. It definitely impacted the ability to breath out-of-doors and made for some unusual sunsets and sunrises.

Danielle at Sauvie

Fortunately, my one outside shoot happened in May before the wildfires gained a significant hold. We shot on Sauvie Island, one of my favorite places, and even though the model and I stayed well apart (separate vehicles to the area), we got some lovely images. I also found out where the exact boundary of the clothing optional area was located thanks to a friendly ranger.

Along with the pandemic, we had the utter chaos of the election cycle and all the idiocy that typically goes along with it. This time, though, it was exacerbated by the lies and venality of the former president and his cult of ignorance. Fortunately, there were enough sane voters left to oust the previous president, though the Big Lie continues and he continues to babble his nonsense on the right-wing networks that will have him.

That's enough about 2020.  I'll discuss 2021 in my next post.  At least I'll have a few more images to share.

Erosnyx - My 4th Studio

Jenn C at Erosnyx

Well, I'm in my 4th studio in three years. I've gone from a space in the old Columbia Sportswear building in Cathedral Park, to a dedicated studio space in the Pearl District, to a community space in NE Portland, and now I'm leasing space and time at Erosnyx in SE Portland. In every case the move was required because the photographers who I was sharing the space with moved to different spaces that were inadequate for my needs or the space was converted to something that wasn't appropriate for use as a photography studio. I have high hopes for the space where I'm currently working. The owners seem dedicated to make the space available to a variety of creative people and are working to upgrade the space to make it even better.

So far, I've only used the space once, but I'm scheduled for at least two other shoots in the studio in the very near future. It's worked quite well for my needs and I'll even be shooting a full band in the space in about a week. The larger main room has enough space for my more elaborate settings and other appurtenances that can be utilized for my shoots. Since most of my shoots include full body shots, I need adequate space to frame the model with sufficient distance between the model and the backdrop to allow light falloff and background lighting control.

There is a smaller studio space off the main room which can be utilized as well, and indeed I may find myself using it from time to time for less elaborate setups, and more specifically when I plan to shoot high key lighting sequences and the plan is to have a cyclorama wall in the space in the near future. All in all, the space is excellent for my intended usage and with any luck, I'll be able to shoot there for quite some time to come.

Studio Issues

Jen & Ashley at MRB Studios, St. Johns

It is mid-autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Pacific Northwest that means it's the beginning of our gray, cold and wet season which will last until at least the middle of March when the sun breaks begin to become more frequent and the temperatures start to rise. This is the time of year when I move my photography to the studio or to other indoor venues. As I have a three-part project that requires two of the three settings to be indoors, this usually isn't a problem. Unfortunately, for the second time in two years I've lost access to the studio I've been using for my on-going projects.

Gabriell as the Blood Sorceress - MRB Studios

In 2009 I found a great place to shoot in the St. Johns area of North Portland. Eric Rose, the studio's owner, gave me a great deal on using the studio and it was simply a matter of scheduling the time in advance on the studio's calendar. The studio was fairly large, allowing for some elaborate sets, and had easy access to bathrooms, a cafe and excellent parking. There were four photographers sharing it on a regular basis, and I never really had a difficult time getting the time I needed for my shoots.

I was able to shoot in that studio for almost the entire year and the only drawback was the large skylights at the top of the studio and provided great natural light during the day, but which limited and complicated the use of studio lights until after sunset. Toward the end of 2009, though, Eric decided to move to a smaller studio. That made a lot of sense for him, since he primarily shoots portraits and head shots for agency work.  I checked out his new studio after he moved and it was simply too small for what I normally shoot--it simply couldn't support that elaborate set-ups that I use for most of my indoor photography.  I could see how it was a great place for Eric, though, with its great natural light and textured wall.

Audi at Tim Gunther Studio

For a while I looked into getting my own studio. I found a great place in a fine location and seriously considered leasing the location. The space was actually a 2000 square foot warehouse with an office area and a bathroom. The high ceilings, roll-up garage door, and area dimensions were near perfect, but I couldn't justify the cost of the lease for the amount of studio shooting I do. I thought if I could find a partner we could share the expenses and lease the space out to other photographers, hold classes, and conduct seminars to make up the cost of the space, but I couldn't find a willing partner to share the space with me.

I had been looking on various forums for weeks and perused the commercial space ads on Craig's List hoping to find something suitable. I finally broke down and posted an ad myself seeking a space to shoot and fortunately Tim Gunther of Tim Gunther studios sent me an e-mail and we came to an agreement and I started using his studio space in February of 2010.

As a studio, it was even better than the previous place in St. Johns. Tim's studio has a single skylight which doesn't interfere much with the studio lights, a dressing room, a bathroom, and several storage rooms. Tim was easy to work with and there was ample studio time available for me projects. The cost was a bit more than what I paid in St. Johns, but I managed to stay within my budget while shooting there from February to May. Of course, in May, I moved back to my outdoor settings and continued to work my projects with the expectation to returning to the studio during this time of year.

Unfortunately, Tim had the building sold out from under him and my last shoot in his studio will be the weekend of December 4th. I'm booking my models now and also hope to do a family shoot of my grandchildren that weekend as well. So, after the first of December I'll be looking for studio space again.  If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know.

Sivonna the Sorceress at Tim Gunther Studios