markvelasquez

Light Magic, Pt. 28

For this shot, I just pulled the camera up after the initial flash of the strobe. She had jumped about a foot high, letting her hair fly up, but by this point she was finally getting pretty tired. All the jumps and hair flips were finally taking their toll. She never said she needed a break or that she wanted to stop, but I knew it was time.

Light Magic, Pt. 27

This was a fun one, except for that damn, dangling cord. You could say that I should have taken in out in Photoshop if it bothered me so much, just like the thumbtacks, and I suppose if it bothered me enough I could just crop it more creatively. But for the sake of posting here, I'm letting you see the image full and uncropped to see how it looks before all that stuff.

Light Magic, Pt. 26

I knew these weren't going to be as good as the set we had shot minutes earlier against the other wall, but I still wanted to try it out, to experiment as best I could.

I loved the blue vapor trails here. It looked like her aura was leaving her, the ascension of the spirit.

Light Magic, Pt. 25

Here you can see the process. The light strand was over thirty feet, so I just criss-crossed it back and forth along the wall. The cord wasn't long enough to hide out of the shot, so I just let it dangle, cropping it out as best I could in camera from time to time. I was impressed that Emily's head wasn't falling off by the end of the shoot, for as much as I asked her to whip her hair around. She was a trooper and never complained once.

Light Magic, Pt. 24

Unsure of how to try to top that last set, and pretty sure we couldn't, I decided to take a few last shots in front of the opposite wall. The night before I had strung up a strand of string lights with thumbtacks. Thought it looked pretty, I didn't know what kind of background it would make, but what the hell! It was worth a try. This was the first decent attempt. I didn't love it, but it is worth sharing with you all.

Light Magic, Pt. 23

With the success of the hair flips, i had her try it several more times, trying to capture lightning ina bottle for a second or third time. once I captured this shot,  I declared that stage of the shoot done. We couldn't top this, I told her, and she agreed. 

My favorite part of this image is possibly the whip of hair curling and crawling over her shoulder as she swung it around her body, along with its refelction. But I also love that hand and arm and how it blends with its partner....

Light Magic, Pt. 22

Not long after, we shot this image, which floored me. It was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing about it, and since I knew I could never have intentionally sought out such an image, I loved it even more.

Light Magic, Pt. 21

Feeling brave again, I picked up my sharp piece of mirror and began using it again. I told Emily to take another break while I reviewed our shots, and when I discovered this specific shot, I just let out a sigh of relief. It's rare that I am impressed, especially with myself, and yet with this one I defintiely was. I showed this to her, as I'd been sharing them all with her throughout the day as we shot. Usually a calm, chill cucumber, Emily let out a squeal and yelled "THAT'S SO COOOL!!"

Oddl...

Light Magic, Pt. 20

I liked this jump she was doign so much that I had her execute it multiple times, with all of them being good. Sometimes when sorting through images, you have to act like Solomon and make the tough calls, opting to not share 8 of the 10 similar images because they're all good but far to alike. Still, I've included two of these shots because I liked them so much.

I totally thought she looked like some unnamed X-Men character here, with the lighting creating some sort of comic hero costume paint...

Light Magic, Pt. 19

After I stabbed my hand from the shard of broken mirror I'd been holding, I took a momentary break and shot her straight with no reflection. Though a bit more basic, I still liked these a lot, too.

Light Magic, Pt. 18

Even a shot without the mirror, though less complicated to me (and thus having less worth), was still worth including here. What are your thoughts/ Do you like this non-reflection shot better than the others? What would you change?

Light Magic, Pt. 17

The lights popped away repeatedly, all the while I just repeated "Keep going!" or "That's perfect, but start from the left!" or "Shit, I missed that, can you do it again?"

I knew we were on the path to something spectacular, I just need to tweak and refine the process a bit from shot to shot, each one getting better than the last.

Light Magic, Pt. 16

Emily was a trooper, dancing tirelessly, getting into the groove and working up a definitely sweat. She indulged me by letting me spray her repeatedly with my baby oil spray bottle. This provided even more of a shine for the images, which I found to be a minor but important element.

