From Wikipedia: "Pygmalion is a legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, he is most familiar from Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved."

I first met Chanel at a DesignU event i photographed. She was doing a painting, live on stage. As I looked at her work, I wondered how it might look like on a “human canvas.” I proposed the idea to her and she loved it. The idea then took shape and as I thought of the blocking for the shoot, it was similar to an idea that I had for a friend with a really awesome back tattoo. The biggest change the the feel, was that this was a lot lighter and dreamy. The Pygmalion concept came to me as I thought on it more. The idea of an artist falling in love with their creation and the creation coming to life, sounded really cool.

On editing, I softened Syreen's skin more than Chanel's, but I kept the texture of the paint mostly intact. I wanted the shots to come out with Chanel looking intent and Syreen looking more aloof. Syreen being the work of art come to life, needed to have a slight other-worldliness to her.

The rest here: http://ryusen.smugmug.com/Models/Pygmalion/

 

 

Lighting:
Key - AB800 w/ Octobox camera Right
Background: Speedlight Camera Right and above
Background/Rim: AB800 with 7” reflector Camera Left and low (though... now that I think about it more, I wonder if I should have made it higher.

Credits (Much Thanks):
Photography and Editing – Me
Body Paint – Chanel
Models – Chanel & Syreen
Make up - Kimberly
Studio – Keoni
Outfits – Erin, Aileen, Shayna, Heidi.

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mrs. Patricia Morine Davidson <revjohnmartins2@hosanna.net>
Date: 2011/6/8
Subject: STOP CONTACTING THOSE SCAMMERS
To:

Attn: My Dear Good Friend

I am Mrs Patricia Morine Davidson, I am a US citizen, 51 years Old. I reside here in Cedar Hill Texas 75104. My residential address is as follows. 1273 Hayes St Cedar Hill Texas 7510, United States, am thinking of relocating since I am now rich. I am one of those that took part in the Compensation in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me, I had paid over $50,000 while in the US, trying to get my payment all to no avail.

So I decided to travel down to United Nations with all my compensation documents, And I was directed to meet Mr Rev John Martins, who is the member of COMPENSATION AWARD COMMITTEE, and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said whoever is contacting us through emails are fake.

He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment.  Right now I am the most happiest woman on  earth because I have received my compensation funds of 1,600,000.00 pounds Moreover, Rev John Martins, showed me the full information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw your email address as one of the beneficiaries, that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those people, they are not with your fund,

they are only making money out of you. I will advise you to contact Rev John Martins

You have to contact him directly on this information below.

COMPENSATION AWARD HOUSE
Name : Rev John Martins
Email: revjohnmartins1@yahoo.com.cn
Phone: +448709744205

You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are only taking advantage of you and they will dry you up until you have nothing.

The only money I paid after I met Rev John Martins was just 300 pounds for the paper works, take note of that.

Once again stop contacting those people, I will  advise you to contact Rev John Martins so that he can help you to Deliver your fund instead of dealing with those liars that will be turning you around asking for different kind of money to complete your transaction.

Thank You and Be Blessed.
Mrs. Patricia Morine Davidson

So, many people know about this already, but i have developed cataracts.  For the last few months, my vision has been slowly getting worse and worse.  On Wed (5/27/11), i'll be having some surgery done to get that fixed.  The basic procedure is they will cut into my eye, remove the old lens, and replace it with an artificial one.  In the end, the hope is that my vision will be dramatically improved.  Best case scenario is that i'll not need glasses for distance (except to correct astigmatism), but i'll need Reading glasses.  The chances for complications are small, but a bit scary.  Simply because i only have one good eye (i had retinal detachments when i was younger).  if something goes wrong, it's all over.  i'm blind.  Cross that with my favorite hobby and it becomes a bit extra scary.

Wed night i got to shoot with Erin for the first time since our Chun Li shoot.  While she is not as experianced as many girls i've shot, she is so pretty. It just takes a little bit of extra work and practice with the poses to get them down.  I was verry happy with this shot.  I really like the expression and catch light in her eyes.  There are a few others that i'm still wokring on.

Credits:
Model: Erin
Photography: Me
Blog Post Title: Wilma

Lighting: 
AB899 w/Shoot Through Umbralla left 
Speed Light behind and right
AB800 with Red Gell for the background light. 

I think i could have used a kicker on Camera Left to give her arm a bit of a rim light.

The Background was scrunched up like a curtain.  I am liking this affect and might do it more often.  The only thing is, i really need to get more black fabric.  Doing this against the Gray backdrop seems to require more processing that i'd like.  Time to experiment...

Wilma: *grin*

Wilma: ahhhh. so what's the event?
Zarli: he wants to meet to tell me more
Wilma: interesting. are you going to
Zarli: yeah can't hurt.. not like he's going to Rogue my photography powerz and dump me off a bridge .p

The quote is from, "The Three Cornered World" (orig Title, "Kusa Maruka"), by Soseki.  As most people that know me know, my photography has gone beyond just an attempt to capture beauty, but for me it is a growing experience.  Every new model i work with, every new theme or technique is explore, helps me to discover a little bit more about myself.  Even rehashing older ideas in new ways shows me a little bit more.  For some reason this quote came back to me recently.  I'm not even sure why i thought of it.  Perhaps i was looking at the way i approach things.  I think i have an intense passion for what i do.  There's a certain bit of drive that makes me want to pursue something.  I think that perhaps that kind of passion and instability might scare off people who live in a four cornered world.  There might be people who don't quite understand my drive and mistake it for something else.  Fortunately, i have been able to meet many great people who also live in this three cornered world.  People that inspire me, support me, and give me passion.  With any luck i will be able to continue to drive myself and the people i work with further.

So Kim wanted me to do this idea for a goth rock band... cept she was going to be the whole band.  I've done these multiple exposure blends before, even though they take a lot of work.  We went to Kaka'ako rather than trying to shoot it on a green screen, because we were hoping for some wind... which never came.  The Key light was an AB800 with the octobox.  I removed the baffles, because i wanted a more specular light.  For the Singer and Violinist (yes it's really a Viola, but it was supposed to be a Violin), the Key light was camera right and above.  For the Bassist, the Key light was camera right as well, with my LP160 acting as a fill, so we could see her face.The Hair Light was an AB800 with a 20deg Grid, right behind her head.  I think i over exposed the hair light, though.  Next time, try two stops down from the key rather than 1.

In post, i took the liberty to changing her lipstick for each one to match.  The Violinist was softer and more classical, so i kept it natural.  The Bassist, had the blond hair and red bass, so i made it red.  The Singer looked more hard core, so it was more brown.  Found a picture of an opera house.  i only used the very top of it which was highly distorted.  It might have been taken with a very wide lens.  Combining transform, puppet warp, and liquify, i tried to straighten it out a bit.  Brought it back into Lightroom and added a vignette