I've been changing a few things. Mainly my mind. Boudoir or glam portraiture? Artificial or natural light? Photography or teaching? Melbourne or Sydney? That's the problem with choice: choosing!!
I have set up a studio in my home. We have a spare bedroom which I have blacked out for my boudoir studio. I have a few soft boxes that I like to work with because of the soft light (that's right, soft boxes create soft light dontchaknow) they create, which also give me the ability to control where light falls. It's pretty basic gear with very basic props (namely one drumming stool).
Then I get all inspired by natural light images and it's like, well I just spent all that money on my blacked out studio (back drop, lights, stands, not to mention all the boudoir accessories) when all this time I could've just used free light from the sun.
(Reading this over, there is nothing stopping me from shooting boudoir in natural light. I just invested a lot of time and money into a blacked out studio. I think I'm having a bit of a rant to be honest.)
So then I start to think have I made a mistake? 'Behind The Veil' is a play on what lies beneath the bridal veil. I wanted to target women who wanted to gift the men in their lives with something a little bit more risqué, revealing what lay 'behind the veil' and hence the whole boudoir thing. And now I'm thinking 'Behind the veil' probably doesn't suit, say a family portrait studio, for example. What if I decide to shoot babies one day, or young children? I'm hoping I haven't limited myself. But then I'm torn because my own name is impossible to pronounce. Grr! (That said, the other day I had a postal delivery from a young man who pronounced my name perfectly and I nearly cried. He was from Serbia - yay for Serbians!)
All I know is that I want to photograph women. You can ask anyone - family, friends, colleagues, old classmates - and they will tell you that I am a doodler. I love to draw. My books are full of sketches, but not just mindless scribbles; they're mainly girls. I don't know why, I'm just drawn to a woman's beauty, and I see it everywhere. I'm especially drawn to eyes. My books are full of eyes. If I find an old school book I will show you. It's kinda freaky.
(Click on image to enlarge)
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| Not a school book and not my best work but you get the idea. Eyes everywhere. This is where I contemplate reconsidering boudoir photography. Boudoir tends to be more body focused, and whilst I'm happy to do that, I think I'd rather spend my time editing faces and eyes than bums and boobs. It just makes sense! |
Anyway, what a privilege it would be to capture that? To capture women the way I see them? And for them to be able to see themselves the way I see them? Perhaps there's no need to sweat the small stuff, like what type of lighting I use or where I choose to work. If I can make a woman feel beautiful, what else really matters?
So I was thinking of perhaps changing my whole 'look' or brand, if you will. As you can see from the layout of this blog and also my website, I tend to lean more towards dark tones, mainly because of my darker images. But I am loving natural light! So below is just something I played around with, just to see. Different name too, which hopefully appeals to a wider market. I'm liking the white and the simplicity of the layout. What do you think?
