Tanya Dakin Birthday Shoot
Added 2016-02-23 23:51:05 +0000 UTCI've been lucky over the years to have found quite a few people that push me creatively and that I can collaborate with over and over again. The first time I met Tanya was at an event in Philadelphia called Cat Walk Tragedy she was hanging out with Lithium Picnic who was on of the first photographers that inspired me back when I was a kid trying to figure out how to expose images properly and posting on deviantart.
I didn't understand then that bringing a portfolio to an event, setting up lights, and trying to do shoots wasn't necessarily normal, but I was stoked because he took a look at it and even liked a few of the shots. Tanya took a look at my photos and told me I was hanging out with the right crowd, or something to that effect. Its been a little while. A few weeks later we did our first shoot, and we've been shooting about once or twice a year every year since.
Having people like her in my life has been really important because we have shot so much I never want to just do whatever series I'm working on. We've already done them all. I want to do something new and exciting, so for her birthday I walked into a brand new place with no idea what the light was going to be like, how I was going to shoot it, or even what the interior looked like, and for two hours we shot and figured it out.
When I walked in I realized two things. The apartment we were shooting in had some really nice window light that was really red, and while the light was really nice there wasn't a ton, so I was going to be shooting high ISO and a super wide open aperture. A lot of people worry about their images being too noisy, but really it doesn't bother me. I've stood inches away from Helmet Newton prints that looked like the snow on an analogue television, and I thought it was just as beautiful from there as a few feet back (the proper viewing distance). Seeing a photo break apart because you are pushing the limits of what the medium is capable of is fine by me.
These were all shot ISO 1600-3200 with the Sigma 85mm F1.4
Comments
Tanya Dakin is very important to my enjoyment of this internet world of images. Especially ones with erotic power, power for me ! I toast her birth and some others - each day - thankful for their breathing thoughtful life ! ~ cheers to so many more annual shoots, graceful life !
Charleston
2016-02-28 22:41:15 +0000 UTC
