"Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age."
Victor Hugo
To all the love birds out there, may you age happy together by always leaning on to each other's shoulder.
Last Thursday my husband and I, we celebrated 25 years together and 21 years of marriage.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
George Carlin
"Fire is light-footed and shamanic, dancing between the visible and invisible, undoing matter one collapsed molecule at a time, wreaking utter destruction with a touch softer than breath. Its poor cousins, wind and water, are one-dimensional rubes by comparison. Wind is all push, push, push. Water is suffocating, but passively so. And even when water gets it together to be a torrent or a tsunami, it is but wet wind. Fire is at once elemental and otherworldly. Fire dances on the grave of all it destroys. Fire is serious voodoo.” Micheal Perry From my garden to yours with love. Photos were shot by me hand held in August 28th 2013 PS: Thank you Danielle & Simon for this second opportunity collaborating with this project. We achieved well my vision of "The Shaman and His Sorcerer's Fire Dance" concept together.
Results below are with Lumix GH2 camera. Further down you will see the results with Canon 5DMark III.
As for people who can't believe that my photography is real and is mine, well, all I can say, I have nothing to prove to unbelievers. Let them walk with their blinders and see only what they believe in and peruse with their rumors.
I am known to edit my work. Half of the art of photography is in the editing of your images, the other half is composing and using the light to your advantage. In the past, before digital era, I used to print my images in my darkroom. Today Photoshop made it easier to achieve my artistic vision faster and easier.
I sometimes document the realty, much like in my travel photography. My colors are bold, sometimes saturated. But my travel photography are images as composed in my camera, not cropped... I usually travel with a Panasonic Lumix GH2 camera and Lumix lenses. I also capture images with my cell phone Samsung Galaxy SII. People who can't believe that great images can be shot with a cell phone, I welcome them to the new cell phone era. I produced 16"x20" size prints from my Galaxy SII.
The rumor has it that The Galaxy S5 (which is not out yet) might have an image stabilizer.
In my fine art portrait works. I am known with my very realistic collages. However everything in my collages are shot by me. The backgrounds, locations and the people. Much like in this Blog post.
Let me show you how I shoot and edit my areal landscape shots from the plane's window behind a dirty glass. And how it ends up becoming what you see uploaded to my Blogs.
Claude is an extremely handsome and a very sweetheart kind of a man.
I had photographed him first last year August 29 1012.
He returned back to my studio for another photo session this year in July 25 2013...
In about a week time he will compete at WBFF 2013 under the Pro category in Las Vegas.
Best of luck to you dear Claude.
Then if everything works well, I am scheduled to conduct another session with Claude in early September with another outstanding pro female fitness model in my studio.
Although this Blog is more about my portrait (glamour, boudoir) work I would like to announce you that our travel blog Anthony & Hera Adventures.com is once again being updated.
I started updating it this morning. The first two days of our Barcelona trip in May 2013 is up and running. I will try to update on regular basis. I have two weeks material to cover.
The first two days contains 24 photos, one video clip and a comprehensive travel log written by my husband Anthony.
This image I just finished reminds me of the song L'ete Indien of Joe Dassin. Listen to the words you would understand why. I grew up with that song. When I fell in love years ago I started daydreaming kissing him again by listening to that song. At the age of 18 I arrived to the country where L'ete Indien takes place.
Yes, I dream a lot. I turn them into reality in my photos. Instead of calling myself a painter, I am called a photographer.
Location was shot by me with Canon 5 D Mark III in West Island. The wedding gown is by an Italian wedding gown designer. The session happened in my studio.
I am in this mood aroud these days editing over 700 images this way. Since I have no model release to share the images with you,, I tried the technique on a recent studio shot which I have a model release.
The subject was shot over a paper backdrop. The fur (background) was shot with cell phone. Then the texture was applied over...
Voila the elements.. Everything is possible... The wedding shots will not however have the dark texture. Therefore they will be less in darker mood and have more grain... To see what I mean please visit my other Blog post:
Today I would like to share with you another realistic photography collage from the same photography session in my West Island photo studio which took place last Monday with Karima.
In the morning I visited Hudson's Finnegan Market with two photographer friends of mine. After having some drinks at Willows In I returned home.
Around 3pm my husband and I we decided to go into town. I brought with me my Samsung Galaxy SII cell phone.
In the past I could print up to 16"x20" size prints from my cell phone snaps. So I was lazy to carry any other gear.
I noticed the reflections you see below. I composed as it and snapped the shot. Here is the un-edited shot.
Here it is the final image with Karima in it. Karima was photographed in my studio with two Bowen strobs and my camera Panasonic Lumix GH2.
I hope you like the impact of the final image. I hope you notice the realistic aspect of the digital collage. Please pay attention to the shadows and to the harmonious nature of the warm tones from two different cameras and two different shots.
During the film era I had experimented with light painting with slides. It was mainly on still life subjects.
Several years later, my good friend Howard and Ronda and I experimented with light painting with our digital cameras in my old downtown photography studio near Lachine Canal Montreal. We used flash lights and created portraits of each other.
I have always wanted to push the technical and artistic envelope when it came to do things beyond a snap shot, beyond what just comes out of a camera.
I have always said that styling your images sets apart a visionary photographer from a photo snapper.
But that alone it isn't enough in the industry today.
Few weeks ago I photographed this barn on the way to Toronto. Bright day light. Hand held shot. Nothing extraordinary. Here is the unedited version as it came out of the flash card. The RAW file size is reduced.
Karima and her daughter Mimi were in my studio as my clients 7 years ago. We did a mother and daughter photo session. Since then we have kept in touch. Karima is an art lover.
Last Monday, Mimi and Karima were in my West Island photo studio. 7 years later they were as beautiful as they were back then.
The entire session although happened in studio in front of a backdrop, the final images were going to be digitally transported to other locations.
I could have very easily transport the Lady In Red to the day light shot of the barn. It had to be much more different. I wanted the drama.
Everything was re-created in Photoshop. And it did take me less then 20 minutes. Much like in the old era darkroom, I burnt selectively to create the night shot.
Voila... Lady In Red Under The Moon Light...
In real life, no luxury glamour portrait client would pay you and stand at night in the middle of a field, infested with bugs, just to get photographed.
Yes models would do it for a portfolio shot. Fashion magazine editorial art directors would do it, because they have the budget to hire the models, photographers and teams to make their vision possible.
But why slave around photography? The only thing you need is to have the artistic vision and the technical know how to create the same vision in Photoshop.
Convenience versus inconvenience... Convenience would always win.
