Shantell Powell

The scratch mark photo shoot was one which incorporated both the model's skin and its relation to her metal-tipped flogger. The photo I chose for this composition was a simple one, showing the marks on her back. Lighting was afternoon sunlight, and I stood overhead, shooting directly down for this shot:



My first idea was to create a photo montage with the model's skin providing a backdrop (no pun intended) to her portrait.



I ultimately chose against this idea and decided to instead do a bodyscape. I rotated the image and cropped it, leaving the model's waist contrasted against the blanket she was lying on. Then, in order to make the photo match the rest of the editorial spread, I played with curves in Photoshop to shift and distort the colours. The texture of the blanket was too distracting, so I used a smudge tool to change its texture.

The end result is a graphic bodyscape/skyscape/landscape image.

I set up a photoshoot with a play piercing top (Voralis) and bottom (Kai) in Toronto. The plan was to photograph a piercing session in which Voralis would be using shark hooks on Kai's back. The photos were taken in their dungeon, and for lighting, I had coloured LEDs and my portable LED light table. The background was a neutral grey wall. I ended up taking approximately 150 photos during the session.

The room is small, and the ceiling is low, so it was tricky to find good angles with uncluttered backgrounds, so I did the best that I could manage. It was difficult to be far enough back to get full scenes in frame, so for the most part, I did tight shots.

The first photo I chose to work with from the shoot is a portrait in which Kai has ribbons attached to the piercings. The ribbons are attached to a ceiling rig, applying tension to the skin. The light at this time was blue LED with rim lighting and backlighting on the wall done with the portable light table.

Here is the unedited shot:



The preview on my camera showed this in finer detail than it came out as on my computer. In this image, the backlit wall is blown out, and the details on the face are too dark. The architecture of the room is distracting, as well. I played around a bit with Photoshop to see what I could do to correct this. I cropped the image, then used the clone stamp tool to remove the distracting background lines as well as the piercer. Then I started playing with curves on Photoshop to adjust the colour balance and to play with distortion and graininess.

Here is what I came up with:

Sylexiad. A typeface for the adult dyslexic reader: "The investigation concerns a series of typeface legibility and readability studies which have resulted in the creation of a number of new typefaces including Sylexiad. Sylexiad is grounded and informed from a dyslexic viewpoint and is a typeface for the adult dyslexic reader."

Good fonts for dyslexia: "In this paper, we present the first experiment that uses eye-tracking to measure the effect of font type on reading speed. Using a within-subject design, 48 subjects with dyslexia read 12 texts with 12 different fonts. Sans serif, monospaced and roman font styles significantly improved the reading performance over serif, proportional and italic fonts. On the basis of our results, we present a set of more accessible fonts for people with dyslexia."

Special Font For Dyslexia?: "Reading errors like switching letters is a persistent characteristic of errors for
dyslectics (Braams, 2001). This type of error can be explained by the magnocellular theory
(Stein, 2001; Stein, Talcott, & Walsh, 2000). The font “Dyslexie” is developed to increase the
reading accuracy and readability of texts for dyslectics, so that the errors by switching letters
are reduced."

A short introduction to font characteristics: "Serifs make individual characters more distinct. In their sans serif variant many characters look remarkably, if not exactly, like mirror images of each other. During the reading process they are easily confused, especially by persons suffering from dyslexia. The advantage of serifed typefaces over their non serif counter parts, in this respect, is easily seen from the following example:
b d
p q
b d
p q"

Dyslexia, Reading and the Brain: A Sourcebook of Psychological and Biological Research: p. 3: "These were followed in 1900 by a report of “congenital word-blindness” in two boys aged 10 and 11 years (Hinshelwood, 1900) and a further report of four cases from the same family (Hinshelwood, 1907).

In his papers, Hinshelwood referred to previous work by Kussmaul (1877), who apparently coined the term “word-blindness” (wortblindheit) to describe the reading difficulties of previously literate brain-damaged patients. No less a person than the president of the Neurological Society, Sir W.H.(Henry) Broadbent, pointed out (Broadbent, 1896), however, that the condition of word-blindness was not first described by Kussmaul, as might have been inferred from Hinshelwood’s (1895) report. Broadbent (1872) himself had described patients who were unable to read following brain injury, albeit that they also showed some evidence of “verbal aphasia” (p. 150). On the other hand, Broadbent (1896) conceded that it might have been Kussmaul who first described difficulty with reading as “an isolated condition”—that is, as occurring in the context of intact speech (see also Dejerine, 1891, 1892). The word dyslexia was first used (see Hinshelwood, 1896) by a German ophthalmologist, R.Berlin, when referring to reading difficulties caused by cerebral disease or injury (Berlin, 1887).

Inspired by Hinshelwood’s (1895) report, a general practioner in Sussex, W.P.Morgan, wrote to The Lancet giving an account of the reading problems experienced by an apparently normal boy who had suffered no brain damage. Thus it is to Morgan (1896) that we owe the first description in the medical literature of what is now referred to as developmental dyslexia or specific reading disability. His account of what he called “congenital word-blindness” ran as follows:

Percy F.—a well-grown lad, aged 14—is the eldest son of intelligent parents... He has always been a bright and intelligent boy, quick at games, and in no way inferior to others of his age. His greatest difficulty has been—and is now—his inability to learn to read. This inability is so remarkable, and so pronounced, that I have no doubt it is due to some congenital defect...the greatest efforts have been made to teach him to read, but, in spite of this laborious and persistent training, he can only with difficulty spell out words of one syllable... The schoolmaster who has taught him for some years says that he would be the smartest lad in the school if the instruction were entirely oral... His father informs me that the greatest difficulty was found in teaching the boy his letters, and they thought he never would learn them. (Morgan, 1896, p. 1378)

My next photography assignment is to create a fashion/lifestyle look book. I want to create a look book based upon the fetish community, focusing upon some of the kinks which do not get much representation in the public eye (eg. body piercing, fire cupping, suspension, shibari, pony play) while avoiding some of the more common ones (eg. spanking, blindfolds, light bondage).

