http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:mickwag&section=today deviantART RSS for by:mickwag en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:16:44 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/28525567/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/28525567/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:59:03 PST


Only problem I got a new PC a couple of days before running Vista instead of XP - I wasn't however aware of the compatability issues between vista and CS3 Bridge. Having put it on the PC it took about 15 minutes to restart the thing. Then the computer identifies that there are programs causing problems with the system and yes it's bridge. So googling around I find that this is a known thing and that there are no drivers available to rectify the situation. However it seemed to work ok apart from this and the sodding need to download fresh drivers for every program. So the shoot goes ahead and I go to upload the pictures - bridge is displaying little boxes but no thumbnails so I upload them all but needless to say that I can't manage to open them. Argghh and my wrist bloody hurts today....

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/27127062/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/27127062/ Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:59:37 PDT
Personal plus point - as I'm stuck in I've been looking back at the raw files of the last couple of years. There are shoots that I haven't edited more than a couple of pictures from, pictures in semi-edited states etc. It'll give me a chance to go through them although the left hand editing in itself is a bit of a job. Can't get the cursor over the sliders half the time.

Sort of got me thinking a bit though. Photographers a shoot - how long do you normally work for? How many shots per hour? How many of those would you use. Me, its about 6 hours a shoot. Probably average around 80 shots an hour although they'll be in short bursts in between playing with lights and backgrounds. Probably only around a dozen shots from any shoot ever see the light of day. Sort of feel like I do a shoot edit up some pictures...do the next shoot and the last one is sort of history. Now I'm sort of wondering if that is a bit of an odd approach.

Anyone got any idea of how long it might be before I am physically able to wield a camera for a few hours?

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/26889615/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/26889615/ Sat, 29 Aug 2009 06:15:28 PDT


Although I uploaded it in July it had actually lived in a semi-edited state on my desktop since I took it in October, not an uncommon state of affairs for me. I loved the pose but the background paper was a bit messed up - and if anyone knows a way to keep paper in a usable state I'd love to know - but eventually I sorted it. There's a lot end up in the bin because I'm not happy with the paper. I find that a bit depressing but pleased I took the effort on this one.

Thanks to for nominating and for featuring it.

Oh and the model the wonderful you should all check out her gallery on here. She's cool

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/26520618/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/26520618/ Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:10:33 PDT
Left waiting at the station - she doesn't answer calls or responds to texts. I mean how hard is it to text that you aren't coming.

She quotes a plethora of references from established photographers in her profile on a modeling site.

I just don't get it sometimes.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/26042743/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/26042743/ Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:01:40 PDT
I'd rather be sitting in the pub but having managed to delete the entirety of two shoots from my computer in recent days I thought I could spend it more productively editing up some of the hundreds of half finished pictures that are filling up my hard drive.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/24798503/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/24798503/ Sun, 17 May 2009 04:43:28 PDT
My gut feeling is that I'll achieve better pictures with limiting myself to shooting with a small cohort of good models. Probably pretty obvious who at least a couple of them are. To that end I am actively rebooking models that I have previously shot that I feel I can work in conjunction with to produce good pictures.

What I like are models who turn up and put an active artistic imput in to the shoot - those that inspire me - these are the models that I want to shoot - the ones who want to see what the images on the back of the camera are like to see if they can improve them. The good pictures that I take are the results of teamwork. These are the models I want't to work with on a repeated basis.

This doesn't mean that I'm not going to shoot models I haven't worked with before but if I just primarilly concentrate on working with a few individuals is that a constructive way forward?

There are models out there that I would like to shoot that I haven't - but there are normally good reasons - such as distance - why I can't. Still have a few on my wish list but I'm not naming names.

Interested on any views on this.

Oh and if anyone knows any inspirational models that can get themselves down to Wiltshire....

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/23094097/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/23094097/ Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:04:09 PST
Take this free IQ test. Click here

Secret Valentine. Click here

Someone's written something about you in their blog. Click here

I see these messages are also turning up on loads of other deviants pages.

