The Mask

I bought this mask to try out a few ideas, but ended up playing about wearing it for a few selfie nudes...

Taken using a Lensbaby Composer with fisheye optic.

P.T.

Just hangin out on the old railway....

So this is me doing a lighthearted shoot on a railway line with the help of my good mate Jo whilst i was visiting her recently. I pretty much set it up, and she worked the camera.

These were a bonus as we were actually out to view a different location.

Having done these i can now try and think of something a bit more arty and control the lighting better. Perhaps even go there at night next time i'm visiting the area.

P.T.

Cold and wet for art!

Last summer i had a day out with a friend, Sam, to take photos. Along the way the conversation came around to my work as a life model. As the conversation developed she asked if i would pose for some photos, and the idea came about that we use a stream she knew of not too far away. Even in summer the fast flowing stream proved to be very cold, and fairly deep in one part i waded into.

I have to say that it's not easy to pose when slipping about on rocks, so what we ended up with was more of an impromptu, natural, and relaxed (though cold) set of photos.

In these three photos i did my own processing. The first, which is quite arty, i kept as simple monochrome. In the second i removed all colour but the green in the leaves. The third i got carried away and kept the green in the leaves, and the moss that was under the water, but i made it very vivid.

As an impromptu photo-shoot it was good fun.

You can find Sam on HERE on DeviantArt 

Not Quite Glamour!

I decided that i'd do my own version of a fairly standard glamour photo we see all the time. Normally of course it would be a woman, almost always young and wearing either very little, or nothing. Now i'm not young, not a woman, don't have the breasts, and don't have the "sexy" underwear. For those reasons my version is perhaps not quite as glamorous. I also chose slightly different crops around the face with the view of playing on the not so glamorous look. I also used a high ISO setting to use the digital noise like grain in film. Personally i quite like the effect when used in monochrome photographs.

Overall i liked the results, but i'll show a few so viewers you can decide if any work better than the others. There are also different versions of some to show how they can look different depending on the editing.
The photos are better viewed large, which can be done by clicking on them.

I'll start with my personal favourite:

I liked this one with the shallow depth of field, and also just the one eye showing.

Here's a toned version for comparison.

I like the tilted head angle on this one.

I wanted one with both eyes in the frame, and also wanted something with greater depth of field, though it does make it a bit more "graphic".

Again there's a tonal version for comparison.

I tried this one with only the mouth in the frame as i was looking for greater anonymity.

Finally i'm back to my favourite. This time it was edited in camera using one of the art functions. It adds grain, and has three different contrast settings. I also tweaked it in Adobe Lightroom to get the highlights completely blown out. The idea was to draw attention  more towards the eye and face. It also leaves a subtle line of the body to the genitalia which is nicely out of focus.