Self

I think every photographer needs to do a self portrait at some time to capture how they see them self. I've been wanting to do a self portrait for some time now and finally got around to it.

This image started out as me just playing around with a single off camera speedlite (Canon 580EX II) to try and get a low key image illuminated with only the flash. This image was taken in my home office with the lights turned on, the camera mounted on a tripod with the 10 second self timer enabled and the speedlite sitting on a side table while I sat at my desk. The exposure was set to F8.0 at 1/125 of a second using ISO 160 to limit the ambient room light so the speedlite's flash would be the key light.
The color image was converted to black and white using Adobe Lightroom with some contrast, clarity and sharpening added. There was no heavy Photoshop editing used to produce the effect in this image.

So, what does this image say about me? Am I trying to hide something or expose my dark side? Maybe, but what I think it says is that I tend to see things as black and white. Not black and white photography but rather that I view the world as a contrast of black or white, good or bad, true or false. I'm typically not a "shades of grey" kind of person. I think my subconscious drove me to express this about myself through this image, plus it looks kind of cool.

Visual Inspiration

As a visual artist A.K.A. photographer I often look to other photographers for inspiration that I can use to push the envelope and develop my skills and creativity to produce better works. I wanted to share some of my favorite artists with you.

Sianp
Location Unknown

Rarindra Prakarsa
Jakarta, Indonesia
What inspires me about this image is the use of back lighting of the
subjects which almost throughs the cat into a silouette. I can't say for certain
but I'm sure there is a good deal of Photoshop work (dodging and burning) that
was performed on the image to create this result.

Copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

What inspires me about this image is the use of contrast and saturation to gove
the image a surreal quality that you can't find in a lifelike image.