I was framed!

(Local ballet dancer, Misty Allenback, poses for a portrait in the studios at The Pueblo Chieftain.)

The assignment was to make a portrait of a local girl who had been selected to go to a prominant school of dance in Philadelphia. She showed up with a smile, her toe-shoes and leotard. From there it was up to me. I wanted to do something simple yet unique. I know that the whole "photo in a photo" thing has been done over and over, but luckily not here. I was able to talk fellow photographer, Mike Sweeney, into giving me a hand in the studio. He was the one holding the frame upright. I managed to scrounge up some wire from the custodians and we attached it to the frame at one end and the small end of a monopod on the other. Mike did a great job of holding the frame in place while I shot through it.

I used three lights on my subject and one on the frame. Three of the four lights had softboxes with grids on them and the fourth I used as hair light. Our newly renovated studio was almost too small to be able to shoot this photo. I had to use a wide angle lens and scoot all the way to the back wall to get things framed as I wanted them. I was happy with how things turned out because the lighting and the gray backdrop gave the image a 3D effect making it look almost like a window box. I have since thought that it would be kind of fun to do the same kind of image and instead of having the frame surrounded by black, that it would be neat to use a photo of an actual wall in someone's home. Then it would look like a photo hanging in the family's livingroom or tv room. Maybe next to a black velvet painting of four dogs playing poker.

Til' I feel like writing again...