Below is an image of the transfer which I found on ebay which was easily ironed onto the white vest top to make it look less boring.
This is where the shoot idea became a little more complex than my original idea. I purchased some camo shorts, and the idea was to have a white vest top and transfer a black tankgirl image onto it which I managed to find. The white vest top could then be splattered with paint and mess and the use of camo paint on the models face along with doc martin boots to complete the army boy look.
The stylist on the other hand had other ideas and obtained a suitcase of the following clothing.
Quote from laura of the above: these are the props i have sourced for my tank girl photoshoot. a pair of girly pink and white doc martins and a pair of brown builder type boots. a range of funky studded belts. 2 types of bikini tops to possibly wear. a pair of blue denim shorts and i bought a white top from primark and a tank girl logo was transferred on to it. ray ban aviators. a karki jacket. headphones.army hat. a toy tank, a toy rhino and toy soldiers. ski goggles. a tutu. a water gun and a hip flask.
I'm one vor variety but the majority of the clothing was just not required and just caused arguments of who sourced the most stuff for the shoot. I felt like it had been turned into a bit competition for that very reason. The stylist also then managed to complain about how much she had needlessly spent on the clothing which had no connection to the theme what so ever, A tutu?.
Our initial idea was to use the tank location, but after constant ringing and trying to arrange to use the scene, I was only met with ignorance and incompetence, so decided to go for the graffiti style scenes. Since we couldn't use a tank, I suggested a toy tank and soldiers like the following image...
..and making a small war scene where the model can use the water pistol i picked up from Asda to attack the opposing faction while smoking a ciga which is obtained from the prop we where to base the shoot from in the first place. Getting hold of toy soldiers was not an easy task, but argos sold them for £2 a pack and a toy tank from a kids store was not much extra either. But the stylist still wanted to complicate this further and avert from a tank completely any go for a bonny and clide type theme....
..and to add a male model to make this idea work, which I was strongly opposed to and refused to take on board as it would totally destroy the concept being built up which we had agreed on in the first place. I don't mind a conflict of interest but some of her ideas where totally opposite to what we was aiming for and I think she was aiming for a power struggle of control because of how much money she had apparently spent on the clothing.
Couple style of other helmets I had ideas for were more traditional modern army type..
To get hold of real ones though is rather pricy, so a plastic laternative would be easily found in a kids clothing store. Theres a few other head piece ideas which can be seen in the commic art . The helemet also symbolises masculinity as goes along with toy soldiers, boys and so forth. Another item which ill supply is the baseball bat which is seen in much of the art work and would help make the model look more tom boy.
A helmet or head piece would be a certainty for this shoot so we had ideas of an army style helmet to go in the army type theme of tank girl. Laura found this image from a tank musem she is aware of for example.
Further exploring concept: Random comic and fan art.
a great web link for books and such being..http://www.tank-girl.com/books.php
Location ideas:
The best scene we manage to find was this brick wall with spray paint over it. One of the main reasons apart from its looks and the concrete step in front of it as can be seen in the image below it, is the lighting. This particular wall has the sun setting directly in front of it, since the model would be finished from work in the late afternoon, it made sense to use this wall to our advantage for the lighting of a sunny days sunset. This would look far nicer than using flash or the other scenes which where in the shade at the time of day we require. The scene is also fairly remote in the sense that not many passers by are around and its out of the way of everyone else.
This scene looks great as its had a recent fire which adds to the effect. The only problem is this scene would require flash lighting as its fairly dark from mid day onwards do to the wall being fairly high and blocking the sun which starts to set behind it.
I personally wanted to use this scene since the tank was not available. It has great character, much broken glass and spray paint, yet remote enough not to draw attention during the day. This scene would be fun to have with a burning steel bin as the source of lighting as I don't feel flash would do it justice. The model would not be able to do anything on the floor or wold surely be limited to positions without preparation due to the amount of sharp objects on the ground.
This scene directly next to the university caught my eye with recent spray paint work. I thought id record it for future reference but it will probably get sprayed over again at some point in the future. It might be worth a future shoot spray paining my own design on a wall with a model to suit perhaps then trashing the scene again so its not usable thus making the images unique.
I wouldn't use this scene for this shoot as it stands as its to widely used and everyone is aware of its location.
