Down Low Photography

One way to shake-up your pretty girl shooting, you know, to kick it up a notch and add drama and interest, is by getting low. I'm not talking low-brow or mind-in-the-gutter low, although those mind-sets sometimes work, I'm referring to your shooting angles: Your position with the camera relative to the model, i.e., shooting up, rakishly up, from down low with radical, upward-looking, shooting angles.

I often shoot from somewhat low-ish angles. Sometimes, I shoot from way down low angles. That doesn't just mean plopping my ass on an apple box and shooting up. (Which I'm often prone to doing.) It also means dropping my ass even lower: On my back or on my belly low. (On my back tends to be lower than on my belly altho my diet has me in shrinking belly mode and, before too long, I should be good-2-go, belly up or belly down.) Also, placing the model on a riser in the studio with a seamless behind her or positioning the model higher (than you) on a slope when you're shooting exterior locations are a couple of other ways to capture down-low goodness. (Without the need to lie on your back or belly.)

Besides adding drama and interest, shooting from down low adds power to the model, i.e., makes her seem more powerful in the image. Conversely, shooting from high angles downward often has the opposite effect. Photographing models from eye-level angles can often be boring is kind of neutral in terms of sending subtle or not-so-subtle messages to the image's viewers.

For viewers, images shot from down-low (that is, shot from low with angles looking up) can make models really stand-out in a dominant way even when the background environment is dramatic and powerful, e.g., awesome sunsets or other dramatic skies, cool urban skylines, other breathtaking landscapes or really cool interiors. BTW, when I say "dominant," I don't necessarily mean it in a sexual sense -- although that can also be accomplished from down-low shooting -- I'm speaking more to the way viewers perceive the model when you're shooting from radically low positions and angled up.

If you want to go even further with this down-low stuff, try shooting from very low with Dutch angles. (A canted camera.) Doing so also produces really cool, less-often-seen, images.

Kayla, once again at the top, this time from down-low with her shining light on me. I gotta say, it's always a nice view when I'm down-low, between a hot model's legs, looking up. Yeah, I know, get your mind outa the gutter, Jimmy. But hey! I'm often being paid for having my mind in the gutter. It's part of my profession. It's like, when I'm on duty, I'm a paid perv. Besides, I'm a guy, right? A straight guy. I'm wired that way. So there!

Blogging Pays Off!

For the past three years, I've been pouring time into this blog like a degenerate, two-bit, gambler plunking quarters into a slot machine. Yeah, Lucky 7s have lined up a few times but the tangible payouts haven't been anything to crow about.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining! (Although it might sound like I am.) I enjoy writing. I especially enjoy writing about photography. Make that writing about pretty girl shooting photography. Plus, there's other kinds of payouts, i.e., intangible payouts like psychological, emotional, and ego-stroking payouts. Those kinds of payouts have been numerous. Too numerous to list. In a nutshell, I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of writing this blog and knowing people are reading it. Judging from the comments and emails I receive, many of you genuinely seem to appreciate what I'm doing here. That's very cool! Thanks!

More than a few of you purchase items from Amazon by using the link I've provided in the side column. My commissions, which I take in gift certificates, allow me to purchase a few things now and then... and at no cost to me and courtesy of you, the PGS blog's readers. Mostly, I purchase photography books that help me become more knowledgeable and that I later review. But not always. For instance, I purchased my little Canon Power Shot point-n-shoot with those gift certs.

Two days ago, I wrote something I called, "The Wall." I doubt it stirred anyone to any great extent. I felt I needed to write about something and, as a follow-on to my "The Old Man Who Lives on the Hill" update (which was only vaguely about photography and certainly not about pretty girl shooting) writing about the wall seemed to make sense. In retrospect, it turned out to be a blog update that is already paying off quite nicely.

That night, after writing "The Wall" update, I received an email from the marketing manager of a company called, Innovatronix. The company is HQ'd in the Phillipines and is the manufacturer of the Explorer XT portable power source I mentioned in the "The Wall" article. It seems a lot of you clicked on the link I provided and that got the attention of those 'Tronix people... half-way around the globe!

In the email, Glen, Innovatronix's marketing manager, offered to send me an Explorer XT (mine to keep) in exchange for writing a review of the product and providing them a pic or two -- SFW pics for use on their website -- from a set I might shoot utilizing the Explorer XT as a (no A/C available) location power source. How cool is that? Earlier in the day, I was writing about how much I'd like to have one of those babies for an upcoming shoot and, BINGO! By that night I found out I was gonna get one, courtesy of the manufacturer!

But it gets better.

