Jason Tag Photography

I know what you’re going to say… and yes I have a fire extingusher just in case my head explodes….

Ok seriously.  When I started photographing nudes I thought that I would try something that I’ve always wanted to do but was too afraid to do.  Ever since that time, I’ve been writing about the experience and sharing what I’ve learned along the way.  All the while continuing to do it because it’s fun, interesting, and by golly I like photographing beautiful things.

But since reading the article on Univers d’ Artistes, I’m starting to see that the images I’m shooting and the words I’m using to talk about the art are powerful.  I never thought in a million years that my work could be considered powerful.  There is so much in our world that is ugly. so much hate and violence.  And there are so many people who are trying to control others.  there is so much that is negative in our world that I find going into the woods or onto a gorgeous beach and creating art is my way of coping.  It’s my way of reminding myself that this place is still beautiful and hopefully reminding others of that beauty as well.  but more than that, reminding us all that we are better than the petty arguments, better than the wars we wage, or the power we seek.  To be human is to be alive and to understand that our place in this world is not to control it, but to enjoy it.

This is why I shoot nudes and this is why I’ll keep shooting nudes.  I just hope that you’ll continue to enjoy the work

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post on what I’ve been learning. Not because I haven’t been learning anything, on the contrary. In fact I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the time to really sit down and write much. So here it goes… What I learned from the last shoot.

One of the things that sticks out in my mind from the shoot with Elizabeth was that she was so comfortable with her body and being nude that she spent the entire shoot nude. Being around someone that comfortable with themselves really helped to make me comfortable. I was nervous going into the shoot but once we started shooting I immediately relaxed and just started shooting.

Elizabeth basking in the sun - Aug. 30, 2008

I shot somewhere around 780 images during our two hour shoot. The most I’ve ever shot on a single shoot. So I have a lot of images to go through. Most of them are good and only a few are great. I started overshooting in order to maximize my chances of getting good shots. One of the common problems I cam up against was about proper exposure settings. My instincts told me to meter off of her skin as it was the brightest part of the images, but that little voice in my head told me that I should be metering off the sky in order to get the right exposure settings. In most cases when I got my readings from her skin the exposure was to dark and when I got reading from the sky there were parts of her skin that got over exposed. So it was a no win situation. After a while I just started to wing it and the exposures seemed to get better. So in a several of the images the highlights are very bright or blown out. It’s fixable in post processing but I’d prefer to get it right in the camera first.

Another thing I learned was a lesson I keep learning over and over again. “trust your instincts!” There were several occasions where I saw something neat for us to play with and I didn’t have any idea on what to do with it so I just ignored it. But later on in the shoot I told Elizabeth about the tree I had seen and she agreed to try to do something with it. I got a few shots from that turned out to be pretty good. So the lesson is if I see it and think it’s interesting I should shoot it. Hence… Trust your instincts!

Other than that it was a really great shoot and we had a lot of fun shooting all over the beach and Elizabeth even stated that she didn’t want to go back to Virginia after this trip. That she’d rather just stay in Hawaii. I totally agree with her and wouldn’t mind if she stayed. I would certainly love to work with her again.

Before I did the shoot with Ashleigh, I knew that she had tattoos. I had only done one shoot with a model who had a tattoo before and we tried very hard to work around it. Trying not to photograph it. It ended up being an interesting challenge. What ended up happening was that I mostly shot the model from the side without tattoos. Which led to having most of the shots from the same side.

Tattooed Nude

With Ashleigh I decided that it’s her body and it’s she’s chosen to decorate it this way. It’s real and I find it beautiful. As I drove to the shoot, I had an idea to get a few close up shots of her tattoos. Partially as a way to embrace the tattoos as a part of her being, but also because I thought it might be interesting to see the tattoos in the context of the nude. Now I think I’m onto something with this thought.

Now I’m thinking it might be interesting to do a whole book on just tattooed nudes. it might be interesting to see images like the one above of tattoos and the nude body.

Serendipity is by far one of my favorite concepts. The reason is that it just happens. You can’t plan for it, and if you fight it things tend to spiral out of control and then it’s just a mess.

I prefer to embrace serendipity and allow it to really shape how I work. I have found that my favorites shots are the ones I couldn’t have planned. It’s the shots where the model says “I have a wacky idea” or the shot that you don’t remember taking until you’re looking at them a few days later.