This tank was the main concept for our choice of where to shoot. It is parked outside a volunteer TA barracks by the football grounds in Preston. I obtained the office phone number and range numerous times, various times of the day. I had the receiver lifted and put down once, the rest went un-answered which was rather rude of them to be frank. This left us with an unusable option and to look elsewhere to locations.
Model sourcing:
I personal had two models in mind for this shoot, both friends whom Ive shot before who have a boyish look about themselves as this is the type of appearance required for the theme of the shoot. A girlie model wouldn't be able to pull of the not bothered about my looks kind of look and would look to cute an innocent.
Alice.
Alice is a total none model type that only poses in front of a camera on rare occasions or when the girlfriend needs a model for her course work. Alice how ever has a very boy like figure and appearance complete with short coloured spikey hair and a rather insane personality to go with the smoking habit. She was my original main model idea for this shoot because she is also very local, but a week away from the shoot she informed me she couldn't make the shoot date due to her own work commitments. Not a problem though plenty of notice and many other people to find.
Rachelle.
Rachelle is my back up model should my stylist not have any models to mind herself. Rachelle is confident in front of a camera and Ive used her for a few of my past and current photo projects. Her recent look which is shown in the top image by myself has a great boy looking appearance and comments from that image mention her looking lesbian like. She has a figure the same size as Alice so any clothing the stylist has sourced would easily fit and she lives fairly close by. She also smokes which would help out in our ideas since we have a cigar/cigarette holder as the item we need to use.
Jadie.
Jadie is the longest haired model brought to my attention for this shoot as sourced by the stylist laura. Im often moved towards working with people I havent shot with my camera before so it was a mutual agreement to use her for the shoot. She has never modeled before which would pose to be a bit of a problem though seems confident enough and also smokes which is a bonus to us. She has a very masculine wardrobe as well as girlie so can be fairly versatile as she doesn't wear much makeup as standard.
Initial concept:
Jamie Hewlett I found, is the original creator of the tank girl character which spawned many comic books and the hollywood crash cult film. For those that don't know this guy, hes the creator of the animation for the band "Gorilaz"
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Typical example of military being portrayed with cigars, this is a cartoon sketch from coghill cartooning.
Quote from creator -"A recent project, “Major Change” was developed for a Canadian client looking for a cartoon character mascot for a promotional campaign. Interestingly enough although it was a Canadian client, they preferred to go with a United States military officer for the iconic quality. Kind of a bummer to think that when people think “military”, they think “United States”. I guess for some people that’s a positive thing. And before this post gets too political…For some reason I had it in my mind from the initial discussions that somehow the character was to be a gruff bulldog chomping on a cigar, General Patton-style. "
*** So it begins.
Well we had to pick a random wrapped item once we got into our groups and we managed to pick the gold plated cigar holder. which looks simular to this...
Now when I think cigars, I think masculine, but I also think of big guns and war related images which you typically see on over the top movies.
so, I think our idea should be based on the 1994 film based on the comic of tankgirl...
Above is the finished book which I received in the post. The postage cost around £20 but it got it from the Netherlands to my house in three working days, (was promised 3-5) with hourly updated online tracking. The total cost was around £60 but I could have had it sent quicker for £30 or up to 15 days for only £6.The reason for the high cost for one book is the company I used allows a minimum of one book to be printed, where as many other companies require a minimum order of either five or ten.
I’m over all very pleased with the outcome, going for the premium paper made a massive difference as it’s 35% thicker than the standard paper and adds a nice finish. There is a lustre finish as an extra but didn’t go for it on this occasion as it was an update to the site which was in the process of being implemented when I sent my book for print. The amount of work to create this small publication was indeed more than having a couple of prints produced but it was defiantly worth the experience. Nothing was printed wrong, everything about the book came the way I intended it to be and motivates me to make a bigger more detailed publication for my third year final show. It shows that if I take my time and make sure everything is correct then my work can come out perfectly.
The total cost of the book with postage was that of around two to three A2 prints, it’s far more achievable and lower cost to create the book when you think frames are usually added to prints as which also bumps up the costs. In this book I managed eleven prints instead of only a couple of standard framed prints and I’ve even included space for people to write comments directly into the book for my own future reference on how to improve. Not only do the standard black pages give a neural space for the images to be viewed on, but it also minimises the ability of someone commenting on the pages directly. I didn’t find creating the book anymore difficult that standard prints but was useful to look at a few book layouts of publications I already have to have an idea what looked best for the type of content I’m wishing to show.
