This image is from one of my all time favorite photo shoots. The model is Alan. The pose came towards the end of the shoot when I asked him to move through some dance movements. One never knows what one will get when one asks a model to dance, because there are so many different types of dance and there is no guarantee that the model will be a good dancer. As often as not when I have asked a model to dance, the result has been less than stellar, but this time I came away with about 60 interesting shots of this spectacular physique.

On the Other Hand

Swagger 2

This image was captured just seconds after the image I posted on Thursday.

Swagger

The theme for this week on my blog is obviously Alan. My previous posts this week as well as this one are all from a prior photo session, shot digitally, neglected for months, and recently edited for publication here.

Structural Integrity

This photo of Alan, from the same shoot as this weekend's post.

Muscle Structure

Alan has one of the best physiques I have ever photographed. He is large, solid and extremely well defined. This black and white rendition of a color digital image was created today. It is also for sale in a variety of sizes and formats in my Fine Art America gallery, which you can visit by clicking on the Fine Art America logo to the right.

Alan Study

This week I will be experimenting with a new photo processing program called Silver FX. The program is a plug-in to other photo editing software such as Photoshop and recreates many darkroom style effects on digital images.

This image of Alan is the result of the first experiment using a warm tone style, reducing contrast and cropping the original image to focus on Alan's torso.

Alan Effects

These two images are both based on the same photography of Alan. The first is a reversal or negative of the image.

The second image is a digital variant of the Lith technique whereby you use a negative to create a positive image on Lithographic film; then use you Lith positive to create a Lith negative; then print a positive from the final Lith negative. Taking the image through these steps with Lith film eliminates the gray tones and turns everything to either flat black or flat white. The Photoshop digital equivalent of this technique is much simpler and less time consuming. Basically you adjust the image using the Curves dialoge box and force the dark half fo the image to black and the light half to white. I used to spend literally days doing this technique the old way. The only down side is that the Photoshop technique is so easy that what used to feel like an art technique not feels like a simple digital trick. If it's not difficult, can it be art?

Statuesque

This image of Kyle was inspired by a baroque statue. The image was shot digitally, and given a slight warm tone.

Alan

This week's image was shoot digitally, converted to black and white and given a warm tone.

The model is one of my all time favorites, Alan Demond, whose spectacular build and modeling talent made for an incredibly creative and productive photo shoot.

Accentuate the Negative

I've been experimenting with some new techniques. This one is fairly basic. It's just an inverted, or negative version of an image. Since I do a lot of shots against a black background, the images are well shooted to this because the backgrounds drop out just as much with then are white as they do when they are black.

Toned

Today's image is from a shoot with Alan, shot digitally, transformed into a black and white and then toned in Photoshop with warm highlights and neutral darks.

Out With the Old

This week several of my favorite images that were photographed during 2007 are not only here in my final blog for 2007, they are available for sale on eBay.

Both are open edition black and white silver gelatin prints on fiber paper printed by me to archival specifications. The images are 8 by 12 inches on 11 by 14 inch matte paper. The starting bid for both is $10.00, which is considerably less than the amount charged for gallery prints on my website.

The first image displayed in this blog is of model Dwain Leland. The shot comes from one of my favorite shoots of the year.

The second image is of Alan Demond, an amazingly gifted bodybuilder.

I enjoyed working with both of these models so much that I shot them twice and each time the results of our creative collaboration were amazing.

The image of Dwain is available at this URL http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150200901027&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

The image of Alan is available at this URL http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150200906048&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Since the image of Alan is a full frontal, you will need to have your eBay filters set to allow access to items for Mature Audiences before you can see it.

I have two other photographs listed at the same time. One more of Dwain and one of Olivier Herranz.

New Orton

This is an "orton-ized" version of a photograph posted earlier.

The Orton Effect

This image is an example of the Orton effect. To make this style of image one can either shoot two frames of the same subject using a tripod, one in focus and one out of focus, and then sandwich them together OR using image editing software you can create this effect by creating two layers the image and applying a Gaussian Blur effect on one of the layers.

Orton effect images have a romantic glow, as though shot through cheese cloth.

Free Stuff

Something different on my blog this week. I want to make those of you who visit this page frequently aware that my website features a "free stuff" page with desktop wall paper available for download.
If you like my work and want to plant some behind your windows to look at between whatever else you are doing, I recommend you check it out.
There are three wall papers available right now, but I update the page from time to time and swap things in and out. The wall papers are available in two popular sizes 800x600 pixels and 1024x768 pixels, so you can chose depending on the resolution you use on your monitor.
I have also included a calendar page to download. If you have a reasonably good photo printer you should be able to print the full color image. It fills an 8x10 inch page. If you live outside the US you probably need A4 sized images, but hey, someday.
Follow the link below to go directly to the web page with the free stuff. When you click on the download link the image will display in your browser window. In most browsers if you right click on the downloaded image you can save it to your computer.
http://www.photographybythomasmitchell.com/freestuff.htm
Enjoy, and let me know if you have requests.

Variations on a Model

This week, still more variations on Alan Demond. The first is one of the small slice digital photos. It's a view I don't often photograph.

The second is another variation of the lith print theme.


Next week some new work of a new model named Matthew Kojo. The shoot is scheduled for Sunday, so with any luck I'll have something posted by late evening Sunday.

Canyons

The deep crevises of Alan Demond's back create a lyrical sense of movement.

Alan in Red Light

This photograph of Alan Demond is from the same session as the photos I posted last week. However this one was taken with infrared film. IR film picks up the warmth of the human body and makes subjects appear to glow.

Hip-Hop Dance

Still from the same shoot with Alan Demond...
Finding a way to give directions that take the model in a new direction for both of you is one of the most rewarding aspects of this type of photography.
Often you start by asking for one thing and you get something completely different, but it's even more interesting than what you had in mind AND it takes you in a different direction as well.
This shot is an example of that. I asked Alan to try a particular type of posing and noticed that what he was doing was kind of like hip-hop dancing. We worked through dozens of shots like that until I noticed that each pose could be photographed several different ways from several different angles. And if I got really creative I could move in close and slice up his body in many unusual ways. This photo is a perfect example. It's one of my favorites from the whole shoot so far.