Hi, I'm Max!

2011-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

So, this post isn't going to start with a photograph.

I just returned home to my beautiful girlfriend and our dogs last night after 3 (almost 4) weeks on the road. I took off on my motorcycle a while back, headed north, stayed with my buddy Pete (arguably one of the best friends anyone could ever have) and his lovely fiance (and also a friend of mine) Julia. They just moved in to their first home. It's beautiful. I was so honored to have such an amazing place to stay, with such wonderful friends.

A few posts will follow, starting with this one.

A thought on random strangers.

When travelling north, I stopped in Gadsden, Alabama and found myself past night fall with no scouted location to set up a tent. I've made this mistake before, it's really quite a pain in the ass. I rely on having some light to be able to see hilltop churches so I can find off street church parking lots to sleep in. Always works until I pull off the highway realizing I just missed the last of the sunlight.

Well, I rode down a street for a few miles, no luck, went back to a gas station and was looking at a map when a random guy hopped out of a car. He had a bit of a limp and platinum white hair. He mentioned that he liked my bike and went into the store. On his way out he asked me where I was going and where I was from, followed by where I was staying. When I asked him about any local churches, he offered his home. At first I wasn't so sure about it, but honestly, what did I have to lose, any negative thoughts that come to mind, consider that they're only there because of horror movies, real life horror is rare at most. So I decided to give it a shot, I could always tell them I wanted to get another hundred miles on the day before calling it quits if things were weird.

So I followed Mike and Deb to their place and ended up having a wonderful evening with two incredibly wonderful folks. They were well travelled, often hitchhiking, friendly, old school hippies with a love for life and all things beautiful, they are collectors of native american artifacts that they find themselves, they're both half native american... Upon my departure they gifted me with a medicine pouch and a feather to keep me safe on my travels. The feather is now hanging on the front door of my house.

What's even more awesome is that I told them I was going to wake up at 6:30 and head out by 7am.. Mike beat me and woke me up at 6:25am. He was up and had already begun making me breakfast. It was one of the best omelet's I've ever had. Turns out he has years of experience working at a late night diner. Go figure.

"Never talk to strangers" is horrible advice. I had one of the most wonderful experiences with two of the most interesting folks as a result of a random meeting in a random town.

a face...

2011-07-13T01:14:00.001-07:00

Anon02, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

a face that represents many..

A Louisiana landscape

2011-06-12T12:18:00.001-07:00

Lake Maurepas, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

I was out on the water recently and brought my camera along to try and get some photographs that illustrate the natural beauty of the area where I live.

We rode down the Diversion Canal and through a few smaller bayous to get to Lake Maurepas. On the way I shot a handful of photos and took a few short videos. I don't do much video, but I am playing with it here and there. I will include a short clip in this blog.

Once we arrived at Lake Maurepas I was really excited about the still water and hazy skies. At the same time it was approaching 100 degrees and we had anchored the boat at a sand bar to go swimming. 3 of the 4 of us were already in the water when we heard "alligator!" from a nearby boat. I never did make it in the water day day, however my girlfriend, Jen, and two friends were in the water (around 3-4 feet deep) when they turned their heads to see this guy approaching.

Back in the boat we sat and watched the curious gator check out the area. Meanwhile I took advantage of the beautiful landscape and shot a few photos. These photographs really summarize one part of what it's like living in southern Louisiana. With swamps and bayous in every direction, you can't live here without having some closeness to water. We're surrounded by it.

I would really like to get out and shoot more, there is so much natural beauty worth seeing and photographing here, it's really quite amazing.

Here's a short video, riding around on the waterways of southern Louisiana, skip to a minute and 30 seconds for a gator sunning himself on a tree.

I caught a rabbit!

2011-05-02T09:33:00.001-07:00

Houmas House, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Well, I caught a rabbit with my camera. This cute little guy is a resident of Houma's House, where I was photographing a beautiful wedding on Saturday. While taking some portraits of some groomsmen this little guy started making it's way through a garden, eating a lunch of fresh grass.. I waited for it to pop out of the flower bed and into the lawn to grab this shot. Two more photos at the following links:

One

Two

'tis the season...

