Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Well it is day 33 and lets just look at one of the classic 'studio' images, actually most call them location images but I live alone with kitties and my entire building is a huge studio because I'm an artist and artists live in their studios. It's Ms. Jenny KNOX, great friend of VADA, they liked to trade spit, that tight.

Any way this is the corner of the model's dressing room (Debbie Dole called it the 'un-dressing room', she was ever so much fun!). Oh, you may be wondering what happened to the movement 'thing', well it is a live and well and being written but this is at least one way of distracting you guys (and dames) with an important piece of foundation. That is, if your going to get great images you must be on top of your form (craft).

It's a classic pin up type image. Props are rather important to my work. The mirror is a classic and original Italian, gaudy, pre WW Two item, found it in a small resale shop for $125, great bargain but lets face it, had to have it! The desk is an antique school house oak desk that was converted by an artist friend with a National Geographic Map of the USSR, glued to the surface and lamina plastic protective top.

Props around the walls, yes, Christmas wrapping paper, polka dots. If you have settled into my stories then you will remember that a certain 'model' that I have the great fortune to be buds with and models all the time with me, VADA, loves polka dots. Not that I'm adverse to them but I do like them polka dots. So, using a small stapler I covered a whole corner. By the way, the babes love polka dots.

This is the last frame in a series of images, it turned out to be the real keeper. KNOX was getting testy because of the difficult poses, but kept up the poses. I called the time for our session and KNOX was quite happy at that point. She sat on the desk and I pulled up this last frame for her to chimp. She just sat there looking at it. Then looked up at me and I told her lets look at what we did on the computer. This was the one we looked at first, easy to find, the last frame.

KNOX was looking over my shoulder, she was pleased beyond words. Like Serena (Starena) would often do, KNOX pushed the chair to one side and plopped into my lap and stared at the image. Her hand took the mouse and she zoomed in and out looking at the image. Clicked keys back and forth looking at other images, then went back to this one and announced that WE had done an amazing photograph!

Then, can we do more images came? That is when I told her to wash her face of make up, "Get some clothes on woman!" We are going to Good Time Charlie's for her favorite steak, cross the street to Planet K (head shop) to look at al the crap they sell, get new ideas, perhaps get a new prop or two, then back to the studio for her to get a long nap, and me one as well and if she was up for another round of photography then hell yes we would do photos but there was always another day!

I down loaded the card to the computer file folder and backed it up to a hard drive.

These were made in the camera that was mounted on a tripod. Low exposures were used. Most of the lighting is flash, which most of you know has a vary short duration. Directly behind the behind of the lovely Ms. KNOX is an oscillating steel fan from the 1930's and it is on, resting on a pedestal, spinning away (yes, pointed at the model's bum, LHOOQ, Duchamp's "my she has a hot ass" in French) and in the mirror reflected is a the reflector of an old gynecological exam light, in it is a standard 75 watt light bulb that is illuminating the polka dot wall. To get the light to illuminate this area with out blow out and register the yellow of that incandescent color, I used a Minolta Flash Meter IV to read the wall while setting up the image. I then rolled the shutter speed down until I got a ready that shifted 1/10 f stop on the read out, then dropped it another shutter speed and there was no change in exposure indicated. This would be the working shutter speed for the session.

The flash will discharge and the sync speed will be at a lowered shutter speed. The model is going no where and is steady in her lack of movement. The lowered shutter speed assures two thing for the scene, that the whirling blades of the fan will look like they are spinning and that the golden yellow of the light reflected from the wall will have that golden yellow look of interior incandescent light. Control of movement in a photograph and the small things in the lighting are what are important in making images that are well crafted and show your mastery of that craft to other photographers.

In Ansel Adams famous photograph "Moonrise Hernandez New Mexico, 1941." Adams knew that a shutter speed of 1?10 second or greater was needed so the moon would not have a blur or a slight edge ghost. He knew his subject and his craft. If your going to be really good at what you do you must control your craft and not just sort of 'shot gun' your work.

By the way, in this image I was sitting back playing shutter monkey, I could do that so I could focus on the living part of the image, the woman in the photograph. Part of the crafting of a photograph is freeing up you to work with the important part of a figure session, the woman modeling. Most of that is to just let the model push her limits, to be there to assist her in become the image and to not distract her performance. Here the woman/model Jenny KNOX is on the edge of her then limits. In the weeks and months to come she pushed past what is here and entered a space of a greater model.

Jenny KNOX, Pin Up with Polka Dots.

