Inque Photoshoot

Inque Photoshoot
Model and Stylist: AJ Wu
Photographer: Doris Cheung

Last month I had the chance to do a photo shoot with AJ, who had just completed a new costume.  Both of us are big fans of Batman Beyond, and she had cosplayed the character Inque for a "Spies and Mercenaries" themed party.  She wanted a few pics of her costume, although she told me it was not one she had spent serious time on.  (Um. Really?! You can't tell it's a "throwaway" costume.) 

I've been wanting to test out shooting on a reflective surface for awhile and figured this would be the perfect time for a little experimentation.  At the moment I didn't have the resources to rent out a studio, strobe lights, and a floor made of black plexiglass (gives a GREAT reflection), so we had to settle for ghetto-macgyvering something together in my bedroom.  We ended up using natural light with some borrowed Canon EX-500 flash, sheets for the background, and a 4'x4' piece of mylar.  It worked worked out pretty well to capture some of what makes Inque so cool as a villain - the ability to melt herself into a black inky killer/thief.

What do you think? Personally, I think AJ is maybe a little TOO good at costuming because I was getting seriously freaked out editing her photos.  Doesn't she look scary?!

Of course even villains have their mellow moments.  They can't be in a murderous rage all the time, you know.

Favorite photos from the shoot here.  We ended up having to do many poses lying down and curled up to get the best effect out of the mylar.  Since it is so soft, it doesn't give a perfect reflection, and I only had a small piece to work with.  If I'd had a full studio lighting set and done maybe 12' x 12' on the ground we could have done more dynamic action and full body poses.  However, for a shoot that was on the very ghetto side in terms of materials, I'm very happy with the results.  A little goes a long way!

Next up: A little bit about how I set up the shoot.

Space Cat

Space Cat

An homage to a favorite childhood book, and because sometimes my cat jumps up in the middle of the night and runs around at top speed.  Where is he going?  What is he doing?  I don't know!

Backyard Progress Report #1

It's February and thanks to our gorgeous California climate gardening season is getting underway. I had plans to get my backyard ready for bare root trees back in December; but between the holidays and not having any time or the money to drop on tons of materials this didn't get going until January through now.  I wasn't too sure about how to go about what I wanted to do either; essentially, to build up a retaining wall big enough for dwarf fruit trees along my back wall.  After some thought I decided - I REALLY don't want to haul that much dirt to make this idea feasible!  It would probably take me a whole year, at the rate I was going.  Planters seemed like a much better idea.  Just build up enough dirt around the tree to get the necessary depth...and I could make it all modular! 

no fancy construction here!

Modular also seemed like a good idea because I really had no idea what I was doing.  If I messed up, it wouldn't ruin everything.  :)  I decided to make the planters open at the bottom and line them with landscaping fabric so they would drain freely and to construct these as simply as possible because I'm not so sure about my carpentry skills.

structure and order starting to appear

I went with 4 planks on each side, held together by brackets and nails.  Wood was bought and cut at Home Depot, common redwood.  Cost for each planter is coming to about $60, $40 for the wood and $20 for the brackets.

Progress!  Three planters made and housing a peach, orange (or maybe lemon which is in the foreground), and avocado tree, and loose planks to mark where the rest of the planter boxes will go. Trees will stay in the pots for this year to see how they'll do in the part-sun location. Next year or the year after when they're big enough I'll put them into the planters directly.

The longer planks are only laying out the probably position so far, and are not set in place yet.

Don't quite know what I'll do with the corners of the yard after that!  On the right side there's my compost heap (and a big pot of blueberry plants) - and not sure how to make a graceful end to the row I have going on here.  Maybe just low beds to complete the retaining wall?  I do need a good spot for herbs!