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.

Glamour

Okay, not a nude shot, but one that I like alot. The lighting was just two 550 speedlights. One of the flashes was bounced into an umbrella and the other was bare flash against the white wall. I put the flashes close to the model to control the fall off as I wanted the bottom of the stairs to go dark and impart some mystery. I trigger my flash using pocketwizards (those things are great) and just look at the histogram until I get what I like. I have a flashmeter but don't use it all that often.

Post processing was some curves etc. Nothing special here

Christmas is almost here (as if you didn't know). It's always hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit. Maybe it's because in my whole life I have never seen snow. Yep, you read correctly I have never seen snow. I have spent my entire life in the Pacific. Mostly in Micronesia and more recently in the South Pacific. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy living here and being able to go to the beach and even throw a fishing line in the water right outside my house and catch dinner. But without snow I just have always felt something is missing.

Of course there are some unique and wonderful things here also. Song and dance is huge here and all the people put on shows where they sing and dance. It is great and everyone takes great pride in their group and they are very competitive. For two nights they get together and perform.

Now buying Christmas presents can be a challenge, with no big malls to shop at. However, given the recent tragedy with the mall shooting, that is okay by me. Through the magic of online shopping I can normally get what I need to get in regards to christmas presents.

I guess that brings me to one of the best things about living out here in the middle of the ocean. Violent crime is very very low. I don't worry about someone getting crazy. The kids (yes I have kids) go to school and I don't worry about them either.

I'm going to leave you with a photo of one of the dancers that will be dancing at the Christmas performances going on. I liked the photo as it shows the carefree and happy nature of the people here. I guess this is actually better than going to some of the Christmas shows on the mainland. At least we don't have to wrap up in winter coats here.

Well one last comment, I wanted the other photo down here but ended up at the top. Trying to figure out how to fix it but give up for now.

1st Post

A while back I suffered through some difficult times and was very shy. A friend of mine suggested I pick up a camera and use it as a way to get over my shyness and to express myself more. I have since become hooked on photography and everything about it. This is my journey as an amateur photographer.

Monica was the first woman to agree to pose nude for me. So many things wrong from a technical sense, but I ended up getting what are to me, some very memorable photos. This is a photo that I have come to know and love. She was also a great girlfriend at the time and we have since moved on but remain friends (i'm 15 years older so it was expected not to last).

Processing was done in photoshop using two actions combined. One is called professional retro. I then mesed with the saturation until I got something I liked. Next, I ran an action called Midnight Black. Now I'm the first to admit I don't have great photoshop skills but I liked the artistic mood of the photo.