New artsy photos after the text...
Shot a high school wrestling invitational this weekend, half of friday and all day yesterday. You can make all the jokes you want about mostly naked men rolling around on mats together, but let me tell you wrestlers are seriously tough and mortally dedicated motherfuckers. I saw more than my fair share of facial gashes and bloody noses, and all that they wanted was some cotton shoved up their nostrils and off they went again. What really impressed me was how wrestling takes not only sheer head to toe muscle power, but also agility, lightning speed, flexibility, and BRAINS. It's probably more physically intense yet snap-judgementally intellectual and strategic than any other sport I've seen. I find it interesting that most wrestlers I talked to were actually very humble and soft-spoken.
In short, it completely blew me away what these people do. I say 'people' and not 'guys' because there was one female. She kicked serious butt, although she ultimately lost her matches, but neither quickly nor easily. She was a tough cookie who put the boys up to one helluva struggle.
But enough of that. I didn't play hockey this morning as again the weather was damp and rainy, and also every muscle in my core and upper and lower back was screaming from yesterday's marathon workout. Plus, I didn't have the $15... and I slept until 12:30pm. So, no hockey. Big-ass bummer. Mom got for me a couple of free passes for public skating at the arena, as she and my stepdad work hand-in-hand with the arena's director, but that's only on the weekends, so I'll just have to hit the inlines this week to keep the leg muscles from getting too buttery.
---
The Plenty of Fish thing is panning out much better than expected. Got several positive emails in the last day or two from some curvaliciously pretty women. That, and I'm still in correspondance with New Year's Eve Girl, and she's not a minor, as I had so feared. So I'm not a creep! Thank God! For now, the conversation is just about photography, though, as she's a seriously talented hobbyist. I mean, she has some stuff on her DeviantART page that blows me away, much like Chickpea.
Let's not forget J Girl, whom I haven't mentioned in a while. We've been emailing regularly, but haven't gotten together since the Englewood shoot in October.
October. Damn. That was a crapload of fun, too. I'll have to get together with her again soon.
---
Now, for the main event... tonight's photos!
(รก la Kermit the Frog) YAAAAAAY!!
I have a project in mind for the view camera (once I can afford the expensive sheet film it takes) to take portraits of friends and family. They won't be soft, everybody's happy, pretty pictures, either. They'll be monochrome face shots that confront the viewer. 4x5 film will capture every last little pore and blemish, and the portraits will be above all, honest. In my opinion, there's a nobility in such portraiture.
Practicing lighting with the digital, I took a few self portraits to give myself an idea of the lighting and exposure, and I think they give a great idea of what to expect:
Using both my monolight and portable flash to give (mostly) even lighting without looking too much like direct on-camera flash.
Showing the portable flash (hand-held). I bought on clearance at a local camera store a little translucent plastic plate that you stick on portable flash units to diffuse the harsh direct beam of light in a nice soft spray of light. Took this to show you the plate. (which I used sans monolight in the side-looking self portrait a few nights ago) You'll notice in all the pictures, if you zoom in, that there are two reflections (professionally called "catch lights") in my eyes... the big round umbrella of my monolight and a small rectangle... the diffusion plate.
Aimed up a bit to show my entire head and hair, and less of my neck and shoulders. This and the next are more of what I want the portraits to look like.
I think this is my #1 favorite (yet ugliest) self portrait to date. For this one I used a new trick in Photoshop I discovered tonight. Using the least flattering blue channel to turn an image monochrome is nothing new, but then the background was somewhat exposed and gray. So I used the exposure window (under the Image / Adjustments / Exposure...) to increase the exposure while decreasing the gamma to darken the backdrop and make the pores and blemishes really POP out. Neat-o.
Lemme know what you think.
In short, it completely blew me away what these people do. I say 'people' and not 'guys' because there was one female. She kicked serious butt, although she ultimately lost her matches, but neither quickly nor easily. She was a tough cookie who put the boys up to one helluva struggle.
But enough of that. I didn't play hockey this morning as again the weather was damp and rainy, and also every muscle in my core and upper and lower back was screaming from yesterday's marathon workout. Plus, I didn't have the $15... and I slept until 12:30pm. So, no hockey. Big-ass bummer. Mom got for me a couple of free passes for public skating at the arena, as she and my stepdad work hand-in-hand with the arena's director, but that's only on the weekends, so I'll just have to hit the inlines this week to keep the leg muscles from getting too buttery.
---
The Plenty of Fish thing is panning out much better than expected. Got several positive emails in the last day or two from some curvaliciously pretty women. That, and I'm still in correspondance with New Year's Eve Girl, and she's not a minor, as I had so feared. So I'm not a creep! Thank God! For now, the conversation is just about photography, though, as she's a seriously talented hobbyist. I mean, she has some stuff on her DeviantART page that blows me away, much like Chickpea.
Let's not forget J Girl, whom I haven't mentioned in a while. We've been emailing regularly, but haven't gotten together since the Englewood shoot in October.
October. Damn. That was a crapload of fun, too. I'll have to get together with her again soon.
---
Now, for the main event... tonight's photos!
(รก la Kermit the Frog) YAAAAAAY!!
I have a project in mind for the view camera (once I can afford the expensive sheet film it takes) to take portraits of friends and family. They won't be soft, everybody's happy, pretty pictures, either. They'll be monochrome face shots that confront the viewer. 4x5 film will capture every last little pore and blemish, and the portraits will be above all, honest. In my opinion, there's a nobility in such portraiture.
Practicing lighting with the digital, I took a few self portraits to give myself an idea of the lighting and exposure, and I think they give a great idea of what to expect:
Using both my monolight and portable flash to give (mostly) even lighting without looking too much like direct on-camera flash.
Showing the portable flash (hand-held). I bought on clearance at a local camera store a little translucent plastic plate that you stick on portable flash units to diffuse the harsh direct beam of light in a nice soft spray of light. Took this to show you the plate. (which I used sans monolight in the side-looking self portrait a few nights ago) You'll notice in all the pictures, if you zoom in, that there are two reflections (professionally called "catch lights") in my eyes... the big round umbrella of my monolight and a small rectangle... the diffusion plate.
Aimed up a bit to show my entire head and hair, and less of my neck and shoulders. This and the next are more of what I want the portraits to look like.
I think this is my #1 favorite (yet ugliest) self portrait to date. For this one I used a new trick in Photoshop I discovered tonight. Using the least flattering blue channel to turn an image monochrome is nothing new, but then the background was somewhat exposed and gray. So I used the exposure window (under the Image / Adjustments / Exposure...) to increase the exposure while decreasing the gamma to darken the backdrop and make the pores and blemishes really POP out. Neat-o.
Lemme know what you think.
posted by Grover at 1/07/2007 10:54:00 PM
1 Comments:
POF is quite fun and FREE!
I told ChickiePie about it, its fun isn't it?
Well, I personally like you with long hair and I would never thought in a million years I would ever say that to a guy but you do.
BUT I understand why the cut, you still look handsome though ;)
trista
caterpiller.diaryland.com
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