Light Magic, Pt. 15

Emily's only issue was her stomach, once again, which has stretchmarks after the birth of her son. As is often the case, I asked her what she needed, and she said she was still fine being topless as long as she could wear highwaisted underwear to hide her midsection. This, of course, was fine by me.

Light Magic, Pt. 14

Instead of having the strobe hit her and freezing the details of her face and body, I aimed it behind her, hoping to carve out a silhouette off the white wall. I hoped the colored light would then illuminate her torso as she moved during the same long exposure of the previous lighting set-up. I stil stubbornly wanted to also add the use of the mirror in these shots, which again, complicated everythign very much. but I knew that if it worked, it would be great.

This required many, many test sho...

Light Magic, Pt. 13

But then, as is always the case, I wanted to make the process even more complicated. Instead of just using the ambiant hot lights, I decided to introduce a powerful and fast strobe into the mix. This added a frustrating new element to the mix, but thankfully Emily stood patiently texting and laughing as I continued to get up and adjust the light from my position. Eventually I educated her on how to adjust the level on the light herself, so instead of getting up and walking behind her everytime I...

Light Magic, Pt. 12

This was the last shot I took with the same lighting set-up. I knew we had achieved our unaimed goal. Never would I have planned to take a shot like this, and the mystery and magic of it as it was revealed to me on the back of the camera is what makes the whole attempt so damn fun.

To me, the reflection of her breasts looks like an exptended ponytail, and I know an image is successful when i can't stop looking at it. Usually, I get bored looking at my own work fairly quickly, but this one held...

Light Magic, Pt. 11

From there, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. "Just go for it, keep moving..." I directed her over the dull thumping of whatever new hip-hop music she had blaring out of her phone. I'm not a fan of most current rap music, being raising on Run-DMC, NWA, and Public Enemy. But I also know that models need their own music to get them hyped in the moment, so I can put up with any music for the sake of making good work.

Light Magic, Pt. 10

This was the second shot we got that I really loved. With the handheld mirror finally placed just right, I knew I was finally figuring out what to do. Now I just needed to keep shooting more.

Light Magic, Pt. 9

Emily's shape was great, and her fluid motion was exactly what I needed to have. So many amateur models can be stiff or nervous for the first several shoots, but not dancers. They always know their bodies, know how to move, and are used to perfroming for an audience, even if that audience is just a lens.

Light Magic, Pt. 8

Emily had been moving and dancing for a solid fifteen minutes, so I had her take a break and drink some water while I reviewed some of our images. This was the first shot of that first burst that I really liked, and I knew we were on the cusp of something pretty good. She was finally feeling confident in front of the camera, and the lighting was finally getting where I wanted it to be. Though a bit soft, I liked this image right away and quickly encouraged her to get ready for more.

Light Magic, Pt. 7

The main hallmark of most of these experiments I engage in is something people often laugh at: I am going out of my way to make the process as complicated as possible. I want it to fail. I want to push the accepted laws of Photography Physics to its limit. Sometimes that means trying to capture a still moment during a 2 second exposure while using a mirror in front of the lens and the model is being asked to jump around in a 2 foot wide space. Other time it's about using conflicting and contrast...

Light Magic, Pt. 6

These were some of the less successful ones, though I knew I was getting close or almost to a good place. The fun of these experiments is that, when starting out, even I don't know what I want or what I'm going to get. Sometimes this requires me settling for something mediorce when the process isn't working the way I hoped it would. Othertimes, like this specific shoot, things start happening that I never expected, and that's when the fun really begins.

Light Magic, Pt. 5

The trouble with experimenting is the time it takes to figure out what the hell you're doing, all the while a model is standing there staring at you like you're a hapless idiot. Thankfully, Emily was patient with me while I moved lights around, questioning out loud "how do I do that?" multiple times, and put up with me as I repeatedly asked her to "do that thing you just did again, please" when I missed something awesome due to techinical difficulties.