It's All In The Way You View It

We've been taught in school that photography is not capturing an image as much as it is capturing light.  The image itself is just what is seen through reflected light that bounces off a particular object and is captured in our eyes, deciphered through our brains, and decoded after being put through filters and blinders and stigma and prejudice and emotion.

It's true.  Though we pretty much all see the same way, physically - for those who can see (and I'm trying to split hairs here - lol), we all don't actually view the same thing the same way as the person right next to us.  That person can be our identical twin with the exact same genetic makeup as us and that twin would have a different concept of what was being seen.

So when I capture light, I would like to do so in a way that pleases *me* most, first of all, and then if it pleases others... awesome.  In so doing I've started to refer to myself as a time cop: I arrest light (and therefore, time, since there are theories about the two being intertwined) and place it under my complete control and scrutiny.  I then bend it to my will, altering its essence in some ways to ultimately put it on display for others to see.

An ant in amber, or a mammoth in Arctic ice have nothing on an image frozen in time and space - virtually incorruptible.

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a guy who had done many images for myself and my partner to create card art for both online and physical card/board games.  He was skeptical at first, but as time went on, he saw that what we did was not only fun, but interesting and challenging.  After a session where we did a shoot for one particular card game or another, the camera was still at the ready and he and I went for it.  "Tim" was feeling artistic, and wanted to get some images to help him with his own modeling gigs that sometimes popped up.

Some of the results of that shoot have been posted on my deviantArt 'gallery'.  I recently went back through the images we had taken and did a bit of creative editing, the results which I'll post here.

"Tim" has undergone some medical issues as of late, and he doesn't look as you see him above at the moment.  He, like me, has to work hard to maintain his physique - though I have never even remotely looked as good as he does! LOL.  We both are quick metabolizers and lose weight quickly.  For those who suffer from weight loss issues, I must say being thin all the time is no picnic either.  But that's another issue...

Looking at these images allows me to go back in time to the actual shoot and the amount of fun and creative energy that was part of it all.

I don't think that there has been a time where I haven't been nervous about taking imagery of people.  People are much different than taking images of landscapes or buildings  - people have attitudes and are WAY more dynamic and fluid than anything else that can be photographed (with maybe the exception of animals... or water. :D)

To say I was nervous during this shoot is an understatement.  I wasn't yet in school for photography (remember, this set was taken in 2009...) and I was going by instinct and what I had seen in books, magazines, the internet, and TV.  I wanted to ensure I captured Tim in a good light and with enough masculine drama to make it worthy of anyone's attention.

There are those who really like to photograph women with the lack of clothing and in soft, feminine settings.  I have seen so many exceptionally beautiful images of exceptionally beautiful women that they have become commonplace.  I would like to do the same for men, but in the opposite direction: create exceptionally handsome images of exceptionally handsome men in hard, masculine settings.

I tend to think that there aren't enough of those out there, and as a time cop, it's my responsibility to ensure that justice is served.  ;-)