2011-04-26T22:29:00.001-07:00

Crawfish II, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

The best time of year in southern Louisiana is this one right now.. Crawfish season. Coincides with the best weather, it's been beautiful out daily for the past few weeks. Anyway, anyone who's from the area knows all about these little critters...

Here's one more steamy crawfish photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mprophetphoto/5659902095/lightbox/

figures dansantes...

2011-04-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

figures dansantes 01, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

I am beginning work on a new series of photographs. The series is comprised of abstract figure artwork. I am toying with the idea of different print options.. something more organic with less gloss. we shall see..

I'm really excited at the expressive nature as well as sculptural qualities of these photographs.

I hope to complete the first collection of photographs over the coming months. Not placing a deadline but would like 9 photographs in total.

Houma's House

2011-03-22T01:34:00.001-07:00

Houma's House I, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Was shooting at Houmas House recently and took the opportunity to grab a long exposure night shot. Though I didn't have a tripod, so I placed the camera on the ground and propped up the lens with the camera strap to get the composition as I wanted it... Houmas House has some beautiful grounds and this amazing chandelier:

experiments in light...

2011-03-11T11:33:00.001-08:00

IMG_1641, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Jen and I are always trying new things or using past thoughts on new shoots to see how they affect the finished photograph. Sometimes they are pointless, other times they are worth exploring more. Water has a nice reflective quality that I'd like to explore more..

Doing business as an artist, or, my girlfriend is an alien!!

2011-01-25T15:07:00.001-08:00

Jen's an Alien!!!, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

If you know me personally, you know that I have an amazing partner in life and in my business. Jen is my equal in artistic vision and creation and together we're constantly challenging each other to do better, stay away from formula based routines within our craft, and ultimately create works of art that are, first and foremost, impressive and exciting to ourselves.

When you decide to turn a passion (or an artistic hobby) into a career, you put a lot at stake. I'm sure much has been written about this but the basic gist of it is as follows: You create art for yourself, because you love it. At some point you discover that others enjoy your work and fast forward 5 or 6 years, you may find yourself getting paid to create your artwork. In any industry, be it music, literature or art there is a certain pull toward creating work that is "sellable" within established markets, or you have to push to create a new market. The latter is an incredible achievement and something we see a lot of in the current field of technology. I find that it's all to easy to get caught up in a spiral, where there's a tipping point and instead of the main goal being the creation the art, the goal becomes the sale of product. Now, don't get me wrong, with any product based business, sales are important and the products you sell are one of the most important parts of the business. But with a business that is routed in the creation of art, that original concept can easily become diluted, leading to one of the greatest dangers to a working artist.

Since I first decided to pursue a career in photography, I have had a thought resting in the back of my mind, that I wanted to remain true to myself as an artist. What this meant to me was that I was aware of how easily I could have followed a direction that would end up feeling like a daily routine, where each client was the same as the last and I could end up photographing them that way as well. So as I tried my hand at different types of photography, I kept this in mind and eventually found certain types of portraiture balanced out perfectly with what I wanted for myself. Having the ability to try different things, in application, has been a wonderful experience that has brought me a far greater understanding of this topic.

As Jen and I have actively developed a business, and a plan for that business, we have made sure to keep the art in mind. We both come from different backgrounds. As of January, 2011, she is a few months short of obtaining a BFA degree in Photography. I am self taught over the past 6 or 7 years. Both of us see each other as an equal, even while having totally different backgrounds. What is great is that we both have a completely different perspective and knowledge to bring into our artwork, our business and our lives.

What is most important, and the reason for this particular post, is that we both have a profound respect for what it means to be an artist, while engaging in the commercial application of photography. It's almost become beaten into our heads that we are truly lucky to be able to call this our job.

Looking toward what is to come, I am excited that our business plan includes the idea that what is most important to us is the artwork and how we create it, as well as the products that we create. This being said, we are constantly playing with different ideas, things we can aim to introduce, ways of photographing clients and staying creative and on top of our artwork. This last bit is the kicker. Staying creative by trying new things.. Experimenting with techniques (new and old) and pursuing the ones that produce work that satisfies our artistic souls..

