I shot these in the Autumn of 2011 with my DSLR (CANON). This shooting style is "spontaneous self portraits" shot at close range.
The Story of the Photoshoot:
I shot these after a rainstorm. It was pouring all day, then suddenly, the sun came out!
I scrambled to wash my face, do my makeup, put on my earrings, and get dressed, then ran out while the light was still good! This far north, the weather is erratic, and the clouds can come & go, passing in front of the sunshine, and can screw up an entire photoshoot, if ur going for a certain look, or mood, especially since I prefer late afternoon, and sunset natural lighting.
During this shoot the clouds often messed up my flow of what was was happening. And, each frame is more than half by total chance, risk, and gambling, until either the light stops, or the battery charge runs out.
Sometimes you can see glistening, shimmering in the background. Those are the flooded puddles all over the landscape. They ended up in the shots/frames completely by accidental chance.
What I like about shooting "spontaneous photography" is that it forces you to completely operate outside of your comfort zone, which for me at first was a total nerve wracking experience! But, when you get those total accidental shots you wouldn't normally take, and they turn out amazing, it's this kind of feeling! I personally prefer it to gambling, even tho' I do enjoy a good day at the casino. But, this is CAPTURING A MOMENT IN TIME FOREVER.
If you've done enough practice at Spontaneous photography, you start to get a feel for certain tricks, or tips, or strategies for how to better increase your chances of certain kinds of moods, compositions, etc.... however, it's STILL mostly chance, no matter how much you strategize, and try to manipulate it your way, in the end you don't have true control... and the idea of control its self is just an illusion.
The Jacket:
I got this jacket from a store called "Contempo" which was another branch of "Wet Seal" at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree Mass (South Shore Greater Boston) in 2002. It's one of my favorite jackets, but you often can;t wear it in New England because the weather is either JUST TOO COLD, or JUST TOO HOT to comfortably wear it. Unless you are indoors... but I don;t often get invited to do anything for which such a jacket in appropriate to just casually wear up here...
The Feather Earrings:
The purple feather earrings are from Charlotte Russe which I believe I bought around 2009-2011.
I am double pierced.
I am actually wearing 2 pairs of earrings.
The story of the NECKLACE:
The necklace I am wearing is a mixture of vintage ethnic tribal silver beads which were hand made/tempered. It's hard to trace down which specific tribe each bead was made in. Its any guess from Tibet, to Rajasthan (India), to Yemenese, Turkoman, Miao, or even American Navajo. I came to aquire this necklace purely by chance from someone peddling stuff to my old store that I used to own in the hanover Mall selling imports, and arts. The person was persistantly pestering my spouse, whom became irate durring a very low yeilding Christmas retail season, and finally after asking her to leave, and refusing to buy anything since we were broke, he pulled out a ten dollar bill from his pocket, and pushed it into her hand and demanded her to leave whatever was there, and go because he was broke.
She had gotten greedy and wheeled a long line of shopping carts full of her old junk from her C.I.A parents from around the world, and caused a major disturbance in the mall. this not only bothered our store business, but, the mall security and leasing office became so irate they called the police to have her removed for disturbing the peace, and soliciting.
So, she left several bags of stuff all over the floor, and a few shopping carts, and wheeled the last 8 carts back to the parking lot.
In one of the bags was this obviously worn, vintage tribal silver necklace. My spouse asked me if I liked it, and I instantly understood what it was and snatched it right up before he had a chance to put it up for sale.
Some of the beads remind me of stuff from the 1970s, so that is my best guess about when this necklace was strung-up in this form before it came to me. I have actually restrung it several times due to it falling apart from wearing it so much.
The Story Of The Makeup:
This makeup is ENTIRELY "drugstore brand makeup" meaning the kinds of brands one one cheaply buy ins a pharmacy like CVS or Wall-Mart (USA).
The majority of what I am wearing is by Maybelline, but also L'Oréal, Physician's Formula, and Cover Girl. (I believe I am actually using the "Eye Primer Potion" by "Urban Decay" tho', which cost like $19! Yeesh! But, it was WORTH IT! It was my ONLY Christmas gift that year.)
