Pictures and Prints

I'm slowly getting sorted out with my pictures and websites though I have some tinkering still to do. I've added more galleries to the website and very soon I'll make this the main destination for that domain and use it more for holding medium resolution versions of my pictures.

I've also started submitting prints on DeviantART, for example this one of a Poppy, which can be purchased and shipped to the UK. For the most part I'm going to keep providing images under the Creative Commons License, but for some I'm going to retain all rights and see if anyone is willing to part with their hard-earned cash. If you really like my pictures then do consider purchasing a print, it gives me a great ego boost as well as funding my shopping needs (well wants really).

Finally Photo-processing

Just to boost Rachel's ego some more (not that it needs it at all) the above is one of the pictures I took while practising with the new lighting set I bought. Rachel didn't need much of an excuse to get herself made-up and looking sexy and was more than happy to pose, pout, and occasionally offer advice on how to get the best pictures.

I have actually got a rather large back-log of pictures of all types that need processing though today I've at least managed to make a significant dent in this. I should be finished by the weekend anyway and then I need to keep on top of any new pictures that come along.

The majority of the pictures are going to end up on deviantART as that will host the full resolution shots and also allows me to sell prints - once I get this all setup. The idea being to try and make a small amount of money out of photography which really is something I need to do given the amount I've invested in camera, lenses, lights, etc!

If anyone wants any photographs doing, let Rachel or I know :)

Manic Shoot

Rachel had the idea of doing a completely random and impromptu photo-shoot with as many models as she could get. I think she managed to organise and arrange all of this in just over a week and we had a whole afternoon taking pictures at Orgasmic in York (which we're told will soon become part of Revolution which is next door).

There was three of us taking pictures that day, Rachel herself (also doing make-up, styling, organising, etc, etc), Jo doing fantastic photography and helping me out (and lending me lenses), and me. I should make it very, very, very, clear that Rachel and Jo have been doing this quite a while and they are both amazingly accomplished, experienced, and confident photographers. None of these adjectives apply to me!

Taking pictures in this kind of situation is hard, really, really, hard work and takes an immense amount of skill and expertise. Having a flashy (no pun intended) camera and a few good pics will not get you through this. You have to know what you are doing, have an aim to achieve and a good idea of how to get there. It is thinking and acting under pressure. Rachel and Jo can do this without much apparent effort, I am not there yet (and may never be).

However, it was a good learning experience for me and, at least looking back, a fun, enjoyablem, and rewarding way to spend an afternoon and I'm really unbelievably thankful to Rachel and Jo and the models who were there; Holly, Richard, Suzanne and Sarah. I only hope the pictures do them justice!

I've yet to process all of the images (and am going to spend a long time getting them looking as good as I possibly can) but for now, here are three of the ones I liked the best (this doesn't mean they are good by any means).


We were taking turns photographing each model and I started working with Suzanne who was so lovely and friendly and looked absolutely stunning. She's modelled before and frankly she was helping me out so much in terms of just ideas and poses, I had no idea what to ask her to do but that was fine as she already knew. There is a large mirror on the way to the toilets and I really wanted to get a nice shot with that but it was really difficult given the lighting and angles available.



Next was Holly who Rachel has photographed a few times before. Apparently she has never done professional modelling before and so far has only worked with Rachel. I have to say I think she is a natural! She's also fantastically nice and wonderful to chat with. We decided to do some pictures outside but had so much 'fun' with the rather strong wind and the sun that kept changing it's mind - it's hard enough for me to get the exposure settings right once let alone having to muck around as the light fades and then increases again. Anyway, Holly was very helpful and patient and the pictures do seem to have come out quite well.

Last, but by no means least, was Richard and Sarah. I think by this point we were all quite tired and I just wanted to do something silly. Rachel got MUCH better pictures and certainly more stylish ones of both Richard and Sarah but I like this one as it was the expression that I'd wanted to capture, and that was so elusive due to someone having a fit of the giggles.

So, overall it was a good day and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I definitely learnt alot including the fact that there is so much more for me to learn! I'll update this post with links to all of the pictures once I've processed them.

