HEADspin

Newborn Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:43:00 +0000

A few days ago we welcomed a new addition to The Bunny Ranch.

The baby kit was the only tough survivor of the litter. Perfection in every way. He was not a clone, another sibling of the masses, but the little rockstar of the night. All eyes are on him.

Being captured by the delicacy of a newborn is an experience that takes you by surprise every time. Those little ears, the little toes, even the little nose.

It doesn't matter if it a baby rabbit, a puppy or a new born human babe. These are the sights that soften our hearts. But these moments are fleeting. We all grow so fast. Don't hesitate to capture the intimate fragility of new lives before it's gone.

The Thing About Outside...

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:42:00 +0000

I can't see the laptop screen!

As a photographer and graphic artist, I spend a lot of time in front of the screen. Usually in the dark, with the curtains drawn.

It doesn't do much for the quality of living at times. I feel as if I'm missing out on the gifts of nature. Now I know that most people have day jobs that keep them indoors too, so I really shouldn't complain, BUT I have a career that allows me certain freedoms. I just keep forgetting to take them.

So today, I am outside...and I can't see the bloody screen!

I know many of you are wondering why I don't step away from the machines already, and just enjoy being outside, but that isn't what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to actually work outside, as I had envisioned the perks of my job, and new laptop, to be.

So it is how I imagined?

Well, I still can't see, so I do hope my typing isn't failing me. My cat, Ziggy Stardust, who I kicked outside a month ago came to visit, which is a comfort. The locals keep driving past and outright stopping at some invisible stop sign in the middle of the block. Perhaps because they aren't sure what to think of a woman in the middle of her yard with a laptop, I'm sure. The sun, warm. The leaves, beautifully drifting in the warm breeze, crackling and adding wonderful colour all around me.

It is how I imagined it. Perhaps I should have my camera out here instead.

But then I wouldn't be blogging. I never seem to make time for this. I write often in my mind. I finally figured out I usually do it while I am outside. I find that many of the photos I take wandering outside I intend to use on here too. So I walk, snap, and write in my mind.

Soon as I'm back inside, it's time to work. I'm not inspired any longer. Don't get me wrong, I'm inspired by my job, but it's the photos and not the writing at that point.

I suppose I'm the natural type that would blog. I thinks it's the same trait that makes me take many of the photos I do. I want to share the things I experience in life with others. I enjoy much of life. I want other's to enjoy it too.

Are you the kind of person that doesn't take moments for granted? Do you regularly "stop and smell the roses" so to speak?

Many people assume I am like this because I have had a hard life and I've learned to see the good where I can. I don't think that is true. Nor do I think I am simply sentimental.

For as long as I can remember, I took photos in my mind. Consciously. As a child I wished I could take snap shots with my eyes and print them out. I'm sure most of you can relate to that feeling. I took it a step further. I began to sketch and draw. Sometimes I wrote. I never reflected everything I wanted to. In high school I began to take pictures. Lots of them. I took pictures of parties, my room, the halls of my school, the park, myself, and my friends. It was like I knew these things were special and I should record them because my own memory or talents could never reproduce them properly. These things were important. They should be specially kept.

I have always treasured three things. My past - my experiences, memories, the people and events that brought me to where I am today. The future - the knowledge that I can control aspects of it, the happiness you can find in daydreaming, the comfort that it holds to help you endure hard times, and the mysteries that it contains, the effects of change. The present - who I am, the moment I am in, those who share it with me by circumstance or choice, the choice to do with it as I will, and the ability to realise I am in it.

Those three things are my life as a whole. May I never take for granted any of them.

The thing about outside, it is the only constant. It can really put things into perspective when you can't see.

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:01:00 +0000

"When I say that all my woman are dazzling beauties, they object. The nose of this one is too large; the hips of another, they are too wide; perhaps the breasts of a third, they are too small. But I see these women for how they truly are... glorious, radiant, spectacular, and perfect... because I am not limited by my eyesight.

Women react to me in the way they do, Don Octavio, because they sense that I search out the beauty that lies within, until it overwhelms everything else. And then they cannot avoid their desire, to release that beauty and envelope me in it."
- Don Juan De Marco

Instant Pink!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Ya, I know..I keep slacking on updating my shoots. I'll catch up someday. It's a life a goal.

Let me tell you a bit about this new band I recently got out to shoot.

The Lloydminster based Instant Pink, classified as Techno/Thrash/Surf on MySpace, describes their sound as "Two snakes being rubbed together by three robots having intimate relations."

Instant Pink will make you shake your head and laugh if you dare expect a serious answer. They are obviously silly and ready for a good time. The attitude of the band is to defy the norm. They poke fun at cultural cliches while challenging everything about themselves that could be classified. Pure entertainment.

The best I can do is tell you to check out a show and do your best to make your own decisions about them. Chances are, you'll be too caught up in the energy of the show to think of anything else.

