Psycho Win

RIT hosts a shootout, a one day competition in the studios where students get a couple hour time slot to set up, shoot an image and break down to portray a theme they announced in advance. The photo had to be submitted, unedited, right after the shoot. This years theme was 'Psychotic' and I partnered up with Mike Fiske to portray the theme. We had done the shootout last year, the theme then was 'Dream', so we had an idea of the pace of the day.

We enlisted the help of Melissa Stillman, makeup artist, and Vanessa Murphy, our model, to put together the image we had in mind. It was a crazy couple of hours, hair and makeup was in the process of being done in the schools hallway as we ran in and out of the studio setting up the seamless, lights and camera. A frozen pigs head was bought the night before and was still not completely thawed but sat bagged outside of the studio until right before shooting, styling it was incredibly interesting. It was just a hectic, fun experience. Then, to top the experience off, we received a call later that day..

We won the MAC Group Shootout!

We were completely ecstatic, and our photo was posted in the School of Imaging Arts and Sciences. The image can be seen in the Editorial section of my website!

Metallic Beauty

I decided I want to experiment more with lighting and while skimming the internet found some beauty shots where a photographer utilized fluorescent lighting tubes to light the model. I searched for a while looking for a way to use fluorescent lights without the housing behind them that held the wiring and was told by a couple hardware stores that what I wanted wasn't possible.

I'm not overly knowledgeable about the wiring of lights and specifically about disassembling fluorescent lights, so I developed my own solution.

The first shot I did with this lighting was of a model, Melinda, with a copper colored theme. I used copper leaf for an accent on her skin and obtained a copper colored background with a flow instead of being flat. She was wonderful to work with, despite the time constraints of the shoot, and I was incredibly happy with the results.



The second shot, which I did earlier today, was similar in styling except with a gold theme, a bit more time and Calico modeling. I really love how these have come out and it's something I'd definitely like to experiment with more.

Wrangler

I photographed and designed a mock advertising campaign for Wrangler Jeans, which was completed today. The photography, processing and design were all worked on to add to the identity of the brand, as well as create a playful campaign, to speak to the working male market segment. The images can be seen at Michelle Girard Photography in the product section.

Updates

Added new images to my site. One set of Mike dressed in a simple leather jacket and posing by the train tracks and graffiti wall in downtown Rochester. The second set of Fatima posing in a variety of ways with a couple different looks in the studio.

Nature and Beauty

Here's a shot I composited for another assignment in Retouching Beauty. The theme was Nature and Beauty. I was trying to come up with ways to talk about how we, as humans, hold ourselves apart from nature more and more through technology and the things we create.

You would never guess what the bubble was created from!