This makeup look is based LOOSELY on the makeup look by Bellydance Super Star Ansuya:
I say I based my makeup on her LOOSELY because this was something I had NEVER really done, and since I had lost virtually ALL of my makeup after a Philadelphia wedding photoshoot. My looks is more pinks & plums, and hers is WAY MORE DRAMATIC.
Since I took up dance, makeup became a thing... and it forced me to learn a lot about it, even tho' I was so awful at it...
Until this photoshoot, I had NEVER used gel eyeliner in a shoot, and I hated using any kind of liner, even tho' I had used it in high school, briefly...
Even tho' purple is my favorite color, it's not my favorite color to use for makeup, pink is my most hated color except for makeup which I go insane over because it looks best with my complexion. I have stupidly spent over $50+ on just high-end eyeshadow palettes just because they were uniquely pinkish. Yes, it's stupid girl thing, and I often HATE makeup... yet I have so much of it now... at the time, I lost all of my makeup and had to start up my collection from scratch, coupon by coupon.
I honestly have since become full of hatred, disdain, and contempt for makeup by L'Oréal because it is SO TOXIC, full of allergens, poisons, and makes you look WRINKLED. L'Oréal is also notoriously infamous for consistently containing led.
One of my bellydance teachers (Bellydance Super Star Zoe Jakes) had her stage gear totally robbed along with the gear from her band while touring. they begged whomever took it to return it no questions asked, but to no avail... this forced her to do other things, and she started making her own costumes again, and building up her collections of costume bedlehs, tribal silver, baubles, and bobs, and took her out of her comfort zone. She lamented about it on TribeNet and "giving up attachments by force. But the result of that was her being far more creative with her dance, costumes, music, and learning new makeup, etc...
That's actually what happened to me also. Altho' I would LOVE to have several of my old makeup bits back, my makeup collection is FAR BETTER than it ever was now, and I am much better at makeup than ever. And, I actually HATED makeup before.
But, in loosing my makeup, and learning stage makeup, I also learned how to wear makeup for a job, or a job interview, and even how to make & formulate my own makeup. (nerd stuff) I learned about things in makeup that can make you sick, cause cancer, give diseases, harm pregnancy, cause premature aging, and even companies that used animal testing, which is mostly gone now since then.
The Story of the Photoshoot:
I shot these after a rainstorm. It was pouring all day, then suddenly, the sun came out!
I scrambled to wash my face, do my makeup, put on my earrings, and get dressed, then ran out while the light was still good! This far north, the weather is erratic, and the clouds can come & go, passing in front of the sunshine, and can screw up an entire photoshoot, if ur going for a certain look, or mood, especially since I prefer late afternoon, and sunset natural lighting.
During this shoot the clouds often messed up my flow of what was was happening. And, each frame is more than half by total chance, risk, and gambling, until either the light stops, or the battery charge runs out.
Sometimes you can see glistening, shimmering in the background. Those are the flooded puddles all over the landscape. They ended up in the shots/frames completely by accidental chance.
What I like about shooting "spontaneous photography" is that it forces you to completely operate outside of your comfort zone, which for me at first was a total nerve wracking experience! But, when you get those total accidental shots you wouldn't normally take, and they turn out amazing, it's this kind of feeling! I personally prefer it to gambling, even tho' I do enjoy a good day at the casino. But, this is CAPTURING A MOMENT IN TIME FOREVER.
If you've done enough practice at Spontaneous photography, you start to get a feel for certain tricks, or tips, or strategies for how to better increase your chances of certain kinds of moods, compositions, etc.... however, it's STILL mostly chance, no matter how much you strategize, and try to manipulate it your way, in the end you don't have true control... and the idea of control its self is just an illusion.
The Jacket:
I got this jacket from a store called "Contempo" which was another branch of "Wet Seal" at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree Mass (South Shore Greater Boston) in 2002. It's one of my favorite jackets, but you often can;t wear it in New England because the weather is either JUST TOO COLD, or JUST TOO HOT to comfortably wear it. Unless you are indoors... but I don;t often get invited to do anything for which such a jacket in appropriate to just casually wear up here...
The Feather Earrings:
The purple feather earrings are from Charlotte Russe which I believe I bought around 2009-2011.
I am double pierced.
I am actually wearing 2 pairs of earrings.
