Portrait Series1: Red Hot

Red hot lips invite those who dare to claim them, I was shooting Praveen full face when I realised I wanted something more mysterious and it hit me that her lips minus her full feature lends an air of mystery to the portait and this was the result.

This is the first of several series of portraits that was taken with Praveen who volunteered almost too eagerly to pose for the shots. Viz, Praveen and I decided to take a jaunt to Serdang and Seri Kembangan which is Viz's stomping ground to find places to shoot. One of the nice surprises that greeted us was within the UPM grounds located near the lake and exhibition area. With lush trees, jogging grounds and green everywhere it was the perfect place to shoot a model shoot. It was nice to flex my Canon 400D and its sister 50 mm lens to shoot. Lighting was great with gentlt light being filtered through the bough of the tree canopy. With help from the various props from Viz we were going at it for a good 2 hours till my 2G memory card was filled. I never liked model shoot previously but with Praveen being so easy a model by getting the poses right without much direction and even going ahead with some of our suggestions we had a blast. Here is the first part of the portrait series that I'm inaugurating my new camera with.

We went for a gypsyish theme as the red scarf of Viz complement's Praveen features, the see through transparency of the scarf reveals enough to take in someone's attention while not revealing the full picture to entice the viewer even more.

The bokeh effect and colour of the Canon 400D really sent me dancing. The bright redness of the scarf against the cool green of the background was truly heavenly to shoot.

I always wanted a picture where the eyes tell the story and catches attention. I don't have an Afghan girl photo but experimenting with the same theme gave me new insights and appreciation on how to add such elements into portrait shoots for future experiementation.

Roleplaying a theme can sometime give pleasant results. This photo was unintentional but came about as Viz was trying to adjust the scarf. It just hit me that instant that the photo said something to the tune of "I am your master slave, I own you". It gives off force and authority.

And this shot is of the model unmasked still with a scarf tied on she looks like the buccaneer of old or a gypsy queen such as Esmeralda.