Monday 18 April 2011

Hospital quality time and delving into the artistic nude

I've gotta go to surgery again, this time for three days and I am fiercely looking for which book to take along the 'So yesterday'-  as I worry I may be bored at some point. (Not a fan of boredom. Probably the thing about hospitals that freaks me out the most.) Before I go, the busybee, I'm trying to get my taxes up and running on my own terms - it *can* be done, I can circumnavigate certain pointless expenses, I just need to dig a route through all the procedures and middle-men. Some people are oddly kind and helpful while I do this, others are like trying to get a joke out of a sphinx. Am also trying to get people to pay me for my services while I'm at it. Customarily, I ask, imply, hint and invite the customer three or four times, before unleashing the General upon them... Hihi, he got an entire package of large rice chocolates for his birthday from his in-laws. I've never seen anyone carry home that much and I'm a fiend for supplies! :D ...Can two people eat 36 chocolates in one week?? Dunno. But I'll let you know how I do.
           As a trial, I've shot an artistic nude yesterday. It wasn't half as awkward or odd as I was afraid - having never shot a nude before, not counting people I've been wanting to sleep with, such as my gay best friend, whom to be frank, back in the day, I never really saw much clothed. But this was rather professional by comparison, I must say... there was almost no blushing, no stuttering, no staring or trying not to stare - really no weirdness to it at all. The beautiful woman who posed was super intrigued and I was totally preoccupied with the lights and the poses and the fact General was miserable somewhere else in the apartment, locked out of the day room, unable to play on the computer or watch his afternoon leisure shows in TV. We took my record 1290 shots in about nine or ten different 'chapters' and it was magnificent. (Trust me to take *portraits* of a naked person. Honestly.) It worried me, the whole idea of it, because the nude is once again an entirely unfamiliar field (regardless of how avidly I follow Ivory Underworld Blog and study the shoots there) - who am stuck between the representative head-shots and the glamour of commercial pieces, fashion and beauty. The nude is less about the face, but more so that fashion shoots, and ALL about the light and line - the form. And you need a witty twist on every single one of them - be it lock of hair, a smile, a prop, an effect - anything really, that makes it not boring, done to death or 'safe bet' and yet entirely about the beauty dressed only in skin. I was lucky to have a truly flawless model and all the retouching goes to removing odd things hanging from the ceiling (the room IS half the size now :) Oh, and I have to stress: I am so proud of myself: it did it all, soup to nuts, with the 50mm. The wide-lens zoom never even left the table. 
          On a high note, while I'm on it :P - the first episode of The Game of Thrones is out and I will make a movie night out of it and we will both see what the fuss is about. Will we love it or will we be so bored we'll start having sex before we even get to bed?? ;))

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