Brutal Foto Scene 2013 Part III Model: Soraia Pargali

Day 3: The final photo shoot for the Vogue Fashion Photography Competition with only 2 days until submission deadline.   Drained and feeling a tad despondent from the previous 2 days of problematic photo shoots, I was hesitant about this final day.  I had several good, submittable images, but Vogue needed at least 12 and up to 20.     With this final shoot, there was a lot of pressure on Soraia and myself. Soraia Pargali is a professional career person and a single mother of three.  So, when she willingly carved out time and energy to help me with my project I was even more determined to make this happen.

We got the idea to create a sand/ocean fashion, working with some teal fabric for the ocean and some champagne, crinkled textured fabric for the sand.    We draped and wrapped and twisted fabric onto Soraia creating some intriguing designs. But, at that point of a 3 day photo shoot I had lost my Foto Mojo. It seemed that no matter the angle, lighting, position - I just wasn’t feeling it.  To my surprise, I called it quits.  I just didn’t have the heart to put Soraia through what seemed to be playing out as another ”Brutal Foto Scene. “  There are no images from that photo shoot, but Soraia has modeled previously for me; in fact, she was a Super Star with her images as Betty Davis - the funk singer, actress and model in the 60’s & 70’s.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Davis.   For a class project I needed to recreate a photo shoot by an inspirational photographer.  I chose photographer Herb Ritts and his b&w images of famous people.  I chose Betty Davis because although she was quite well known in her time -  very few folks know of her today.  All I can say is Soraia Pargali NAILED it!!  Her spicy attitude and striking features captured the essence of Betty Davis.  It was an incredible Foto scene full of energy. Things just clicked!   The images are so perfect, that I submitted them in a Photo Slam contest at the Oklahoma Museum Of Art and they were accepted.  Her images became part of a 5 minute presentation in front of a 200 member audience.  Here is Soraia Pargali as Betty Davis!

Brutal Foto Scene 2013 Part II Model: Jessica Stark

Jess is a friend of mine who has one of those wonderful model bodies that we all want -  tall, slender and flexible.    She always impresses me with incredibly difficult Yoga poses or, even better, full splits!    Having the option of a model that looks great in anything she wears and can turn her body into a pretzel is so beneficial to this photographer.    Whatever I ask of her, Jess is able to pull it off.    We decided to try and recreate an inspirational Herb Ritts b&w photo of Nicole Kidman.  It is a provocative pose with the model appearing to only be wearing black, thigh high boots.    The beauty and mastery of the Herb Ritts image is that, although the model appears nude, nothing is exposed.    It is all about the pose.    And as usual, Jess came prepared.  She had researched Herb Ritts and had studied the image, practicing the poses.    This shoot was very ambitious and I learned a great deal - especially the importance of thinking a shoot completely through!    Several of the poses from the Herb Ritts photography book I wanted to try were quite difficult and seemingly impossible.  After looking at them in more detail, Jess and I both came to the conclusion that the model had to be sitting or leaning against a wall to be able to get into position and hold it.   I am now in the process of revamping my cotton backdrops to a white, matte vinyl backdrop so that it can be flat against the wall for support.  Jess suggested that we shoot head shots first, then torso and full body, so that there is consistency with the poses and lighting setup.  This process will also allow for lens changes, I use a 50 mm f1.8 for head and torso shots and then I change to my 18-55 for full length.  Thank you beautiful Jess,   I completely agree!

Brutal Foto Scene 2013 Part I Model: Andrea Jones

Just 2 days after arriving home from a 2 week trip to Russia and Ukraine I set up 3 fashion photography shoots!  I had seen a Vogue Fashion Photography contest campaign open to ALL photographers and I thought it was worth a shot.  My 3 models were Andrea Jones, Jessica Stark and Soraia Pargali. With Andrea Jones, we designed a dress out of a 15 ft of sheer black fabric which was inspired by a tornado.   Creating the dress took several hours of thought and creativity, but we came up with a dress that was unique and would convey our vision of Mother Nature - tornado and empowerment.

Feeling pretty good about our results we then began the actual photo shoot.  Andrea is a skilled model; she is active in various film productions and modeling gigs.  She worked the dress and her expressions brilliantly while I yelled: “Be the tornado!”  It quickly became apparent that the images were out of focus.

Fast forward through the hours of standard, and then not so standard, camera and lighting adjustments and we painstakingly managed to get a few workable photos.  I still have no idea what happened.  Why the camera could not focus on her face and eyes is still out of my realm of photography knowledge.    Maybe the light was absorbed in all the black?  One thing I can say with certainty is it pays to have creative, reliable, never say die models.  Andrea worked incredibly hard and the process was brutal!  She did everything she could. The failure was on my side.   She is the one who was able to make it happen and get the stellar photos that evening.