Goddesses - Hunt

Some time has passed but a couple of weeks ago I was able to pick up my Goddesses project once more, this time covering the theme of Hunt with Vicious-Dark-Art as a model. This time I wanted to try and root it more into the celtic look than the greek look I did before so this image turned out somewhat darker though it definately has some similar elements between the both images.

Before shooting began some things had to be arranged, I wanted the huntress to have a bow, luckily I have some friends who have them so I borrowed one and decided the completely black look of it wasnt quite up to my tastes so I got creative with some pieces of leather and string to adapt the look.

As a basis for the rest of the styling we started of with a dark brown leather skirt owned by Vicious-Dark-Art and added soms small braids in her wonderfully long hair, draped a fox skin around her shoulders and tied a rabbit skin around her lower arm and we were ready to shoot.

My original idea for this shot was something quite different, more a prey-stalking pose through the forest, looking for a deer or something, arrow at the ready.. but during the shoot when I was checking some results on camera and when I looked up there was this pose which I liked while she was just waiting for me... and I shot a few of that pose and in the end I decided I liked this a lot better.

Then it was time for editing and digging through archives of pictures starting with forests and greenery. I also had a picture of a wolf from a trip to Ouwehands Dierenpark (a zoo, 5 minutes from where I live) which made a suitable companion. The stones are taken from pictures taken at events from Vortex Adventures. A LARP organisation which is host to some awesome looking props and monster costumes. Check out www.the-vortex.nl for more information (in Dutch).

After composing the image with the wolf and stones it was time for some effects, mostly shadows and some lighting effects. Also revisiting a fake bokeh effect I had also used for the first one. And the blue glowing things around the stones were most definately inspired by Pixar's Brave.

Enough talk, time for the end result. Enjoy.

Shadow angel

It's been a while since I wrote my last blog here, so high time for another behind the scenes talk about a shoot I did a little while with the lovely Teresa DuMore: Shadow Angel.

The origins of this shoot start quite some time back during a round of mindless zapping around the available TV channels and at some point I got into the adult channels such as Playboy TV and such and within that section I set eyes upon Teresa for the first time and her marvellous back tattoo and I told myself that if given the chance I would do something with those wings.

Then fast forward time a few months. Teresa isnt the first model from the adult industry that I've worked with. About a year ago I worked on my Decadence project with Foxxy Angel. And as it turned out to be: Foxxy and Teresa are friends and by posting the decadence shoot on Twitter I gained a new follower giving me the oppurtunity to get in touch with Teresa. So I did.

Some messages were sent back and forth and I created a moodboard with what I sort of had in mind and a few months later we were discussing this moodboard over a cup of tea at cafe in her hometown and my city of birth which immediately broke whatever ice there might have been. Also, the moodboard was a big factor for Teresa in deciding to work and meet with me. So I would say to other photographers: use moodboards! They rock!

A little time passed again with me working on my concepts such as goddesses and 'the outsider' (for my masterclass with Hanneke Meier) and entering in a photo contest for Playboy Netherlands and working out a storyboard for this shoot. Funnily enough the idea to do a storyboard originated from the masterclass I was working on simultaneously.

Eventually we found a date at the end of april for our shoot and I enlisted the help of a good friend, La Dutchessa, to help out in the Make up department. And after some train-troubles I had my place filled with a fun and relaxed atmosphere preparing for the shoot.

Time flew by as shots from the storyboard were translated into rough photographs against a white wall to be replaced in photoshop later and we managed to sneak in some extra shots for a new tradition I started that weekend involving an awesome chair I bought for shoots but end up never using because of space constraints. So now I use the chair as a prop for an extra shot to make one big collection of models I've worked with.

After shooting it's time for editing. I first created masked backgrounds using a random forest picture I plucked off the web to create some mood straight away.. and I then had a choice, photorealism or not. I knew I could do a fairly photorealistic forest from scratch in photoshop using materials from my archive and a little stock. But I decided to take a different route using lots of different brushes and elements to create my spooky forest. And in the end I'm very pleased with that.

And that kind of wraps up the story behind this shoot, my second one with a model from the adult-industry, but that's not something that bothers me in the slightest way, as with most people from a public business (say musicians and rock stars), they are just people. Making a living doing something different from the larger part of society, but as for the rest, we're not all that different no matter what we earn our money with and Teresa and I had a lot of fun preparing and working on this shoot. And one of the steps in the preparation process is now leading to a second shoot with Foxxy and I'm not minding one bit. My photography is still me and I'm not shooting porn all of a sudden because of it.

So, without anything else to add I'm leaving it to the pictures. The first one is in the blog which then links to the full gallery.

Shadow Angel - the full set.

Goddesses - The first.

Near the end of the last year I posted a casting call for models on this blog, a casting call specific for plus size models for a project called Goddesses. My aim with this project is to show how plus size women can be beautiful, despite the fashion image going for ultrathin. The response was overwhelming, within days I had over 30 names of models in a list. Both experienced and somewhat inexperienced, but bringing lots of enthousiasm to the table.

