2/30
(Mouse over for before and after!)
So I decided to do my one insane crazy weird photo at the beginning of this project so that I can get down to business for the rest of it. For such a ridiculous photo (which, by the way, I completely imitated from this photo, so I don't get any credit for the idea!), this actually took a lot of time and effort. First of all, there's not a black wall in my house, nor are there any black sheets. The closest I had was this green one, which I hung from the railing in my loft. Then I had to get the lighting right. I don't own any strobes or lightboxes, so I had to get kind of creative.
First I looked at just the natural lighting coming from my window. I closed my white curtains to act as a diffuser, which gave a nice light on my left side. But my right side was pretty dark, and since I wanted to mimic the studio feel of the original photo, this just wouldn't do.
To fill in the shadows, I tried my easiest option, my overhead light, but it made some pretty weird shadows on my backdrop. So then after getting my brothers' lamp (which was incredibly difficult to do because it was very heavy and surrounded by junk), I turned it on, adjusted the direction of the light to bounce off my wall, and viola! Studio lights.
Then I corrected the white balance, donned a crazy sweater, bribed my cat with some cheese, and magic was created.
This was the lighting setup. I'm super high tech over here.
If this hasn't convinced you of how absolutely insane I am, then I don't think anything will. But now I have a new, odd respect for horrible Christmas card photos, because I really had to pay attention to lighting and compositing ... even if I was compositing a disembodied cat head into the blackness of space.
dress: urban outfitters // skirt: diy // glasses: firmoo // shoes: thrifted
(I promise that last remix my closet post is coming! I was going to take photos but then one of the shirts I needed was in the wash, so I have to procrastinate on it yet another day)
This skirt I actually made for someone else, and while it is a little long for my style (I either like skirts above my knee or midi length), I couldn't help but wear it around the house before I sent it off. It only took me a couple hours to make, and it really made me want to make a ton of my own clothes, but alas, fabric is so expensive, and ... nope, that's really the only thing stopping me at this point in time. Plus I can promise you that if I enter a fabric store, I will inevitably fall in love with the most expensive fabric there and/or leave with a ton of things I will think I need but will actually forget about when I sleep next. Thus is the eternal struggle of my life.
Another eternal struggle? Never finishing my own sewing projects. I still have a dress that I'm so close to finishing, but of course I started it a year ago and never finished it. Maybe tomorrow will be the day? Haha, that's what I've been telling myself for a while now. Do you ever do that? Where you start something with such excitement, and right when you're about to finish you take a break for a little while ... and then a little while turns into weeks or months or years? You have a problem (I do too. Procrastinators, unite! ... tomorrow!)
I hope you have a great day!
1/30
Well I am doing Elsie and Emma's thirty day self portrait challenge because I'm insane.
I'm not going to stress about this project at all. If I miss a day, it's whatever. But I'm hoping to complete it fully and since it's only thirty days long, the number itself should push me to suck it up and make some art every day.
Some things I want to accomplish/focus on:
- lighting; because light is the most important thing and I want to really focus on using it to my advantage.
- concepts with depth; I'm kind of tired of the random hair flip or looking longingly into the distance photos (not that those are bad, it's just that everyone including me has overdone them). I want to make some images that make people look at them for more than a couple of seconds.
- full body shots; when I won my photography award, I received a letter with all the critiques from the judges, and one judge suggested I work on full body shots. And while I do full body shots for outfit posts, I rarely do them for creative shots, so I want to push myself in that way.
- behind-the-scenes/before and afters/more writing for each photo; because who doesn't love that? I love reading what photographers have to say about the inspiration for their pieces or how they created a photo, so I want to provide as much information as possible for each photo. I don't really have anything for this picture, but hopefully I will for the following days.
Here's a detail shot though:
I wasn't sure what I was going to photograph for today, but once I sat down under the tree and started putting leaves in my hair (my dad was practicing his fly fishing outside and thought I was insane ... and I didn't even end up using the photo with the leaves), I was reminded of this photo that I made back in 2012. I wanted to combine the two photos into a "mother nature" feel, and I believe I accomplished that. Also, my hair isn't quite this long in real life yet.
Hope you have a great day!
