simple post

Been feeling the Christmas blues today. Not really sure why, the kids are getting excited about Christmas and it is a festive holiday here. I even have a girl from the cook islands that will be posing for me this weekend (she finally said she would as long as the photos are tasteful). I have been trying to convince her for some time now.

Just a simple photo of a young woman I photographed. I liked this photo with her head turned down and eyes closed. Nothing special on post processing either in photoshop.

Built for sex

Some women are just built for sex. I'm sorry if I ruffle some feathers but it is true. Take the girl on the left. Everything about her is natural. If you met her, everything about her is exciting. But, she actually thinks she is not good looking with is unbelievable in my eyes. Not much on posing cause she is shy, I was able to get a few shots and agree to signing a release. I think it is more because her prior boyfriend always talked down about her and she actually started to believe the things he was saying.

I'm amazed how sexist the men can be at times in the Pacific. This is especially true in the South Pacific. I'm a man, but it is the truth. At my work, nearly 80% of the women are abused. Mostly physical abuse that makes me sick to my stomach. And those who are not physically abused suffer mental abuse at their husbands hands. Although it is slowly starting to change, abuse is still very widely accepted in these societies. I guess I'm angry because I just spent a couple of hours at the hospital with one of my workers who was beat up by her so called boyfriend. It makes me want to pack my bags and leave this place.

So just a short post tonight as I'm still pissed off. Time to open a beer and relax.

Color or black and white

When I first started out, I was only interested in color. Why would anyone post in black and white I would ask myself. But as I became more interested in photography and more interested in nudes, I started to understand how powerful a simple black and white photo was. When we strip away the color, we can concentrate more on the body and I have become an admirer of black and white photos. Photos like that found on some of the blogs I have linked are very erotic and sensual and this is done without color.

This is a simple shot made in a hotel. It was lit by a single 60 inch umbrella fired from a canon 550 speedlight. The 60 inch umbrella gave very soft light and was placed close to the model. I converted to black and white using actions found in an action set I downloaded called blanco y negro. It has a number of actions that you can try that emulates different black and white film. This shot was converted using Ilford Pan F action found there. It is a free download (just Google) and has a number of different looks that you can obtain.

I like the simplicity of this photo and felt it worked better in black and white. Besides the conversion to black and white, very little else was done.

Now this post wouldn't be complete without some rambling by myself. I'm lucky in the sense that my boss resides over 5,000 miles away and it takes him two days to get here. I'm also lucky that he is actually a good person to work with (and no he doesn't read this blog so I'm not just saying that). But when he comes (which is usually for a week) it is early morning to night work and then when I come home, I need to catch up with my regular work. But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

In two more days will be the big song/dance festival here for Christmas. I looking forward to taking some photos of the event. On Friday the kids will dance so looks like a busy week leading up towards Christmas. I am leaving you with one more post of the prior festival for you to look at. For those living in the snow and ice right now, take care of yourselves. It is a chilly 83 degrees outside right now here.