If you are anything like me, you'll find yourself thinking "What the hell was that?! I think liked it. Give me more!"

Confessional: Unrequited Love

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:34:00 +0000

**This is a blog post I wrote a few years back and I thought I'd share it.**

There it is. A crack of light escaping a secret place. Shining for all too see. I`m unsure what unsettled my carefully laid foundation, & years of reinforcement, but something did...

I may as well admit the truth of it, before you go poking around, trying figure it out for yourself. I was an artist. A professional and a teacher. Paid. That was my official title: Artist.

I say `was` because I don`t do it anymore. No, I don`t know why... Perhaps in my writing today, I`ll find out.

I took to two quotation`s by Buddha when I was a teen. I scrawled them on the inside cover of my tattered sketchbook the moment I heard them.

"You are what your deep driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny."

"Your work is to discover your work,

& then with all your heart, to give yourself to it."

I suspect I locked it away because it once was my everything. My passion..pride..escape..acceptance. My identity.

One day it became my work. The logical next step for me in everyone`s mind. Even my own. I was, of course, a little apprehensive. Not unlike a new mother, leaving her babe with a stranger for the first time. No one knew my creations as well as I.

I poured my soul into my work. No one saw me behind the art. Pieces of my soul became mere objects to be bought and sold. The value always up for debate.

My value.

I pushed away the gnawing pain of a subtle betrayal & continued to work. I felt like a whore. I would sit on the street, in the park, even in the dingy bathrooms of a club - pouring my ink onto flesh. Simple nothings I knew would please them. It wasn`t the pennies tossed my way. It was the attention.

I ached to find the passion I once felt in their envy & praise.

I became empty. Never once looking inward to see what I had done.

"Every child is born an artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist."

-Pablo Picasso

Khapra!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:07:00 +0000

What's Khapra? Let me introduce you...

Khapra is an intense and skillful metal band from Lloydminster, SK, Canada. Keep an eye out for these guys. With a new CD well into production, and their first single having already found a home on a metal compilation, the future looks good for this recently discovered talent. I promise to get you the link with more details once they have completed their new MySpace site.

I'm glad I recently had the chance to shoot them in their great industrial practice space. The guys are all laid back and quick to laugh, but step back when it's time to play, they are very serious about their music. I look forward to shooting them again.

Business Being Beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:19:00 +0000

I recently had the chance to work with a wonderful pair of women while I was on the road.

Amber Gereau, an old dear friend, invited me over while she was working on a client's hair. As it turned out, the client was another old friend named Amy I had become especially close with the summer past. What great luck!

I proceeded to watch an incredibly painful experience of a woman's whim to change her look. This particular day it was the weave of hair extensions. Thankfully I have never had short enough hair to desire such a procedure. (Yes, procedure.)

Of course, with such pampering in the air, I too joined in the mood and got a deep conditioning for my winter abused, straw like hair.

It was just like when we were teens, when we primped for hours on end, giggling and enjoying each other's company. Thankfully we weren't confined to the bathroom anymore, though I do miss it. Perhaps I just long for the feel of being as close as we were then. Back when we were experimenting with our beauty.

Here we are. We're back together once again, laughing and making ourselves up.

Silly girls.

Sitting awkwardly, with my bound hair heavy with conditioner, I'm laughing at the insanity of tears rolling down Amy face. Inwardly I wonder if it's worth it but I know the answer.

I know very well why women do these things. It's deliciously hedonistic to indulge in our very base genetic desires to be attractive, just for the sake of it. It's one thing when we have no partner, it either consumes us, or we repress the very instinct often blaming men for it. It's another when we have mated, yet we still play into the game of being desirable creatures. Unnecessary, but a delightful esteem boost, for both you and the partner who gets to show you off.

In fact, it is that very base desire to be attractive that fuels my decision to help men and women express this. I fulfill those images they had only toyed with the thought of through photography.

One cannot go into the beauty industry without understanding how powerful a beautiful image is. In person, or in print.

I have it easy. I have to execute a thing of beauty once, with many chances to tweak imperfections as I go. My work enjoys the success of permanence once I have achieved pleasing only the eye.

Those in the beauty industry have to concern themselves with not only the perfection, but the maintenance of every pore, lash, nail and strand of hair. They must also address smell & texture. These details are astoundingly important in person. We experience others with all our senses, and we can't help but react to these cues. There's no hiding behind a blur filter and strong lighting in real life.

I too scoffed at the idea of a "beauty school drop-out". How sad is that, I laughed.

I take it back.

These are both scientists and artists in one. Not to mention behaviorists and even therapists. It takes an extremely wide range of ability and talent to succeed in that field.

So here I am, seeing an old friend in a new light.

