28 Days of Natural Beauty- Day 4.. keeping it simple

28 Days of Natural Beauty- Day 4


Keeping it simple today.
It is Saturday after all...
ahh.. a day to sleep in and then take a nap later ( if you don't have kids...if you do, then you might have been up at 5am, like me.) A day to act like a cat, no responsibilities, (if you don't have kids) with lots of eating and napping... the life of a college student. Or a baby. Yeah, probably more like a newborn baby. I'm jealous, but only about the napping part, not the other newborn baby stuff. 


Day 4.. perfume ad:

All rights reserved: Versace copyright: Glamour magazine December 2010

My version:

Stats: 70mm, 1/320, f/ 2.8 


Light:... ALL Natural! I actually waited till the sun came up and did this outside using BEAUTIFUL natural morning light!!! BEST LIGHT EVER!! The pic is a little dark, maybe a tad underexposed. It was cold, but morning light and evening light are the BEST for outdoor pictures.  I was hoping it would be a little more "warm" IN the picture, but because I shoot RAW, it tends to be a little less bright than JPEG. 


I love photography.
I love it and therefore, I know one day I will be amazing at it.
Until then, I practice, practice, study, read, learn from my mistakes, learn from others, learn from other's mistakes, and click away.


Growing in photography is sometimes like an GOOD OLD SONG. You know.... when a grrrrrrrrrreat song comes on the radio. 
One of your classic favs. 
You love it. 
YOU LOVE THIS SONG!
You crank up the speakers in your car.
And BLAST IT! 
You sing along at the top of your lungs and jam along. 
You sing confidently.
You sing confidently, even though you aren't positive on the EXACT wording of the song. 
But, you sing along, just the same. 


It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you,
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do.
I GUESS it rains down in Africa?........
I PRESS the rains down in Africa?....
I BLESS the rains down in Africa?...
I CHASE the rains down in Africa?


WHICH ONE IS IT?? DARN! IF I COULD ONLY understand what the heck TOTO is singing!!!
But, it doesn't stop me from belting it out when I'm cruising in the minivan down the I-84. Eventually, I'll remember to Google it or a friend will embarrassingly correct me... but I'll get it right, one day. 


Photography is like that song. Sometimes. Especially in the beginning. Sometimes you don't know the exact combination of light to use, or how much flash/light power to use and where to place it....  but you lift your chin up, crank up the speakers and confidently click along, knowing... eventually you'll get it. 

Have a beautiful Saturday!  

"Look yourself in the mirror today.

 Look in your eyes. Love them. They are beautiful. 

They are the window to your soul. 

Smile, you are a beautiful soul." 
loveya,

Peace.noelle.love.smiles.and.laughter.in.Africa.

28 Days of Natural Beauty- Day 3...Dear Cover Girl

28 Days of Natural Beauty- Day 3

ahhhhh... YAWN! GOOD MORNING! 

Welcome to DAY 3! 

Just to clarify....I do wear makeup. Not a ton, but I do. And sometimes a lot, like at my sister's wedding or a special occasion. 

This blog is meant to spark a discussion within you and for us bring out the natural beauty within us all. I thought would be fun to do pics in the morning, right when I wake up, with no makeup, no brush to the hair and just that "fresh outta bed look." It's all in the name of thought provoking fun. 

In reality, models and actresses get out of bed with no makeup and crazy hair in the morning too... I wonder what they look like? Especially the glamour ones, who usually wear a TON of makeup? Not being negative about their style. Just curious. 

However, I DO love that more actresses, musicians and reality stars are taking off their makeup and going "natural" for 1 or 2 photo shoots. But even then, they still have foundation on covering up spots and blending their skin tone. AND then a talented photographer and talented editor. 

I don't. At least not in this blog. And especially not this morning. hhehehhehehehe

Let's take a look at today's pictures! 

DAY 3

All Rights Reserved: CoverGirl Registered trademark and whatnot. Elle Feb/12 no.318

Dear Cover Girl, Revlon and etc.,

I appreciate you trying to connect with your audience more by using more "normal" people. If you consider a celebrity (with thousands of dollars of make up products and skin treatments at their disposal) "normal."
What if you actually got REAL normal people to model your makeup? I wonder if it would sell? Just wondering.
Maybe you could do a "BE THE NEXT COVER GIRL MODEL" contest and advertise at gyms, Starbucks, and elementary schools?

Eh, just an idea. Take it and run with it!

Thanks for your time,
Noelle "normal lady" Veldhouse
P.S. I am NOT implying that I would want the next Cover Girl model job. No thanks, but thank you for the offer. I'm too busy already, my assistant would NOT be happy for me to take on more jobs. Girl Power. Natural Beauty Girl Power.

My Day 3 version:

Drew is cool, so not to knock her, but this pose was very unnatural and took a while for me to get it.... but I'm not a model. Models are probably very used to it. It's awkward.

