I’ve been doing a lot of elaborate shoots lately in the pursuit of creating a “fashion” portfolio. My fashion shooting has been leaning towards an editorial style that is shoots that present an idea or mood often using story telling elements to create a concept about the products. In many ways editorial shoots are as much about the; photographer, stylist, hair/makeup people, and models as they are about the clothing or accessories being sold.
Most of my non fashion shoots can be classified most easily as photo illustration with a little art photography thrown in. Really I prefer this kind of work but I also like doing fashion shoots. Seems like a bit more practical for actually making a living than anything art related. I’m pretty familiar with how dismal the prospects are for any type of artist trying to make a living at any type of art especially if they are in the “fine” arts. I think the above image would be considered an “art” photography piece. I did this shoot entirely as a creative art shoot. It doesn’t serve any commercial purpose. It isn’t really about selling a product or idea. It’s just an image I was inspired to make. It is also not finished. I will likely produce a small set of finished images but I like to take my time with this kind of thing.
I like to take my time when I am doing art work and time is usually not something that I have much of. That is one thing that is actually good about doing commercial oriented shots. It forces me to work through the creative process quickly. It’s kind of like sketching or doing spot illustrations but unfortunately I rarely feel finished with the images I turn in for assignments. That’s just the nature of it I guess. They say art can’t be rushed and I agree but some times it can use a kick in the pants.
I don’t think I would ever be able to do just commercial style shoots no matter how creative they were because of that very thing. There is always a deadline that must be met. It can burn you out pretty quickly.
So I suppose I should get into the whole what I have planed for this blog thing. Well I have decided that I need to separate my artistic photographic pursuits from my commercial ones. So this blog will likely turn into my general art and art photography blog. I plan to launch a new blog for “Nate Miller Photography” that will be the home to my professional portfolio and commercial work. Hopefully soon it will cover actual commercial jobs. So this blog isn’t going away. It will still be posted to my facebook. I will still post photo projects and ideas and artistic influences here as well as any other artistic/creative pursuits that lie outside the commercial photographers scope. So stay tuned.
Filed under: Art, Creative Photography, Photo Illustration, photography | Tagged: Alien Bees, Art, astrology, body paint, fantasy, model, moon, Nikon D700, Photo Illustration, photography, stars, UCM, University of Central Missouri | Leave a comment »