Having so many images did mean more shoots which meant more location scouting, models and so forth but was more fun as I had a smaller gap to do my shots and therefore took more time with each shoot creating fewer images to post process. I even used film on some of the shots to get more variety of media content and kept my digital images grainy but using high ISOs to keep in tune with the rest of the work. The high ISO grainy approach I also feel makes the images look more personalised rather than a clean clear digital image which would look strange next to the grainy black and white film shots.
I wanted to use a number of different models, in different locations around the university to show that studios are not always required to have fun but add a little twist to make the images more interesting. Studio work I find boring now unless I’m constructing a scene or just for convince when a shoot is needed quickly. I did how-ever have problems with shoots going wrong due to models messing me about with dates, illness and poor excuses which did annoy me but I managed to get around with other ideas. This is a definite lesson to always plan more shoots than required in case of such problems. Gaining models themselves was not an issue as I have managed to build up a collection of references on various portfolio sites making it easy for me to cast models for my work. This is something I’ve built up over a long period of time, since before starting university and certainly pays off.
As well as using the comments I hope to gain from the comments pages in this exhibition piece, I can use it as an example for future models for my main project next year.The exhibition piece has already had an impact on a few models that like the idea of being in a book publication and would consider contributing if required to.I’m intending to travel to other countries to gather my next content rather than staying in England as there’s far better models and locations out there than this overused floating rock.I intend to exhibit this piece by the way of either a floor plinth or an attachment to a wall.Attachments to the wall would depend on where the work was to be show, but would be my first choice over a free standing item.Either choice, I would screw the back cover of the book down to the wooden surface to secure it from going anywhere or being stolen as it wouldn’t be possible to place it in a standard wall mounted frame.To the book stand ill also attach a retractable pencil via a chain to enable people to easily leave comments rather than using pens
Wall mount #1 is my preference for this method as it will gain peoples attention far more effectivly than mounting idea #2. Mounting idea #1 would also be easier and cheaper to create than using a plinth and also ensure the book is secure from being removed if attached to the back of the mount via the back cover. A pen can easily be attached via a small chain for the comments pages.
Plinth
Failing being able to have the book mounted to a wall, my second option and probably the easiest is a plinth. If I had a height between 5ft and 5ft 4 it would be a decent height for people to be able to turn the pages while not excluding a great number of people in a height restriction. I could also attach the back cover of the book directly to the plinth base to stop it from being removed as well as attaching a pen.
Ceiling hanging
Having the book attached to a backboard which has a slight angle for the book to fit into would limit the book from keeping itself open when suspended from the ceiling. Downfalls to this will make it harder for people with height restrictions to view the book, and likley look a mess if left open as all the pages will be spread apart meaning the viewer would engage in a random page with little interest rather than starting at the beginning.
Table
Pretty much what it says on the tin, having the book on a table. This is not really an option as for display purposes it would look rubbish and invite people to leave other items and destractions / waste. I wanted to put this as a statment for reason of why a simple table would not do the job required.
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Shoot outcomes...
Greenbank ground floor shoot #2
some examples from the shoot.
I decided to take some shots looking down to make the floor space double as a backdrop. Shot both with and without the underwear and the top image with just the latex gloves gives a stronger look. Ill have to adjust the image with a fish eye filter to straighten out the lines which where slightly bent due to my lens being on max focal length and not being the best quality in the world. I also like the use of the floor to make a cross shape behind the model. These shots were fairly easy to take from the 2nd floor looking straight down and due to it being in the evening by now, not many people where wondering around meaning no extra shadows casted over the scene.
Greenbank ground floor
some examples from the shoot.
By using the strobe flash, I was able to make the scene look darker than what it actually was, infact it looked like it was night time with a side lamp. I wanted bright colours for this shot so didn't really suit my needs but gave an interesting effect which was worth taking note.
This shoot was a little more difficult in the sense that it was a more public space as the shoot took part late afternoon. I had to rope of a section of floor to prevent people walking through. During the shoot we got a few spectators that looked and smiled while walking past and a nosey security guard going about his business but didn't stop us when I politely said it was for my course material and I was a student of the university.
I used a wireless strop flash and a reflector as a big diffuser to achieve my strongest image (the top of the three). The idea behind this theme is to give an indication of possibly a student working to pay of debts, but as always, nothing is as easy as it sounds, hence my utilities gag with a floor brush attachment. Selected littler and trash was brought in along with my own floor cleaning cone which added more to the effect and actually warned people of the cleaning which was indeed in progress. originally latex stockings and gloves where to be used to break up the models skin a little bit, but she damaged the stockings beyond use during fitting. The top half of her clothing was hindering the shot making it look to dark, so the image was taken topless which as can be seen, helps bring out the floor brush item better and achieves better focal attention.
