George Vernon

A hasty move.

2011-07-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

I have basically a week to move if not less than that. I'm basically leaving Seattle with a small percentage of my clutter that I have collected for decades. I'm practically donating my old simple Bogen 22a enlarger to a film die hard friend who still shoots film and prints real prints. I stopped shooting film back in the end of 2004 and stopped using this enlarger back in 2002 for a few reasons. I worked at a photo lab and the time and printing in my bedroom at the time wasn't possible.

I got the enlarger as a gift from my dad back in 1985 when I fellow jr achievement member was selling his enlarger and extras. The enlarger didn't really have all those bells and whistles but it could print a pretty good print for what it offered. I printed from wallets to 11x14! It was a very trust worthy enlarger and I'm sort of sorry to see it go.

Some more cosplay photography of Cherrain Anine Party.

2011-06-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be so late about this but I have done 3 cosplay shoots prior to the one that is below. The most recent one was last Sunday at Volunteer Park and this time it was of a lone Vocaloid cosplayer because the shoot was at short notice also I found out that many of the Chinese cosplayers were going to be out of town for the summer.
It's a good thing is that this shoot was successful because the next cosplay shoot with this model will be Death Note.

Jewelry photography.

2011-04-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Recently I did some jewelry testing at Palapala Seattle. I say jewelry testing since I've never shot it before with my multi function photek softlighter with anything but people and most recently food. My first shot was to photograph my new stylish shooting glasses.

Next up was a watch necklace (that I held up with some electronics holding device I got from radioshack). I used a pretty small piece of paper to create a mini seamless studio and shot a few of these neat little watches. The light was pretty much over head without any reflector and it looks pretty good as it is.

Next on of the watches on some pretty amazing looking faux fur that one of the staff suggested since much of the Jewelry is placed on such fur. When I started shooting these necklaces I thought they were very fitting for steampunks attire.

I did photograph a few earrings differently than these. I found a small bar and placed some on it but for these because when they hang on the bar the detail wasn't as visual I put them on the nice fur and they modeled for me quite well.

Last but not least there was a few necklacesse that also wanted to model for me since they heard what success I had with the other Jewelry photography. I hope I can intrest more Jewelry models to pose for me in the future.

Lights, camera, action!

2011-04-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

I would have to say I love natural light the most. This image was I believe was shot on a cool overcast day back in 92 in Seattle's Volunteer Park and I believe that this image wasn't altered with any dodging or burning in the darkroom or even in photoshop or lightroom other than fixing the tonality of the image. It's shot on the path that surrounds the brick encased water tower in the park.

When I take a photo I prefer shooting in defused light or in the shade the most and don't prefer to shoot in bright sunlight at all. I normally don't bring any other light with me and I don't use reflectors when I shoot just the natual light reflection of the location I'm shooting in.

Locations are picked close to the cafe that I wait for my model unless we can drive someplace else in Seattle. In most cases I remain with locations on Seattle's Capital hill community.

When I have relocated inside for a shoot I have used some pretty strange lighting. In the past I used outside tungsten lights that were pretty bulky and hard to transport so I made this sort of dangerous 1500watt light. I say dangerous since it got pretty hot, smoked, smelled funny and I was always scared that if one of the lights burned out it would break and fly at my my model while we were shooting.

This is a pretty rare shot of my bare bones way of lighting. For more diffused lighting I used an old bounce umbrella I fellow photographer gave me. It too looked pretty laughable with being colored off while with age and might have been used in the rain since it had many stains but for black and white photography it was a winner.

I worked with tungsten or hot lights for pretty long but I always had to shoot T-Max 400 asa film because even the 1500watts wasn't powerful enough to give me the exposer or lighting I desired.

This shot was taken just about a year before I updated to a Dynalite head with a 1000w/s powerpack and a brand new umbrella.

I originally was going to get Comet strobes for my flash but the ones that Glazers had were too expensive at the time and when I went to see if I could get the Dynalite kit all they had was a rental so I when to Optechs to get my Dynalites.
I became a fan of Dynalites after using them at a fellow photographers studio. The heads were pretty compact for light heads and the power packs were also pretty small compared to many in the industry that were pretty heavy and bulky.