This news article contains more:

[link]

So don't click.

Be aware

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/22610851/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/22610851/ Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:58:07 PST
Enoughs enough. Time to look for somewhere else.

It's only with retrospect that I realise how demoralized I had become with the place. In the last three months I was there I'd only had 4 shoots. I think I'd actualy come to dread what would await me each time I set foot in the place.

I've managed to sort myself a temporary shooting space - a lot smaller - than what I am used to - still I can manage to put up a paper roll in there (that wont get damp) and can just about cram some lights in. The boom arm's going to be a bit of a challenge though with a 3 metre ceiling and I can't use my 50mm lens as much as I'd like.

More strangely it's actualy made me want to start properly shooting again - had a first shoot on Wednesday and another coming up soon.

May even venture out of my comfort zone on location then when the weather gets warmer.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/22254644/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/22254644/ Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:58:14 PST
There's a lot of raw stuff that I'll never edit for various reasons but there's also a lot of pictures that I'd edited and forgotten about, and even more that remain in a state of semi-edit that I can't really decided if I they are completed.

There are pictures that are experiments, I might have been playing with alien skin for effects or indulging in a bit of photo manipulation. Ideas that I was never sure if they worked.

It’s a bit of a mish-mash really and also a bit of a reaction to a lot of comments I see on internet modelling sites. Such as

“Why would any photographer wish to post something which isn't their best work”

Sometimes it all gets a bit to Prima-Donna for me.

I like looking at artists sketches. I have the good fortune to own around 30 hours of demo’s by favourite recording artist – it is interesting to hear how ideas formulate, outtakes etc that never made the final cut.

Whilst I am putting the images up in the scraps section I mean it in no inferior sense most just didn’t seem to belong in the overall scheme of things at the time. Some of them I much prefer in retrospect to images from the same shoots which I may have already posted up here.

Any comments on the pictures, good or bad, welcome.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/21980656/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/21980656/ Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:52:10 PST
Over the last few weeks I have been taking stock of what I have achieved over that time and where I am heading in the future.

It’s been a very interesting and challenging year of my life which basically has consumed most of my free time over this period.

There have been downs:

I can almost guarantee that hundreds of hours of spent sitting at a computer has damaged my eyesight.

A constant stream of no show models in the spring and early summer.

I had the misfortune to work with a model who was quite possibly the most arrogant person I had ever met. She spent the entire shoot bad mouthing, and she must have done it on purpose, practically every model I have worked with and was generally such a pain that I didn’t even bother to edit up the set (hence no pictures on here) and couldn’t be bothered to sort a shoot for at least a month.

The constant battle with the landlords to provide heat, a waterproof premises and perform basic repairs.

There are also the regular lapses in to self doubt – trying to make sense of it all – wondering if there is any actual reason or purpose in doing this.

There have been ups:

My first shoot with Iveta (all though not technically in this period) which galvanised me and made me utterly convinced that I actually did want to do this.

The first shoot with Kayt, also the first proper shoot in the studio – on a bitterly cold December day, having found out that my brother-in-law had died less than an hour before she was due to arrive. She was like a ray of light that day and many of the pictures from this set still rank amongst my favourites a year later.

Being featured here: [link]

and here: [link]

I feel quite honoured to see my work alongside the photographers on these sites.

My recent shoots with Madame Bink – in one of those moments of doubt – I’d thrown the towel in to the ring. I only agreed to the first of these on condition she gave me my best shoot to date – if I wasn’t happy with the results that would be it. Evidently she delivered or that would have been it. I don’t know if she believed me at the time but it was perfectly true.

And so what of the next twelve months:

Well I have pretty much decided that despite my growing reservations at continuing shooting that reached a peak in the Autumn I am going to continue. I deliberately scaled it down over the last few months to give me a reflection period and to ponder the next course of action.