With that being said, I took a photograph yesterday that simply illustrates what it's like to actively push ourselves. Jen and I have been discussing ways to incorporate older photographic techniques into Breathless Boudoir for some time. She is currently working on a massive salt print fine art project. At the start of this post is a photograph of Jen operating a large format camera. When she saw the photo, she thought she looked like an alien, I too can see a bit of an ET resemblance. At present, we don't have the financial resources to own one ourselves, but we do have some vintage medium format cameras, and will be looking in to options for large format as well. This is all part of a path of discovery and creativity. To find ways to create our artwork, in a fashion that is engaging and exciting. This is not to say that what we do now is not, it's to say, we are simply finding more and more ways to bring exciting artwork to the business that satisfies and impresses us and our clients as well! To do so makes our business one of the most exciting and fulfilling adventures we could have ever imagined.

We really can't wait to start unveiling some of the stuff we've been working on recently. There will be a few massive posts in the near future. New studio, beautiful books that are coming in, breath taking wall prints that we're slowly putting together.. I can't wait until the post that illustrates all of this!! 2011 is gearing up to be amazing!

In the meantime, on we go... a few clicks of the shutter at a time..

New work and what's coming up

2011-01-16T11:58:00.001-08:00

IMG_0539f, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

I wanted to post a quick note about what's been going on. The Breathless Boudoir studio, in Baton Rouge, is coming along wonderfully! We're done most of the major work, now it's just finishing details. Jen and I are heading down there today to work on the make up and hair room and get everything in there finished!

At the same time I've been playing with having 12-13 feet of ceiling height (this is awesome news for me!) and being able to do all sorts of new things that I wasn't able to do, in studio, beforehand.

The above photo is a one light set up (beauty dish, with grid and softening fabric) and it's actually fairly simple, but delivers a beautiful effect to the shot..

I'm super excited about all the new stuff that's going on with the studio, one of the next updates will be some photos of the place and maybe even a video tour! We'll see...

Fire and light

2011-01-06T11:55:00.001-08:00

IMG_9869, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

A few years back I photographed a good friend of mine, Kriss (Raingirl), lighting a cigarette with a molotov cocktail as seen here:

Since then I've been very interested in combining fire and studio light to create some portraits. Well, recently I met a few wonderful people who happen to play with fire in fantastic ways. It simply made sense..

So we got together the other day and I began experimenting. It was actually quite a bit more challenging than expected because the flames go from super bright, to fairly dim rather quickly, constantly needing exposure adjustments, meanwhile the studio lights stay consistent, but I also wanted the background environment to stay dark and lastly I didn't want too much light from the fire to illuminate the subjects! Ok, truth is, it's not THAT difficult to grasp, however the window of time to grab the perfect shot doesn't last too long so I did what I could. I want to experiment more with this, there are some awesome possibilities here, it's just a matter of me becoming more familiar with lighting spinning fire poi and lighting the subject.. More to come soon!

oh, also, played with glow hoops a bit too, I really enjoy creating abstracts with these.. They look great!

The poi spinner is Danielle Sholly, Kim Forman rocked the glow hoop in these shots.

learning to communicate...

2010-12-28T14:42:00.001-08:00

a piano, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

(You will mostly likely have to click on the above photo to see the full version, my blog cuts the side off sometimes.)

When I was young I loved the piano. Learning to play it, forcing my fingers to become independent of each other, eventually getting decent enough to begin creatively composing simple melodies. Over the years this gave way to more advanced songs. I often felt a direct connection between how I was feeling and what was happening at the tips of my fingers. The piano taught me how to funnel emotion into a medium that extended beyond myself. It showed me that it was possible to illustrate emotion in ways that went far beyond verbal explanation and could actually communicate feelings directly to the core of others. While I am mainly a photographer today, I have never lost this respect for what music is capable of. Someday I'll find myself in front of a piano or with a guitar on my lap, but for now I am focussing much more on my camera. While I do feel music is unique in the depth at which it is able to express emotion to others, I do feel that photography has a unique ability to move people similarly. My goal is to become better at this. I think one of the greatest challenges to any artist is to create work that has meaning. Not just pretty photos.. Photos that get past your visual interest and into a level of emotional understanding. This is something I'd like to dedicate a good part of my work to. While I'll always have fun shooting zombies and fashion photos, I'd like to get better, maybe some day master, the art of creating deeper works..

