28 Days of Natural Beauty- Day 1

Today I am launching my 28 DAYS OF NATURAL BEAUTY blog.


Who: Me


What: A blog discussing natural beauty, light, photography, models, magazine ads and whatever else comes up. Also, I will be taking a picture of myself, every morning. That's right, every morning....And, this will be me with NO make up, no shower, no hair brushing, just fresh-out-of-bed-stinky-morning-breath-me.
This picture will be of me trying my best to mimic a fashion/make up ad out of a fashion/parenting/beauty magazine.  Same pose. Same facial expression. And I try my best to look beautiful,... naturally, with NO makeup and with crazy morning hair. 


When: Every morning for the next 28 days of February. Unless this is LEAP year, which, I hope it's not. Ok, I Googled it.. Guess what?! IT IS!     oh.     my.    goodness.   Now, I'm going to have to change the name of my blog to 29 Days of Natural Beauty. Eh, never mind! Maybe on day 29, I'll put on makeup and then you can see what I look like with makeup on? hmm... that leads us to the next point.


Why:  To spark a discussion about "Natural Beauty....." 

• How is it defined? 
• What do famous models look like without make up?     In the morning?
• What do any of the Kardashians look like without make up?    In the morning? (ok.. not really the Kardashians, but they do bring up an interesting point about glamore girl makeup that we will have to get to at a later date.) 
• Discuss the ethics and the decisions that my photog friends and I make to air brush or to "touch up" a picture.... (My photography teacher, Elizabeth Claffey at Boise State, discussed her belief in "little to no touching up" and for people, so that their natural beauty would be shown. I love this. But, I am guilty of over editing. And sometimes my photog friends and I have a little too much fun in Photoshop with the smooth-skin brush or the liquefy brush that can zap 15 lbs right off your face.) 
• So... this blog is for me to express the importance of everyone's natural beauty, inside and out, while acknowledging that make-up may or may not play a role in it..... an interesting discussion.  Who knows where it will lead??????
• More WHY:  This will also get me to practice daily, my lighting skills. You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills. Sorry. Anywhooo, I will be practicing my lighting techniques along with portrait photography. 
• And lastly, to show off funny ads that big companies pay big bucks for... Ok, not really this, but it might come up. Daily. 

Where: My house, living room.


Now that we have gotten that over with, let's check out DAY 1.

DAY 1

                                                                                          All rights reserved: Revlon copyright:Dec. 2010, Glamour Magazine

Look at her flawless skin! She is so pretty, she probably doesn't even need that makeup.
(P.S. excuse my scanner... it puts a line through EVERYTHING I scan. Sorry, I do not know how to fix it.)


Now... my turn. (Evil laugh inserted here.)


As stated before: Same pose. Same facial expression. And I try my best to look beautiful,...(giggle)  naturally, (giggle) with NO makeup and not even a brush taken to my hair. (full belly laugh) That's what makes this sooo exciting! What WILL MY bangs to next? How dark will the bags under my eyes be? How many red dots will have blossomed on my face this morning? 


Here is my try... Oh and P.S.S... the ad above sd, "NOW THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BAD LIGHTING." .................except... maybe at 6 am with a speedlight and no make up? 

Picture is out of focus! BUMMER! Need to get that fixed by tomorrow. 

NO EDITING DONE!!! 

Shot: RAW, F/2.8 1/200 ISO 200 

Light: The Revlon ad, I think, is pretending it is FULL SUN. Full sun is where you get your harsh dark shadows coming from the light source shining straight down on you. And it is a big "no-no" to take portraits in full sun b/c of the harsh shadows.


I set up the speedlight and umbrella on the stand and put the stand up as high as it could go. I also was on my knees trying to get low so I could try to simulate the bright light shining from above. And after 7 test shots, I finally got one in focus. It's hard getting a picture of yourself with the timer, you don't know if you are going to be in focus or not. I need to find my remote shutter release! hmmm... 1st day, lots of lessons learned already. 




ha... ok... let's get a good laugh, forward it to our friends, take another swig of coffee, lean back in our office chairs and smile....  and then move on with the day. ... expect for me. :) I'm still grumbling that this is Leap Year and I have to do it for 29 days!


ha.


I'll see ya tomorrow.
SMILE, love and LAUGHTER,
Noelle