[ UPDATE: The processed images have now been posted on my website, see this page for links to the three galleries that I've produced. Warning the pictures are quite big! The full sized versions of the best of these still need uploading to deviantART, will do that tomorrow ]

Catching Up

The problem with taking lots of pictures and having a fairly busy social (and work) life that presents many opportunities to practice my photography, means that I don't seem to have much time to sit down and process the images that I've captured so that I can blog about them or even get prints!

I guess I could make things a little easier on myself by not taking pictures in RAW mode but the advantage of doing that is that it's then possible to correct for colour, contrast, or carry out other tweaks before producing the final picture, if you go straight to JPEG that's not as easy to do as you've lost alot of the information that the camera captured.

Since I have a bit of a back-log of events and pictures I'm going to blog with place-holder entries to keep everything in order and then update each entry when I've got the whole set of images done so I can refer to the location on my website or deviantART where I've uploaded the pictures!

New Website

I've finally got round to setting up my website at www.fionasboots.com and I've even got around to putting from content on there as well! For now it's just a storage place for my pictures but I'll maybe try and get some more words on there sooner or later.

For anyone who is interested in the technical aspect of the website, it's using Mambo CMS (Content Management System) with a template I hacked from one of the provided ones. The images are rendered using the Simple Gallery plugin (the free one) which makes use of LightBox for the actual full size display. I need to get some of the images onto DeviantART as well when I get round to it!

York

I've obviously been visiting York since that is where Rachel lives and is also the location of the new job. However, I've yet to actually get some pictures of the city, which is rather frustrating since my visits have seemed to coincide with fantastic weather. I should say though that I think the place is absolutely beautiful!

I was sat by the river yesterday, reading my book, and it was just so picturesque and magical that I was really tempted to rush back to the car to grab my camera. Once I move I'm determined to capture pictures of the city and surrounding areas of interest at every opportunity. For the time-being, here is a shot from Fountains Abbey which is a National Trust site not far from York itself.

Face up to it!

This was just a random thing I thought of while pondering what else to write and it triggered a memory of something that's bugged me for a while.

I don't get alot of online attention (thankfully ... though slightly disappointingly at the same time) but I do get the odd one or two who simply don't have a picture or it's something completely obscure.

Here's the deal: there is absolutely no chance at all for me to take anyone really seriously if they don't have the courage to have a real picture. I don't believe I'm particularly brave but now I at least and being honest enough to show me as me.

It bugs me when I get friends requests or other messages from anonymous users on Facebook with no real picture. Showing myself as me takes an awful lot of effort, the least anyone else could do is be equally honest when trying to contact me.

Rant over.

[ Update: Having re-read this I don't think it's entirely clear that I'm talking about Facebook here and specifically Facebook users who solicit attention yet don't provide an honest picture of themselves ]

Gravitational effect on fat distribution

I haven't been keeping up with the blog posts so I've not really been able to write down all the things I've been going through and the bizarre thoughts and feelings that I've been experiencing. As ever things have been a bit of a roller-coaster ride but that is fairly normal under the circumstances.

I've been trying to sort out how I look recently, getting better make-up (my skin type has changed a bit and I guess I needed a different shade of foundation also), wearing the right bra, and trying to use the clothes that I have as well as supplementing these with items that make complete outfits.

Essentially I think I'm trying to learn, experiement and above all be realistic about life and get things sorted out to move forward (I've also been trying to do the same with my finances and flat and ... well, now I come to think of it, everything).

As part of that I decided to try and make myself look a bit, well, I was going to say 'glam' but I guess I was aiming for 'sexy' or more realisticly 'womanly'. Also managed to buy a remote control for my camera (makes it easier to take pics of yourself!) and wanted to try that out. Below is the results of my efforts:


There are a few other pics that came out quite well but could maybe do with a bit of selective cropping. I think I also need an editing tool that makes me smile in pictures because I very rarely do! Hmmm, in fact I think my pics go from one extreme to another; no smiling or laughing out loud!

I should point out that I took about an hour to do the make-up, and took about 100 shots so clearly I'm not going to be trying to look like this every day!

Anyway, this brings me to my new theory: "the graviational effects on fat distribution", also known as "why have I got a fat bum".