Creative Commons and the TSA photos

2010-11-21T10:50:00.001-08:00

FWD_YAL_Sites, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

an update on the TSA "enhanced pat-down" photos I shot last week.

I have allowed the use of the photos under a creative commons "CC-BY" license. What this means is that others are allowed to distribute the photos freely and I have stated that they can be used by designers and incorporated into websites and flyers that are being created.

This is essentially pro-bono work done because it's something I support.

So, in the past week, I've been getting all sorts of messages and finding the photos have made their way into a variety of places. I'm glad people feel that the photographs deliver the message and I thought I'd share a few places where they have ended up.

Fly With Dignity (http://www.flywithdignity.org)
This is the first site I was in contact with. They wanted to create a resources page for others to get high quality images to use on flyers and other uses. So aside from the photographs being used on the main page, they are in a section dedicated to resources for designers.
http://flywithdignity.org/about/ad-copies/

Young Americans for Liberty (http://www.yaliberty.org/tsa)
This site, endorsed by Ron Paul, is a student run organization working to "mobilize students on the ideals of Liberty and the Constitution".
They have created a TSA activism website that includes the use of one of my photos, as well flyers for distribution that include the other photo.

For photographers interested in how I lit these photos, I will state that they actually didn't end up exactly how I was hoping, but they still looked like I had intended (almost) so I went with it.

I had 3 lights set up, all Alien Bee B800's

Directly behind the subjects I had a medium softbox from above, with a grid on the front of the soft box, basically to give slight separation and enhance the texture in the hair a bit.

Halfway between my camera and the subject and above by around 2 feet I had a beauty dish mounted on a b800 to give a "light coming from above" look. This is fairly typical of my work as I really like the look. It also gives a look of isolation and sort of reminds me of some dark room they might take you.

Last I had one more softbox, with b800, directly above my camera facing straight toward the subject for the purpose of a bit of fill on the front of the subject.

as for settings on camera:

Canon 5dMII
24-70mm 2.8L lens shot around 50-60mm
ISO: 100
F. / 9
Shutter: 1/160

When one passion meets another...

2010-11-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

AbitaBrewPub17, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Anyone who knows me knows that there are a handful of things I truely love and consider to be passions of mine. The top of the list would be my family, my girlfriend Jen and our dogs, riding my motorcycle, taking photographs and a good locally brewed craft beer on tap.

Yesterday was a combination where these were combined on a grande scale.

Working freelance for BeerNW magazine, I was asked to produce the photographs to be included with a travel destination article on Louisiana craft breweries.

A summary of my day? Gas up and hop on my motorcycle, taking back roads from my home, through the Maurepas swamplands to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain (Heiner Brau Brewery, Covington & Abita Brew Pub, Abita Springs for lunch) then across the 24 mile bridge over the lake straight into New Orleans for a stop at Nola Brewery on Tchopitoulas and then over to the Bulldog Bar, home of the 50+ tap bar, all on tap and all pumped with CO2 AND Nitrogen for the best draft beer in town.. Then over to frenchmen to hit up the D.B.A bar but not before stopping in to say hello to my dad and congratulating my brother on (one or two steps short of finalizing) the sale of his renovated house!

Then returning home to Jen and the dogs..

So that basically covered everything on my top list short of seeing my closets friends, who are spread throughout the country, making that simply impossible.

Anyway needless to say.. it was a good day..

I posted a few photos to my flickr if you'd like to check'em out!

m.

The Dresden Dolls

2010-11-14T12:33:00.001-08:00

Dresden_Dolls09, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

The Dresden Dolls are easily one of my favorite bands to see live. Within a top 3.

Aside from incredible musicianship and wonderful music, their live performance one of the most entertaining and impressive as any I have ever seen.

I have always loved how Amanda and Brian have this sort of back and forth conversation through eye contact and body gestures throughout the show, flowing perfectly with the songs.

When I had the opportunity to photograph them at Tipitina's in New Orleans, LA there were two things I wanted to capture.

