Jenn LeBlanc's Blog, page 15

The making of a rake

I've worked with a few models. Most of them get put through their paces in my studio, no doubt about it. The guys I have worked with have been such great sports shooting for this particular project, timing has us shooting in a cold cyc-room with water that isn't exactly warm, freezing their buns off. I would also like to mention that my frustration with the Denver modeling scene often has me wanting to pull my hair out. Most of the female models are flaky (that I have worked with) and the guys are all leaving town. It doesn't bode well for a long term sort of gig like this has been.

I have no doubt that if my models were more readily available that I would have been done sooner, but at the same time I wonder if the pauses between shoots, as well as the forced meticulous inspection of prior and future shoots made the images more well considered and powerful. When you are flying models around the country you tend to rework the shot list to exacting standards with every possible scenario considered. That isn't to say that stuff doesn't happen and shots get missed or costumes are wrong occasionally. But this happens a lot less often with so much planning and forethought. My team has gotten this down to a nearly exact science at this point.

We shoot primarily by hairstyle, because that is what is the most difficult to change (in this particular shoot) then by costume and lighting setup. I am not good at mapping my lights, I have tried it in the past, but I am so much more visual I need the lights there. I know in my head where, and what color light I want to fall. So setting up my studio is primarily up to me, though my people can always help with setting up the rest of the tech, the dressing room, the stages, props and whatnot.

I'm still a bit fried in the head after a long studio day yesterday, I imagine this post might be a bit discombobulated. So if it is…apologies.

I love my team, which in no particular order included Miss Cora Kemp, Mrs. Melinda Piñon and Miss Monika Graf. A special thanks to this weeks big star: Mr. Ross Elliott. I wanted to rake him out for the illustrations, and he brought it. He…brought it all, I could not have asked for a better rake, and he has a great smile to boot. Thank you sir. These are the only images I'm sharing from this shoot. seeing the rest of them will require buying the book. Which will be coming out soon.

Filed under: The Novel Tagged: beauty, black and white, illustrate, images, Jenn LeBlanc, model, photography, portrait, portraits, romance, Ross Elliott, sexy, studio

The good stuff

It has been a whirlwind autumn, two giant studio shoots totaling hundreds of man hours, broken cameras brought back expediently and masterfully by Canon CPS, a hard drive on temporary LOA, another documentary trip to the Gulf, Young Marines, football, softball, costuming, corsets, birthdays, the list goes on. Insanity. Can't say as it hasn't been a whole lot of fun, because it has. Even on the sidelines in the freezing cold rain while the play went down the other side of the field. But moreso in the studio where the lighting is controlled and the costumes are beautiful.

I have learned a lot in the past year, really, an amazing amount. Like how to talk myself past the local police chief, the fire department, and the National Guard to get on a closed beach where tons of oil has come ashore in the middle of the night, when no others were there to be witness. I've learned about who I am, what I want, who I will work with, what I will and —more importantly— won't do and where I'm going with my photography. Not too mention Iris. It's all about the moment, when the magic happens and the shutter is miraculously in tune with it. That image that springs from the page. I've said this before, but one more time for the cheap seats: This isn't what I do, it is WHO I am.

Expect a giant website overhaul soon.

And never forget: "I am not a nice girl, I am a photographer,"

-Berenice Abbott

The Kiss

Filed under: The Novel Tagged: beautiful, Derek Hutchins, embrace, illustration, Jenn LeBlanc, kiss, model, portrait, romance, sexy, studio

I'm outta here…

"Most of us are too scared to make ourselves stand out." -Deb Pang Davis a.k.a. Cococello on Twitter earlier tonight (quoting Laura Roeder)

My response was "I think terrified is a better descriptor." I know. I am. So very.

Perhaps it is the inherent photojournalist in me, to blend, be an observer, inobtrusive. The problem is this other project I have been working on really requires that I scream from the rooftops and demand attention.

SO today I am coming out: full reveal, all hands on deck, all cards on the table, lifting the kilt, so to speak. I used to say I didn't want to share the details of my project because I didn't want anyone to steal my idea. The reality is I didn't want anyone to laugh at it. I have been a photographer all my life. But for as long as I can remember I have also been a daydreamer. Long detailed stories that would take hours to think up and days to finish. Complete with twists, turns and a full cast of characters. I have always wanted to write novels, but my fingers could not keep up with my mind, no matter how hard I tried.

Until now.

I like to thank my Auberry because when she was little I couldn't put her down. Stuck at home holding her for reasons we won't get into, my only contact with the world was through parenting chat rooms and email. I can still type one-handed just about as fast as I can with two. Then came Facebook chats, yahoo messenger and the like. Speedy typing was essential. A couple years ago, my daughters were sucked into the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, and I was dragged along (go team Edward!), but they left me wanting which brought me to a web search and finally Teresa Mederios' vampire series.