All this started somewhere, as most things tend to do. And this project started with me and a model I have worked with before; Masked-Illusion. And she wanted to work with me again, mostly because we just have great fun when together, wether we're shooting or not. But doing a shoot is always a nice excuse, so I had to think of something to shoot. So browsing through some inspiration folders I found a number of images, slightly leaning towards ancient greek times and I thought it'd be fun to do something with that.

Later on, when I had a first moodboard I thought it might be fun to expand this into a project as the theme of goddesses is something one can vary wildly with and the last big idea of doing a Twisted Carnival calendar series never really took off (I might pick that up sometime in the future once more though) and thus the project was born.

But this is the one it all started with and we did the shoot sometime at the end of 2011 as Masked-Illusion is currently reciding in Finland for her studies and this was conjurred up long before the others. Shooting went fairly smooth and fast as tends to happen when you have a fairly fixed idea in your mind of what it is you want to shoot.

Editing however took longer, way longer, mostly because I simply didnt get around to it much having other photography things in the way or work consuming far too much time. And also, I did the editing with constantly making printscreens to create a little timelapse video of the editing process.

And now it is all done. Time to start working on the other ones, get teams together etc, although I will probably finish my concept from the Masterclass with Hanneke Meier first... so much to do, so little time ;)

Conceptlicious

When I first started doing model photography it was a way to do shoots that weren't based on whatever was happening in front of my camera at that moment as was the case with shooting concerts or LARP events. It gave me something new to experiment with, directing the image into the range I wanted it. And as time progressed I started thinking of concepts and telling stories. And I've been liking to do that more and more of which I think Goddesses as a project is a good example.

And a few months ago I read about Hanneke Meier and her concept Freakshow on the website of Photoguide. (photoguide.nl) which was started by Anouk Timmerman, a fellow concertphotographer (amongst others) whom I've known for some time now and keep in touch with through twitter etc.  And the both of them offer a Masterclass Portrait with a concept by Hanneke. ( http://photoguide.nl/workshops/workshop-portret-met-concept/ )  and I've been thinking about that for some time and during the holiday break (thereabout ish) I decided to go ahead and do it.. despite already working on my goddesses project.

The main reason for me to take this masterclass is to take my concept-based shoots to a next level so that I can further develop my own concepts to make them even more awesome. And since I want Goddesses to be awesome I decided to mix this in to see what I could learn from it and apply it to my running concept as well.

So, last sunday, the first weekend in the new year I went to Hanneke for the first session of the masterclass to brainstorm on an idea and make the first steps. I tried to go in as blank as I could but I did have some restrictions I set beforehand as I wanted it to be different from my running concept in a lot of ways. So I had set that I wanted multiple models of which at least one or more were male shot on a location as opposed to a single female model in a studio and replacing the background with photoshop.

As we started off Hanneke typed everything into a document as a form of a brainstorm at first.. and she let my mind run free, occasionally giving nudges or encouraging me not to limit myself and that nothing should be impossible and in that it was pretty cool way to work although not an entirely unfamiliar one due to my experience as a designer. But somehow I had never actually used that knowledge within my photography before.

After an hour or so we had a pretty clear picture of what the concept was going to be and the keyboard was handed over to me to flesh it out.. typing and thinking along filling in details about the images that had to be shot.. styling for the main character and extra's, possible names for styling and make up artists etc. And another hour later we had a concept written out.

Which was actually ahead of schedule, which was probably also kind of due to me being used to creative processes already, but I am sure Hanneke is quite able to help someone with that as well. For me personally I really liked the way she thought along and sometimes gave nudges.. even if she was saying things that I was about to type at times (what's that again about great minds think alike?)

So now I'm busy arranging a team and figuring out how I can find a good location somewhere that's big enough yet easily to reach by public transport because of the number of extra's needed and picking them all up from a trainstation would be complicated.. but I'll get there eventually. And then it's all about setting a date and part two.. shooting the thing (and Hanneke has already kindly offered to take some behind the scenes photos.. )

Good things are rolling!

Models wanted: Plus size only.

Plus size, maatje meer, curvy, big girls, en zo zijn er nog wel een aantal benamingen meer, lang niet altijd even positief. Het huidige modebeeld wordt overspoelt met modellen die dunner dan dun zijn, vaak nog verder afgeslankt met behulp van Photoshop. Een beeld dat kennelijk het gros van de mensen mooi vind. Een beeld waar ik me niet zo heel goed in kan vinden. En daarom wil ik nu een serie fotoshoots beginnen die een heel ander beeld neer gaan zetten. Het beeld dat vollere vrouwen wel degelijk mooi en sexy zijn.

Het thema van deze serie shoots is Goddesses: geïnspireerd door verschillende culturen en vormen wil ik meerdere godinnen uit gaan beelden. Godinnen van de liefde, strijd, muziek, slaap, zee, natuur, de dood, de jacht zijn allemaal mogelijkheden. Geput uit Griekse mythologie, scandinavische, keltische, afrikaanse, oosterse. Het kan dus zomaar voorkomen dat ik meerdere malen een godin van de liefde en schoonheid uitvoer, maar dan met andere styling en vormen.

