Studio final: yoga in location

At the start of the semester, I used hot lights to explore my body doing yoga poses. I wanted to show the curves that the body could make, and I wanted to acclimate myself to the studio setting. For my final project, I decided to take my knowledge and the concept of the human body outside. I took my yoga instructor out and shot her in an urban setting. I took out the Alien Bee lights, used one close to the ground, and let her practice. The lines and curves of her body in juxtaposition with the curves and lines of the space around her worked beautifully. And, of couse, she was beautiful as well. 

Light painting: death and magic

Death is only the beginning. 

Texture: the human body.

texture: touch.

self portraits.

Specular highlights: Grandma's Legacy

My grandmother is starting to fade away. 

Before it gets too bad, 

she let me go through her jewelry and pick out pieces of her to keep with me.

I will forever keep these pieces

as memories of the woman who raised me

and keep her beside me, always.

Small Strobe Workshop: Justin

Justin.

Zero f**cks given. 

Three lights: Shoe fetish.

When it comes to shoes, I'm a dictator of taste. 

Tabletop.

White background.

Massive softboxes on camera left and camera right.
Highly placed beauty dish camera rear.

Five pairs of shoes.

One Studio Monkey.

Two Lights: Lindsey and her fabulous black eye

One of our fellow photographers, Lindsey, got a black eye while she was cheerleading the other day. Keeping with my body concept, I decided to be a little more playful with this one, looking at what can happen to the body when we use it. In Lindsey's case, a flying body part whacked her in the face and this beauty of a bruise is coming in as it heals. I used two soft-boxes to light up Lindsey, and I made the camera-left soft-box brighter so that the color in the bruise would be highlighted. She thinks it's horrific. I think it's kind of badass.

And one more for good measure. I just couldn't resist her ink:

One Light: Charlotte

For my one-light assignment I chose to continue my concept of the human body. I wanted to pick up bits and pieces of the body that we see, but we don't really see, if you know what I mean. I used a beauty dish to cast this wonderful glow on Charlotte, who "just came as I am" and still looked absolutely stunning.

Hot lights: yogatography

For this first assignment I wanted to get familiar with the studio without anyone around. I've seen yoga photography before, and it's always in a fancy studio or in exotic locations. It's beautiful, and maybe later in the semester I'll revisit yoga photography outside with studio lights. But there is something to be said about nothing but the human body. One of my goals for this semester is to explore the human body, so this is my first attempt. My goal is to showcase the lines, curves and shapes of the human body in a minimalist setting. 

These were done with one hot light with the barn doors wide open. My camera was set on the ground and the lens was tilted up about 4 inches. I was working with a remote (which is harder than it looks in poses, let me tell you), and I'm really pleased with the results.
Namaste.

Updog

Mountain, pretzel meditation

full side plank, right leg variation

Warrior two, inverted

Lunge, variation

Crow

2013: starting anew

I'm pretty ambivalent about New Years. 

It's pretty customary to start new things at the beginning of each year. People say things like "new year, new me!" and "a new year, a fresh start." We make resolutions that we have every intention of keeping: lose 25 pounds, workout three times a week, be more honest, stop cursing, spend more time with family, etc. We say things like "(insert year here), be good to me," or "(insert year here), please be better than (previous year here)." But really, I don't think there's any time like the present to start something new, no matter what date it is. It could be July 19th, and you could start a new diet. On May 4th you could stop cursing, stop drinking or spend that much needed time with your dog that you've been meaning to do for ages. Each year is really up to you and how you make it, just like each day. 
Don't get me wrong, I love New Years. I love how it begins another chapter in our lives. I love all the hope and plans and hype people put into it. I love planning the party with my friends and family to ring in the new year with my favorite people. But like I said, there's no time like the present to start becoming a "new you," whatever that may mean. January 1st is but one of a staggering three-hundred and sixty-five days that are not only fresh, new days, but days that we have to start something. To begin a journey. To start a new project. To start exercising. To start showing people you care. To wake up with the mindset that today is a new day, and a fresh start. I get that January 1st is the start of a new year, but I will not be someone that postpones something new until the start of a new year. There is no making excuses for "bad" behavior or habits just because I want to wait until the new year to start being better. After all, don't wise people ask "why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?"

So it is with that mindset that I have started my blog fresh on January 2nd instead of January 1st. In truth, today was the first day I really put some thought into what my new blog layout would be, what I wanted to put in it, and what I'd like to say about myself to those who read it. After thinking about this in the car on the way home from a little shopping trip, I poured myself a massive mug of tea, sat down with my laptop, and started renovating my trusty blog. I began blogging the second semester of my freshman year of college. I now completely redo it, exactly three years later, with completely different intentions. 

So, in a totally cliche way that people end their first blog post...

Cheers. To a fresh, new blog and a new year (and a not so fresh, new me).

[Photo found on reddit]