I have noticed over the recent months that I do have quite a big bum. It did probably start off on the fairly large size and hormones have probably taken their toll but I never really saw this as much of a problem before. However yesterday I wore a skirt that I usually wear for work and it seemed a little tight in the bum area, not overly so but it did start me thinking.

So today my thoughts wandered back to this, erm, problem and it occurred to me that I'm clearly in the wrong kind of job to avoid having a big bum given that I spend so much time sat on mine and there must be some mechanical effects there based on the weight of my body being supported by my posterior! It also occurred to me that all the fat must be getting pulled by gravity towards my bum as well!

In fact, if it's not careful it's going to get it's own gravity and that could start a chain reaction which woul ultimately lead to me disappearing into a singularity created by an overly J-Lo'ed bottom. Or possibly I'm just getting carried away here lol

Click ... off ... gone

Pop quiz: Name the band who wrote the above song and the album it's taken from.

That was just a little distraction. The main point of the post: just deleted my Flickr account!

Really, it was just full of old pictures that don't look anything like me anymore, are quite embarassing, and just generally seem to attract guys with odd fetishes and even odder intentions. Basically a waste of time. So it's gone, and good ridance.

I guess it served it's purpose at the time but now I'm not so inclined to publish how bad I look to the world at large and any pictures that I think are remotely decent either go on Facebook or on here.

Photos of me

Hmmm, well I guess it had to happen sooner or later but hadn't really expected it.

A friend of mine posted pictures of the old me on Facebook. Some of these I've already starred at and felt uncomfortable about, in fact I think I mentioned this a few months back in a blog post about moving a load of all stuff from the house into the garage here.

I've never really thought I looked good in pictures and always looked, for want of a better expression, like a bit of a idiot (some would argue that this is a very accurate portrayal and they may be right). The old uni photos are particularly bad because I strongly suspect I was at the very least acting like a complete idiot most of the time and this is only magnified by the terrible photos.

Anyway, I thought for a while about how I should handle this (someone who shall remain nameless suggested telling my friend to "f***ing remove them" or words to that affect - I actually think she has a point and should probably handle all my PR in future, it would be quicker and much more effective).

Anyway, I decided to just message my friend and ask him to not tag the pics as me. Yes, that was the real problem, he was tagging this old pics with my new name/identity and this is why they showed up on Facebook!

So, here's the rules girls and boys:

1. If you have pics of a TS person from before they transitioned that's fine, you can't be expected to destroy your photo album/memories. I don't like old photos of me but I'm realistic enough to realise that I can't destroy them just as I can't change reality to make me always have been how I am now.
   
2. It's probably best you not shove these pics in someone's face though. Accepting the existance of such snaps is one thing but I don't want to see them!
3. Under no circumstance should old pics be associated with someone's new identity. For a start in a very real physical and mental sense, they are NOT the same person. You don't go changing your body and mind with powerful chemicals and therapy to be the same person!
4. Also a TS person is, in alot of cases, starting their life all over again and trying, as best as possible, to have everyone view them as their new, correct, gender and persona. It makes life hard (to say the least) if people are going to question this new gender based on some pics they saw. Okay, I'm trying to transition in the same job, location, and with the same set of friends but I've heard of alot of cases there someone just completely dumps their old life to start completely from scratch since that is easier.

Okay, sorry if this was a little patronising but I thought it was worth making the 'rules' clear since it can be a little confusing.

Jealous of friends (and shameless advertising of them)

I am lucky to have some fantastic friends. I guess, in some ways I'm also lucky to have to very attractive friends as well although that also means there are the odd occasions when I'm unbelievably jealous of them as well. Actually I'm generally VERY jealous of all of my RG (Regular Girl) friends as they can look stunningly attractive with no make-up or effort at all (they will never believe this no matter how many times I tell them - but it is true).

Anyway, all of this rambling is simply because my friend Lucy wanted to appear in my blog simply because she looks stunning and wanted to advertise the fact:

You can see more pictures of Lucy on her Flickr page. She also mentioned that, if there are and nice, handsome guys reading this blog she'd love to hear from them!

There, that okay for a blog entry Lucy?

[ Ooops, forgot to set the link to Lucy's Flickr page! Fixed now ]