Ok, Enough with the BOOBS!
On to the androgynous.
In my previous post, I harangued my loyal subscribers with my petty grievances regarding what I considered Substack limiting the exposure (pun intended) of a post that had the word BOOBS in the title. Basta!
In this post, I would like to talk about the Behind-The-Scenes of another statue that I shot, at the same time that I shot the Thai Dancer. To paraphrase an old observation: “If you meet the Buddha on your table - Shoot him!”
This Buddha, was from the same consignor as the Thai Dancer. I would have also loved to buy this statue, but it went for a price I could not afford.
While you might think that I had shot Buddha, with the same lighting set-up as I did the Thai Dancer, but that would be incorrect… sort of.
Here, you can see that I changed the orientation of my strobe. Usually, I will have the strip box running parallel to my camera position, in this instance, I positioned the strip box perpendicularly to my camera position.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
The Buddha, is much taller than the Thai Dancer. The Buddha, is about 4 feet tall. What this means is that I have drastic fall off of light from the head to the feet. In photography, it’s known as the inverse square rule. You can see that the light on The Buddha’s face is good, but you can also see that I have several bounce cards reflecting light back into his body. If those reflectors were not there, you would have a very tough time seeing his feet, the inverse square rule would keep his feet in darkness.
Why? because the light source is close to the subject.
It seems odd to think that the closer the light is to The Buddha, the darker his feet will be, but that is the paradox inherent to the inverse square rule. If I were back the light off 15 feet, adjust the power so that the light value on the face is the same as you see it now, the result would be completely different. There would be no shadows, no drama, The Buddha would be lit well from head to toe. That was not what I wanted, I wanted drama!
Or, was it Dharma, that I wanted? Hard to tell; perhaps both.
Since The Buddha was so tall, I needed to have more light out in front of him, rather than going across him. By re-orienting the light, I was able to provide a greater area of fill light in front of him. I could have taken the grid out of the soft box, providing more light, but reducing the Dharma, significantly.
I could have lit The Buddha with more light, but I wanted to enhance the sense of mystery that come with the contemplation of the Dharma Wheel.
In the end, only three things matter
How well you’ve loved
How gently you’ve lived
And how graciously you’ve given up
That which is not meant for you.
-Buddha
.. well done - good story .. will figure out the ‘boobthang later eh.. such nice pieces.. for all i know they’re mebbe sacred ! Holy Stuff alluding to a distant ‘way long before.. so very nice you give them what they deserved .. & probably raised the selling price in advance - once knew a woman who restored such artworks.. she did invisible ‘finish repair - she’d have appreciated the photography ! 🦎🏴☠️
Oh my gosh, so beautiful. The fabric draping! What is this Buddha made of?