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vertigo

Excellent! Details: you are a master so I will ask because I may be missing something (usually an explanation has already been given). What is the blue and yellow triangle under the stool? The orange cast of the background in the mirror/ the reason not to crop the edge of the background lower right/. Not complaining just wondering. One complaint—electric outlet—and I know it is just there. It is a great shot, model is perfect, the mirror is OMG. Props, lighting, wardrobe background all great—thanks for sharing and I enjoy the back story.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Ok, I am delighted that some take the time to really look at the images! You get the daily cup cake award. As some know I'm not operating with a full deck of cards like a 'normal' person does. Basically I am banking on the future after I'm dead that someone will be astounded by this crazy madness. Look carefully at the reflections in the mirror, it is a construct of the 'world' of the model. In that reflection you see patterns of dark patterns imaged as 'reflections on the hidden side of the model. These are infact the shadows of non reflections from the cut glass mirrors that are used to hold the mirror to it's support. There are scallops in the glass/mirror surface. Now that we have the fun of seeing the cut glass surfaces and the reflections and negated reflections we have question, no issues with the 'shadow' effects from the 'reflections in that mirror.

Look at the model resting on her leg in the image, black stockings, perfect for the excuse of a pin up image, and yes I did jack with the black reference in the total image. I did this because as you look into the reflection of the model you see she appears to be resting on a surface that is like a dark cloth between the model and the table top of the desk on which she is resting. You can say, oh but that is her cropped leg view and it is dark stocking, still the reflected stocking is a different density to that of the erotic way human flesh appears cocooned in a semi transparent stocking. When in a pin-up or erotic image the Caucasian model wears coverings on legs and arms, we have in effect removed the appendages and so reduced the viewing to that of head and torso, a vary erotic form of representing all attention on the body as object.

To continue, look at the stool her leg rests on. The small shadow that is there activating the odd pattern in the cloth. When glanced at this pattern extends down and involves the rather odd shapes of the black painted finish of the details found in the stool. The corset tossed across the seat helps to accentuate the limit reading of the stools cloth pattern and the one small shadow that adds to the question of what is being done.

Now the fun, the 'proof' that something more than mere clutter or half assed distractions in the image's construct. There is that rather out of place blue and yellow 'thing' in the image. It draws attention to your eye, it begins to look completely out of place, you zoom in on it and suddenly it becomes rel. Zoom out and it rests among the rungs of the stool and it begins to be an optical illusion. It is like one of those crazy impossible squares drawn by M. C. Escher. Climb up. climb down, the stairs go no where! Zoom in for detail and it looks real but out of place, zoom back out and it is like seeing a dead rat under the stool.

This brings us back to the reflections and non reflections in the mirror! It's all Alice Through the Looking Glass. It is also like the guy who lost it yesterday about my 'right' to post a photograph of my old girlfriend and did I have a model release or did I get her permission.

The big issue is one of perception. And it is in ones limits and understanding that this is vary much Lexis Carol's Looking Glass, because this is a photograph, that is what it is, plane and simple. Is it someone named KNOX, is she tiny and lives in one's top pocket, or is she the size of a three story building? She is both and neither. Can I create an M. C. Escher reality, or is all just a game, a play with photons?

One last thing, I am posting one from a few moments before this image and another of Michelle seated in a chair. Michelle was so amazed at the way I arranged the chair for her to sit in! But it is not just another play on the possibility for M. C. Escher, It's about a pin up and it is also about that hat that seems much like a dark hallow making our Ms. Michelle the rather naughty 'Christen' she loves and her overly religious mother would never enjoy.

Yes, I LOVE dark stockings on most women but it is white translucent stockings and bras of African American women instead that is soooo hot!!

The failed KNOX Pin Up.


Ms. Michelle chair in the nunnery.


PattyCunCakes!

(Download)

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

Very nice one. But I only looked at the picture to be honest.

vertigo

Sometimes it is not a lack of a full deck but rather playing with a deck that has five suits!

Jwshelton Loc: Denver,CO

I don't mind the headaches.

Thanks for the teaching.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Its more sharing ideas and experiences. I know some of it comes across strongly but I do feel passionately about the work I create.

Jwshelton Loc: Denver,CO

We appreciate that and love you for it.

SonyBug

I know that you are the artist, but I don't enjoy the "bitch look" on her expression. For that reason, i like the black lady for the much better expression on her face. I can not figure out why women think that it is sexy to look like someone is pinching in a place that hurts, when a slight smile and pleasant face would be so much better.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Thank you for the support. I am really just a naughty boy who can't help but like ogling beautiful women!

I have the love of Bubble and I suppose them women. I do live a charmed life! LOL!!!

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

You raise an interesting point. I pursue what is referenced as erotic photography. Most excellent erotic work in the area of the photographic expression is the representation of arousal. Much of what is called figure photography attempts to negate, remove or deny this aspect of nude photography. My work is quite in the opposite direction of this notion. With this in mind the expression that is on the face of KNOX is because she extremely aroused. If you look at her fine nipple point you can see it has popped out, one of the strong indications of arousal.