The first was the energy and passion that they put in to their music and their performance, the second is the interactions between the two of them.

I shot the above photo from directly behind Brian. Her eyes say it all.

There are quite a few other shots from this show, including a few of Jason Webley, an incredible musician himself, in my "Live band / Performance" gallery on my flickr.. See following link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mprophetphoto/sets/72157623765713827/

the right to privacy.

2010-11-11T22:47:00.001-08:00

IMG_2512, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Recent regulations and security procedures put in place in airports across the country are far beyond simple security measures. People tend to trust those of authority to do the right thing. There does come a point when law makers and policy creators overstep the line between what is appropriate and what is simply wrong.

If I had a young daughter, say around 12 years old, and an older man told me he had to touch her in places that every part of me felt was totally wrong, I would be livid.

But this is exactly the kind of thing that is happening in airports across the country.

I read an article where a traveller related a story seeing an elderly woman as a TSA security worker squeezed her breasts and you could almost see her dignity fall away in shock that this could happen.

I typically don't write about political situations on this blog, and honestly, I don't really feel like this has anything to do with politics..

Simply stated. when a person working for our government touches you in a way that in any other circumstance could be considered sexual assault. I don't feel there's a valid justification.

I refuse to believe it will keep me safe from terrorists. In fact it is very important that every person understands that the TSA has NEVER ACTUALLY STOPPED ANY ACT OF TERRORISM.

They have done NOTHING that has kept me safer.

What they have done is held me up in airports, made me almost miss flights, swabbed every camera and lens that I own more than I have!

More importantly, they are now assaulting men, women and children who refuse to partake in the more advanced imaging machinery that does in fact take what amounts to a nude photograph of you, as a photo negative.

I do not feel that this is right. It angers me to imagine the elderly being subjected to this kind of procedure. It angers me to imagine a younger child be subjected to this kind of procedure.

There is no way I will be convinced that we need to accept this kind of behavior on the part of our government and in the name of national security.

waiting...

2010-11-09T13:18:00.001-08:00

Waiting_NewOrleans, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

This is hands down one of my favorite photographs that I have ever taken. There's something about brides on their wedding day. It seems like every emotion is a little bit (maybe quite a bit) more intense. Even the softer more subtle emotions have this gravity to them that makes them drop like a ton of bricks. This was one of those moments.

Mary had her ear to the door waiting for the music to signal to her that it was time and that the doors were about to open.. I walked through a hallway to find this and I was stopped in my tracks.. It was simply beautiful. She seemed to be in this peaceful place and everything was quiet. When I say subtle emotions having an amazing gravity to them, this is what I'm talking about. Seeing this I couldn't help but think "wow" and feel like I just found the most incredible sight ever! I quietly made my way behind her to get this shot. She was completely unaffected by my presence. I'm not even sure if she knew I was there at all, but I made my way directly behind and took the shot. Seconds later, her father came around the corner and they joined arms and awaited the opening of the doors. Another heart stopping scene as he smiled at his daughter looking so incredibly beautiful. That's another favorite point in weddings for me, a father seeing his daughter in her dress for the first time, but that's not what this post is about so getting back to the point, it was that subtle and quiet 15 seconds that I happened to witness that created this photograph.

This summarizes everything that I love about shooting weddings.. as much as I dislike terms such as "moments" or any of those cliche words.. it is these subtle moments that are amazing.. You train your eye to see them and when you do, it can be on the verge of overwhelming at times.

This photo was taken at St. Louies Cathedral in Jackson Square, New Orleans while 2nd shooting for Eye Wander Photo Inc.

Mistakes can pay off..

2010-11-08T09:14:00.001-08:00

Mandy_Day02_375blgtg, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

I made a mistake that worked out beautifully.

First off, a little back story, Mandy is an awesome model / friend who flew in from New Hampshire to work with me on a portfolio development shoot.. Basically 2 days (back to back) of intense shooting to get a diverse set of photos, different outfits, locations and hair / make up.. it's an easy way to build a fresh modeling portfolio in a short period of time..

That being said, on Saturday, we headed down to the Breathless Boudoir studio to take advantage of the beautiful window light and then use the strobes for a fully different look.