Media factory shoot #1/2
some examples from the shoot.
The shoot itself didn't go to badly. The ambient lighting with in the building was already interesting enough without involving a flash. A reflector was used efficiently to help light up any areas needing more light together with a high iso setting. The obvious colour theme was green and grey meaning the models skin would certainly stand out.
The above image was done as an after thought idea while we was setting up another shot and the model wanted a drink of water. I decided against using it as the most prominate part of the image is the models chest area which draws more attention then most the image. A different pose could have probably made this scene achievable but was more of a bit of fun than anything else while other stuff was being sorted.
I could have probably improved this shoot by using a taller model, as allot of the structures around the building are long. The model I used has a good inside leg length for her small height but a taller model could have put more emphasise on some of the structures. The two bottom images how ever are along the strongest poses for the locations used. A reflector was used on the second to bottom image to brighten the background more.
Media factory shoot #3
some examples from the shoot.
The WC shoot was fairly easy for the size of the model as she could easily fit in the sink areas to enable the above poses. The middle image is what I consider the strongest one and will give this one some post edit time to improve its appearance. Again no flash was needed, no reflector was used either but a balance of yellow saturation will be required as the yellow floor bounced light was fairly strong.
Media factory shoot #4
some examples from the shoot.
I wanted to create the model into a desk tidy. I positioned the fire wire cable to make it look like its attached to the model along with the keyboard and mouse upon the torso. This fits in line with my original idea of a typical thought of a women being used in a domestic way but instead in the office environment. I considered to much colour being involved to make this images ideas stand out, so I decided to bring out the 120 film and took the following shot.
The standard black and white approach makes the model fit into the scene far better without standing out as much as she was doing in the full colour shots. This scanned negative is the strongest image from the set in my opinion so will be used as a final shot with a little cleaning up.
Library shoot
Examples from the shoot...
The top two images are the first images taken, one for testing the lighting in preparation and the right image the first straight from behind the model. The right image is fairly strong but im not fond of the jeans so I may crop the image with a bit of burning to remove them.
The second two images, the bottom image being the strongest one in my opinion. I wanted to make the model look like she was chained to the books which for the time of year is what a large portion of the student population have been up to for their third years disertation.
Adelphi lecture building - Lift - cancled
My monk and vicor shoot had to be cancled as the models involved had problems with making it on time and one turning ill. Since I spent money on the costumes for a 24 hour hire ill use them in another brief, but as for this one ill have to move on and leave it for now as I cant aford to make preparations for re shooting another day due to model availabillity.
Location: Harrington
Shoot #1 - Stairwell
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Shoot layouts...
Having a think about the types of shoots I want to do in which spaces I came up with these ideas.
Location: Media factory
Shoot #1 - Reception
This space I consider to be a good starting image as the term reception gives indication of being welcomed into an area and is where everyone generally starts when entering somewhere new. The space itself is on the 4th floor of the media factory building, a floor where many people do not venture as its a business floor. If I do a shot here, it would certainly make people wonder where abouts it was taken and will most likely be branded with the desk on the ground floor, which doesn't have the reception sign.
I also decided to shoot this shot nude with a blind fold. It would symbolise exhibitionism as well as general nudism, being free, unrestrained and so forth. The idea behind the blind fold is to reduce the sex factor of the model as it would make it more difficult for anyone viewing the image to related it so sex as not being able to see the face clearly gives indication of why is he/she wearing it, who is he/she and will generally add confusement. Ill have to choose my poses carefully though to avoid sexual provoking statements.
Shoot #2 - WC
On a past shoot I did, I used one of the disabled toilets to produce the below image.
I'm thinking, if I used the same model for the reception shot, with the blind fold, in a WC, looking like he/she is putting on makeup without being able to see, more questions will be running through the viewers mind like, why, where and again be more interested in the surroundings and the activity the model is taking part in rather than being distracted from clothing. Lack of clothing, regardless of any image context, causes more attention to be gained, so a simple shot all of a sudden becomes a taboo.
