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….

Patterned Fundoshi in Black Gauze Part Two

Well, I hope the wait has been worth it……

Today shows Part Two of the patterned black gauze fundoshi. The part in which the fundsohi is taken off. 

You might say, we are now embarking on a series of taking off fundoshi, as we come to the end of the shoots that have been previously posted.  

After the jump...more photos!

How To: Black Voile Fundoshi - A Simple Approach

Here is a very brief tutorial on how this design was created. 

First, a little photo of the work area….

make sure you protect your surface with plastic, wax paper...anything that will stop the bleach

You can see I have my brushes, cookie cutters, and various implements in the ready. You can also see the window being opened for ventilation. Since I am using bleach, this is very important and can’t be stressed enough.

It isn’t apparent, but the fabric here is damp. It was thoroughly saturated in water, then squeeze dried. This enables the bleach solution to penetrate the fibers and also creates a little bleed of the solution. You may think I lay the fabric onto the table, and just started to brush on the lines…..

That is the rather laborious way to do this….there are other ways to save on time and energy.  By gathering the material in an accordion-like manner, only three lines are needed!

I’ve talked before about the need to completely remove all bleach from the fabric, and this is my soaking bucket that I use…..okay, it is my bathroom waste can, but it can have a double-life, can’t it?

There you go…..very simple….you can do it yourself! And when you do, send me those photos and I’ll start a page devoted to your designs. I already have a few, just need a few more to get the page started!

And now....on to the rest of close-up photos....

Fundoshi With a Prop…..

Again, the black gauze fundoshi is being featured in this shoot. For this one, we have a simple setup with natural light, a white backdrop and a sweater.

Why the sweater? 

...the zipper is just not cooperating...

For one thing, it was cold. In order to manipulate the light I usually do these photo shoots late at night or very early in the morning….yes that early...before the sun is up. While I do have heat, after a while with the lights, it can get quite hot, so I usually keep it off while shooting. Until the lights warm up, I am cold, thus the sweater.

Also, I thought the patterns in the sweater matched the fundoshi, so put the two together!

whew...I actually can work a zipper....

You know the drill… more after the break….

More Purple Fundoshi - Let Us Get Close and Personal…

Based on meticulous data gathering, mining, sorting and analyzing, I know that a good closeup is appreciated. So here we go….the dark and broody lighting of the purple gauze fundoshi in closeup.

Remember, this is the shoot I had a red light to one side, and you can see it in some of these photos as well.

On to more photos.....

Fundoshi in a Breeze….

I have talked about voile before, and I do enjoy how thin and comfortable it is. It seems the darker colored ones are made thinner than the lighter colors. That has been my experience with fabric.com. 

For this shoot, there are some rather simple elements:

 A very simple design (I won’t go into it too much as a future blog will show you how to create this design).

Simple lighting - Lots of white light to capture the crisp black and white design.

Simple theory - turn a fan on and see what happens.

And here is what happens (other than getting really cold in the wee hours of the morning when I did this)…..

fundoshi…black and white….I do like a black and white fundoshi…have you noticed?

fabric...100% cotton voile…..nice and thin - easy for the ‘wind’ to capture.

photography…I purposefully kept the shutter at a speed that would create a blur from the movement of the fundoshi. I think this helps capture the motion happening.

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