Notes from My Recent Trip

I just got back, well let's say about a week ago, from my trip and now I'm more or less adjusted to the time difference, and (somewhat) adjusted to my day job.  That is, mild mannered, cubicle confined program manager for a software company.  Whenever I get back from a trip, I feel the withdrawal and the stark contrast of living a "creative" life day by day, and being surrounded by "life" as I wander the streets of various Asian cities.  It's not easy for me to put myself back in a box, and go back to the daily grind.  But, it "pays the bills" as they say, and keeps me funded for travels, photo shoots, and life in general.

During this past trip, I stopped in Bangkok for about four days, prior to hopping back to Hong Kong, which was really just a gateway for me into Southern China.  I only stayed one night in Hong Kong.  I had elected to go to Bangkok for a few days mainly to get away from cold weather for a few days, leaving fairly cool weather back in San Francisco and knowing it would be even colder in Southern China.  I also wanted to visit a few friends in Bangkok, and do a couple of shoots with some models that expressed interest in working with me.  I'm really glad I made the stop in Bangkok, and much as I wanted to stay, it turned out to be just the right amount of time.

Getting Ready to Hit the Road

I just booked a ticket a couple weeks ago, and soon will be on my way to Bangkok and then Hong Kong and southern China.  I doubt that the flight attendants working on my flights will look anything like the model (Jessica) I recently shot above, but I like to travel anyway.  Even I enjoy the 13-14 hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong.  It is, admittedly, quite a brutal grind, but I use the time to read or write in my journal, and of course, sleep.  I very seldom watch movies on the flights, but sometimes I'll watch one which seems to put me to sleep.  If I'm especially lucky, I'll find someone interesting to talk to on the plane.

My last trip to Asia included very little photography of models, though I did a lot of street photography of ordinary people in some seldom-visited-by-tourists cities.  I was lucky to have a friend along who is a native Chinese speaker, and she translated for me as I interviewed a number of regular working-class people.  I've been gradually writing about that experience, and recording the interviews, though I have yet to publish that anywhere.  A work in progress, and something quite extraordinary.  That trip changed many things about my perception of China, Chinese people, and even the government of China.  That's for another time and place, though (note - check my non-Model link to Flickr if you're interested in seeing some of the photos from that trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28312772@N04/

This trip coming up will be much devoted to photography of beautiful women.

Photoshop

Photoshop - love it or hate it, it's definetly a game changer.

The shot above shows a shot I took recently, with the first one being out of camera and the second one showing after I decided my work in PS was complete.  I would not classify myself as a PS expert, but I've learned and practiced enough of it by now to realize I can afford to post very few unretouched photos as examples of my work.  It's just a given in the world of fashion/beauty image creation.

I didn't start off with this point of view.  The first few models I shot were posted without any retouching at all (you can still find some of them on my Flickr stream).  My reasons were not based on any purist religion, nor any well thought out strategy.  It was mostly a matter of my not having any suitable software (LightRoom or Photoshop), and not being interested in investing the time to learn them.  But I eventually came to understand that this is part of the image creation process - akin to working in a digital darkroom.  It was only a matter of time before I came around.

Pleasant Surprises

I had kind of a strange experience last weekend.  I have my twin girls on alternate weekends, so can only do model photo shoots on the weekends I don’t have them (and, yes, I have a “day job” so can’t normally shoot on weekdays, either).  Last weekend was one in which I had my girls, so wouldn’t have been able to shoot except that on the holiday – Labor Day – I wouldn’t have them and could do a shoot.  I had planned this in advance, and was going to do a shoot with one of my favorite models (she shall remain unnamed here…).

I had made preparations on several fronts, including purchasing some wardrobe items I knew would look especially flattering on her, and getting some props for the shoot.  I did my usual conversion of “home into photo studio”, which is a fair amount of work.  So I was all ready for the shoot, but in the morning as I logged onto my computer, I saw a message from her telling me she suddenly realized she had to go to a family barbeque that day, and could not shoot.

Back in the Saddle!

Just settling down for a latte and the chance to write a bit here.  I mentioned in a recent post that I hadn't had a photo shoot for a couple of weeks.  In fact, I hadn't had a "good" shoot for something like six weeks.  That's all changed today, after having a shoot yesterday  The shot above here is from yesterday's set (pretty much an "as shot" picture).  On top of having some great shots, I had that special dividend of encountering a really special person along the path of getting the work accomplished.

Just like most any shoot I do, I was busy for several days before the shoot shopping for shoes, dresses, and props as ideas were coming to me specifically aligned to this model (Grace).  I have to admit I was a less enthusiastic than most of the time leading up the shoot, as a recent couple experiences with cancelations had really let the wind out of my sails.  But I'm really pleased with a lot of the images, and especially, with seeing the realization of some things I had been thinking about for some time. It's a great feeling to start of with this seed of an idea, and slowly piece together the implementation details, then finally find the right model who's going to pair up well with the concept.  So I'm feeling pretty good about this endeavor once again.

One of the really cool things that happened in leading up to this shoot was related to pulling off an idea, and like I've said before, encountering some wonderful people along the path.