Fundoshi of Brown Voile - How I’ve Missed You Part One

The brown voile fundoshi hasn’t been around for quite a few months, so I rummaged in my drawer and found a design I have highlighted or talked about.

When I look at this design, it appears to have a sort of specific ‘kanji’ like quality. It is not. I’m not that talented or knowledgeable. 

What I did on this one was a kind of test to see what would happen. I have many long strands of material torn away from test fundoshi. I normally start a new fabric with 14 inches. After trying it on, I will then tear it down to a more comfortable width. This leaves me with strips of fabric to play with.

For this design, I first dampened the brown material so it would accept the bleach solution a little faster than normal. I then soaked one of my stray strips of fabric in a pretty strong bleach solution and lay it in an abstract way on the material. For this one, I folded it in half so the pattern repeats once. 

I like how the bleach and damp aspect of the voile has reacted to create different shaded areas. Of course, the strong yellow that comes from direct contact with the bleach soaked fabric is lovely as well!

Once again, I have the white backdrop. This time, I used a bit dimmer lighting and moved a light to the back of the posing area. I like this look, and you will see in the future it takes on a great quality when used with the black backdrop as well!

fundoshi…brown and yellow pattern

fabric...100% cotton voile…..thinner than the gauze from last time, but very comfortable

photography...a change of lighting position than I normally use. I also played with some settings post-production to strengthen the skin tones and body hair a little.

And now....on to the rest of the group....

Blue Gauze Fundoshi - Dots and Dashes Part One

Here is another design in the lovely blue gauze. I call this one Dots and Dashes since that is what unintentionally happened during the design process.

I was actually going for lines in this one. I kept the fabric dry and folded it into sections. The hope was that the bleaching solution would soak through all layers, creating a continuous line. 

As you can see, this didn’t quite happen. I liked how it turned out with the sections of fabric further away from the application only getting minimal solution, so I didn’t ‘correct’ the mistake. Happy accidents are part of the fun!

For the photo shoot, I set up a side light with a blue gel. You can see it in some of the shots. I’ll be experiencing a little more with gels in the future to see how they can change the studio feel. Originally, I was taking these photos with the intent of ‘over processing’ them in the computer. I decided against it, but am continuing to explore those realms of post-production. 

fundoshi…blue with a white design

fabric...100% cotton gauze…..If you still haven’t purchased some, do it…..

photography…no attempt was made to ‘erase’ the white backdrop….it is what it is…..

And now....on to the rest of the group....

Purple Gauze Fundoshi - A Dark Interpretation - Part Two

The final shoot in the purple gauze fundoshi with the moody red side-light.  I hope you enjoy!

And now....the rest......

Fundoshi in a Breeze - Part Two

Okay…the title may be a bit deceptive. There are only a few of photos here of the fundoshi in a breeze.

There are two main reasons why the fan got turned off in the middle of this shoot.

It got cold.

I started having a difficult time keeping the fundoshi in frame, which was then showing my bits and pieces a little too much. 

After all, the focus of this blog is the fundoshi, we wouldn’t want anything to upstage that, would we?

Keep going for more....

White Fundoshi? Really??? Part Two….

Well....not much to say today. White gauze fundoshi, painted with ink and me wearing a sweater.....

More after the break.....

Falling Fundoshi - An Experiment

The idea?  falling with a fundoshi

Did it work?  no

Do I care? not really….some of the shots have an interesting look, so here they are….

I don’t know where I got the idea, but I wanted to try to capture the look of floating or falling for this shoot. I also wanted it to be dark and moody. The shots didn’t turn out like I envisioned, but sometimes that happens. You try for one thing, and get another. A little life lesson…..

For the lighting, you can probably tell I have one source from directly above the shooting area. I placed a small table under the black backdrop as a ‘prop’ to lay on and play with. I was hoping this would keep the poses from looking like I was on the ground….giving the opportunity for some level differences in my body. 

For poses where I am absolutely still the lighting worked well. For poses where I moved slightly, there is a blur issue. Like the flying voile fundoshi, I like how this shows movement.

I then tried to play contortionist for some of the shoot.

It was a fun morning, but exhausting…..

A few more after the jump….