An hour or two later I received another email from Glen. This time he tells me he had a meeting with 'Tronix's president and they've decided to not only send me an Explorer XT, but they'd also like to send me their Tronix Auxiliary Battery Pack, once again, if I'd later write a review and send them some pics.

Wow!

But it gets better.

Glen and the president also decided they would like to send me their Tronix Portable Air Blower as well as one of their (as yet to be officially released) Tronix Vulcan Battery-Operated Smoke Machines! Yep! You guessed it! Also mine to keep and with the same quid pro quo conditions, i.e., reviews and pics.

Holy smokes! (Pun intended.)

But it still gets better!

In an email back to Glen where I thanked him and 'Tronix's president for making me an offer I can't refuse, I mentioned my plans to promote pretty girl shooting workshops. Late last night, Glen emailed back confirming my acceptance of their kind offer, asking for my shipping address and, once again, upping the ante: He advised me that Innovatronix would be very interested in becoming a sponsor of such events!

I am... really thrilled about this and looking forward to trying out Innovatronix's gear and developing an on-going relationship with them. (I'm already dreaming up some ideas for using a smoke machine and/or an air blower in places where they're normally not used. How so? Because I'll be able to use them without being tethered to an A/C outlet.)

If any of you are planning on attending the WPPI Convention at the MGM Grand Hotel Conference Center in Las Vegas this weekend, stop by the Innovatronix booth and say hi. I attended last year, thoroughly enjoyed it, but am unable to be there this time. Innovatronix will be in Booth 335. Please tell them JimmyD, the pretty girl shooter, sent you.

The SFW pretty girl photo at the top is Kayla from a shoot in 2008. Kayla's got a great profile, no? Here's another of Kayla from a different shoot. This time, with unusual processing (for me) but a more customary PGS NSFW pic.

The Wall

So as not to be second-guessed, let me start off by mentioning this update has nothing to do with Pink Floyd. (Although it is true I'm a long-time Pink Floyd fan.)

Having said that, it is true this post is about a wall, that is, the wall my neighbors and I refer to as the wall.

Like the old man who lives on the hill (whom I wrote about yesterday) the wall also exists across the street from where I reside. For reference, the hill where the old man lives is to the left of where my little Canon point-n-shoot was focused when, just today, I shot the above pic of the wall.

The county built the wall last summer. Its purpose is to stop debris (from dead trees to discarded refrigerators) from washing down the canyon during a big rain storm. The canyon behind the wall runs for miles up into the hills and back-country, eventually leading to a lake and recreational area about 5 to 10 miles away. There's also a California condor sanctuary up there, not to mention deer, coyotes, mountain lions, and other fauna. The pic also looks towards the Pacific Ocean which is about 25 or 30 miles, straight ahead, that-a-way. Perhaps the wall is also designed to protect us from a really big Tsunami? (Which, according to the History Channel -- or was it NatGeo? -- isn't a matter of if it happens but when it happens.)

What does all this have to do with photography? I'll get to that in a moment.

To me, the wall looks like something out of that movie, "The Village." Or maybe something they built in "Jurassic Park" to keep dinosaurs contained. Either way, it's an interesting landmark. Most people comment on it when they come up this way for the first time. "What's that?" is the most commonly-asked question.

"The wall," I usually answer with a shrug.

Technically, I suppose, it's more a fence than a wall. But for some reason, calling it a wall has stuck with most folks up this way. Here's a closer look at the wall. For reference, the wall is about ten-feet high.


Walls and fences and such can be cool places to shoot pictures. I would love to shoot some pretty girl stuff in front of the wall but I don't think my neighbors would approve. I could go on the other side of the wall and get some pretty girl shots in relative privacy but the wall isn't as cool on the other side: Doesn't have those steel supports which, IMO, give it strength and character and visual interest. (Strength being the reason the county's engineers had them installed. I don't think "character" or "visual interest" was a consideration for them.)

In a few weeks I will be photographing an up-n-coming rock band for their publicity and art-work needs and I'm going to shoot them at the wall. The name of the band is "Paradise." They just signed a contract with some music company label. I'll be shooting Paradise, if all goes according to plan, late in the day. I'm planning to use strobes to fill the hard, shadowy, late-afternoon sun and for accent lighting. (Assuming it's a sunny day.) For some of the pics, I'll probably try overcoming the sunlight with my monolights. That should look cool, more so if there's some interesting clouds in the sky. Maybe I'll set a strobe behind the wall and throw some hard light between the horizontal planks? That might look cool too. Hmmm... Maybe some smoke from a fog machine? We'll see. Hopefully, we'll still be shooting when Golden Hour arrives. The sun will be setting behind the hills that are behind the wall, somewhat to the left-side of the canyon.