The first thing I am doing is researching what goes into making a strong look book. For resources, I've found the following:

How to make a great fashion Lookbook: Touches on context, posing, photo format, image quality, lighting, and detailing.

I found a free template for an InDesign lookbook here: Free InDesign Lookbook Template. This gives me an idea to play around with.



I have also put out some feelers to locate people in the BDSM scene who are willing to model for me.

Some of the ideas I'm thinking about showing include:

I'm doing an infographic project for my visual design class, and I've decided to make an infographic based upon the Wilhelm Scream.

I've used several sources to compile my information:

• Disney Wikia: Wilhelm Scream: lists Disney/Pixar films which use the scream. Gives a total of 23, not counting Star Wars films.
  
• Reading The Scream in Berberian Sound Studio and the films of Peter Strickland by Matthew Melia. Notes there are six variants of the scream. "Among the dense layers of sound effects, music and dialogue of the films is a stock sound affect that has transcended its status as a relic of old Hollywood to become a fixture of contemporary cinema…the Wilhelm scream."
  
• Mario, Sonic, the Eds, and Friends Ride: The Wilhelm Scream: Contains large list of films using the sound and describes the scenes it is used in.
  
• Letterboxd: The Wilhelm Scream: large list of films using the sound. I primarily compiled my list from here.
  
• Filmsound: The Wilhelm Scream: Describes scenes where the sound appears. Explains where the sound got its name (named for character who screams in 1953's "Charge at Feather River"), and who first named it (Ben Burtt).
  
• Hollywood Lost and Found: The Wilhelm Scream. Lists movies and scenes, but stopped being updated in 2010.
  
• The Wilhelm Scream: Discusses the history of the sound effect. Theorizes it is the voice of Sheb Wooley.
  
• wilhelm.wav: Has a good copy of the sound and also has spectral analysis.
  

I also installed the Movie Filmstrip font from DaFont.com.



And, in order to create my own data set, I made a very short poll: The Wilhelm Scream Survey with the following question:

Do you notice the Wilhelm Scream in movies?
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. I don't know what that is.

After collecting my data from my various sources, I figured out some statistics and interesting points.

Next, I looked up different sorts of infographics. I went to a blog post called 8 Types of Infographics: Which Is Right For You?. It lists the following infographic types:

1. Visualized Article
   
2. Flowchart
   
3. The Timeline
   
4. Useful Bait
   
5. Versus Inforgraphic
   
6. Number Crunch
   
7. Photo Infographic
   
8. Data Vis
   

My information could be represented well through Visualized Article, The Timeline, Number Crunch, or Data Vis. I decided to go with Visualized Article as it allows for some writing, and some of the points I wish to share are not numeric.

I found a good article on creating visualized articles at The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design.

Possible sound ideas.









Here is footage of a one-legged chicken in motion.

One of the initial designs I worked on for my logo was the octopus mountain monogram idea. I went through a lot of experimentation with this idea, and also learned more about how to use Adobe Illustrator while I was at it.

Although I ultimately did not choose this idea, the process was educational.

I played around with rough design.



And then I experimented with colour:



When I took it into Illustrator, my first attempts were awful.



But it did get better. For the curved part, instead of just using the shapes or pen tools, I used typography. I grabbed a letter S, turned it into a shape, and modified it.

Light Painting:



Here's a demonstration of how he made the light-painted skeletons.




This light-painted stop motion animation has less focus on the light and more upon what it illuminates.

Ctenophora (Stop Motion Light Painting) from Alex McLaren on Vimeo.

I also love the work being done by Amanda Palmer (and Edward KaSpel).





And I can't talk about stop motion animation without referencing Ray Harryhausen, of course!



And here's a first-person view of diving, which might translate well into stop motion animation.

My next major project has been announced, and I already have ideas on what I want to do.

I was inspired a couple of weeks ago by this video of a snowy owl chilling out on a frozen lake:



I want to do something based upon this idea. I'm tentatively calling it "Ookpik," and would like to have throat singing as background sound, mixed in with the sounds of wind and water. I'd like to incorporate elements of old-timey puppet show/operetta effects. Something along this line:



But instead of water, I'm thinking of doing water-colour painted blocks of ice, which will be moved up and down.

I'm looking into whether there are owl songs in tradition Inuit throat singing.

My next unit in photography class is based upon product photography, so I went searching for tutorials and some images I find interesting.



Several useful-looking tutorials are available at Sale as Seen: 44 Tutorials on How to Shoot Perfect Product Photos for Your Online Shop, so I'll be checking these out in greater depth.



When I was a student at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design some fifteen years ago, I did a brief unit on photographing jewellery, but I don't remember a whole lot about it other than it was ridiculously difficult to photograph highly-polished silver. I used some sort of little light cube. And before that, I'd been hired by a jewellery shop to inventory all their merchandise for an online store. There was a light box there, but ironically enough, the highest-quality photos came from me scanning the jewellery with a Kleenex background.

Another idea is to go with light painting, a technique I adore. A tutorial for light-painted product photography is available at Using Light Painting (Lighting Brush) Technique in Product Photography.

This product photo was done with light painting.