John Singer Sargent's/Frank's "Madame X"

Continuing on from "The Saloon" post, here are 2 of the images from frank's recent musician shoot.

Over to you frank....(both images copyright frank van riper)

"Here are TWO images from the musicians' shoot"

"As I think I mentioned over beers, not only were classical musicians Karine and her husband Ali beautiful and handsome subjects, they also were great to photograph and a delight to work with. Karine wanted some full body shots and we played with a number of poses. When she stood in repose I immediately thought of the Sargent portrait (of the woman initially called Madame X because of the 'scandalous' nature of the portrait.)"

"I asked Karine to hold a serious pose in profile and made the shot (There were others in 3/4 view and smiling as well.)"

Here again is a link to the original John Singer Sargent's Madame X image.

"The second shot is a pose that Karine struck near the end of the shoot and her smile says it all. I had her do a bunch of these and had a hard time picking a favorite."

"Lighting was fairly simply. Main light on the left was a high studio strobe through a shoot-through umbrella; fill light on right used a regular umbrella at about one-third power of the main, just to open up shadows. Backdrop was black seamless."

Great job Frank and for the record, I like the armpit. Quite sexy:)

Once again, both images on this post are © Frank Van Riper

The Saloon 12/20/2007 (Xmas Special)

It was a good turnout on thursday at the saloon with patrick, frank, andy, erica and myself attending. Of course some great pints were downed including Brooklyn Pennant Ale, Weihenstephan Hefeweizen and Hefedunkel and others that we can't even remember now...

for our friends far and away, and for some of us getting on a bit with failing memory (myself included)....

• there was great recent work from patrick and frank. more later...
  
• frank told us about next years proposed 'foto week dc' festival (thanks for the nice badges)
• the 'create your own' photo book website is here
• here is the documentary about the queen being shot by annie leibowitz...
  
• i was thinking it might be fun to start a blog for this group - viola!

Frank told us all about his photo shoot with 2 musician friends that was shot in his dining room. he also showed us the images (thanks to andy's utlra cool tablet pc - bring that every week from now on andy!) which were great - 2 very photogenic and talented people by all accounts.

Frank also handed out badges for next years proposed 'foto week dc' a week long photography festival to be held in Washington DC next november. It's very early days in the planning stages and nothing is officially announced yet but it sounds like it will be an amazing 5 days. Stay tuned at Suds and Silver for more details in the coming weeks.

Erica mentioned a day trip to Philly to see the Lee Miller exhibit

"I'm going to drag some friends up on Sat March 8th. And for you guys who were wondering about that famous Man Ray shot that made it into the Kotex ad, here it is"

Patrick, chipped in the following info. "For those who were there and saw Frank's portraits of the musician couple, here is the Sargent painting that is similar to his picture of the violinist. Also, these are the pictures that I shared with the group. See you all in the new year"

Dan then asked to see Frank's violinist image which he duly sent all of us via email. I will contact Frank to see if he wants to share it on the blog.

Graeme talked about the gig he shot at wonderland ballroom on wednesday night. the band were called milkmachine and were not exactly your average indie rock outfit. For one thing there was a souzaphone being played on stage. as for the technical details, "i used my d40 with a nikkor f1.8 50mm prime lens. i also shot 2 rolls of film with my nikon fm-3a and another 50mm f1.8 nikon lens. Focusing was really tough in the low light and alot of the shots came out blurred. i did get some keepers though".

Welcome to Suds and Silver

well here it is! after almost 1 year since the inaugural S&S meeting at some dodgy DC dive serving good quality real pints, we've finally managed to start a blog for the group in order to share, publish, shame, whatever...

the real reason this is year is to remember all the stuff we talk about during our 'weekly' meetings that is usually forgotten as soon as the pints stop flowing!

cheers!