So, one of the projects I have been working on recently and been kind of keeping under wraps is a photography collaboration with Stephanie Whiteside, and I’m happy to say that I can now start showing some of the results of what has, so far, been some really awesome teamwork.

Ace of Blades 5.2

Steph approached me several months ago about a project she’d been turning over in her mind for a while- photographing a personal meditation through the tarot. (I’m sure she’ll explain the concept much better on her blog soon, so I’ll happily link to it then rather than try and explain it myself.) The short version is that she wanted to spend some time examining and reflecting on the meanings of each card, and then create a deck of cards (for her own personal use) of herself, and she wanted me to do the photography.

Ace of Blades 2.3

I thought this sounded like a stellar idea. I’m always looking for excuses to work on taking better portrait shots, and practice editing. I’m familiar with the tarot archetypes, and could see a huge range of artistic potential in the idea. Steph is not a professional model, and I am not a professional photographer, and we are comfortable with each other, so it could be a low pressure sort of set-up- no massive egos to check at the door, just a chance to explore some collaborative arting. So, we made plans. The first shoot we did for the Ace of Blades was a bit of a bust, but it turned out to be a great learning experience. The first problem was that our location, Ceasar Chavez Park, in Berkeley, while lovely, had virtually no blank horizon behind it. I hadn’t realized this, and somehow the image of a barbaric woman with a large axe standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge just wasn’t cutting it for me (though admittedly, it has its own charm, it wasn’t right for this, heh).  Also, the camera we were using (mine is still very, very sadly broken) was not really up to taking shots of the resolution necessary. It’s really too bad, as some of the shots were good, but oh well. We did learn that we work well in this way, and that we *could* get up and go somewhere before dawn, both of which were valuable lessons.

Ace of Blades 4.2

The second attempt was made a little later at dawn in Tilden Park, and I have to say, I’m quite pleased with the results. The lighting was superb, and the shots turned out really well. It really set the tone for the whole suit, and hopefully the whole project.

Ace of Blades 4.3

You can look at all of the cards (so far) at our Flikr page, Black Widow Honey Productions. I’ll be doing posts for each of the individual cards as they come up. Look also for some upcoming photo shoots with some other folks- I’ve upgraded my photo editing software, so I’m going back through and reworking some old images that I liked, but wasn’t treating well. Exciting!