Random Pictures by vigil

Double posted my light painting thread, so I'm gonna just use this one for random photos that I will most likely never use or post anywhere else. They'll be mixtures of DSLR and webcam pictures for now.

A friend.

Just a small tip for anyone looking to take nice portraits of any family or friends:

If you're trying to take a picture of someone and you notice that they have shadows under their eyes and around their face because of the lighting you are in, try using some white paper or shiny silver wrapping paper in order to reflect some light onto their face.

You get them to hold it at any height under their face , it depends on the intensity of the light that you want reflected onto them, and just tilt it around until you get the light rebounding the way you want it.

I had my friend just place a bit of shiny wrapping paper that we had handy, on her lap and it did help the shadows to a degree. You could also get them to hold it to the side of their face, or anywhere that you want to get rid of shadows, basically. And then obviously you just use whatever composition you need in order to take the picture without there being any sight of the reflector.

I would have gotten my friend to hold it a bit closer to her face, and angled it more towards her, but she had a lot of trouble not squinting from the brightness of it. =p

Webcam. Yeah I don't care what anyone says about ISO noise and compression, I like them/don't mind them in these.

About the second one. I like the shirt, don't think too much about that batman though (from the dark knight).

Edit: Okay, just for you Wyote.

Okay, I play dress ups every once in a while and explore my superficial-ness. Whatever you see here is never how I dress (and I never wear make up unless I'm doing character stuff like this), in my day to day world, I don't pay much mind to fashion, but I do like experimenting with make up and wearing stuff that I never would usually. So there you go.

Put the sparkler pic back. It was awesome.

Batman is awesome too though.

Back to DSLR.

Yup it's a fence!

Your artwork is fascinating. I am left with daydreams, desires and slight feelings of inadequacy. lol

For the past few minutes I have been wondering what it is about these pictures that I find so interesting. I think its your ability to express yourself.

As an artist, is this not your goal?

Well I think that any art we produce can't help but be expressions of our thoughts, desires, feelings.

So now you've made me think - what am I trying to express?

I think that my goals kinda changes with each medium.
For drawings, they are usually visualisations of real moments or experiences that I want in my life.

For photography of inanimate objects and nature, so far it's been about finding and trying to express, the wonder, magic and beauty that I feel is in the world. And sometimes it really is just about exploration.

When I photograph myself and things that I make, I believe I do it out of a desire to incorporate my daydreams into reality, to try to live in the life that I imagine for myself. And I think that's really my ultimate goal. To live a life that I believe to be satisfying and beautiful.

Hmm, I know that's a lot more than your question warranted, a simple "yes" probably would have sufficed. But you know, your question instigated another question, and I hadn't really thought about that last one before, because dressing up and making structures are much more recent things than the drawing and photography. So that was very interesting and satisfying for me to realize.

My honest feelings? Had you just said yes I'd have got my feelings hurt.

"To live a life that I believe to be satisfying and beautiful."

This is worded nearly exactly how I have stated my ultimate goal in life. We are very similar indeed lol.

I'm glad i could return the favor.

You've really inspired me to get into photography myself. I've always enjoyed editing things. Movies, music, photo's. I just really like editing, To me, its like the magic behind the scene. Inspired me to want to take pictures, and to want to be more creative.

That's awesome awakend, it's really funny and cool to think that my playing and creating could influence someone a million miles away, to get more into something, that makes me really happy. =D

As you say you are getting into photography, if you ever need any advice about cameras or whatever, please don't hesitate to ask, I'd be glad to share any of my own understandings that might be helpful to anyone starting to express an interest in it.

I had to take the second picture through a cage, just in case you're wonderingn what those blurry greyish bits are.

Second picture is taken with a second hand SLR Pentax MX camera body and a ricoh rikenon 50mm fixed lens. Photo was scanned from a physical copy of the original.

I like ur Photos Vigil, you have an eye for detail.

Thanks Pupa