Twisted reality

As a Photographer who has done a few maternity photo shoots, I was shocked when I came across a post on Facebook today displaying another maternity Photographer's work...   And it was not the photos, but the comments by other women.   The Photographer in question has the concept of photographing pregnant women underwater, in quite a stunning and surreal way.   This is beautiful technique and illustrates the female body and personality wonderfully.   However as I read through the comments more and more, the overall reaction was negative and judgemental almost beyond sense.    Saying that the women in the photographs were 'sexualised' because they were wearing bikinis... well, to start with, they are underwater.   But the harsh criticism that arose just over some high heels appearing in one photograph was astonishing... with other women stating that it can't be comfortable while pregnant and pregnant women only want to wear baggy clothes and not look sexy.

Then there are the comments that the 'male' Photographer would have only chosen 'beautiful' women to photograph... How naive and again sexist.   Our clients choose us, we don't choose them.   They wear what they feel comfortable in, and we never tell them what to wear or make them wear something they don't want.  We may suggest some poses, which is only natural for a Photographer to do.   Mostly they are 'every day' women, not models or women who want to appear sexualised, etc.  Oh, and they all love the finished product.   Then look at some of the worlds most successful maternity photographers, and they are women (a good friend being one of them) photographing in a similar beautiful style (although not under water - nice idea! :) ).

Any maternity photograph is a celebration of femininity and new life - something that should be embraced by all women, especially one's whom have lived through pregnancy.   It is a gift women have, and no photographer in the world would intentionally put a women down because they don't feel or look as beautiful as others do.  Fashion and style is a conscious choice, as I know some women who never wear heels, and some who have a hundred pairs.   It is absolutely appalling to read some comments by women in that post who conclude that a woman who wears heels and a bikini for a maternity photo shoot is asking for sex... honestly I never thought women could be so sexist or superficial... really sad, and such a twisted view of reality.

Footnote: There are some women in the FB post who have also expressed the same opinion I have, but unfortunately a minority.

Spinning backwards

In this day and age with the wonders of technology and a camera in everyone's phone, the ease of photography has changed.   I am guilty of it as well... picking up my iPhone to grab a shot, or using it when I am just too damn lazy to carry around 1.5kg of Pro DSLR camera and lens on a walk, and then I end up capturing an amazing sunset with only 8mp and quite a crap processor.   More recently though I have managed to use my iPhone for more serious work with my RF stock portfolio, and getting away with it, actually selling images... and I start to wonder why I own all this huge, heavy, pro equipment... it looks all very impressive, so my friends say.   So today I found myself in an Apple store, dreaming of owning a glossy new piece of fad that must be able to improve my life - the iPhone6.  Well, it's camera must be an improvement over my big, slow, and heavy (relative) 4S... I hoped.   Bitterly disappointed I walked out of the store... admittedly I looked at the camera specs before entering, but trying it out I resolved that it is still just a phone, and not a particularly good one in my humble opinion.   "But it is an iPhone, with all that cool connectivity", I hear you say... true, the new operating systems and clouds hanging above us with so many silver linings can sway me... maybe.   It is however, not the technology that is wrong, but the designers (and I fear, the consumers) that have gone wrong.  Why?  It is just too big now... not heavy, but bordering on impractical for what, in essence, is still a mobile phone... not even talking about the 'plus' version, it will now barely fit in one's pocket, and easily aid a woman's (or metrosexual man's) handbag towards point of critical mass.

I wonder where the day has gone when we strived to make technology more practical on a physical level?... now you cannot operate Apple's smallest iPhone6 with one hand (unless you have a very long thumb).  From the home button to the top of the impressive Retina display is just too far without shuffling the phone around in your hand.   Didn't Apple designers think of this?  Try it?  Or did they simply conclude that consumers will be happy using two hands to operate it?   And here I feel the world is beginning to spin backwards... where we as a consumer are happy to accept devices larger and larger in size (mostly for viewing pleasure), that in our SiFi dreams should be getting smaller. There was only one other time I felt the world spin backwards, when a local French train actually departed the station early... but now I fear I will feel it more and more. I'm just glad that no one has tried to make DSLR cameras bigger just to incorporate a larger viewing screen on the back, and therefore still happy to carry mine around... most of the time.

Footnote: I actually like Apple products and have several, and I am aware of iPhone6 having a feature called 'reachability'... but the need to make software to overcome the size just reconfirms my point :)

A slice of heaven

Fortunate enough to be doing a small job for a friend, I wrestled my way off the Autostrade (Italian for 'Get out of my way motorway') into the delightful backroads of Tuscany.   I have been here before, but it was a while back, and faded somewhat from my memory... but as I sat eating breakfast at a stereotypical Tuscan B&B, it all came flooding back.   The soft morning breeze moves the leaves on tall trees, like a thousand hands waving back at me across an empty field once filled with a flourishing Summer crop.   I drive past old cottages, stone walls, and down lanes lined with cypress trees standing to order as if greeting me on my journey... and now a few days in the medieval village of Metato, perched high on the side of a mountain overlooking Camaiore and the Mediterranean sea.   The houses and villas here are but only a handful, still though interlaced together like a puzzle gone wrong, creating meandering stone pathways and little arched entrances to multiple doorways.    Too cramped to be relaxing... maybe, but here is the thing - you don't actually look into another window, and at night there is just pure peace, like you are the only one in the village.   The wine is local... very good and very cheap.  The pasta is home made by the neighbour literally 5 steps down the path, and you can go for a stroll through olive trees growing on what seems to be an impossibly steep farm.  If you get bored with this, pop in to the local town in the valley, where you are flooded with choice of very good and original Italian cuisine - not like how the French do it ;)

So what is the catch?... well, if you ask any local about actually living here, the first things to voice are about the Italian economy almost beyond rescue or the corrupt Government, and fuel prices are even higher than Sweden (which is high).   But if you bury yourself deep enough into a silky smooth panna cotta, it doesn't really matter :P Tuscany is a real slice of heaven.