Most recently I've gone with working with a much more portable light with the powerpack being contained in the strobelite and packing a much bigger light stand with a Grip Arm from my c stand. It's kind of like old times with working with one light again.

Cosplay should be a worthy next step...or what I thought.

2011-04-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

I've been interested in cosplay photography ever since those gothic/fetish days. It is basicly the same thing right? Not really cosplay is much more tamer than that or maybe it was because I was just not photographing the right cosplayers. I have only done a few shoots with the local Cherrian Anime Party (a club my friend Yifang started at SCCC. I went to a few of the meetings but haven't attended since the last one was pretty scary with a few more otaku (obsessive interests) that I expected.

The first shoot was in the dead of winter and so we walked around and did a few shots in a few different places. My friends did different poses related to an anime did didn't really know about. I sort of just followed them around and did some snap shots but really didn't do much in setting up the shoots because it was for them.

The next time we did photos was at Gasukan Seattle (local cosplay gathering that happens every month or so).

Kind of like a mini cosplay convention of sorts for cosplayers to dress their favorite cosplay hangout and networking too. A number of photographers who also join this group the take photos of the cosplayers too.

I personally don't perfer to just do snap shots but sometimes they are important to get to doing shoots with more drama.

Sakura-con is a pretty big convention where cosplayers from all over the northwest take over Seattle for a few days. I was planning to join them and also doing cosplay but because it hits right on Easter weekend as well as having current financial difficulties (as well as not having my cosplay costume ready) I oped out of going this time. Lucky I'm not totally out of luck since Aki Con will happen October 7-9th of this year.

There are also other photographic interest such as photographing Ball-Jointed dolls. I first found about these dolls from the famous blogger Danny Choo who lives and works in Japan and blogs about pretty much everything from Japan to his otaku interests.

Hello, My name is George and I'm a photographer...

2011-04-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

This is how I introduce myself to a new model in a cafe, on the bus or where ever I was at and I have been on the simple quest to find new models to update my portfolio. Luckily this model had been a former pro as well as one of my model muses back in 1992. I still recall the day I asked her to model. I was going to an interview for some kind of job in Seattle and she was the next seat and she had the scent of pepper corns.

Because I sought out interesting models to shoot I offered them a free model test. I normally shot only one roll of 36 exp roll for this model test and offered one free print for exchange for them helping me add more interesting photos into my portfolio. These models I found at the famous Cafe Paradiso (now Caffè Vita) smoking section. I would pay for a endless drip coffee and go upstairs and case out the joint for new talent. I didn't wait too long just went up to someone or even a group that looked like they would fit in my portfolio and asked.

"Can I take your photo?" Some would say sure and some still needed more information so I showed them my 8x10 portfolio of prints that I had printed in a dark garage that I used as a darkroom in my parents house. Some would ask me if the shoot would be there in the cafe and I told them we would meet again later that week for a more formal shoot near the cafe.

Because I was limited to the 36 to 40 images of a 36 exp roll I figured out a way to

squeeze 4 different looks (clothing changes) per roll. I started off with 3 head shots, 3 half body and 3 full body unless the model seemed like they knew what was going on and I would add another roll to the shoot and a additional print.

Some models did order more prints and I was able to afford all my film and paper because the expenses of home film processing and printing was pretty cheap compared to having a lab do the work.

Photography was also one of the only social things I did really. I found one tea cafe/consignment dress shop that I would play the game of it the model came into the shop I would ask them. This model strangely came back and to my luck she was sort of famous being on the cover of the stranger and also a Elite Model Management hopeful. The day of the shoot she was smoking this nasty smelling cigar and that ended up being part of the first shots in the test.

To my joy Elite did something that no modeling agency in Seattle ever did and that is they bought 3 of my prints for their new model and told me I could shoot their models when I was visiting their Beverly Hills agency.

My social life was meeting models, doing shoots, showing results of the shoot on a contact sheet, taking print orders and asking for more shoots with the same model. Some of the models I lost touch with so I had to keep looking for new talent.

Inner critic.

2011-04-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

Who is the inner critic anyways? For me it was something that made me focus on creating the highest quality that was possible with what I had access to at the time. What I didn't have access to I did my best to experiment with what I could work magic with. Still my inner critic was a bit too anal for even me and many of my shoots never even saw the light of day because they weren't thought as being top notch.