I had never read a romance novel. Ever. I thought the covers (old-school muscle-bound graspers and weak women gaspers) were silly and the content must be representative of that. I WAS WRONG— I liked that book. I took my newly acquired Sony reader and downloaded all the romance the Denver Public Library would allow (20 books at a time, as it turns out). Back then the only romance they really had was Lisa Kleypas and Teresa Medeiros. It just so happens that these two writers are quite the historical romance mavens, and their novels were such an amazing inspiration if only to know that I wasn't doing something completely outlandish or ridiculous. (Do books DO this?) I mean I grew up on a stiff dose of Stephen King's terror and Anne Rice's vampires. That's really about it, and while their novels tend to all have themes of romance and relationships in them, they are not romance novels. I was hooked on the genre, and beyond that, the novels gave me the itch to tell my own stories.

Then in March 2009, I had a dream. That dream was so vivid I remember it still, as well as the words I could hear above it, "She ran as though the hounds of hell were on her." I sat in the chair my mom bought me a decade ago, with my trusty Macbook Pro, turned on some of my favorite dramatic music and typed that line, then another, and another and one line at a time I wrote a romance.

Then in May— actually I have the exact moment:

It was done.

A romance has a definitive algorithm. It's simple really; two main characters one male, one female— well, there are other scenarios, but I speak of the most basic— a boy and a girl. There's the possibility of drama, comedy, tragedy, some sort of difficulty and multiple obstacles to overcome but in the end the guy gets the lady. Always. Any other scenario and we aren't talking romance. It's probably what draws so many to the genre, and don't kid yourself about that either— romances are popular. They make you feel good on the last page, and you know they will. No matter what happens in the middle you get your happily ever after.

But I digress, probably me trying to convince you to stop snarking at me. Regardless, what I wrote is a novel in the romance genre. Boy gets girl. (and boy howdy does he!) I told many people I was writing a book, everyone on Facebook and twitter knew I was writing a book. I could not manage to tell people what kind of book I was writing. SO. There it is, I'm out of the romance closet.

On to part two; I'm a photographer. Once the novel was complete and in the hands of my editors I realized someone was going to make some cheesy Fabio-era windswept sigh of a cover for it. gag. I decided if anyone was going to make that cover, it was going to be me. I wrote the damn thing after all. It's mine (control freak). Seemed logical. So I started the casting process last October, and since then the project has grown from being the cover of the novel, to being fully illustrated. Because, after all, I need a hook. I need a way to get people to choose my book, and if I want to be successful with new media (I am a journalist after all, and watched the demise of the Rocky that year) I need to fully embrace it.

The iPad was released earlier this year, there are books that integrate video, called vooks (I dunno if I'm keen on this idea) so why not an illustrated novel, after all there was a time when many novels included illustrations. We have the means to produce a fully illustrated book at no major printing expense, why not do it. Since then I have completed six major studio shoots to illustrate the novel, and have (hopefully) one final shoot before it's finished. The novel has actually morphed into a serial, six smaller books that tell the story of two brothers, and their future wives (because the boy ALWAYS gets the girl in a romance, remember).

I have placed the images with the text in inDesign, ready to export to a final ePub novel, then sell on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online eBook stores as well as an iTunes app. So there it is. I wrote a romance novel. I've been shooting the illustrations for this novel for the past year, as well as editing and placing them, while designing the overall appearance.

There, it's out. All because I happened to be paying attention to Tweetdeck when the über fabulous @Cococello tweeted a rather simple little blurb about fear.

My heroine, Francine, is fearless. So I am including an image of her portrayed by my dear friend.

 

©2010 Jenn LeBlanc all rights reserved

 

It's time to start screaming.

If you are interested in more about the Novel

Filed under: The Novel Tagged: beauty, Canon, color, illustrate, Jenn LeBlanc, lights, model, photography, portrait, romance, studio, Victorian

That's a wrap…almost

This past weekend was long. Sixteen hours in studio, dressing, costuming, shooting. Sheer chaos but so much fun. I absolutely love big studio shoots. Especially when I have such a fabulous team with me. My usual AD Miss Elena Brown was stuck in London, but I had added a creative director, Melinda Piñon, a few weeks ago because I needed someone to keep closer tabs on the images themselves, and the shot list to make sure we got everything we needed. As much as I love to see my buddy Derek, flying him out for shoots gets pricey, and I would prefer to visit him in California.

So this was the final shoot for the first four of the six serial novels. For those new to the blog: this project is a full illustration of a six part serial novel. The novel will be published as a digital book and iTunes app.

I'm excited to be this close to the end of the most extensive project I have ever undertaken. It has been so much fun though.

Well, an image is in order I suppose…but just a couple outs…none of the ins…not quite yet.