I am going to continue shooting on a less frequent basis – it had probably reached a silly peak at one point and I am more coming round to the notion that rather than perpetually try and seek out new models I should primarily work with the ones that I know give me results and that I enjoy working with. I have also been experimenting with different backdrops, have been dying materials to see what happens.

So 2009 – I just want to make better pictures than I did in 2008.

Just remains to say thanks to anyone that’s dropped by my page here and had a look, watched, commented on or favourited a picture. I appreciate and apologise that, especially with my eyes at the moment (I guess I’ll have to visit an optician) I can’t thank everyone individually.

Finally thanks to all the models, bar one, that I have worked with this year and special thanks to Madame Bink, Kayt, Iveta, Ulorin Vex, Sarah Freeman.

Regards for 2009

Mick

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/21261659/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/21261659/ Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:03:55 PDT


It appears that the fire brigade must have been on the scene quickly - good job as there are some oil drums and a load of backed wood shavings behind the fence (used to be a woodyard). Guess I am probably quite lucky - I'd already had nearly a month away from taking pictures and that would have put me out of action for a fair while.

Wonder if I have upset anyone recently?

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/20839662/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/20839662/ Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:16:59 PDT
Have just got my website up - interested in any opinions.

[link]

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/20532500/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/20532500/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:42:07 PDT It's a beautiful town so why not pose a model in it.

I did some initial reconaisance and was somewhat alarmed by the amount of CCTV cameras. I don't know if wandering around with a camera made me look suspicious but I could swear blind they were tracking me...or maybe I'm paranoid.

I decided that the first proper shoot should be done at night - under cover of darkness just using available light.

The shoot was last Sunday and compared to the ammount of people who had been in the town the previous Monday and Tuesday evenings the place was buzzing.

At the first location a church was emptying, at the second someone had taken a leak exactly where I had wanted to put my tripod. Next location - Royal Crescent someone was eyeing us up for about fifteen minutes before leaving - a van parked up and started unloading and some tourists stopped to speak to me. We moved on to another location and another van parks up and unloads - its 9pm on a Sunday!

The model kindly offered to retreat back to the studio if I wasn't getting the shots I wanted but we persevered and I am quite happy with the results.

The images I like are going to make a running series in the order they were shot.

The first night shift completed it is on to the day shift - far more problematic but I think I know a model who is brave enough....(this is called throwing down the gauntlet in public)

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19894182/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19894182/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:45:54 PDT
Well outside of my comfort zone. Studio work is nice and safe and the light can be controlled. If the weather is anything like the last couple of weeks it's going to be bleak. I think my camera works outdoors but this one has never been tested....

So I have spent the last few days exploring the Somerset and Wiltshire countryside.

I have found a dissused canal basin with docks, quarry tunnels, miles of abandoned railways, an overgrown C18th ironworks, an abandoned cemetery, streams I never knew existed all less than 10 miles fom my home. The main problem is that whilst they would all be good locations without lighting because they are heavily overgrown I couldn't see how they could be used.

There is also the problem of dog-walkers and trail bikers. What happens then.

I am coming round to the bleaker stretches of the Somerset coast - they were virtualy deserted on a Sunday afternoon so should be emptier on a weekday.

But what do you do when you do encounter the public _ I just don't know.

Will be a learning experience.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19703538/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19703538/ Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:19:01 PDT
That means that my days over the next couple of months are spent repairing bikes, feeding the various friends of my offspring that turn up and attempting to quell teen angst. My daughter doesn't believe I have been there.

I also drive an imported car - the clutch went 10 days ago - I am still waiting - and live in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway....

I was half prepared so I backed up with some shoots in the preceeding weeks. They were not my best though.

So...

I have sat here playing with photoshop for nigh on two weeks now.

I want to keep this as a separate entity to my photography so have taken up a separate account for this.

[link]

Interested in any views.

Thanks

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19369750/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19369750/ Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:19:50 PDT
Nothing went wrong and I think he understood my ramblings and he made a couple of interesting observations.

