Photography

Straight Edge Tattoo - Corset Piercing

So this entry is going to be a little different than my usual posts. I wanted to try something a little different in how I present things as well. Instead of a few select photos and a lot of text, I am going to have my favorite photos from the night in a gallery slide show below. 

I was invited by Brandie and Nic of Straight Edge Tattoo to document a corset piercing being performed by Nic for his portfolio. I didn't want to treat this as a typical portrait session (because it wasn't), so instead I chose to make myself a fly on the wall and try to capture the beauty, emotions, and even the pain of this pursuit of beauty. 
 

For those who may not be familiar with the process a few considerations:
Yes, these are real piercings. They were performed in sequence throughout the course of the evening. After our final laced photos were taken, they were removed. These piercings are not made to be permanent, only temporary.

This type of activity should only be performed by a professional in a clean and sterilized environment using only new and sterilized equipment. Proper safety precautions should be taken at all times. 

For more information, or to have a piercing like this performed yourself please contact your local tattoo/piercing shop for more information. (If you happen to be in the Atlanta area, make sure to drop by and see everyone at Straight Edge Tattoo)

Dani Deetté - 2016

Happy 2016 everyone! Things have been a little quiet here around the UNDEREXPOSED camp. But rest assured I am still here and ready to keep rocking on new content for everyone. Expect a state of the union post coming soon explaining everything in more detail. For now, I'll just say that I've been moving and am in the process of finding a new "studio" to work from. Also, you may have noticed that I have consolidated the blogs into a single "News" blog now. I liked the idea of maintaining 3 different pages, each with their own content. But I don't think the concept worked so well in practice. So for now, at least, everything will just be funneled here. 

But enough housekeeping. I wanted to share with all of you some photos I took of a great person, and up-and-coming actress Dani Deetté (I didn't forget the accent Dani). Dani contacted me via social media and asked if I was interested in having a shoot with her. She recently has moved to Atlanta to live her dream as an actress. You all know me, I'm always happy to help out a fellow creative. So almost immediately I said, "let's do it".

We met at one of my favorite spots in my local area in which to shoot. And then moved to a more rustic location for a few more shots. It wasn't until we were almost finishing up for the day that we discovered a hiking trail, and by sheer luck hit beautiful golden hour light. We probably hiked around for a mile or so talking, laughing, and shooting great photos. 

I really look forward to doing more with her in the future. 

–Blake

2015: A Year in Review

So here we are, Another year in the books. And like every year I just want to take a few minutes and share with everyone my favorite 5 images I have taken this year. This list will probably have more than a few "runners up" as well. 

2015 was a year in which I decided to get back to the basics and start fresh. At the end of last year I was a little burned out with my lack of creativity, and my goal for this last year was simply to "shoot more" which I did in spades. See the 52 rolls blog for more information. My original goal was to not pick up a digital camera at all, which I failed, but instead of counting it as a failure...I'm going to instead call the work that came from a digital medium a huge success. Re-shooting on film has caused me to slow down (as I hoped it would) and I ended up with a few great shots!

So without further ado, and in no particular order. Here are my favorite 5 shots from 2015.

I met Bri through another model I worked with this year. After seeing what Morgan and I were able to create she jumped at the chance for us to work together. This shot was taken very quickly as the sun was going down. And the effect that the lighting had, combined with her posing worked out very well to create the image that I had in my mind. 

Hada Pixie is no stranger to this blog. After meeting her around 2011 while working with a lot of other talented photographers and models during "Beautiful Darkness" we have off and on worked together in many projects for Zivity. A trend that I hope continues on into the future. This was shot as a bonus to one of our Zivity sets, and in all honesty I liked it better than some of the other images that came out of that shoot. 

I shot like a madman at DragonCon this year. But most importantly I had the lovely chance to work with Atlanta's own "team tank" (which also were my gracious roommates during the long weekend). My third Con and probably my favorite so far. These folks provided me a lot of great opportunities to shoot, laugh, and enjoy myself to such an extreme level. 

Along with Team Tank, another one of my Con roommates was Nikki Nuke'm. Shortly after the release of Fallout 4 this year Nikki decided to let her inner vault dweller out into the world, and we captured this image among many. My only regret was not snapping a horizontal image of this one, but even the image I was able to capture I am in love with. 

My final official favorite image from the year comes from working with Finite Automata. They saw my work and wanted some new photos for their press kit. After taking time to decorate a basement into a working set, we were able to snap a few great photos, including this one which ended up being one of my favorites for the year. 

But of course I can't stop there, 2015 also brought on many great opportunities and even more wonderful people that I worked with. There are so many that I can't name or post from everyone here. But don't fret, I want to let everyone I shot this year know that I appreciate the time you spent with me, and I hope that we were able to create something awesome in the process!

"Titan Addams" was the first set I ever shot on a digital full frame camera (surprise I know). I loved how the tones came out, and that bokeh. Hope to see more come from Titan and I in 2016.

Stan, Justin, and Cody all helped me back to back while I was working the kinks out of my DIY black background. You can find more of that in an earlier Extra blog post.

Blix, Stevhan, and K all stepped up to the challenge when I needed to keep the 52 rolls project alive. Also a big thank you to Clockwork Calamity and Caprica Song. Clockwork and I did some great work for Zivity this year (hopefully more to come), and Caprica worked very hard for a spot in Poisonous Pinups magazine! So be sure to keep your eyes open for that very soon. 

I definitely can't forget Ilker and the rest of the team at REGen Magazine. Thank you for allowing me to cover a few great shows this year, and an even bigger thank you for publishing my photos in the mag. So happy to have been a part of your culture in 2015.

And finally, as much as I hate to end this year on a down note. I wanted to share a photo of my fluffy cat. Although she is no longer in my life, she was a big part of keeping me together in 2015. She may have only been in my life for about three years, but I miss her dearly. I'm happy to know she is in a better place and no longer in pain. <3

Sorry if I missed anyone. I've been trying to put this blog post together for the last month or so, but couldn't decide which images I wanted to show. Thank you again to everyone I worked with, and everyone I have yet to work with. Here's to 2016!

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