When I started scanning these old shoots that were taken back in the 90's and early 2000's (before digital) I noticed that in fact my profession should have been a fulltime photographer but my inner critic was so anal that I didn't feel that I was skilled enough to do photography as a profession.

Most recently I have been getting praise from old and new friends about my magical talent and this one pictured to the right told me that these were the best photographs that were ever taken of her. Another fellow photographer told me that I need to whip the old scene back into shape in Seattle and I would personally have to agree with him about that.

I started with my own style of fashion that was greatly influenced by European editorial fashion of the 80's, 90's and the 1920's. I stayed with shooting black and white because it was pretty affordable at maybe as little as $2 or $3 for a 36 exp roll. I first worked with plastic film cans and they were cheaper than the metal cans and later I upgraded to the metal because of light leak problems.

Some of the photos with light leaks really actually worked well with the different subjects I shot. This one on the right was shot from the reflection of a mirror and the light leaks make it look like it was actually planned out. This shot I also worked with what light was available form the models bathroom as well. With most shoots I ether had access to a number of Seattle locations or a model's apartment and natural, available light or a homemade hot light.

While I was in college in the late 80's I found out about a accidental toning effect that a classmate did and that I perfected and toned many of my photos with. It effected different papers differently from making them look like old silvered and faded images from long ago. Since the technique was pretty simple I only told a small selection of friends how I did it. I only told 2 people and gave them little bottles of the toner.

Virgin food photographer no more.

2011-04-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well I did shoot food back when I attended commercial photography at SCCC in the late 80's but that stuff was all but a blur to me. This time was at a monthly Seattle food styling and photography meetup but this time I worked the lighting with what I have have always thought to be pretty funky looking photek softliter I got many years ago for my dynalite light because I couldn't afford a softbox at the time.

This is also the officially first time I've ever used this light for food although the light in the photek softliter is actually a westcott strobelite I got last year with my tax return.
Back in 2008 I shared a studio with monolights and learned some valuable knowledge about these interesting lights. In the past I thought they were really cheap lights that wedding and portrait photographers used but didn't realize that they were the strobes that I had been looking for way too long.

A new shoot with Michi.

2011-04-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

I prefer to shoot without a defied idea when I do model test because in ways it's like a modeling interview. Most cases I get an idea once I find a model that my mind is filled with what the future shots are although with models online I find it discouraging because the field there has lots of competition and someone without a defined idea is passed up many times.

The idea with Michi was first on the Japanese Elegant Gothic Lolita although the shoot went a little different because yesterday's weather was pretty wet we had the shoot inside the Pretty Parlor.

Then when the rain stopped we did a few shots outside.

We planned to walk to the steps on Republican but then I noticed a strong downpour so we finished the shoot inside again.

A picture a day.

2011-03-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

A voice in my head told me to do it so I took some photos of of the windows in my folks house. When I was young I liked rainy days but my mom would always say, "this is a horrible day" or "a miserable day." It's wet sure but not a really bad day at all and the temp outside is a balmy 44ºf which is much warmer a few days ago when it was a winter wonderland.

In the past people have told me that my photos were sad but I really never thought that really. Maybe the photos I took reminded them of sad things or something like that.

Finding my bliss...

2008-06-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Many years ago Photography was my bliss. I would sleep only 4 hours and be totally rested with my excitement for photography. A while ago I left my bliss because focus on a different darker part of photography. I don't know if it was the kind of photography or competition that killed my bliss.

I've been so very depressed with my photography because I have lost my vision I used to have. In the past my shoots were very simple... I just find a model and do a shoot and see what develops. Some models look the same every shot and others seem to come alive with a camera pointed at them.

At the end of January I got my own small studio in Pioneer Square. it's been very difficult getting the studio ready without having a car and being only bus bound. My first month I didn't do anything with the studio. March I did 4 shoots. In April I only did one shoot and started to feel the bliss again. In may shot only 3 and the 2 last ones made me feel creative again as well.

I'm still struggling with the studio because I was always a natural light photographer in the past. Even though I had a flash I preferred the sun it's many stages than flash.

Pretty picture

2007-02-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

This is a photo I took a while ago