Shoot #3 - Computer room
Women are often thought of as objects for use but are also branded with the inability to use computers regardless of how smart they are, its a conformity within society. The last shoot therefore I want to use the mac suite in someway, as large numbers of people can related to these busy office type spaces using the same model with the blind fold, again to reduce sexual appeal. By doing this shot though ill likely need a female model I can use for all three.
Shoot #4 - Hallway
Each of the top three floors have a interesting hall way with a nice blue background currently, which changes colour on a regular bases. The industrial type look comes from the buildings design hence its name being "Media Factory". Putting a nude model in this scene will likley gain some interest just because its a space a large number of people relate to. Its also a type of shoot many people will have thought about doing at some point but finding the courage to do such an act would be to much more most. The tall metal colums would also make the model look taller if I positioned against one of them and if I crop the edge of the doorway at the end I could give a sense of infinity.
The floor of the green bank foyey looks very kitchen space like in apearence with its blue and white large tiles and open space. Thinking of how I can use this in a quirky way, I have a caution cone prop, (above right) and a mouth gag which allows multiple attachments including the one showing up left. Both together would make an interesting cleaning up/maid type concept. it would also make the scene harder to guess if I shoot it up close but would either have to be done topless to stop attention being drawn away from the face or a maid style outfit to fit the scene.
The gag itself is a very odd item on its own and likley and object very few people will have seen as its not a cheap piece of equipment and with majority of the potential audience leading a vanillia lifestyle ill hopefully gain interest out of curiosity.
Since the space is used by a large number of people, shooting in the evening would be at best to lower to number of possible distubences and to keep the model more confident. Im also toying with the idea of roping of a section of the floor to prevent people from walking into my scene and to make it look more proffesional in what im doing incase im questioned.
Shoot #2 - looking down
After shooting the cleaning shots, I can use the floor space again to shoot a second scene which may look good as part of a set if I include the gag still on the model and the warning cone in the picture as well. Ill be able to figure more about this shot as I actually do it as currently its only an idea and im not sure how it would look until I position the model and get on the 1st or maybe 2nd floor. The higher I am the better the image would likley look as it would look flatter as lower levels it would be more noticeable Im not directly above the model.
Location: Library Shoot #1 - Books
Out of all the scenes within the library, for this instance im going to use the book shelf areas as I want to give the impression of being chained to books. Most student can relate to this type of shot since many are doing or have done their final year essays and will be or already spending much of their time within book related content. The space is unique since the books are always changing bout comming and going, so no scene would be the same a few days later or on a different isle. If I keep a model in the centre and compose thes shot properly, then the books could look never ending and the scene bigger than what it actually is as the isle are pretty thin.
Location: Harrington Shoot #1 - Stairwell
Taking the scene from the scouting videos I made earlyer on location#4 im going to use this space for somthing as I liked how quiet and tranquel it was. For this space im going to have some rope work done on a model such as that of the shibari type simular to this below image.
The reason why i decided to do some rope work in this location is because its quiet, no one walks through and can take time in creating the rope work without the model being self concious since she will be nude. These types of shoots take a while to create each rope outfit and generaly take me around an hour for each scene. Shibari is a popular type of rope play which people modify in their own way after learning the basics which basically is a form of bondage and often leeds to suspension art being created.
Location: Adelphi lecture building Shoot #1 - Lift with monk/vicor
For this shoot I was to create a shot involving a monk and a vicor making out on a elevator cubical. I have booked both outfits from a near by fancy dress shop and the right above image shows how I intend to light the subjects. A strobe flash attached to the lift via duct tape and a sunc leed makes lighting easy as the head can swival and bend to any direction I require. Ill also place a disfuser on the flash head to make it a bit softer in the center rather than harsh like a flash light.
Both models would be male and ill use roseary beads for the monk to strengthen the apearence of catholic and a cross for the victor to strengthen chrisitanity. The shot itself is to play around with the idea of gay relationships in religeon and the mixing of the two being a even greater sin. Its the type of image you would most likley never see which is why it would be a good image to take as itll make a very engaging subject. This particular idea was inspired by the current iconaclasm brief we have out with constructed image.
****************************** Photographer / general influence...
I had a look through some photographers work ive not mentioned before, as I find it boring just to keep bringing up the same names all the time. Even if their work is not seen in all or any at all of my own current creations, the ideas and thoughts are still there visually for me to further develope ideas upon. I could spend days and days adding photographers which ive looked at over the last year but this would be pointless as id merly be repeating myself.
