katachthonios' photostream  

I haven't been around for a while because my power supply in my computer went south. So here is a macro of a crayfish to look at.

Irving Penn (1917-2009)

Mission: Emulate the work of American photographer Irving Penn

A graduate of the Philadelphia University of the Arts, New Jersey-born photographer Irving Penn became famous for his images of fashion models, celebrities, cultural figures, and workers—all photographed in the studio. His images show minimalist tendencies, feature few props, have fairly bare spaces (often with textured backgrounds, sometimes angled backgrounds), and stand out for their contrast and clarity.

Penn was also known for his still lifes, from simple objects like fruits and cigarette butts to intricate arrangements with an eclectic mix of items. "There is the famous story of Irving photographing a lemon," Babs Simpson, a former Vogue fashion editor, said in 1990 in Vanity Fair. "First, you had to buy 500 lemons for him to pick the perfect one. Then he had to take 500 shots of that lemon until he got the perfect one" (link). Exaggerated or not, Penn was a perfectionist. He was able to present ordinary objects in an interesting, artistic way, no matter the effort. “Photographing a cake can be art,” is an often-quoted line by Irving Penn.

Penn had a long relationship with Vogue magazine, for which he started working in 1943, planning and supervising the design of the covers. When he couldn’t get the staff to photograph what he had in mind for the covers, Penn started to take the photographs himself and subsequently became staff photographer. His images appeared on over 150 Vogue covers over the span of 50 years. He saw many changes over the decades, but his style remained unchanged.

WIT: Bill looking tough; I've been trying to get the Irving Penn feel to some portraits - the more interesting ones I've done, while more interesting, are not technically as accurate nor a Irving Penn. Part of my problem is a lack of a model (besides Bill) and not being able to shoot during daylight hours most of the time (Irving Penn preferred natural light). Most of this has been an exercise in strobes (bounced off of the ceiling to my right - I was trying to get the feel of maybe his portrait of Picasso; though Penn liked his light just a little more from the side, one other thing I was missing was a reflective source to fill in shadows - which seemed to be something he did occasionally), and in this case some split-toning trying to get the feel of a platinum print's tonality.

I also considered some still lifes but I didn't get as far with those.

Cellphone pic... it's a sculpture @ Toledo Hospital that I saw while leaving the other night.

IR Portraiture is freaky....

IR converted 20D, canon 50mm F/1.4 @ 4.0, 1/250 second, 580ex II manual @ 1/16th with card bounced off the ceiling, iso 400.

Model: who else? Bill.

Found in downtown Toledo