I got a card full of pictures to boot.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19305691/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/19305691/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:24:33 PDT
At any rate we decided that we would do a shoot together at my studio spliting the cost of the model.

Primarilly he wants to observe what I do rather than take photos.

As Saturday looms I am growing more and more nervous about it. I aint much of a teacher and as anyone that has met me would attest I have a very bad habit of starting a sentence then just stopping midflow. I put my camera down during a shoot and then spend 10 minutes hunting for it. Soft boxes fall of lights, the place is held together by bungees and string and bulldog clips.

I just wonder what the hell he's going to make of it and don't think I could ever manage to explain exactly what I am doing but here goes.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/18507594/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/18507594/ Mon, 26 May 2008 09:14:21 PDT
I took down all the tarpaulins that were keeping the water off.

I go down this morning - after a night of heavy rains - and the place is flooded out.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/18148478/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/18148478/ Sat, 03 May 2008 12:15:20 PDT
]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/17927014/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/17927014/ Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:53:48 PDT
.....this is a terrible place - but at least I am starting to edit more of the pictures that I took recently.

I have a shoot tomorrow and the model has just texted me asking if I want to use an outdoor swimming pool - evidently she is braver than me - I wont even leave the house if it is raining.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/17670094/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/17670094/ Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:02:58 PDT
OK - Compared to some members it aint a lot... but its a yardstick.

Gives me an idea of where I am going right and the defecit of favourites for some deviations keeps the sillier ideas in check.

I can't reply to every favourite and comment but thanks for them.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/17290837/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/17290837/ Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:44:17 PDT
Thank you to Iveta, Kayt, Madam Bink, Ulorin Vex and Keisha Rio who all
bore my inadequate atempts to heat the damn place with grace.

And....

I have booked up a plethora of models for the next month who are pretty much unknown quantites to me...but I am bothered.

The limited scope of shooting in a studio means to much similarity and there is absolutely no sodding way I am shooting anyone outdoors.

Any ideas?

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/16525571/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/16525571/ Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:18:32 PST
...the heater may start working.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/16237569/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/16237569/ Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:52:21 PST
Then I left and moved to Wiltshire, a bleak rural place, and spent a year looking out of a window at a hill until it made me ill. Then I knew I had to do something to refocus myself.

Years and years ago I could scrape out a student grant by painting copies of Modigliani's on to tables and selling them - it needed to be artistic.

This is the result.

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/15952840/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/15952840/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:09:28 PST
England has a long history of saucy postcards, carry on films, titbits, page 3, lads mags that could be described as mild titilation. Put a policemans helmet on a girl in a bikini and whilst you have a twist its crass and uninteligent. It is amost as if the collectively repressed English psyche could not cope with the female figure without it being turned in to a joke) This is the very opposite of what I am trying to achieve.

I try to think of things that the rest of the world identifies as English and the concept behind a couple of pics on here:

Tea - a very staple of English existance - we take an fragrent drink and pour cow juice and sugar in to it rendering its true qualities void. Still its the very embodiment of English culture.

The Bowler Hat - if you look at pictures of the City of London in the early years of last century all the office workers had a hat - most of them bowlers. The hats all but dead but still hangs on to embody the notions of another time and place. Mr Banks in Mary Poppins, the college porters at Oxford, Steed in the Avengers. Put this strange item of attire on someone and you think 'must be English'

Without being to rudeI'd like to know what other people in the rest of the world associate with England and maybe I can work around it.

Thanks

]]> =mickwag http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/15947870/ http://mickwag.deviantart.com/journal/15947870/ Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:54:04 PST
I enjoy taking the photos I am taking now. After nearly a fifteen year gap from any artistic endevours (I used to paint) its a tremendous adrenelin rush to even be trying to be creative again.

I should thank the models that have worked me, which I do, and anyone else just for looking.

That which is creative must create itself.

That's Keats quote not mine.

]]> =mickwag