I was shooting Mandy in this beautiful window light with one camera. We then moved on to shooting under studio lights.. at one point I grabbed the camera that had setings set up for the window light and took a shot and it came out beautifully!!

For tech savy folks.. the difference is huge,

studio light settings on camera: ISO 125 at f./7.1 and 1/160th of a second

window settings were ISO 640 at f./1.6 and 1/200th of a second..

so when I popped all the studio lights behind her with the window settings it just created this beautiful wash of blown out light and a bit of soft flare in front of the model..

and the photo turned out wonderfully, so I shot a few frames before moving on to the next set..

The point of all this? I would have NEVER thought to shoot with strobes at such a high ISO and low f./stop.. but it happened and opened my eyes to entirely new possibilities..

Behind The Scenes (sort of)

2010-09-19T08:49:00.001-07:00

Behind The Scenes (sort of), originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

(Horizontal photo's never seem to post correctly, it drives me nuts.. but please open the photo in a new tab so you can see the full version)

Had a super fun shoot last night with the wonderful Ashley D.. This is the second time I've worked with her. On both occasions I have used the opportunity to try different things.. The first shoot I worked with available light on a super overcast and way too humid day.. This time around I used some water, from a hose set to "mist", and some smoke.. from a smoke bomb that Jen and I stocked up on last 4th of july..

Anyway, this is more a behind the scenes shot where you can clearly see the light set up.. Actual shots to come soon (to my flickr)..

Canon 5DmII w/ 24-70mm
ISO: 400
Aperture:F./ 5
Shutter Speed: 1/125

3 Alien Bee B800's
-1 in front with medium sized softbox w/ grid
-2 in back @ 45 dgree angles, both with a 30 degree grid mounted on them
-Blue gel mounted on the back left bee

My wonderful girlfriend Jen assisted with the smoke and water... She's the best..

That's it for now!

Home sweet summer home

2010-09-18T09:21:00.001-07:00

My Summer Home II, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

My home is in Louisiana. But this photo is of another home.

I have been working at a camp with kids for over 8 years. For most of that time I was "Mr. Woodshop". For the past few years I have been one of the "Indian Village" guys.. there are 3 of us, Myself, Kurt and Xavier. This year was the first year I actually lived in the village for the two weeks. It was wonderful. We spend the two weeks building Native American "huts" in the woods and teaching kids camp fire safety and how to construct a functional hut using found tree limbs and twine. Basically we build forts with kids and it's a great time!

This place is easily one of the most beautiful places to spend time. I had a tent that I put inside the A-Frame and woke every day to the sounds of a waking forrest. It was absolutely wonderful.

Back at it! Barely Rotten Behind the Scenes photo

2010-09-12T13:53:00.001-07:00

BRG_BehindTheScenes_MProphet, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Just uploaded a behind the scenes photo from a Barely Rotten Girls shoot I shot last night at some wonderfully grungy abandoned location in New Orleans. Jenny Spain was amazing to work with, her professionally was evident from the get go and she totally rocked it. For those who don't know, Jenny is the lead actress in the movie Dead Girl.. and she played a stunning zombie beautifully! Make up was done by the talented Jessica Masters of H2O salon in New Orleans.

I couldn't be happier with the outcome. The photos look so good!

Breathless Boudoir dot com has gone live!!

2010-08-15T13:44:00.001-07:00

Our site is done!, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

and I'm super excited about it.. so much so that I made this ridiculous graphic... just to include in this blog post..

but this blog post is hardly even important!

what you should be check'n out is the site...

http://www.breathlessboudoir.com

very very happy.. on to the next project!!

thoughts on the art of business (or the business of art).

2010-08-10T02:52:00.001-07:00

IMG_2598, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Found a location near my house and took advantage of the rainy day..

One of my greatest fears, with becoming a full time photographer, (as with any art based career) is the fear of losing my creativity and artistic drive in lieu of any sort of pressure to attain commercial and financial success.

There seems to be two directions an artist can take.. Either I can figure out what is marketable and I can create formula's to shoot on repeat for client after client (this is my greatest fear). The other option is to maintain a method of creating photographic artwork that enables me to challenge myself with every photo shoot. In other words, avoiding the formula's.. (Yes of course there are some things that just work. For example the way I light a woman to get really glamourous light generally has some basic rules), but outside of the fundamental rules that govern the kind of work I do, there are so many variables.. Wardrobes, locations, concepts, even lighting styles (while maintaining a good beauty enhancing light) among other things..

