meanderings

I suppose it's about time to do a little discussion about the man behind the lens.  Or should I?  Regardless, as such, here goes.

Why specialize in nudes?

I've taken pictures of a lot of things - sunsets, trees, houses, people, parties, fashion shows, live performances, pretty things, ugly things, food, beverage, and the lot.  So far, nudes are by far the most difficult to capture.  There's no garments to pose with.  And plus there's the model, who's naked, which brings a whole dynamic to the shoot.  There's those who are more comfortable naked.  Other's not.  And in the end it's about creating an environment of mutual understanding and confidence enough to be oneself.

The process, you ask?

My process is largely organic.  I don't do a lot of planning.  Location often dictates a lot of the process.  Indoors, bring a light.  Outdoors, find the light and bring one as necessary.  Urban outdoors, pick your location and hours appropriately.  I try to be ready for anything and open to ideas.

In general, I'm not very good at posing people.  I know what I like, but generally that's where my expertise ends.  I can find the angle, the light, and the mood.  Maybe it's the fact that I try to incorporate the model's personality into the shoot.  I do my best, in any case.  I like emotive poses.  I like funky yoga poses.  I like funny faces.  I like interesting people and when people decide to show how interesting they are in the lens. Does this make sense?  I hope so.

I ask models to bring a few garments so that we can have some flexibility throughout the shoot.  Plus you gotta have the "work friendly" and "online community friendly" images.  In addition, what the model brings to the table is often indicative to their personality and what they may wish to captured in themselves.

When in studio, music can often play a large role in the process as well sets a mood.  I like it when models dance.  It allows one to capture movement and images one might not capture when going through the motions of posing.  If you've got something you'd like to listen to when shooting, I'm game.  Recent themes of my shoot music include Tupac, Beirut, Local Natives, DJ Z-Trip, The Devil Makes Three, and sometimes a little Rolling Stones.  For the most part, I think people enjoy the music I play.

For now.

That's it for now.  As the title of this post may implicate, these are a couple of meanderings in the mind of myself as a photographer.  I'm hoping in that dissecting the process, I can gain more understanding of what I do.   People tell me that I'm a great photographer and it's always appreciated.   I suppose I wish I could better verbalize what I do, how it's done, and what I can do to better the entire process.  Cheers!