Another Spectacular Self Portrait, Elizabeth. You have lined up the trees and their golden leaves to frame you, and then have chosen a dress and matching lipstick that stand out against that background but also maintain the Autumnal feeling in their darker red tones, with your hair color balancing in the middle. You got some great motion and textural lines in there, with the way your hair is flying back. There is one strand of curls in there in the bottom "row" of the strands blowing away from your back, that just looks perfect, like a rope of curlicues adding a sort of signature I suppose. :)
Somebody has to critique the details of your Self Portraits - i.e. to talk about the fine points - and I have appointed myself the job. :)
It really is a beautiful photograph and you look stunning of course, if it is okay to say that in this day and age.
One thing I know, as a fellow photographer - even though I have not taken those kinds of shots myself - is that a lot of planning and setup goes into such a picture. The main thing for you, after you have framed your background, is that you have gotta hit your mark exactly, and then get the pose you are trying for.
It ain't easy, and that's why I am telling you that you have created an exceptional portfolio of self-portraits so far, with the Red Dress series as a major theme all of it's own. Many photogs, male or female, could try for such shots and not have the success you have had - for real. So you have knack for nailing them, as well as being an excellent photographer in the first place.
I had another relaxing day myself. Didn't venture far, just out for a couple of CSUN walks like yesterday. The only thing for me, and when I am off work I especially notice it nowdays, is that (cue whining by me, and cue violins) I am really really tired of being by myself. And I don't mean that as a plea for The Boys to call me up to come over and hang out. I decidedly do not wanna be One Of The Boys anymore.
Ah, SB.......what am I gonna do? Sigh...
Okay, cut the violins! Stop the whining! But print that take.
I am directing myself in the movie of my life, and I'm determined it will have a Happy Ending. :):)
Tonight's movie, at home at The Tiny Apartment, was "Bathing Beauty" (1944), starring Esther Williams. Esther was a huge box-office star for MGM. From the mid-40s to the late 50s, she was a gold mine for them. When I worked there in the early 80s, a soundstage was pointed out to me by an older co-worker as being the Esther Williams Soundstage, where they had a built in pool back in the old days. The co-worker didn't even ask if I knew who she was, maybe assumed I did because she was such a big star at Metro, at least for a time. And I did know her name, having been a movie biz kid myself. But I had never seen any of her movies.
Back then, I would not have attempted to, but now, as the years have gone by, my sensibilities have gradually changed, and as it is well known about me nowdays, I will watch virtually anything that has some degree of quality, with the mandatory Sandler/Schwarzenegger/DeVito/ disclaimer firmly in place of course.
So today I found "Bathing Beauty" at the Libe, and I decided to watch my first Esther Williams movie. She was a champion swimmer before she became a movie star, so MGM put her in a series of films they called "aqua ballets", in which - no matter the plot - there would always be a sequence or two featuring Williams in a bathing suit, in a pool, with surrounding choreographed female cast supporting her, performing the equivalent of a synchronised swimming routine. Think Busby Berkeley, if you know who he was. The MGM bigwigs certainly knew how to put on a show, and in the case of Esther Williams, they made a huge star out of her by playing to her strengths. She was not a dramatic actress, per se, but she was strikingly beautiful and had onscreen charisma, likely coached by the MGM Talent Squad. So they put her in Aquatic Movies with a host of talented co-stars to carry the weight of the film, and voila! They had hit after hit.
"Bathing Beauty" is a 1940s version of a Rom-Com, and the real star of the movie is Red Skelton, who plays Williams would-be fiancee. I am way too tired (as always) and have written too much already tonight to launch into a major league review of the film, but suffice to say that Esther Williams leaves Skelton to return to her job at an all-girls school in New Jersey. She thinks he has been unfaithful, a ruse perpetrated on him by the Extremely Debonair Basil Rathbone, a musical producer. Skelton is an in demand songwriter and Rathbone does not want him to get married and settle down. But the ruse works, and now Esther Williams has left him. So he does the only thing he can do : he enrolls in the all-girls college to be near her, and from there hijinx ensue, and an MGM Spectacle begins.
If you ever wonder what made Metro Goldwyn Mayer the biggest movie studio in the world during the war years, look no further than "Bathing Beauty". Like me, you would wanna go live in the 1940s after seeing this movie. Every frame is like a candy colored postcard of the era. The movie is energetic and fun, keeping spirits up during wartime, and includes a good many musical numbers from stars of the day such as Harry James, Xavier Cugat and others. Goofy non-threatening Skelton is living a male fantasy, surrounded by 40s cuties at the college, and it was that kind of movie for that time in American history, and do you know what?
Even though it's not a Serious Film, but a lightweight just-for-fun extravaganza - it still holds up, even in this PC day and age. And the reason is because everything about it is Clean Cut.
That was the appeal of 1940s culture, it's wholesomeness. There is romance, comedy and male-female interplay and sexual dynamics, but always done in good taste and with modest intent.
The idea with movies of this type in the 1940s was to make people happy, and no studio did it better than MGM.
I give "Bathing Beauty" two thumbs up, then, even though it's just-for-fun. It's another Motion Picture Time Machine, this time back to 1944, a fantasy of a perfect world during wartime.
That's all I know for tonight! Almost done with my book too.
Just need somebody to do stuff with.
(Hey Ad, we already shot that scene..)
Okay. See you in the morning. :):)
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