I really feel that there is a way to maintain a sense of personal challenge to create new and fresh artwork that, first and for-most, impresses me. I believe that this is the key to my own personal satisfaction as an artist. If I feel that I am pushing myself and creating work that makes me say "wow" when I've completed work on a piece, then I know I'm am doing what I have set out to do.

It is really this, the never ending drive to create beautiful unique artwork, that I want people to see and desire from my photography business. Consistant, high quality, beautiful and uniquely fresh photography. From the point of view of an art director or a client, there is a safety net when going with photographers who shoot the same kind of imagery every time they work, as they know exactly what they are getting. The problem I have with that is two fold. On one hand everything that is photographed has been seen before and secondly it doesn't take long, for me at least, to feel that the art is becoming mundane and boring, formulaic and bland. I want to" wow" myself, and my clients, with every shoot or project I work on.. That is my personal goal and challenge with regards to being a working artist and professional photographer. I suppose it really comes down to a healthy self preservation. I fear the day I wake up and feel like it's just another day doing the same old thing. Thus far, I have been able to maintain some level of challenge and excitement with every new shoot or project. I want to keep it this way.

So how does this apply to the photo above? The photo was taken on a whim. A friend came over and Jen and I, with no commercial needs or reasoning, had fun playing with light, trying random things based on the friends wardrobes and the weather outside, and in post processing we had the liberty to try all sorts of new stuff with how the photos were edited and toned. The aim wasn't a commercial product. The goal was simply art for arts sake. Taking the time to do something like this every once in a while is priceless in it's ability to open up full creative options and often it is these shoots that push new methods of creating artwork into my toolbox of artistic possibilities..

I really love what I do for a living. Photography is personally satisfying in a way I never expected it could be when I first got into this field. The artistic possibilities continue to grow as I learn more and more about the technical parts of this trade. It's such a wonderfully fulfilling "give and take" relationship that I have with myself and my camera.

I suppose I wrote this as a way of sharing some little bit of personal success in my business as a photographer. Partly for friends and family to read and understand, but also for other photographers. I know it is easy to fall into the pitfalls of selling yourself as an artist. There are ways to avoid the mundane, the boring, and the formula's you've created for successful sales in your business. Ultimately many of us (arguably most of us) started out as artists. Maintaining that sense of artistry will keep you in the happiest state you can be as an artist and photographer.

goose (my dog).. 1am and working post..

2010-07-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

I have a dog named Goose. She is a female border collie and she loves everything with the kind of excitement only a dog can have.

I have another dog named Kaiser. He's half collie half shepard mix. He has beautiful blue eyes and wants to kill other humans, but he's terrified of rain storms.

Sometimes Goose will come up to me during long days working on the computer (photo editing, design stuff, etc), and look at me..

then the screen..
then me..
then the screen..
and then she'll start nose'n my arm..

not soft or anything.. vigorously.. I can only assume it's something like "hey! Come on.. let's do something!!".. after a while she gives up, looks at the screen quickly and then walks away with quick decisive gestures that can only be interpreted as.. "ugh, what do you see in that thing anyway?"

Yes. I believe my dogs are completely cohesive thinkers..

late night make up experiments

2010-07-17T11:54:00.001-07:00

Jen, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

Our friend / room mate / in house Make Up Artist extraordinaire Lauren Kattan had some techniques she wanted to try out so I said "Let's do it!" and we made it happen. Essentially she wanted to see how well she could mask eyebrows without having to shave them off and drawing in something a bit more fun!

The lighting for this shot was inspired by a recent photo of Jeff Bridges taken by Jerry Avenaim for the cover of Fade In magazine. A set of these photos also appeared in Rangefinder magazine. I really enjoyed the look of a soft box from directly above the subject. The fall off is beautiful!!

So this is the result of a late night collaboration!

Photo: Me
Model: Jen
MUA: Lauren Kattan / lkmakeupyourmind.com