I didn't consider going the Strobist route while thinking about shooting the band. Strobist-style photography certainly has its place in the world of location shooting but it isn't all things to all shoots. Plus, waiting for small, Speedlite-type flashes to slowly recycle drives me nuts! I have a couple of Canon Speedlites in my bag, as well as a Vivitar 285 and a 283. They probably would might get this job done... barely. Instead, I'm going to string enough stingers together to reach from the garage, here at the house, to the wall. It's about 150 yards and, yeah, I have enough extension cords to get there. Man, do I want/need to get one or two of THESE BABIES for just this sort of work. Unfortunately, finances don't currently permit. (Without going the plastic route which I ain't gonna do.)

Since I'm writing about walls, here's a pic from a year or so ago shot against another wall, this one of a brick, Pink Floyd-ish, variety. I don't recall the model's name. I do remember that I used two strobes to light her. I think the pic reveals where the lights were (approximately) set.

The Old Man Who Lives on the Hill

There's an old man who lives up the hill across the street from where I reside, like many people, in a nice, comfy, climate-controlled house with civilized (if not ritzy) amenities.

Someone once told me the old man's name. I think they said it was Ed or Jerry but I really don't remember for sure. The picture above, which I snapped just today with my little Canon point-n-shoot, is the view I see everyday when I get into my car and look straight out through the windshield. The arrow points to the approximate location where the old man lives, just below a knoll, out of sight from the street and prying eyes.

It's a much further hike up to that point than it might look in the image, photographs being two-dimensional and all. And the old man can't walk straight up that hill. It's a zig-zagging, sometimes steep, path he needs to negotiate while getting himself up and down, rain or shine, hot weather or cold. The old man is in his 70s, most likely nearing 80, yet I see him make that hike up and down the hill, zig-zagging his way back and forth, about two or three times a week. When he makes the hike back up the hill, he's usually carrying a couple of one gallon plastic containers of (what I assume is) water and almost always carrying another plastic bag which I'm assuming contains food. Where his money comes from I do not know.

The old guy doesn't live in a house or a trailer or shack up there. I'm told he lives under something more akin to a lean-to. He doesn't have electricity, running water, or anything else that most of us take for granted. Up to a few years ago, he did (I'm told) live in something that sort of resembled a shack but it burned in the wildfires that swept through here two years ago. I've lived here for just over a year and, up until 4 or 5 months ago, he was still building his new lean-to. I know this because, for months, I watched him carry the lumber up there, one two-by-four at a time. Neighbors offered to help, to at least help him get his building supplies up there, but he declined the offer. I guess that's just how the old guy rolls.

At night, I've never seen the soft glow of any sort of light coming from up the hill. I live out in the sticks, the "boonies" some would say. (Well, in a place as close to qualifying as "the sticks" as one can be living a half-hour North of cosmopolitan L.A.) It gets dark out here at night. Sometimes pitch-black dark. I would see light if there were any coming from up the hill.

The old man on the hill has an old, beat-up, red Ford pick-up he parks on the street. He drives off a few times a week and always returns before the sun sets. Neighbors tell me he usually goes to a grocery store as well as to a local campground where, I'm also told, he showers and shaves. It's gotta be a tough life up there but, I figure, it's the life he's chosen. Most folks around here are of the opinion the old guy owns that bit of property up on the hill. People also believe he's a Veteran and receives medical care from the V.A. If so, the old guy and I have at least one thing in common.

I'm not sure how long the old man has lived up there. I've heard at least 20 years. Whatever happened in this guy's life to drive him up that hill I do not know. For about a decade he was embroiled in a squabble with some other guy who owns the property the old man must cross on his way up the hill. Eventually, I was told, the old man won out and, ever since, goes up and down the hill with impunity.

I am immensely curious about the old man on the hill. One time, when I saw him hiking down, I decided to go for a little walk of my own: One that was timed to cross his path as he arrived down on the street. I was hoping to strike up a conversation with him. When he and I crossed paths and I was a mere few feet from him I smiled cheerfully and said, "Hi!"

He oh-so faintly smiled, nodded, and walked right past me without missing a step or uttering a word.

I've considered hiking up the hill to the old man's humble surroundings but that seems like an impolite invasion of his privacy. Besides, every time I seriously consider hiking up there, these things (pictured below and also shot today) don't seem to agree to "do their thing."


It's driving me mad. I so want to find out about this guy. I want to photograph him. I want to write a story about him and shoot his picture... lots of pictures of him, his environment, his life on the hill, everything.