If I'm touching the side of my face and my collar bone at the same time, it is because I spent too much time in the sun yesterday and my sunburn itches. Or I'm watching a disaster happen in slow motion. Like watching my toddler in a museum... pull.. down a....oh...NO..not. a.11th.century. Itailian. vase. onto. the. museum. tile. floor...... And then my face looks more like this:

1. Yes, I drew it.
2. Thank you, I know I'm quite talented in PAINT.
3. Like her shirt?

LIGHT:
Drew actually has 2 catch lights in her eyes. (Remember the white flashy light in a person's eyes?) I see an umbrella and then a small soft box right next to it. Again, same set up w/ my speedlight, white flash through umbrella and..... pulled in one of the bright lamps again for some extra side light. However, my lamps are just household lamps and not bright enough or strong enough to really show up in my picture. I did put a garage light/work light down on the floor shining up for more light, but it wasn't enough. And, the bottom light gave me less of a chin shadow and thus, you can see more detail on my neck/chin.
Drew's pic is really warm and my pic was shot with flash, so it needs to be warmed up post process.

Editing I really, really, really, really wanna do:
1. Oh, first, I really wanna liquify (shave some weight off) my chin/neck area a little to give it more definition.
2. Would love to warm it up. A lot.
3. Smooth out my skin to make it more even. Also, patch fix my spots/blelmishes to help have beautiful skin.... BUT NO EDITING!
DARN YOU no editing rule! Zigga-Zig -Ahhhhh....

Have a SUPER great day!

SEEK YOUR NATURAL BEAUTY. 
It is found within.

Smiles, love and laughter, 

Noelle...aka. Natural Beauty Spice

28 Days of Natural Beauty- DAY 2 and My Bum...

28 Days of Natural Beauty-Day 2

DAY 2

Dior's lovely model is today's inspiration. 

All rights reserved Dior. Copyright ELLE magazine, Feb 12 #318

1. I always hold my purse like this.
2. Especially when I'm carrying it near a beautiful lake surrounded by steep rocky mountains.
3. In fact, when I am camping, (which is really the only time I'm near a crystal blue lake and mountains) I usually look like this.
4. And yes, my little black V-neck-type top (sorry for being the opposite of fashion forward) IS my #1 choice when I wake up freezing my buns off with a full bladder in my tent. Which is, again, near the crystal clear blue water, near the beautiful mountains.
5. Let's get serious. Ok... I really only put this top on AFTER eating campfire breakfast eggs and once it has warmed up a little.

DAY 2 and MY version of the picture.

Don't. Be. Jealous. I. AM. SMOKIN. HOT.

What's prettier, me or my purse? 

1. My purse choices for this picture were:
   A. My black 9West purse that is gushing diapers, wipes and I think a day old sippy cup is poking out too.
     OR
    B. nothing.
That is it city girls! Don't cry for me Argentina....better yet, Don't cry for me my New York friends and L.A. friends... one day I will have lots of dinero to have more than one purse! Until then, I'm fine. I'm happy with my little black n' silver friend. She does the job.

2. This REALLY what I wear when I go camping. I promise. Ask my husband. My comfy OLD black Lakers sweatshirt. I love it and therefore I believe it too carries it's own hidden sexiness. Very hidden. Very, very, very hidden.

3. It was quite uncomfortable to hold the purse like this, especially loaded down with mommy what-nots.

4. Blue backdrop instead of crystal clear blue lake.

LIGHT & Photography stuff:  Shot at 70mm 1/200 f/2.8 ISO 200.... I have just found that this is the best combo for today....and then I adjusted my manual speedlight to fire at only 28.

I studied her face & studied her eyes. WHY? I wanna get similar lighting. Her face has a little more light coming from the picture's left side. So she must have a little extra light on that side.

However, by looking at her eyes, I studied the catch lights in her eyes. I can almost SEE what type of lights and contraptions the photographer was using. Really! Look at a beauty ad. Look CLOSE at that little white flash part of her eyes. That is called the catch light. You can sometimes see the exact light source the photographer used. Pretty cool.
Anyway, this one was hard. I think 3 softboxes were used all lined up next to each other with the one on the left being the brighter one.
Well... I don't have 3 softboxes. For this, I turned on the main lights in the room, tilted a few tall lamps (to try to fill in the shadow,) used my trusty speedlight and white-shoot-through umbrella.
I am ITCHING to edit this picture and play with the lighting... but NO editing allowed, as you can see by my fresh morning skin.


MY BUM:
Hey, since ya'll are seeing me in the morning w/out makeup, how's about I just get even more RAW and put up a pic of my rear? oh. yes. i. am.
My daughter snapped this of my rear yesterday as we were getting ready to leave. I was all set to go out n' about. Had my kids, had my purse (my 9West-ie of course), and an extra diaper. I was all set. At least for a few hours.

She thought it was funny that I had a diaper in my back pocket... That's how us moms roll, I told her. 

She thought it would be a funny picture b/c of the diaper. I think it is funny for different reasons. I think it's funny that I now have a picture of my rear in our family album. ha ha funny, not HARDY HAR funny. 

And now that the picture of my rear has burned a permanent imprint on your brain... I bid you farewell. 

Have a lovely day.

Keep smiling, loving and laughing.

~Noelle

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