The other side of the coin is that you force serendipity either. If it doesn’t happen you have to be prepared to take charge and express what it is that you want. This is still a challenge for me but I find that if I just let go of my mind it usually happens. and it is magical.

Of course that’s just my opinion…

Since my last shoot I’ve been thinking about ideas. Specifically coming up with a few new ones. Normally my ideas are inspired by the model or the location in the moment. Something magical happens. The model does something or looks at me a certain way and I see the spark. Or the location has something that beckons to have a model pose there.  I become possessed and the ideas begin to flow. However when the ideas don’t flow this can be bad. While this hasn’t happened yet I can see the possibility for it to happen.

I picked up a book the other day that was all about perceptions and changing the way you see the world.  I found it interesting that it’s now got me wondering how I can incorporate that into my photography.  The idea is to photograph things in a different way.  Putting the subject of a photo out of focus or using long exposure times when you don’t really need to just to see what happens and how it makes the photos different.  I’m not sure how to incoporate this into what Im doing but I’ll definetly be thinking about it.

Aloha…

The whole point of this site is to show what goes on behind the scenes.  How does someone get into doing nude photography.  How do you find models?  how does it all come together?  All the thoughts, ideas, and the machinations that go on in ones brain.  That’s why I started this site.

Of course knowing what you want to achieve is the key.  I started this without thinking about what it was that I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to shoot nudes, but what kind of nudes.  I knew that I didn’t want to do porn.  But that was really it.  I had no knowledge of glamour nudes, artistic nudes, simple nudes, plain nudes, The list goes on.  After each shoot I’ve been looking at the images and seeing what I’ve captured and I’ve started to see styles emerge with each model.  I have found that one model might be more suited to glamour nudes or artistic nudes.  But what I have struggled with is how to define glamour or artistic nudes.  How do you convey this to a model so that you capture the images that you want to capture?

So I’ve been thinking about definitions for the different kinds of nudes and I’ve also been searching the web looking for what others think about this and I found a site that provides a definition of their style.  The site is DOMAI.com which is known for their simple nudes style.  The owner offers his definition of the simple nudes style which I find to be interesting.

Another site which has helped me to figure this out is imageofmuse.com.  I read her biography and my mind was opened to the idea of a model being more than just a model but being an artist.  When I started this journey, my first shoot was with a model who I would say is an artist just as much as any photographer.  I really enjoyed collaborating with her because she had some tremendous ideas and it really helped to make the shoot a great one.  Ever since this shoot I have always enjoyed the ideas that the models come up with more than my ideas.  It’s exciting to see what others create and in turn it excites the model about working with the photographer.  excitement generates positive energy, and positive energy is always a good thing.  In an indirect way, Muse has helped me to solidify those ideas and really let me see a model working as an artist and what is truly possible when you allow a collaborative relationship to develop.

Today I feel a certain understanding of where it is I’m going and what it is I want to do with this thing called nudes.  My own ideas are just now starting to develop and I am extremely excited about the future and the art that is to be created.

Aloha,
Jason Tag

The shoot today is one I’ve been working on for a few weeks.  I can’t wait.  You guys know, I live for this.  During a shoot is when all the ideas are put to the test.  The anxiety of whether things will work or not is fresh in your mind.  Everything hinges on this one moment and that rush is the the feeling of seeing the ideas turn from abstract concepts into the tangible images.

This shoot will especially test me because it’s the first shoot I’m doing where I have a definite idea of where I want to go and how I want things to progress.  I have some very specific poses in mind.  I just hope that they work.  Other shoots Ive done I’ve had a few ideas that I wanted to play with but this time it’s very specific.  Partly because the model requested it but also I feel that by giving the shoot more structure I hope to get a more focused shoot and in the end, more time to take better shots.  However I will still allow some room to play and just have fun.  I have to, otherwise…why do it!

I’ll write about the shoot after we’re done so stay tuned…

As I was going through the photos from my last shoot, I came across this one.

I had seen a whole series of photos in which there were three models. two were male and dressed in underwear and the third model was a nude woman. in every photo the woman was out of focus and I was shocked to find that because she was out of focus it drew more attention to her. So When I posed this shot I thought about that series and decided to try it out. I think it works…