The angels are singing right now. Why? Because it’s Monday and I am not in class because it’s freakin’ spring break!!!! And even more, this here little blog will benefit from all the free time I have because I have a whole week’s worth of posts being drafted for the break! That’s right! More photography. More of my random rants. All week! But wait! There’s more! Next Saturday, March 24th, is the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of my blog, and all next week I’ll be debuting never-before-seen photos of some of my most frequent models all leading up to the big one year anniversary post extravaganza (which I haven’t actually planned yet, but you can bet it’ll be BIG)!!! That’s two weeks of daily posts! It’s going to be the best two weeks ever! So to kick things off, as promised, I have a brand spankin’ new Monochrome Monday:
Feast your eye upon Charli in Soul Singer. I would like to point out that I’m not actually sure if Charli really sings. But I do know that, like me and most of my friends, Charli loves music. And how fitting seeing as this photo came from my music/band photo shoot back in summer 2010 (man, that was forever ago).
I never realized how much I truly liked this photo until yesterday when I was backing up some of the files on my computer to my external hard drive. I came across all of the photos from my past photo shoots (being the tech savvy and common sensible person that I am, I would never dream of not having all of those photos, edited or not, saved somewhere that’s not my computer), and in the process, I came up with the whole daily post extravaganza idea. In beginning to plan out the next two weeks of posts, I realized that I needed a new photo for MM, and in looking, I stumbled onto this photo and decided I wanted to revisit it. Though originally in color, and totally nice that way, I figured that giving it a black-and-white makeover for today’s post would be worth it. And it definitely was.
Part of what is so great about this photo, in my opinion, is that the guitar Charli is playing is mine and has been featured in quite a few other photos by itself and with other models. One guitar has found itself on an epic adventure being passed from person to person, each with different skill levels, each with different songs to sing. One guitar has seen different hands, different voices, different passions. And this photo just happens to be one of the stops on that journey.
I also love how intensely concentrated Charli is. Her mind is set entirely on that guitar, nothing and no one else. The world around her doesn’t matter. I’m fairly certain she wasn’t even aware that I was nearby, camera in hand. And maybe that’s exactly why I love this photo so much, because it’s indicative of my own experience with photography. This hobby of mine is one big journey. When I’m in photographer mode, nothing and no one in the outside world matters. It’s just me and the camera looking for ways to pass along the various experiences of my subjects. Every model is different, and this makes my photography even better because every photo has a different story to tell, even when those stories are about the same person. It’s this sort of complexity that can only be understood in that moment, just as Charli’s moment in this photo can only truly be understood by her.
And that’s why Soul Singer is today’s Monochrome Monday. Remember to be on the look out for daily posts! There’s so much that’s going to be happening from the final revelations of my Pumped Up Kicks photo shoot to a special behind-the-scene look at what a normal photo shoot is like for me. Only my life could be this ridiculously crazy and fun (well, actually, I’m sure your life is fun, too, but you know what I mean. Lol). Happy Monday!
McClish Photography Studios 