Voor twee vormen heb ik al wat moodboards gemaakt (gebasseerd op Aphrodite, griekse godin van Liefde en schoonheid en de Noorse valkyries) De eerste van deze moodboards is al bezet qua model, maar ze dienen vooral om een idee te geven van de kanten waar deze serie op kan gaan 

Ik heb al een aantal meer combinaties in gedachten voor verschillende vlakken met bepaalde mythologiën, maar ik zoek nu vooral eerst modellen die geinteresseerd zijn om mee te werken aan mijn ode aan de vollere vrouw. De shoots kunnen zoals in de moodboards te zien zijn ook (bedekt) naakt bevatten en ik zal alles in een studiosetting fotograferen. Achtergronden zal ik creeëren met photoshop als gemeende deler tussen alle shoots.

Tot zover het concept, lijkt het je als plus size model interessant om hier aan mee te werken op TFP basis, laat dan vooral een reactie achter op een van de volgende plaatsen:

Twitter: @icemotion
Facebook: I.c.e Motion
of per email: info_at_icemotion.nl

Decadence

In de zomer van 2009 ontstond er een idee. Een idee gebasseerd op een scene uit Lord of the Rings, de op dat moment vrij frequent uitgezonden reclame voor Dior met Charlize Theron en de stillevens uit de 17e eeuw. Om het beeld dat zich in mijn hoofd vormde begon ik te zoeken naar een model dat bij het concept paste. De keuze viel uiteindelijk op Foxxy Angel vanwege haar uitstraling en tattoos die braken met het verder klassieke beeld.

Daarna was het zoeken naar de juiste props en attributen, een make-up artist die ik vond in Lady Dageraad, een bevriende fotografe, die zeker niet onverdienstelijk de poederkwast ter hand kan nemen. Props vond ik in antiek-zaken, op gothic en fantasy beurzen, op zolder en uiteindelijk bij de slager en supermarkt.

De uiteindelijke datum van uitvoeren werdt 15 mei 2011. Jaren later door allerlei omstandigheden die telkens het maken van een afspraak in de weg zaten, maar na lang wachten kwam dit plan toch eens tot uitvoering in een geleende studio van bevriende fotograaf nr 2.

Om te beginnen met de uitvoering ben ik eerst begonnen met het opzetten van de tafel met als eerste resultaat de lichttest bovenaan deze post. Hoewel nog niet alle attributen op hun plek lagen ging het de goede kant op, alleen zou op deze manier het model volledig in het donker vallen, dus was er een aanpassing nodig. Een tweede lamp erbij met ook een beautydish en set.

Vanaf daar liep het op de spreekwoordelijke rolletjes. De keuze om voor het glas wijn, geen wijn, maar een vruchtendrank te gebruiken bleek ook goed uit te pakken, in een eerdere shoot was ik er al eens achter gekomen dat rode wijn zelf te donker blijkt om mooi op de foto over te komen.

Ondertussen werdt Foxxy in de make-up gezet, op mijn verzoek flink over the top en kon de echte shoot beginnen. Meteen vanaf de eerste foto kwam het beeld dat al 2 jaar in mijn hoofd zat tot leven.

Een paar uur later stond alles op de memory card, werden de laatste resten nog een keer opgewarmt en opgegeten (vrijwel alles dat op tafel stond is ook diezelfde dag opgegaan) en heb ik Foxxy weer bij het station afgezet waar ik haar eerder die dag had opgehaald.

De gehele serie: http://www.icemotion.nl/decadence/

Instagram

Sinds afgelopen weekend maak ik er ook gebruik van, Instagram. Een gratis iPhone app die je vrij eenvoudig foto's laat delen op een sociale manier ala Twitter. Maak een foto, gooi er eventueel een van de bijgeleverde filters overheen die je foto's laten lijken op resultaten uit old school camera's en tap op share.

Ik ontdekte de app via twitter en dan met name dankzij Anouk Timmerman en haar uitleg over Instagram.
[Anouk Timmerman haar blog over Instagram]

En afgelopen weekend dus zelf ook geïnstalleerd en wat ik zo leuk vind aan Instagram is dat het me bijna dwingt om weer beter om me heen te kijken.. op zoek naar het mooie of ongewone in het alledaagse, iets dat het hebben van een camera in mn telefoon (en daarmee dus eigenlijk zo goed als bijna altijd en overal) me nog nooit toe heeft bewogen.

Want als je het zo bekijkt is de wereld eigenlijk heel mooi.. ondanks al het rotweer soms.. er is genoeg te ontdekken. Ik heb nu nog maar een paar volgers en volg ook nog maar een aantal mensen die tussen mijn twitter followers al actief waren met nog maar een paar fotootjes. Maar dat gaan er absoluut meer worden.. exit niet tot nooit meer gebruikte hyves app.. entree Instagram!