After two long days of shooting, everyone was exhausted. Derek took naps whenever possible. Even while on "horseback"

Filed under: The Novel

Thinking outside the…props

I am working on setting up some location shots for this project, now that spring has sprung and the weather is more like the book…In the meantime, I've been faking settings in studio. But studio is all about faking the settings anyway, which is fun. One of the main settings for the book is an Edwardian country manor in northern England. Not an easily accessible location, spring or otherwise.

So I fake it as much as possible but it helps that the images are a bit abstract because of the format. In one of the pivotal scenes the heroine leans out one window to feel the breeze, in two others she is seen through the window. While I can pick and choose the scenes I want to illustrate, these three scenes all missing would call more attention to the fact that we aren't actually at this country manor in Great Britain.

So we need a window, can't fake not having a window, and if I have a window I can fake the building around it by cropping in. Here is where it gets cool. One of my colleagues, and a dear friend, does these amazing things with repurposed windows. You can see them on the Iris : Photo Agency fan page on FaceBook, while you are there; become a fan of Iris for all the updates!

©2010 Jenn LeBlanc

We used gaffer tape to secure the window to one stand, then hung the sheer curtains on the arm of the other. Of course we also used a fan to stir the curtains in the open window scenes. I like to find ways to freeze my models. Getting Derek wet and Cora windy. Sorry guys. But it looked GREAT!

The final images are fantastic, of course, here is an out: Cora waiting for direction. Between the windowpanes, the fan, and music she had a hard time hearing us.

©2010 Jenn LeBlanc

The lighting was designed to resemble moonlight, the blue backlight on the cyc wall which is part of the production design, an overhead light backlighting the sheer panels so they glow and one sidelight to highlight features and cast that sideways moon glow.

That's it.

Thanks for the window Alisa, and all the hard work (as usual) Cora Kemp, Monika Graf, Elena Brown

Filed under: The Novel, Unsolicited Advice Tagged: backlight, curtains, Jenn LeBlanc, props, sets, sexy, sheer nightgown, studio, updo, window, woman

Havering

The novel is done like dinner. That isn't a good metaphor in my house hmmm… or well, actually maybe it is.  Since it has been turned into a serial novel, I guess that means it isn't done, because while the novel is done —at least the novel as it was— it now only makes up the first four of six books in the series, the last two books are not finished. It all gets more confusing from there, because my novel isn't merely a novel, but includes imagery from the story. The images are not completed yet. I still need to do some pick up shoots, and as for the second book (or I should say the 5th and 6th books in the series) I haven't even begun. That makes it difficult because just getting one novel shot was a huge project (going on 5 months now) so shooting a completely different story with new characters is going to be much the same.

This is where I start to doubt what I am trying to accomplish. I want to get this thing out to the public, I want them to experience it as a fresh new idea in ePub reading. I also want it to be perfect. The words have been through copious amounts of editing, three or four separate editors, as well as tweaking by me. The words are ready to be scrutinized, but the images are not. I started off just being possessive of my story and wanting to shoot my own cover, and from there it mushroomed.

My next question is trying to approach editors and agents with the manuscript. The manuscript itself is finished, but the images alas. There is no precedent for what I'm doing here. In general a romance manuscript is edited then sold to a publisher and if they do additional stuff for the book; movies, cover art, other visual stuff, it's done by the publisher. Not the author. This is groundbreaking. This is difficult. This might flop harder than a fat girl at a swimming pool.

So I haver. I overthink, I worry. The images are so beautiful, I start thinking maybe the words aren't up to par. My editor tells me to shut the hell up and keep going, so then I wonder if the images do the story justice. Actually my editor/art director has started saying things like "you're wonderful Jenn, you're writing is beautiful Jenn, you're so awesome Jenn," followed by an exasperated look. She makes me laugh. But I am still a mess. I'm not a published author, I never planned to be a published author. I have no idea how the business works other than what I've read about. I haven't ever even spoken with an agent or another author, though I'd love to.

I don't know where to go from here, other than forward. To keep on keepin' on. Hopefully the book will be done soon. No, the book is done, hopefully the images will be done soon.

To all those who have helped me along the way, I love you so much. I could never have done this without you. Your dedication and support is amazing and I thank you and only hope to return the favor tenfold.

Along those lines:

Derek Hutchins is an incredible model and now a certified fitness trainer in San Francisco as well as being a photographer.

Cora Kemp is an amazing photographer

Monika Graf is the best makeup artist I've ever worked with

Elena Brown is a fantastic writer/editor/art director/general kick in the pants

Melinda Piñon is an awesome support, photographer and horsey stuff editor.

Anna Montgomery is my dearest friend. She consented to reading and editing my novel, and provided me with some of the most important insights into the character relationships.

Filed under: News Tagged: hot, images, manuscript, novel, project, romance, romantic, sexy