Portrait Series of Women

Sheri,
I used my Sony A-200, standard lens, with no filters. The lighting was provided by a on camera flash, bounced of a gold reflector and a slave flash at her feet that was fired through a soft light bounce. I started out with a more somber pose and a little less of an idea on what I was going to do, but once the giant bow came along, I knew I wanted to have a bit of color in the background and play off the idea of the tea cup. The old piano, books, and my collection of apothecary glass were quickly piled behind her to bring out that aspect of Sheri that was always a little dark, but definitely in a fun, almost jeering kind of way. The striped gloves, black fingernails, severe haircut and jewelry all lent itself nicely to the overall affect. She has a certain poise and that sly smile that makes you think socialite with a bit of mischief thrown in.


Sandi,
At this point the idea of a series of portraits of women was in full swing. I grabbed Sandi because of the hair color and from seeing her give out several facial expressions in the past that I knew I had to capture with a camera. I brought along a small (yet extremely heavy) cast iron crown as prop that would continue to set the portraits I was doing apart a bit. As Sandi prepared her hair and makeup I started to think about all the metal colors that were around me and the textures of her hair and contrast to her white skin. She was very inspired by all the different ideas that were flying around and started to play with makeup and her hair, creating a little nest for the crown that seemed to work perfectly. The crown was not the easiest to balance while I am having her turn her head and lift her chin or make this face or that. The wall color was with out a doubt, one of the luckiest bits of that day, as it was a perfect contrast to the crown and Sandi's skin. I also felt like the purple lent itself to a overall royal feel that pulled everything together. I again used an on camera flash bounced off a silver reflector as well pulling in as much natural light reflected off a gold reflector as I could. Using the Sony A-200 with a light yellow filter to help warm everything up made this a pretty quick shoot in the end. It was processed to really over expose the skin and bring out a lot of the contrasts. I will say that this picture is 1 part hair and makeup, 1 part props and setting, and 5 parts Sandi conveying everything that I had in my mind.


Anuska,
Initially I was not sure about doing a portrait outdoors at the time, but Angie and I started out with the makeup and this idea of making Anuska resemble a bird or some type of wood sprite. The idea to bring the makeup all the way across the bridge of her nose was a stroke of pure genius on Angie's part who took the makeup in a really exciting direction. One thing I have learned is when smart, creative people around you start talking, LISTEN! The idea came along with sticks and the feather boa to help bring out different types of textures and the sun ducking behind some clouds to added to a softer feel that just took off. I used a diffused filter and only natural light to give a slight gauzy effect that goes with the slight smile that I think Anuska has always hiding somewhere in her.


Angie,
I have said it before and I will say it again. When someone extremely creative and talented starts talking, shut up and listen. This is the first sitting Angie did for me, the later being the one that would later be printed and framed, and it was everything I like about a portrait of someone. The writing on her neck was her idea and another pure stroke of genius. She is one of the most gifted artists, who's work is an inspiration and more than a influence on me. Her own portraits in the background provided a perfect back drop for her as the dark rich colors work well with her own skin tone. The amount of skin and super sexy sly smile were unexpected even for her, but a very nice surprise all the same. It gives such an air of confidence that still to this day, it is one of my favorites. The only thing I will say, is that living with your model and doing the processing post shoot can be a bit of a challenge. Angie is better than me at Photoshop and being an artist herself, very opinionated on how things should look. That said, we both felt that it would be fun to re-shoot and push the envelope a bit farther in regards to pose and more lighting. I still like this version mostly for the smile and full view of the word "Artist" across her neck. The on camera flash was bounced of several different light reflectors and the slave placed on a flat table, bounced of my trusty gold reflector. Soft incandescent lights were above to help light the painting behind her. Very little post processing was done other than a bit of cropping and increasing the overall contrast (something I have done on almost all of my portraits). The lens I used was a Minolta 300mm beast from the early 80's with a adapter ring. Luckily my camera still uses the onboard light meter, but with these older bodged lenses, you never really know what your going to get until you bring it up on a big screen.