Steps taken forward...

(Crossposted from Violet DeVille)

Good evening my lovelies! 

It's September and I'm writing this in a coffee shop after returning from the 70th annual World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago for ChiCon 7. I had a fantastic time and introduced a whole lot of people to the glories of nerdy burlesque or, as we like to call it, nerdlesque. Being home after a long trip alwaays feels so good. Especially after rolling in the rhinestones and glitter. (I'm not sure the cats ever appreciate that.)

But let me give you a glimpse of my upcoming shows of Lust.Love.Lifetime, Debauchery, and NERDZ! [more]

First up in this very busy month is Lust.Love.Lifetime: A Show Benefitting Washington United for Marriage at the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater on the 13th. The show starts at 7:30 pm. The show is $20 and profits go directly to Washington United for Marriage. This show is going to be awesome! This show features the talents of Eva Fairwood, Miz Melancholy, Scandal from Bohemia, Betty Fish, Sara Dipity, myself, and more. 

Fantastic burlesque and supportting marriage equality in Washington? Total win!

How do you follow up a show about lust and love? With Debauchery, of course. In its usual third Thursday of the month slot, Lily Divine Productions brings us a night of entertainment tailored for the queer audience at Neighbor's Night Club in Seattle.

Doors open at 7pm and the show begins at 8pm. Advanced tickets are just $10 and $15 at the door.

This month's show features some amazing performers! In no particular order, other than by name, I get to share the stage with Al Lykya, Amarylis Brindamour, Fay Onyx, Gema Lusterious, Harriet Scary, Juicy Fruit, Miss Kitty Baby, Pidgeon Von Tramp, Tiger Bombshell makes a debut peformance, and Zusha Rouge.

Lily Divine Productions uses Debauchery as a means to raise money for local LGBTQI organizations through community grants generated by the shows.

Last, but certainly not least, NERDZ! returns to the Jewelbox again this year for two nights, September 22nd and 23rd! You read that right, you now two oppurtunities to take in some amazing nerdity, that amazing confluence of nerdly pleasures combined with nudity. Sounds simple enough, yes?

The show on Saturday, September 22nd, begins at 7:00pm and doors open at 6:30pm. The doors for Sunday's show open at 6pm with the show starting at 6:30pm. 

Tickets are $18 at the door and $15 in advance of the show by way of Brown Paper Tickets.

Leading me in this night of sexy geekry is Scarlett O'Hairdye, Sailor St. Claire, Nathaniel Johnstone, Tempest, Morgue Anne, Bolt Action, Stella Vaughn, Scandal from Bohemia, and Candy Apples.

Those geniuses from Card Kingdom are even putting together a prize package that will be as enviable as it will be epic.

And October 3rd see's my return to Oakland, CA, in iL Nocturnal's iLnoc-off! It's a benefit support of We Are Family, a community organization that helps homeless LGBT youth in need. The Seattle Police Department estimates that there anywhere between 500 and 2000 homeless youth on the streets of Seattle and and that nearly half of those numbers are LGBTQI teens. If you want to help but cannot make the show, watch this site for details on how you can help make a difference.

Cross posted from Through the Shutter.

This last weekend was the 65th annual Westercon science fiction convention at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport Double Tree Hotel. While the programming department worked me hard with all of my panels I was on I still found time to meet new people, make friends, and have amazing things happen. Here's one such amazing thing.

During the course of my panels I referenced David Hobby's blog The Strobist. (It's a fantastic resource and a wondrous community for learning to light!) In particular, I talked about the idea of using a bed sheet to create a global-wrap-around light for minimizing glare on surfaces you're lighting during the panel "Reproducing Your Art". (David talks about using the sheet in a portrait to create on access light of huge proportions.)

After the panel Frank Wu, the artist guest of honor for the convention, asked if I wanted a fun challenge. And by "fun challenge" I mean to say, he asked if I would shoot his painting in the art show as he had just finished it that morning and didn't have any records of it. 

With the blessing of Westercon's art show staff, Sunday morning I setup my lights.

Whenever you are shooting on location, your control over the situation is limited. In this case, the paintings I was shooting were hung on the walls of the show in the corner and surrounded by his other works and the works of his wife. In a perfect world, I would set up a sheet on the left and one on the right but with that right side panel, that wasn't going to happen.

I set up the bed sheet from my hotel room hung it camera left, using one light stand the left side panel, and used it as my giant light. My initial set ups were too close to the painting and I would get hot spot reflections. I moved the flash back as far as I could go and dialed down the power on it until that hot spot was gone.

I didn't have the same luxury on the other side because of that panel on the right so I had to use a SpeedLight and a white shoot through umbrella but I couldn't get the flash far enough away to light the right side of the paintings without a hot spot. What was the solution to this problem? I bounced the light off of the ceiling in the room.

If this picture isn't clear enough, here's a diagram.

The final piece of the puzzle was to open up the aperture to an f2.8 to let a lot of light in and reduce the power output of the flashes down. Both flashes were set to  1/64 power.

Here are the three finished images of the painting.

Gorgeous, aren't they?

These paintings are copyright 2012, Frank Wu and are used with permission.

Note: This is a cross-post from Through the Shutter

Here I am on the back side of a convention that has just wrapped up. Perhaps I should mention that this is my first Foolscap (http://www.foolscapcon.org/) and really kind of snuck up on me. It's a small convention down in the Redmond Town Center Marriot with a focus on writing and the visual arts.

"Her Return" for the "Reunions"
by James A. Sullivan.

Friday's first panel, "New Types of Artwork", put me into an interesting position. Especially when you consider this was my first time being a panelist. Out of the three other people who were panelists with me, I was the only one there. On the bright side, I only had one attendee, so it was all good. ;) We actually had a really good conversation about the creative process I utilize and how I've built some of the more complex images, such as "Her Return". For being a two woman show, so to speak, it went well.

( More behind the cut. )

Note: This is a cross-post from Through the Shutter

Last October, I shot photos of the SteamCon Tea and Couture Fashion Show. I had a lot of fun taking the photos. You can view all of the photos here.

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by the coordinator of the SteamCon 2 fashion show asking if I'd be interested in doing it all over again. It would be an understated to say I agreed to do it again. No, this year, I have ideas on how to improve the lighting and get even better shots than some of the awesome ones below. To celebrate this occassion, here are some photo's from last year's fasion show, Tea and Couture.

( More behind the cut. )

(Click to enlarge image)