When at first you don't succeed...

I spent this morning with tiny torches strapped to me fingers, practising at light drawing and continuing from last week's attempts. Although my methods worked I just wasn't very keen on the results. It's very frustrating when this happens but it's par for the course.

Not wanting to finish today empty handed I picked a couple of the better shots and played with them, pushing buttons and sliders to see how they would affect the picture.

It's quite hard to let go completely - you're constantly fighting all the voices in your head telling you that a photograph needs to be this or that. It's quite therapeutic though and comes highly recommended :)



Influences:

The experimental work of Brassai (Transmutations) which I saw in Germany about twenty years ago and had a huge impact on my photography at the time.





Transmuted Finger Lights

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Spellbound

I've always liked fantasy and science fiction films and artwork. I used to annoy my Dad every evening - he wanted to watch the news and I wanted to watch an old back and white sci fi film on the other channel.

Throughout the year I love looking through ImagineFX magazine and at Christmas I always ask for a copy of the latest Spectrum Fantastic Art Book , pouring through awesome illustrations until the holidays are over.

I wish I was better at drawing and painting (I can doodle an idea, but it comes accompanied with writing to explain what it is I've drawn). Corel recently brought out a Photoshop plugin called Particleshop and since I'm getting into fantasy photography after a little break I thought I'd give it a go on this week's Monochrom image.

Stories come into your mind when you're working on pictures like these. In this case I started to imagine a witch out gathering ingredients for her spells. 

Wisps...

Model: Helen Diaz

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Influences: Now the summer's ended Christmas is in the pipeline. The latest copies of Game of Thrones and Spectrum Fantastic Art and I'll be a happy man.

The Magic Box

The universe has this strange habit of steering you towards different ideas, away from those you may have planned. I've learnt over the years not to fight this natural current and let go and see where it leads.


I got up for sunrise this morning in order to work on today's picture. Hoping for a lovely, still, sunny start to the day I was instead given thick, cold, damp, windy fog.

Oh well. C'est la vie.

After getting a little lost in a field of cows Tigerbelle and I decided to head home and I spent the morning trying to come up with a Plan B.

Several hours later (without as much as a whiff of any serious inspiration in all that time) I noticed a small empty cardboard box sat next to the torches I've been using recently with some of my photos.

And that is how the universe conspired to ensure today I would make...


The Magic Box.





Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Model: Tigerbelle




Inspiration:

Real Life: An ongoing project of mine, taking photographs lit with alternative lighting easily found in hardware stores.

Film: The mystical suitcase from Pulp Fiction