Steve Diet Godde
American artist Steve Diet Godedde studied film making and painting and refused to study photography for reasons being that he ad already aquired his aesthetic and visual style. I personally prefer his older work to the new more modern line of photography he has been creating, but hes a good example that simple locations are often effective.
Roy stuart
American artist Roy Stuarts first two books from the photographer "nudes of Roy stuart" which ive managed to obtain, show some interesting interpretations of sexual fantisies/ideas and bdsm asthetics which people can relate to. I like this photographers 80s feel and really simple scenes which have a striking apearence. Many of the scenes he shoots are a type of fetish and/or kink which can be linked with sexual reference making them apealing to the right people or just interesting eyecandy to everyone else.
Mister Hawks
Being another American artist, he also creates short films, strange installations and his photography goes from one end of the spectrum to another.
he is indeed a interesting charactor and acording to his biography he has a habbit of pushing creative imagination including an installation of a upside down hanging piano and an installation with traps which set off with motion sensors. I can relate a fair bit of my work ideas when I look at his photography and looking at getting hold of a couple of his short films to see how he does with moving images compared to his still work. Info from his personal portfolio website www.Mrhawks.com
Bob Carlos Clarke
This photographer is known for his shock abillity and satire in his images. I can even related some of my work to his before I even found out about this photographer such as the the below image using liquid latex on the model.
Allot of his images change the models figure some way or another or just makes the viewer think thats not possible. The 70s and 80s where his starting point for erotic photography and quickly women in tight skin rubber garments became his signature.- Info from The worlds top photographers nudes, by Anthony Lasala
Gilbert & George
These guys make images by combining and manipulating different photographs and creating a stain glass window apearance. The images they create are vivid in colour which are actually handed painted in from black and white prints. They have a sense of strangeness in both content and title dating back to the mid 1940s.
Acording to the Tate, they also had the largest show made by any artist to date of 2005, well know for their large scale sized images and are still producing work.
Helmut Newton
Helmut newton has been popping up more recently with the recent exhibtion of his work 'Sumo'. While I find some of his work dull, I also find someinspirational espeshially when it comes to black and white film with nudes. I consider it strange though the number of people on the course that have suddenly started kissing his ass after his name being mentioned in a few lectures with a few pieces of work.
Books
A small selection of recent books ive been looking at rather than individual artists.
Male bondage by Van Darkholme
Asia Bondage by Steven Speliotis
Nude Photography: The Art and the Craft by Pascal Baeten
Kinky Couture by Emma Deves-Broughton
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Location scouting...
GET VIDEO OF MAC SUITE
Location idea #1 - adelphi lift
I like the interior of this lift compared to the stainless steel of most the other lifts around campus. This lift has a fake wooden paneling with a diffused above light making it look more office building type and more pleasing on the eye rather than grey sheets of steel.
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Location idea #2 - Small lecture room
The adelphi lecture room is a strange space when empty and quiet. I would suit a shoot involving multiple people as background props but of the top of my head Ive no idea what I could use it for except for the fact its an option.
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Location idea #3- Large lecture room
Pretty much the same as the small one except way bigger.
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Location idea #4- Upper stair well
Looking around various stair wells I found this one on a top floor. The brick background and floor colour make excellent location shooting opotunity along with a white wall and celing space for reflecting ligtht sources.
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Location idea #6- Small stool space
This little area is next to a ground floor cafe, containing a few tall stools and vending machines. The space though small has potential and charactor, with good lighting possibillities.
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Location idea #7- Floor space & coloured walls
This particular building I took particular interest in as the floor is a very unique style of white with blue cross / square shapes with a very bright atmosphere. on various floors are coloured walls which could be used as standard coloured backdrops and plenty of space is available with various plug sockets should the need be required.
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Location idea #8- wall of glass
This entire stair well has a wall of small thick glass windows, leading to both a flat and curved background on the ground floor. potential for shooting the light from behind the subject, or using just ambient light are both possibillities with a fairly big working space.
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Location idea #9- Library
This space has masses of potential for all kinds of shoots in various places. Only problem with it is its popularity during the day but its 24 hour opening which is useful. If im to use a none student model how-ever I need to keep in mind that no guests are permitted after 7pm and as far as im aware, weekends as well.
Therefore if I need the area to be more quiet I would need to aquire a student model willing to pose in the positions I need at the time which shouldnt be to much of a problem. My main interest at the moment is the book shelf areas.