The story of the NECKLACE:
The necklace I am wearing is a mixture of vintage ethnic tribal silver beads which were hand made/tempered. It's hard to trace down which specific tribe each bead was made in. Its any guess from Tibet, to Rajasthan (India), to Yemenese, Turkoman, Miao, or even American Navajo. I came to aquire this necklace purely by chance from someone peddling stuff to my old store that I used to own in the hanover Mall selling imports, and arts. The person was persistantly pestering my spouse, whom became irate durring a very low yeilding Christmas retail season, and finally after asking her to leave, and refusing to buy anything since we were broke, he pulled out a ten dollar bill from his pocket, and pushed it into her hand and demanded her to leave whatever was there, and go because he was broke.
She had gotten greedy and wheeled a long line of shopping carts full of her old junk from her C.I.A parents from around the world, and caused a major disturbance in the mall. this not only bothered our store business, but, the mall security and leasing office became so irate they called the police to have her removed for disturbing the peace, and soliciting.
So, she left several bags of stuff all over the floor, and a few shopping carts, and wheeled the last 8 carts back to the parking lot.
In one of the bags was this obviously worn, vintage tribal silver necklace. My spouse asked me if I liked it, and I instantly understood what it was and snatched it right up before he had a chance to put it up for sale.
Some of the beads remind me of stuff from the 1970s, so that is my best guess about when this necklace was strung-up in this form before it came to me. I have actually restrung it several times due to it falling apart from wearing it so much.
The Story Of The Makeup:
This makeup is ENTIRELY "drugstore brand makeup" meaning the kinds of brands one one cheaply buy ins a pharmacy like CVS or Wall-Mart (USA).
The majority of what I am wearing is by Maybelline, but also L'Oréal, Physician's Formula, and Cover Girl. (I believe I am actually using the "Eye Primer Potion" by "Urban Decay" tho', which cost like $19! Yeesh! But, it was WORTH IT! It was my ONLY Christmas gift that year.)
This makeup look is based LOOSELY on the makeup look by Bellydance Super Star Ansuya:
I say I based my makeup on her LOOSELY because this was something I had NEVER really done, and since I had lost virtually ALL of my makeup after a Philadelphia wedding photoshoot. My looks is more pinks & plums, and hers is WAY MORE DRAMATIC.
Since I took up dance, makeup became a thing... and it forced me to learn a lot about it, even tho' I was so awful at it...
Until this photoshoot, I had NEVER used gel eyeliner in a shoot, and I hated using any kind of liner, even tho' I had used it in high school, briefly...
Even tho' purple is my favorite color, it's not my favorite color to use for makeup, pink is my most hated color except for makeup which I go insane over because it looks best with my complexion. I have stupidly spent over $50+ on just high-end eyeshadow palettes just because they were uniquely pinkish. Yes, it's stupid girl thing, and I often HATE makeup... yet I have so much of it now... at the time, I lost all of my makeup and had to start up my collection from scratch, coupon by coupon.
I honestly have since become full of hatred, disdain, and contempt for makeup by L'Oréal because it is SO TOXIC, full of allergens, poisons, and makes you look WRINKLED. L'Oréal is also notoriously infamous for consistently containing led.
One of my bellydance teachers (Bellydance Super Star Zoe Jakes) had her stage gear totally robbed along with the gear from her band while touring. they begged whomever took it to return it no questions asked, but to no avail... this forced her to do other things, and she started making her own costumes again, and building up her collections of costume bedlehs, tribal silver, baubles, and bobs, and took her out of her comfort zone. She lamented about it on TribeNet and "giving up attachments by force. But the result of that was her being far more creative with her dance, costumes, music, and learning new makeup, etc...
That's actually what happened to me also. Altho' I would LOVE to have several of my old makeup bits back, my makeup collection is FAR BETTER than it ever was now, and I am much better at makeup than ever. And, I actually HATED makeup before.
But, in loosing my makeup, and learning stage makeup, I also learned how to wear makeup for a job, or a job interview, and even how to make & formulate my own makeup. (nerd stuff) I learned about things in makeup that can make you sick, cause cancer, give diseases, harm pregnancy, cause premature aging, and even companies that used animal testing, which is mostly gone now since then.
No comments:
Post a Comment