Death of a Bunny

It's the price you pay for a photo shoot sometimes. I think I broke Andrew's heart when I asked him to cut the head off the bunny.

Andrew asked me to come up with an idea for him. I thought about it and wanted to do a photo of him eating something weird. I have those new vintage modern backgrounds and I thought a nice eating shot would look good especially since I already have a table in the studio. It took me a couple weeks to come up with the "something weird" and this was my thought process: I have a bunny that I use as a model for lighting in the studio and I thought, he could be eating the bunny! Then I thought, I could do a picture in picture where the bunny is in the background portrait as his prized pet. 

Luckily when I went thrift store shopping for the outfits, I found a bunny. My model bunny is still in one piece and still has the job of lighting model. This bunny took one for art and I'm grateful for that. 

For the picture in picture, I actually hung the frame on the fabric in the back. It was tricky to do because I didn't want to put a hole in the fabric and the frame was actually wired to hang in landscape format. So I duck taped the wire to the back and hung it on clips at the top of the background stand. About halfway through the shoot, I went to move the background stand and one of the wires popped. That's why the frame is crooked. It was one of those happy accidents. I know it looks photoshopped in, but it's actually hanging back there on the wall, I only photoshopped in the image of Andrew and his pet bunny.

Paranoia

I wanted to shoot a fashionable tinfoil hat. I don't know why, I just did. And thus was born the theme of paranoia. On a walk in my neighborhood, I found this bush that had overgrown and been chopped down to create a cave. I thought it would be perfect for a paranoia shot. Then for some reason, I bought a ukulele to go in this shot (it's blue to match my house, I thought it would be a show piece when it was done here). Again, don't ask why because I just don't know. My ideas just come to me and they don't even make sense to me sometimes.

And I'm lucky that Tara took my crazy idea and just ran with it. She made the hat and dress for the image. You can't see the hand beaded eyes she made for her dress, they are just amazing. She sprayed her hair bright pink for the shot as well. She went all out and I'm really grateful because it wouldn't be half the image it is without all her effort. I'm feel really lucky to work with other creative people; they take me to levels I could not achieve on my own.

I can't decide which one of these I like better. I like the bright blue sky and the peaking out of the shoe in the 2nd image. But the crouched pose in the first image really makes me feel tense.

The model picked this one that I quite like as well, but I'm leaning towards the first one as my favorite.

Sunday in the Garden

Warm weather has been slow to come to DC this spring. Today was warm enough to clean up the garden and I took out my point and shoot for more macros. I am loving that camera more and more for macros. It's small size really lets me get close to objects without having to move or rearrange things. 

This is my garden angel. Although I think the images make her look rather haunted.

These are my really old garden gloves. I've had them for years and they are still going strong.

I have a lot of hosta in my garden because it's 99% in the shade. It's one of the few plants that flourish in the shade.

My pine tree. My friend Gary helped me carry it into the garden, so officially it's called The Gary Tree.

My planter. Leaves get everywhere in my garden. My neighborhood is rich with large, old trees. I love the trees, so I guess I love the leaves they drop everywhere!

Trumpet vine seed pod. They are really beautiful inside and out, this is the inside. However, I don't recommend a trumpet vine, they grow and spread like a weed. You really have to stay on top of them.

And my white cat on my lounge chair. I would NEVER be able to get this close to her with my DSLR. She hates large cameras. She's only moderately annoyed at the point and shoot.

I can never remember the name of these plants. St. something I think. But really it's a picture of my black cat sneaking away.

And a daffodil, a little late this year to bloom.

Drywall Tape

What do you do with drywall tape?

Which image do you like better?

Always Test Your Lighting

I would say that at least 50% of my shots have matching shot of me in that lighting. I have no problem testing lighting with a model, but when it's completely new lighting, I like to test it on myself first. I would hate to promise something that I couldn't deliver.

So with my umbrella shoot, I was pretty sure that I wanted to put my flash in the umbrella hooked up by a special cord to my Pocket Wizard. But I had no idea what that would really look like. I also wanted to make rain out of string, but when I went to the Chinese market, they had a red ribbon that I thought would be really cool, but again, I had no idea how it would photograph. I put it all together and took this shoot:

I was so excited, I almost posted it everywhere. But then I realized that I'm no model and I don't really look great in that photo, but the lighting and the rain looks exactly like I thought it would, if not better! But all people would see would be the frumpy girl in the image rather than the achievement of lighting and I didn't want to ruin the actual image when I released it.

What I learned from my test was that I could achieve the lighting that I wanted. The flash should be placed in the umbrella facing down towards the ground and should be in the front of the model. The umbrella needed to be held just right so the flash would not be seen in the image. I also knew that I could adjust the lighting on the shoot with little difficulty. And the only adjustment I had to do to the flash in the umbrella was to decrease the strength one stop, because Chelsea is a little paler than I am. Since I knew where to place the flash, Chelsea didn't have to stand out in the cold for too long.

I shot the final shot outside in Old Town. I love the cobble stone that you can find in various locations. I thought it would add dimension to the photo. Although I must admit that I was worried about creating too much dimension as the umbrella, rain, and model would be plenty to distract the eye. I did add another flash in addition to the flash in the umbrella. There's one with a medium-sized soft box off to the left. I wanted to separate the umbrella from the brick wall and natural light just wasn't providing that separation.

In case this image has a familiar feel, it because it was inspired by an illustration by Banksy. I really wanted to bring the illustration to life. Somebody posted that illustration on a website and I immediately felt a connection with it. It had a surreal, yet real, feel that I am so often trying to create in my photography.

Macro Landscape Photo Walk

It's been rainy all day, but I still wanted to get out and about, so I grabbed my point and shoot and headed to my favorite place, Teddy Roosevelt Island. I figured I would try a bunch of macro shoots. My little Cannon point and shoot is great with macro shots. And I like using it better than my DSLR because I don't feel like I'm going to fall over when shooting macro. Also, I breathe more. For some reason, I hold my breath when shooting macro shots with my DSLR, even when I'm using a tripod.

And just like shooting with my DSLR, not many of the shots turned out, the focus was in the wrong place. But here are three that I like.

Caught in the Act

This image was fun to do! Melanie suggested flashing and I had to find a location for that. Mind you it's Sunday morning and I didn't want to offend too many tourists/church goers, which there are plenty of both in Old Town Alexandria, so I take Melanie to the old train tunnel that is now a pedestrian path. Since it was still early, there were not too many people out and about. I stopped a guy riding by on his bike and asked him if he would mind be flashed. He had absolutely no problem with it and we got this shot. I forgot to ask his name, but I am ever so grateful for his help. And thanks to Melanie for the idea and the cool purple coat. I really like the colors in this image.