the Glorious Agonies of Editing Photos of Women — Seattle Nude Portraits by Chamonix Thurston-Rattue

So I just spent the last 2 hours hunched over my keyboard in the dark, furiously smoothing skin with my Intuos tablet (love that thing!) and feeling the world's heaviest dilemma bearing down on my shoulders..... which preset should I use? Dun Dun Duuuuuunnnnnn!!!! When it comes to editing pictures of families, I've got one set preset that is pretty much always my go-to and I always love it. But when it comes to editing photos of women it's different every single darn time! What's with that? The mood of the shoot, the woman's personality, the lighting, the backdrop and clothing yadda yadda — it all has a bigger impact on the editing style. So tonight, I'm sitting down to edit my first women's portrait session in like 4 or 5 months and I'm shocked at how challenging it is — I'd totally forgotten. My memory had wiped away all those hours of toiling over wrinkles, blemishes and fat rolls. Plus, in the last 6 months, I've finally started coming to terms with "who I am as an artist" (gracious I hate that expression) and really embracing / getting excited about pushing myself to try new things and accept what I like (and not what I think I should do or what other people want me to do). So finally, I'm back here behind my computer, staying up late (I haven't even eaten dinner yet - grumble grumble) and after hours spent on one flippin' picture, I'm proud to announce — I love it! (See photo below!) Hallelujah. Now on to the other 50 images from that shoot. haha Good thing I'm photographing women as a hobby at the moment or there would be a very horrific editing bill coming someone's way! Massive thank you to Taylor, our beautiful model, for waiting for me while I edit her beautiful photos. I loved working with her and it's so fun working on her images and seeing her laughing and having fun in front of the camera. I love it! Have a wonderful day of editing, my dear photography friends - you are not alone! 

~ xoxo Chamonix

the Glorious Agonies of Editing Photos of Women — Seattle Nude Portraits by Chamonix Thurston-Rattue

So I just spent the last 2 hours hunched over my keyboard in the dark, furiously smoothing skin with my Intuos tablet (love that thing!) and feeling the world's heaviest dilemma bearing down on my shoulders..... which preset should I use? Dun Dun Duuuuuunnnnnn!!!! When it comes to editing pictures of families, I've got one set preset that is pretty much always my go-to and I always love it. But when it comes to editing photos of women it's different every single darn time! What's with that? The mood of the shoot, the woman's personality, the lighting, the backdrop and clothing yadda yadda — it all has a bigger impact on the editing style. So tonight, I'm sitting down to edit my first women's portrait session in like 4 or 5 months and I'm shocked at how challenging it is — I'd totally forgotten. My memory had wiped away all those hours of toiling over wrinkles, blemishes and fat rolls. Plus, in the last 6 months, I've finally started coming to terms with "who I am as an artist" (gracious I hate that expression) and really embracing / getting excited about pushing myself to try new things and accept what I like (and not what I think I should do or what other people want me to do). So finally, I'm back here behind my computer, staying up late (I haven't even eaten dinner yet - grumble grumble) and after hours spent on one flippin' picture, I'm proud to announce — I love it! (See photo below!) Hallelujah. Now on to the other 50 images from that shoot. haha Good thing I'm photographing women as a hobby at the moment or there would be a very horrific editing bill coming someone's way! Massive thank you to Taylor, our beautiful model, for waiting for me while I edit her beautiful photos. I loved working with her and it's so fun working on her images and seeing her laughing and having fun in front of the camera. I love it! Have a wonderful day of editing, my dear photography friends - you are not alone! 

~ xoxo Chamonix

The Purple Dress and Why Do I Want to Take Nude Portraits of Women

There is was... the most beautiful purple ball gown with sparkles I've ever seen. I paid $30 and took it home to my studio, hoping that one day I'd find the Cinderella who would actually fit into this tiny garment. Last summer, I photographed my friend Alena in this beautiful dress and I was amazed at how beautiful she looked. That bone structure is killer and just wearing the dress seemed to bring out a new side to her personality.

As much as I love beautiful dresses and all the wonderful things they do for the female figure (and confidence), I think that sometimes clothes get in the way of us actually seeing the woman inside them. We love dressing up but when the camera joins the party, dressing up seems to turn into a fashion photo shoot — women cross their fingers and hope they'll at least resemble the women in magazines, in the fancy clothes, in the broken doll poses. Frankly, I'm sick of the fashion. Our world has gone a bit overboard with how much importance we place on clothing.

Clothes say so much about who we are and what we like. That said, I also like that without clothes we are all on an equal playing field. I like the idea that when you see a photo of a naked woman, you can't make the same judgements about her that you could if she were wearing clothes. You don't know if she's preppy or grungy or hipster or retro. She's just naked. All you can look at is her face and the shape of her body and the texture of her skin. It's extremely vulnerable and I love that.

Most women aren't comfortable being seen naked, let alone being photographed that way.  I'm in that camp too. The idea of having my nude portrait taken makes me feel so shy and embarrassed. I think this is probably because I don't like how I look when I see myself naked in the mirror. I know I'm not alone with this. I also know that being photographed nude is a great way to overcome this fear and take one step closer to embracing your own body however it looks. So maybe one day soon I'll challenge myself to this experience.

What I can do right now though is offer my photography skills to other women who are ready to be photographed nude. I want to take photos that show a woman looking her most beautiful without the distraction of clothing. Photos that can't be dated by clothing. Photos that aren't all about the awesome dress. I want to take photos that are so simple and focused on a woman's body, her face and how she feels about herself. I want my photos to be honest. I want them to embrace the reality of how women look and what makes women beautiful (and the answer to that questions is not clothing).

Having said all of that, I do think that these photos of Alena in this purple dress are an incredible example of clothing at its best. Both Alena and the dress look gorgeous and Iw on't lie — I'm so proud of these photos. I feel like they may be my best work. Thank you beautiful purple dress for adding a little sparkle to this shoot. (So maybe sometimes I'll use clothing haha)

xoxo

Chamonix