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Location idea #10- wall art
This was one of the intended spaces I was going to use to shoot the body artwork photographs but seeing as I have bailed on that idea, I might be able to find another use for it. The wall changes on a regular bases with new art so once its been shot with, a couple week later it will have disapeared making it impossible for anyone else to use making it more unique.
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Location idea #11- Media factory 4th floor
This space has potential of the start of the book kind of shot as I like the reception sign on the desk. I also confident itll get confused with the ground floor desk which doesn't have the word reception actually writen on it but people will still relate to it. There are also other potential scenes in the same area such as the water cooler, the leather seats and the window ledge as well as the hall way. The building is also 24 hour access making it easy to use later in the evening when its more quiet and less people to be walking through the shot.
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****************************** Ideas for book layout...
Ive now decided to leave one or maybe two blank page at the back of the book for comments. with relivant headings. Im most likley going to get rubbish feedback from the majority but any good feedback would be worth it. I could also write in myself improvments I can make for my main publication, any do/dont's etc and itll be kept together with the book so I can use the whole thing as a refference piece. The general black pages will deter people from writing on the pages with images on as it would be difficult if not impossible to see and would certainly limit its noticeabillity compared to the white pages.
If I was to make the images full size of the page, then I would likley loose some of the image visabillity in the fold where the page meets the binding and therefore look a bit rubbish. Also since im shooting on full frame digital and 35mm, the images would look best in a 10x8 sizing, that way none of the image will be lost.
As can be seen, the 10x8 sizing fits in the 12x12 inch book page perfectly and the left over space adds to neutral space to stop the viewer from being distracted.
By making the left over space black, the central image attention is maximised. Ive also decided to leave the left page blank in this instance so the viewer only has to process one image at time and therefore will most likley spend more time looking at each page rather than diverting attention between two sources.
The book company ive chosen gives the option of two different covers. One being the standard dust cover which the image on the left shows as the front cover which folds round the cover to stay in place meaning it comes away seperate from the book. Problems with this are peeling edges and the option to easily get removed and lost.
The more expensive option is a binded cover, which the same image of the left shows which means a image is attached to the actual book meaning it cant be removed or peel.
Books which have both usualy rely on the dust cover as added protection for the book cover which is something id possibly consider on a later project. For this one im going to choose having the cover binded for a more proffesional look.
****************************** Ideas for book content...
I had a few ideas for the content of the book I wish to create but I wanted to make sure the content was something I could have a large number of people relate to rather than my usual antics of work which bring about an aquired taste so ive been told. I also wanted to keep a theme which would make an obvious style of work which states I did it and no one else has done.
This got me thinking over a few days and an idea sparked when I was asked a simple question.
"do you know any locations around uni I can do a shoot". This question suddenly had me thinking of the idea of location related shoots around the university, this way it would be possible for a large number of people to relate to the scenes I shoot and for those who do not attend the university to try and work out what the scene actually is.
Content theme idea keyword brainstorming -
nudist, public, rope work, shibari, latex, clothing, education, exams, religeon, kink, fetish, non models, obsessions, body art, chains, submissive, domestic.
****************************** Main project for my open brief decided...ITS A BOOK.
For the main brief I have decided against doing normal prints with body art in mind which would limit me to three or four images and instead gone for a book publication. The book publication ill use to show around fifteen images with a blank page before each one making the viewer have complete attention upon the image being viewed at the time. This will bring the book to thirty pages giving me plenty of room for a few pages of intros and so forth as the compay im wishing to use has a 40 page limit before adding further costs.
The handy company I found is http://www.blurb.com/book/
The idea I had for the blank page on the left side of each image came from a series of books I already own called Fetish Anthology. All the pages where black with the images contained within having white boarders. This style really striked me as bold and made me focus on each image individually. Blurb makes designing the book layout very easy with its own version on indesign as an option to use which is the route ill take. Im also going to choose the larger 12"x12" print so if I make my images around 10 x 8 they will have plenty of equal. boarder space wether they are landscape or portrait.
Producing this book is what I would consider a trial stage for a main publication idea for my 3rd year which will see higher quallity content along with tweaks and fixes through feedback of this creation. One of the main downsides to this company how ever is the production and delivery time which ill have to make up for in this instance with a faster delivery method which will add to the price.
All of these other sites and various others have cheaper rates than others but snags such as a batch number of books being required or a difficult submissition process put me off using them, where as blurb with its custom design program and submission feature makes paying the little extra worth it. Perhaps if I was to print multiple copies, going through the notion of one of the batch printing servies my be a cheaper alternative which is somthing to consider.