But all the neighbors tell me no way. No way will he permit me to do so. And they are always quick to advise me that I shouldn't "Bother him."

These days, I wonder if, given the current economic crisis and in the not too distant future, there might be many more Americans living just like that old man on the hill? I hope no one I know or know-of is one of them. I hope I'm not one of them. But if there's one thing I've learned from the old guy on the hill it's this: If that's what happens to lots of folks, they'll survive. This old guy, after all, has survived up on that hill for a very long time.

Technical Perfection vs. Raw Visual Impact

Read an interesting, informative, and articulate article on Chase Jarvis' blog today. Chase's update was penned by Scott, Chase's #1 on his post-production team. For the most part, the update chronicles why Scott, the blog update's author, is decidedly luke-warm these days when it comes to stock photography.

But that's not what grabbed my interest. (I don't shoot no steenkeeng stock.)

Apparently, at Chez Jarvis, technical perfection now takes a back burner to raw visual impact. In other words, technically imperfect images have become, at times, Jarvis' snaps du jour.

Don't get me wrong. I'm confident Scott isn't advocating completely blind eyes when it comes to an image's technical elements. And I doubt I'm confident Chase Jarvis doesn't set out to shoot technically imperfect images. But these days, if a choice is to be made between visual impact and technical perfection, visual impact trumps technical minutiae.

This relatively new, Chase Jarvis & Co., way of making photographs kind of plays into the art v. crap debate. Jarvis' picture-making-machine doesn't churn out much crap if any at all. Leastwise, imagery that would be labeled as crap by most of us. But, according to Scott, art buyers are now looking at an image's visual impact first and its technical merits second. So now, I'm thinking, if an image seems closer to crap, at least from a technical POV, but has incredible visual impact, it is art. Maybe good art. Maybe even great art. Certainly, marketable and salable art.

Since I can't argue with Chase Jarvis' continuing success as a world-class photographer, I'm gonna learn from his post-guy's article and, perhaps, try to be a bit less technically-anal while shooting and become, if I can, more focused on visual impact. Of course, I don't have the post-prod skills to be technically-anal in post anyway. And my lack of PS skills also means that post won't contribute much to my images' visual impact--so nothing changes there--but perhaps my eye should be (way) more on the lookout for ways to enhance my work with visual power versus technical pursuit?

I hope my clients agree.

The pretty girl at the top is Kat, from a few years ago, snapped right after she whipped me at arm wrestling.

Broadening My Horizons

My whining the other day ("One-Two Punch for Photographers") has really re-energized my quest to broaden my horizons. Couple that with my next post ("Always Have a Plan B") and I realize, for a guy pimping Plan Bs, I didn't have much of a Plan B in place for going after work outside the niche I've made much of my living at.

Watching the back-and-forth scoring excitement of the Super Bowl yesterday also acted as a catalyst for believing there's always a chance way to get back in the game, even if one's current status in the game looks a bit dismal.

I've redoubled my efforts to get some training programs going. The DVD may have to wait a bit longer since there's budgetary considerations and, frankly, since it's gotten harder and harder to make a decent living, personal funds simply aren't available to finance a DVD project. I want to do it right, after all, and not scrimp (production-wise) in too many areas. No, I don't intend to make the "Gone With the Wind" of pretty girl shooting DVDs but I do want to produce something I'm (relatively) proud of. And doing so takes a few extra bucks.

I've also redoubled, quadrupled even, my efforts to broaden the types of work I hope to score. Sure. Sex sells. But it's harder to sell it when so much of it is readily available for free.

Here's the list I've put together for the types of work I'm now actively pursuing, and I do mean ACTIVELY pursuing: glamour (as always), fashion, corporate, commercial, and publicity, portfolio and headshot work for models, actors, actresses, entertainers, bands, corporate execs, and celebrities. Most of my current efforts are targeting those last types of work.

Yeah, I'm sure many of you might be thinking, "That's the kind of stuff we all want to shoot, Jimmy." But, frankly, I haven't gone after any of that work in a seriously pro-active and vigorous way.

All that's changed. I'm actively (and I do mean actively) pursuing all that sort of work. I'm putting as much effort and time and resources into scoring some of that other work, other than glam and tease that is, as I have with the 18+ stuff. The work is out there. No reason I can't grab some of it. I have the experience, gear, and know-how to produce good work in all those areas. And I'm gonna.

The pretty girl at the top, Bianca, is not a model or a performer. I shot her a few years ago in the studio. I guess it's sort of an art nude pic... make that a semi-nude art pic.