Style Studio: Red Hot (and Black!)

Well, I’ve been meaning to share a full “Style Studio”/”Look of the Week” post for some time now. So, here’s one that I took early this month. And, as always, here are my style and photography notes from the series -

Style Notes:

• Long-sleeved fitted grey shirt – From Supré; Got it on sale a few weeks ago. Loved the fit so much, I ended up buying in one light blue as well.
• Black velvet jacket – This one’s a really old piece of clothing. I don’t even know where I bought it. I think I was still living in Singapore when I purchased it. It used to be part of a two-piece suit (jacket + pencil skirt). However, I’ve stopped using the skirt.
• Printed dress – The label says “Ms Who?” It’s one of those dresses that I bought from a children’s clothes shop. Got it for about AU$10. The thing is, I keep wondering when I’d bump in to a ten year old wearing the same thing. Heh.
• Black loop belt – Another hand-me-down from my sis.
• Black stockings
• Wittner stiletto booties – One of the few stiletto shoes I own. I love the shape, but for some reason, I haven’t really taken to wearing them. Haven’t broken them in yet properly, so they’re still a bit uncomfortable. But, I must say, looking at these photos, I am beginning to get convinced why stilettos may be a good way to go.

Where To: Off to my part-time work as part of the Resource Team in an organisation that support people with intellectual disabilities.

Photography Notes:

I must confess that I felt quite happy with this series of self-portraits. They’re not technically great photos, but I like them anyway. Something about the lighting and the composition really appealed to me.

I especially like the top photo in the collage. It was sort of an accidental shot, as I was actually trying to use the fireplace area as my backdrop. But, I couldn’t quite get “the shot”. You know, that one photo that help me to tell what I want to say in pictures.

When I moved to a different wall to try some extra shots, I found that the floor lamp lighting in that area created a different visual effect in the shots. That’s why I ended up liking more photos from my “extra” pics (3 out of the 4 shots in the collage are from the extras; I even have a couple more I wish I could share some time). I even liked the effect of the huge floor vase in the top photo.

So, I hope you like them too! Anyway, here are my photo notes -

• Camera: Nikon D40x
• Lens: Sigma 30mm f1.4
• Lighting: Combination of natural light and indoor artificial light (a ceiling light and a floor lamp); No flash
• Self-portrait strategy: Remote control!
• Post-processing: Some iPhoto tweaks – a bit of straightening, some adjustment in saturation, sharpening, and some cropping (for a couple of the pics). The collage was created using Gimp.

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