****************************** Tatto shoot problem... Unfortunatly the girl has had to pospone her tatto from being finished so ill have to leave this series for another time but will finish once she has completed her artwork. This has caused me to abandon my body art work for the time being.
****************************** Making my own props...
I decided to do a bit of hardcore prop making. I needed some paddles of decent size for a potential shoot idea, being around £25 a piece, I decided to make some. I had all the leather, studs and varnish so the wood only cost me £5 and theres still enough left for another three. They look pretty proffesonal and will certainly do the part to match the rest of my equipment.
Second sitting with the tatto subject. This is into her second hour of her second session making four hours in total so far with two more to go to finish it off. This session was starting the shading and colouring in of the main part of the tatto which caused more pain to the model the further up the ribs the tatto artist got with the needle. She did do rather well without passing and this is the first image of most the shading completed before the final session.
****************************** Music Video influence
Such as..
Rather than photographers I find myself being influenced by music video content and find lyrics matching life style choices that i can relate to. If I didn't make this blog as my sketch book then id likely put in for a media DVD sketch book and get with the 21st century as its difficult to put media in a book. Manson is one of my biggest life influences when It comes to music ever since my teens when he was at his highest in the rock god scene.
Unfortunately now his drug and life abuse has caught up to him and his ability to be a role model has slowly turned into ashes. His music and videos in particular still live on though with some very influential imagery. Ill post more random videos by various artists which are of good interest for the wardrobe they use along with the ways they use it.
****************************** A bit of random
I decided to do some new shoots with non models. left is perfect example of a friend Ive not seen for around 10 years whom Ive known since high school. Liz has never been shot before and finally decided to come have ago. I asked to turn around and produce visually for the word I yelled. In this case I said, show me 'Horny'
She is only 5ft 2 but being a dress size 6 her figure was well suited for fashion style work and she is going to come back next week to shoot some fetish fashion work using some PVC tape of various colours.
I'm finding the use of none models in my shoot more fun to work with rather than pro models when It comes to my style of work . I also find that the non models absolutely bottom out for standard fashion work as it gets to strange for them to pose Ive been told where as my way is more fun and relaxing.
The model to the right was the friend that accompanied Liz to the shoot and again, has never been shot before so had ago in the studio for an hour. I think I got a good shot of her as she was very pleased and took a fairly long time to get her used to the lighting but a good portrait came out of it and gave her something to smile about.
****************************** Back to basics
I had the opportunity for a bit of paid work but not in the form of money. A illustration student needed some nude images of odd poses he wanted so he can then use the images for sketches since the university no longer provides life models. Viki is a popular nude model Ive been looking to work with and halved her hourly rate for my client since he was a student. I was then allowed to use some of the image for my own portfolio which made it worth my while. This is one of the images and just reminds me that simple is often good.
I decided to have ago at taking photos of different types of body art and was given the opportunity to shoot someones multiple sessions of a large tattoo piece she was having done. body modification can be highly additive and having an item this big upon one self is a lifetime commitment of large scale. I was given permission by both model and tattoo artist to sit in the sessions and shoot the progress of the work of at.
I'm considering shoot a body of work containing student body modificationssuch as tattos, piercings etc and have two extreme main subjects such as the above for tattoing and one for the piercings department. I could then shoot items of interest to each form of modification.
The best scene we manage to find was this brick wall with spray paint over it. One of the main reasons apart from its looks and the concrete step in front of it as can be seen in the image below it, is the lighting.
This scene looks great as its had a recent fire which adds to the effect. The only problem is this scene would require flash lighting as its fairly dark from mid day onwards do to the wall being fairly high and blocking the sun which starts to set behind it.
I personally wanted to use this scene since the tank was not available. It has great character, much broken glass and spray paint, yet remote enough not to draw attention during the day. This scene would be fun to have with a burning steel bin as the source of lighting as I don't feel flash would do it justice. The model would not be able to do anything on the floor or wold surely be limited to positions without preparation due to the amount of sharp objects on the ground.
This scene directly next to the university caught my eye with recent spray paint work. I thought id record it for future reference but it will probably get sprayed over again at some point in the future. It might be worth a future shoot spray paining my own design on a wall with a model to suit perhaps then trashing the scene again so its not usable thus making the images unique.
