Getting In Close With Nudes (NSFW)

A friend of mine who is also a photographer was recently looking at my work and made an interesting observation about my nudes portfolio. He noted that I tend to shoot the entire body and never come in close for tight shots. After listening to this I had another look at my work and he is correct in this. I never gave it much thought before but after thinking about it I realized my reasons for doing this. I always felt that when shooting nudes, the entire body is necessary to tell a story or show or evoke an emotion. However after doing a quick crop of one of my photos he showed this to be untrue. In fact the cropped version was much more powerful to me.

So, as a result of this I have been scouring my archives of all my nude shoots looking for any close  or tight shots that I might have taken before but just decided weren't any good. I have discovered a few photos which I will post below.

After looking at these photos I came to another realization as to how much more control I have over my lighting than before and in my opinion how this has greatly improved my photography. 

Shooting close or tight shots will also force me to think of the body in a completely direct way to what I am used to and this will hopefully make for some interesting photos. Maybe less emotion and more sculpture like is an approach I should try. The soft curve of the lower back, the strained neck as the head is twisted, a knee, an elbow? I am not sure at this point but look forward to trying.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Chad

Shanghai Street Photography B/W

Just a quick post before I head off to do other things. Here are a few shots that have been marinading for a while. Shot around Shanghai they show 1 side of life here. Never a dull moment on the streets, all you have to do is look out for them. 

Have a great week, and for those here who worked yesterday, congratulations, Monday is over and you only have 4 more days until the weekend.

I will start to post more of my street photography on my Flickr account so you can find these and more shots there. Same username, Chadwickimages.

Krabi Thailand

Beautiful and friendly Thailand. Every time I go to Thailand I enjoy it more and more. The people are always super friendly and respectful, always willing to help in anyway they can. Now trying to find something interesting and authentic to shoot becomes a little tricky when you find yourself in a tourist spot like Krabi but with the help of a great tour guide I managed to get away from the usual more well known places.

Although this trip wasn't purely for photography I did manage to get a few great shots as well as trying my hand at shooting 35mm film which I have been wanting to do for a long time. Shooting film alongside digital proved to be a challenge for me because the way you go about shooting each format is completely different. I found with digital I am used to shooting a lot more photos per scene but with film I really had to slow down and think about my shots. The other benefit of shooting digital is that I got instant feedback how the photo looked and obviously the same is not possible when using film. This can be frustrating but at the same time exciting. The one thing I will change for the next trip is that I will have to choose beforehand which medium to shoot, digital or film as both at the same time had me feeling like I was doing half a job for each. Next time I would like to focus on just one. Like that I will work with both the advantages and limitations and I think this will help me improve. One the the really frustrating things I found shooting with film is that I am so used to changing the ISO on the fly to achieve the look I want that I didn't give much thought to what happens when I shoot film until I have to shoot in the daytime as well as night. Digital has really made it so easy and convenient that we are spoilt for choice. With film I had to make a decision beforehand about what film speed I would use and live with whatever restrictions came with that decision. For example I was shooting Ilford HP5 Plus 400 which was great for the days but I had to make sure that before the night I had finished the roll of film and had a new one ready pushed to 1600 so that I could get that bit extra shutter speed that I needed in dark night scenes. I'm not sure how old film shooters got around this, the only thing I can think of is that they carried 2 cameras around with them with different speed films in each. Anyway, I have a long way to go on my film adventure but the bug has already bitten me.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

3 Summit, Lin'An

Another great place in China. The mountains are beautiful and peaceful, a far cry from the masses that inhabit the cities and towns in China. The only sounds you hear in the mist at the top of the mountain are the bells around the necks of cows.

Down in the village the locals are friendly and welcoming. Children stare with curiosity and intrigue at any foreign face and a few badly pronounced words of Chinese gets you an explosion of laughter.

