Honey! I Shrunk the Model!

I'm not exactly known for shooting cutesy stuff. But when someone's paying me and they say, "Shoot that," I shoot it. (As long as it's legal and it doesn't offend my gentle sensibilities which, you might not be surprised to learn, aren't all that gentle.)

Anyway, shooting cutesy stuff like the image to the left might sound like I'm compromising my artistic integrity but there's integrity and there's money... integrity... money... Hmmm.

I guess where I draw the line on this compromising stuff is when I'm asked to compromise the photographic integrity of what I'm shooting. That's different. I don't like shooting bad pictures. Not even for money. Of course, that's mostly because it might effect future money if you get my drift. And I'm not saying I don't ever shoot bad pictures. Sometimes, I do. Maybe more often than I care to admit. But I try my best to limit the occurrences of doing so.

It was a grueling, long, day yesterday. Just about everything that can go wrong on a set went wrong. Final result? I didn't get home till 4:30 this morning. Yesterday's call time, by the way, was 10:00 A.M. If I'm doing the math right, that's about an 18-hour day. It's amazing the long hours people will put in for their art... and their money.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not bitterly complaining. I love what I do. It's easy to love: Beautiful naked women... a camera... beautiful naked women. But I ain't getting any younger and 18-hour days play hell on me. Take today for instance: In the aftermath of that 18-hour work day, I'm completely wasted. There were things I needed to get done today and they aren't getting done. I don't have the energy or will to get off my ass and do them. Such is the way of the aging photo warrior. Not that I'm THAT old. I'm old enough, though, to need some recuperating time from days like yesterday.


Enough of the self-commiserating. The shrunken, Lilliputian-like model in the first image, as well as the naked, unshrunk model in the second image is Charlotte. MUA was Yoko (I think) or maybe it was Zenovia. Actually, it could have been Lillian. There were three MUAs on that shoot. Three MUAs and one photographer should give you an idea of what a busy boy I've been: The phrase Assembly-Line Pretty Girl Shooting sounds about right for my last few days. Both of these images of Charlotte were captured with my Canon 5D w/ 85mm f/1.8 prime, ISO 100, f/6.3 @ 125th. I used three lights: A big Photoflex Octodome for a mainlight, a small umbrella to camera-left from behind and a medium Chimera strip, camera-right, also from behind.