Archives For mario testino

Mario Testino and the Girls

December 3, 2009 — 3 Comments

I can’t remember when I first saw a Mario Testino photograph, but I do own his book PORTRAITS, which is big and pretty and has loads of pretty photos too. I love it.

You know Testino, right? If you don’t, think of any model of celebrity… and he’s probably photographed him. He’s photographed everyone but me, it seems. That’d be awesome, be photographed by Mario Testino. Come on, Mario! We can have food together in Lima. It’ll be fun. LOL

So now it will be a Mario Testino day~~~

I love his photography best when he goes simple. I really seem to not be able to stand most his high fashion photography though. I always feel it’s forced… like when he shoots Natalie Portman, and I love her. And she’s got some awesome photoshoots, but her Testino work doesn’t seem to click.

But I do love his almost naked composition, over-exposed, natural light, grainy and slightly out of focus. There’s something about that style that makes me tingle. Many of those last photos of Princess Diana are like that. They’re gorgeous.

christy-turlington-testino

That’s it for the first batch, check back for the 2nd~~~

Tsk, Tsk~ Photoshop…

August 17, 2009 — 2 Comments

I am a geek!
I use Photoshop like crazy.

Nowadays, I take loads more photographs than my student days, but to be honest, I hate re-touching photographs to get rid of wrinkles… or how I like to call them, expression lines.

I love funny faces, big smiles… but then again, I also delete minor things like distracting marks (if it’s too distracting) and choose over-exposed for light purposes, as well as soft light to decrease the hard shadows that make wrinkles pop out~ after all, women don’t like to see their wrinkles

black and white also works wonders~

one of the reasons why I love this photo of Heidi Klum, though this photo of Marion Cotillard is also a good one of a different type~ and just for the sake of crazy good looking faces, here’s Carmen Kass.

and Greta Garbo during her 1945 days~ I’ll love you forever, Greta xD

Anyway, what’s up with this post you say?

Well, photographer Peter Lindbergh speaks a bit about on this article by The New York Times – Smile and “Say No Photoshop” –  and I have some pics to illustrate his views… of not-retouched models! *legasp!*

“My feeling is that for years now it has taken a much too big part in how women are being visually defined today,” Mr. Lindbergh said in an e-mail exchange. “Heartless retouching,” he wrote, “should not be the chosen tool to represent women in the beginning of this century.”

Cindy Crawford by Peter Lindbergh

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3 of 3!

This time with lovely Juri Ueno~~ Rocking photos by Kentaro Shibuya. First time i find a portfolio online…

Anyway, as the name suggests… A Piacere, is a pleasure… a delight. It’s got 50+ photographs of Juri-chan visiting Kodaira (Tokyo), Okinawa, Yokohama and Ebisu (Tokyo). Moreover, Juri’s photobook is western. LOL’ It begins from the left to right like any regular books you buy in America or Europe, and there’s a lot of easy-to-read info (like the cities, and people involved names).

Juri Ueno - A Piacere

PLUS, there’s an interview with Juri and Kentaro Shibuya. I didn’t get much of what was going on… since they didn’t talk much about food (and the interview is in Japanese), and food talk in Japanese is what I’ve been practicing. But they did talk about Juri’s musical projects, relating it to some of the photos of Juri playing the guitar. So a little bit of Swing Girls talk, then some of Nodame Cantabile… and they even get to talk a little bit about Niji no Megami (Rainbow Song)…

If you doubt whether to get this or not, photos are REALLY worth having, many of them have a natural lighting style that remind me of some Mario Testino photographs. Anyway… some photos of the photos ahead!! You know the drill!

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