Street Photography Using Flash

AAAARRRGGGHH, This is the 3rd time I am writing this post because my blog keeps on crashing. So, as I was saying twice before, currently I am using a Fuji EF-X20 flash to shoot street. I really enjoy the compact size and solid build of it but the downside is that it doesn't last very long before I need to change batteries. I am looking for another option if anyone has good experiences with a small flash suitable for street photography then send me a message.

JinZi Jian, Zhejiang China

These days I find myself still shooting half in color and half in black and white. I still can't bring myself to just commit to one because I still feel that there is a need for each but what is strange for me is the fact that I am more inclined to lean towards black and white for landscapes. For the time being I will stick to this, my only concern is that they don't all start to look the same but I guess that is the challenge that we face when trying to be creative.

JinZi was the most difficult hike that I have done to date. I was told before hand that it should be so I was debating if I should take the X-T1 with the 16-55 lens or just stick with my trusted X100s. In the end I decided to go with the X100s and I am glad that I did. It is so light and convenient that I could just hang it around my neck and forget about when I wasn't using it. Also because there were no paths a lot of the time and the gradient was very steep, I found myself using my hands a lot to pull myself up or to climb. The result was that the X100s was bouncing around a lot  on my chest. I couldn't imagine being able to do this with the heavy and cumbersome 16-55 lens hanging around my neck, I think I would be too worried about smashing it against the rocks while jumping from one to the other. I know some of you are saying well why not just put it in your bag when not using it? The problem is that I don't have a rucksack that can offer sufficient padding for  my cameras and still be able to hold all my camping gear. Also because this was a hiking/ camping trip there wasn't really much time to stop every 10 min, take off my rucksack to get out the camera and, shoot and then put it back. A lot of the shots were done on the move so as to not hold up the group.

For now I still feel the X100s is the prefect travel camera, I just wish it had wifi like the newer X100T so that I could connect the Instax printer and give out some prints to all the locals I photograph.

South African Bush Getaway

Continuing my time spent in South Africa, we took a little time to get out of the city into the countryside. One of the great things I love about SA is the fact that you can drive for 1 hour and be relatively isolated, no car horns honking, not a person in sight, just lots of blue skies, puffy white clouds and fresh air. Oh and depending where you go, lots of wild animals to be found in game parks.

Another normal day on the Highways in South Africa. Just kidding, the highways have much more traffic that this. Shot with a 35mm lens while steering with my elbows!!!

Always wanted to see what I look like behind the camera, scary stuff!

Huang Shan- Yellow Mountain Pt 2

For those of you who have never been to Yellow Mountain, here are a few tips. The cable car does not go all the way to the top no matter what your friends tell you so there will be plenty of hiking. This could cause severe shortness of breath and mocking by friends. It could also cause severe hunger in which case you are advised to eat the mocking friends if they do not throw candy bars at you. Also, the walls in the hotel are paper thin so take ear plugs if you want any sleep. The hike down is just as bad as going up. Don't let the fact that there are groups of 14 year old school girls passing you and giggling make you think any different. What was even more amazing to me were the men walking up the mountain while balancing about 80kgs on bamboo poles over their shoulders. This is the only way that everything gets transported 10km up the mountain. And when I say everything, I mean everything, from roof tiles to whole metal framed sliding doors with the glass inside to all the food and beverages that you have in the hotels.

As far as photography goes, I found it difficult to hold the camera up to my eye while constantly feeling the urge to vomit but I did manage to get a few good shots.

Lessoned learned from this trip... get fitter.

Shanghai Streets In Black & White

These days I am really trying hard to push myself to shoot for color but I keep going back to black and white. For me it has so much more depth but this is just my opinion based on my skill set. I think I would consider my color work less strong compared to my black and white work so I have to keep reminding myself to get out of my comfort zone otherwise 2 years from now I will still just be admiring the brilliant work of photographers such as Steve McCurry, JoeyL and Sue Bryce instead of raising my own skill level.

So shoot, shoot and shoot some more, and when you get tired and despondent, pick up your camera and carry on shooting.

Taiwan in Black & White