Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Today we’re celebrating the beginning of National Photography Month. Photography is the universal language and creates more than just a memory; it provides a way to touch time.
National Photography Month began in 1984 as part of the American Photography Celebration but later included the entire month of May. For a short time it was also the home of an experiment of mine I called Take Your Camera to Work day that included a website where people could post images they made at work. The site and the idea faded after a few years because of the cost of creating a user-friendly site for people to upload their photographs became to expensive for me to continue. If anybody’s interested in helping or sponsoring a relaunch of the Website, it could restart next year with your help. Click CONTACT and let’s talk.
May is also my birthday month and I’d like to thank all of this blog’s readers for their support over the years. During National Photography Month I will continue my effort through Sunday through Saturday posts as well as on my YouTube channel, to focus attention on sharpening your skills and expanding your mind!
Today also kicks off National Intimate Apparel Market Week and it’s also #corsetmonday!
The Corset Monday series continues today with another portrait of Zoe. Sometime after our initial two photo shoots, she called and told me, “I’m a brunette now, I need some new pictures.” So we scheduled a shoot where today’s featured image was made.
I think Zoe looks fabulous whatever her hair color and she was also wonderful to photograph. But it wasn’t long after this shoot that she called again saying, “I’m a blonde again, can we do another session?” We scheduled the shoot but when the day of the shoot arrived I had the flu and canceled the our session. Sadly, before I could reschedule she moved out-of-state and I still regret that fourth shoot we didn’t have.
How I Made this Portrait: Zoe is a six foot tall blonde—I seem to have an affinity for photographing tall models—who is an ecdysiast. (I’ll let you look that up.) I photographed Zoe three times and this image was made during our third shoot together. As was my habit, I asked her to bring along a corset as she had done the last time we worked together and this time it was bright green!
I photographed Zoe in the living room of my former home with existing light coming from the two narrow South-facing windows that are behind her flanking the fireplace and a large North-facing, second floor windows located behind my camera position. The camera used was a Canon 5D Mark I with EF85mm f/1.8 USM lens. A Canon EX420 speedlite was used as fill with a Stofen Omni-Bounce diffuser mounted to soften the light. Exposure was 1/60 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 400, with a plus one-stop exposure compensation to make up for the back lighting.
Postscript: In looking over the many image I made of Zoe in this series, I regretfully cannot show some of the other portraits of made during this session. If I did, these posts would run afoul of the nanny software that’s used by corporations and social media companies to block specific content. I soon hope to have access to a site where I can display some of those kinds of photographs. Right now, I’m talking with my Webmaster about creating my own. Details when I know more.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography with new copies available from Amazon for $33.71, as I write this. Used copies start at around twenty-three bucks and the Kindle version is only $19.99 for those who prefer a digital format.