Dasha Usova for Pulp

Moving and starting a new body of work is a pretty intimidating process.  It is hard to know where I am going, what I am going to be saying, or if I even have anything left to say.  I know I have something left to say, but is this the way I want to say it?

I start a project the same way I have written.  I start writing, and I figure out what it means to me along the way.  Its impossible for me to know what its going to mean to you all, but this is the first time on Patreon I have had to figure out what I am doing and whether or not it is important, while simultaneously sharing the work with you.

Suffice it to say I'm a little nervous.

Dasha  was my very first shoot in the new place, and really the first couple shoots for me are an exercise in technicals.  Is the light working?  What lenses should I be using in this space?  Natural light?  Strobes?  Can I tell a story here?  Should I try?  Is the space big enough for me to not create the same photo in every time?  There are a lot of questions that run through my head on a first shoot.  It is one of the more stressful situations I put myself into, but also its like a fun puzzle.  A lot of Nicole  and my work are first shoots places, but normally we don't go back.

For this series I wanted to create something technically fun and a little difficult/unpredictable in terms of lighting.  So I'm using a blend of window light and the modeling lights from my profoto monolight.  I've always loved mixed lighting.  It let's me play with a much wider range and intensity of color when I take it into post, and I sort of loving pushing the 5d MK II to 1600-3200 and pulling a ton of noise into the photos.   I'll never blow them up to billboard size, but that is ok with me.  

I'm also on a kick with using my Sigma 50mm and 85mm almost exclusively, but I do find it a little hard to compose with the 50mm.  I know it is supposed to be a normal lens, but I still feel a level of distortion, or maybe just a wider field of view every time I put it up to my face than I am expecting.  Either way, I am obsessed with the super low depth of field, and how it works with the mixed light especially when using some lamps for rim light.

I think I can tell stories here.  I just don't know what stories I'm telling yet.

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