As one works with nude models you would become acquainted with some of the events that exhibit in the body. Make up tends to hide one of the great signifiers that of the darkening around the eyes. This is physiology, it is true for both men and women. As arousal occurs the eye lids darken as blood is directed to the eyes. For women we have from Italian/Latin Bella Dona*, meaning The Beautiful Woman, early on women used the plant Deadly Nightshade to coat their eye lids to cause their eye lids to darken. What is left out of these information bits is that the application of Deadly Nightshade effects the physiology of the wearing, causing light headedness and a move towards arousal. The arousal is also exhibited in the pupilation, in which the pulps of the eyes dilate open. When photographers work with a subject you want to step down the volume of the watt in the modeling lamps from what is regarded as standard of 125 or 250 watt to 75 watt. You then adjust the modeling lights to create what is called 'bedroom eyes'. Further, the focus light from digital cameras will foul the effect of dilation in the pulps. It is important to know what you are doing with studio gear and how it will effect your results.

* "Atropa belladonna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the nightshade family."

So we will often exhibit certain actions in a model that will speak to their state of mind. Pressing of arms against the breasts is yet another arousal signifier. This often does not involve the nipples. The female gesture of placing hands around the breasts, lifting, squeezing these are all actions of 'relief' from the tensions felt on the skin of the body. Also the area on the region of lower torso and upper thighs is another. Models will often bring an arm and hand around behind them to feel the skin.

One of the best of extreme tension relief is acting demure by bringing the hands down and covering her genitals. This is one of the classic 'slight of hands' in which the outer hand covers from view what the inner hand is busy doing. Is the inner hand/fingers the left or right? Which does the model favor in normal life? When I work with a model I will already have seen which is their dominant side.

(Dominant side: Stand in front of a mirror with a sheet of plain card stock, switching that card back and forth from side to side, which of these two sides of the face look most like you? This is your dominant side, and so with the model).

When working with a model you want to manipulate that dominant side. If she places her hands down between her thighs you are being signaled that she is in fantasy called 'pretty princess' (a woman expression, just ask them, talk to women), take that as an important signal, ask the model to continue the pose that it is excellent (NEVER, ever, dislike what a sitter is doing, pop the shutter and then suggest a change in pose). Now turn the model's head into her non dominate side as view. We use digital, let them see the 'look', enlarge the image, let them SEE what they look like. You are confirming their sense of fantasy, their in a roll, a state, go with what ever they are sensing and feeling in their arouse desire.

You want the woman to return, to model more? Use the RAW file and capture 72 DPI Jpegs as well. Down load these to a thumb drive before any other action and send them home with files. Me I do the images as 150 DPI and they go home with ALL the files. You have the captive audience and the perfect promotion at your finger tips. They have all the files with a four digit file number. If they want a post processed file I have them send that number and post process for them. Repeat for my work is critical.

Now for the last point. The whole thing that is about pinching and the hurt thing. The classic ones are called butterfly style clamps. Imagine were these come from? These were invented to anchor down cloths by seamstress when sewing cloths back some 200 years ago.

Here is the straight dope about these. The initial act of clamping is related to an intimal response of the skin's sensory reaction, once applied the skin reduces sensitivity and with the case of the butterfly style pressure can increase under certain conditions. This is all fine good and well but there is something to know, when the clamp is removed a sudden rush of that change in pressure triggers an endorphin rush. So it is not the clamping or even the wearing of the clamp but the removal of the pressure that triggers a super heightened response. Then add to that the touching of the effected area. It's all about what is going on in your mind that is the true response of desire.

Hope that helped!

P.S. The model noted as Black, Pattycumcakes (her self given stage name) is defiantly into the world of alternative life styles.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person as a mere object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity...

It is increasingly being linked to male violence against women...
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angela_Pirlott/publication/6610117_Gender-Based_Violence/links/5b929793a6fdccfd54213177/Gender-Based-Violence.pdf

If you truly care about the heath, safety and well being of those you wish to photograph I would suggest you review this medical journal article by the American Psychological Association
https://www.apa.org/education/ce/sexual-objectification.pdf

I wish you well on your journey Timmers

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Thanks but I'm not interested in wasting time reading the opinions of a group that has no construct for a view into the world where there is only negation. The general view of most phycology has at it base a flawed myopic view of what is in their opinion a view that is only about dysfunction. Perhaps this is why it is regarded as a pseudo science. A group that can only deny so many subjects as they do is fine as long as they stay in their court and don't step into my life. I regard them as dangerous and limited.