Today saw the first photo shoot of the Untouched Photography project, using former Youth Theatre veterans Elaine, Bruce and Katie as my first experimental models.
I’m actually really pleased with the way things turned out. It was a lot harder than I’d first thought, as leaving the images free of manipulation means you have no kind of post-shoot fall-back if you didn’t get the shot quite right. There’s no adjustment of lighting, no option to lighten a slightly dark image up a little, and no chance to crop the image, even slightly, to take out something which may have crept into the edge of the frame.
What all of that means is that it’s really important to make sure that you’ve got the shot you want before you move on, to check the images you’ve taken. I nearly scuppered myself a couple of times with slightly off-kilter images, but caught them in time to shoot an extra couple of more precise frames.
It’s a great creative exercise, though, knowing that you have to get what you need there and then and have no safety net for the picture afterwards. And today was the first time I’ve worked in this kind of way – an organised shoot with models – as opposed to just happy-snapping family and friends on days out.
What pleased me most about it, though, was how much I enjoyed it. This is clearly going to be a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the process now and seeing what I can get from people. Anyone interested in modeling who hasn’t contacted me, feel free to drop me a line.
On a more every-day note, it was great to see the YT guys again, as it’s been over a year since I last saw them and I was looking considerably worse then than I am now. It’s always great to see people’s reactions when they see me for the first time since the op.
When I was ill I got used to the frustration of people telling you that you look really well when you’re feeling like rubbish. I never quite knew whether they really meant it (albeit in a relative sense) or if they were just being nice about seeing my huffing and puffing with oxygen specs up my nose, but either way it always bothered me. Now when people tell me I look great, I get to tell them I feel great too – it’s a whole new world that I’m still not getting tired of.
Let’s have more of it.