We can't fool ourselves. We aren't the silly girls anymore. We talk of science, art and technology. Not only of relationships. We are no longer on an even playing field. We are specialists containing knowledge the other knows little of. We have become highly skilled professionals. We pay each other for the services we used to only inflict on each other.

We are The Stylist, The Actress, and The Photographer.

Somewhere there are photographs of a girl with a curling iron doing her girlfriend's hair, one entertaining some friends, and another taking a photo of herself in the mirror for art class.

All I can do is laugh.

Wacky for Wacom

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:31:00 +0000

http://www.wacom.com/intuos/6x8.cfm

I'm going to take the plunge and get a Wacom. It has been many months since I decided I wanted this powerful piece of creative technology. Thankfully my birthday is coming up next week and my dreams are to come to fruition!

Originally I thought I might be able to just do my art traditionally again and just scan it in to a program like Adobe Illustrator. That just didn't happen!

I'm completely connected to immediate gratification. Look how digital photography made me mend my broken heart and pick up the glass again. I no longer have to wait days to see my images. Thanks to digital darkrooms, I don't need to work minimum wage in a photolab just to ensure control over my work.

Click, view, click...

I'm in love with the effects I can create in Adobe Lightroom, and the ability to make any adjustments imaginable in Adobe Photoshop. At times I end up with three or four different versions of the same image because I could not choose between the possibilities.

Click, save, click...

I'm excited about what the Wacom is capable of. My workflow should drastically improve in speed as well as creativity.

No more braced aching wrist late in the night. No more screaming and shaking my fist at the monitor because my mouse crudely screwed up another edit. No more repetative angry backing up by typing "Ctrl" +"Alt" + "Z".

There will only be the wonderful ease of my anticipated new best friend.

Stroke, smile, stroke...

Finally! HEADphotos are available for purchase!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Check out my Etsy shop to buy my prints! The link is just on the side of this page with image previews.

Periodicly I have sales & I'm always willing to negotiate a deal or fill custom orders. If there are any of my works that you are familiar with and don't see available just let me know. I'll set it up for you to order easily & quickly.

I take PayPal & Money Orders (because not all of us have those great little plastic cards! lol) & ship everything Priority or International Air Mail.

There are only a few prints in the store right now as I'm just starting to add them. New pieces will appear everyday!

Feel free to take a peek around. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you can find.

Cheers!

Sleepy Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:18:00 +0000

That's me. Sleepy as can be.

Building a business by yourself can be a rough endeavour. It's one thing to step into an existing system, and improve things, and another to create one yourself.

My days and nights are filled with everything but what I want to do. To a point.

My business and industry interest me endlessly. But it tires me at the very next turn. Endless research, upgrading equipment, learning new technologies, improving work flow, networking in the industry, judging my clientele, deciding my artistic focus, invoicing, taxes, licensing, contracts, building fee structures, archiving and copyrighting my work, marketing, website, fan site, blog, online store, keeping up with trends, mastering ridiculously complicated software on a sub par computer system....

When do I eat, sleep, play...or perhaps even get to take photos?

Not that you should feel sorry for me. I willingly flung myself into this. I suppose I could have stayed freelance, worked my butt off for friends for free, and chose some other lame day job - but why? What would make next year any different from this year?

I fear the mundane.

It takes a lot of bloody work to avoid it.

Work, work, work...

I'd better get back to it.

Enter the Boudoir...

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:58:00 +0000

I'm back from my travels and looking forward to my favorite sexy holiday - and not just because it is my birthday! (*Hint)

I adore Valentine's Day. It brings out every woman's secret desire to be sultry, sassy and sensual. You have to admit it. You think about who might wine & dine you. What beautiful jewelry may suddenly appear before you. Red satin, white lace, candle lit dinners and bedrooms... It is a time decadence.

Enter the boudoir. A sensual place. A woman's dressing room or bedroom. A place of pampering and luxury. The perfumes, the soft lighting, the textures all awaiting exploration. Women know about pleasure, and men crave it from them.

Give the gift of pleasure to yourself and your man this Valentine's day. Book a boudoir session and I will capture your inner seductress in photographs.

Makes those secret desires a reality.

Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:58:00 +0000

Happy Holidays!

The holiday season is here & HEADphoto is ready to party!

I'll get back to work on the site soon. I promise. Photography services are available by appointment during this time.

The new year will bring many things to the new site. (If I can stay out of the eggnog long enough!) The site is HEADfolio.com for those of you who haven't peeked yet.

Check back soon. Or maybe after the New Year...

Cheers!

Slightly Disturbing Decorations from Generations Past..

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah DeMaya) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Hey Santa!

I rather do enjoy those old, slightly disturbing decorations from generations past.

We've even started collecting them around here. A giant step for someone who used to be afraid of dolls. Okay. I might still be, just a little. But Santa...I can deal with him.

I hope you are all enjoying the sights of the holidays.

Cheers!