Baby's First Charmander
We set out on our journey into Kanto, it's monochrome but neon as you know it in the studio, and Foundation is an excellent foundation...
Today’s column comes to you late for a number of reasons. First, there were email troubles and I spent a season of my life in two separate chats with two very helpful tech warlocks for two totally different companies in order to re-right the electronic ship. This involved much wrangling of MX codes and other assorted DNS bullshit and I would be a happy man were I to never set foot in those sticky halls ever again. Incongruities now being rectified, I shall hopefully never have to. Secondly, yesterday was a day of much rejoicing in our household and also a day on which I personally did weigh the passage of time, what with those monsters being a whole thirty years old? Christ. Let us dive in and we can be out of here and back to Kanto in no time and all shall be copacetic.
Cometh the hour, cometh the ‘mons! Of course 27.02 came and went and so wrapped up were we in festivities that in the end, I gave up any designs on wrapping this whole thing before bed and instead retired to a dark corner of Viridian forest with my bugs. I picked the tiny one up shortly before six and we headed straight home via the dumpling place, thereby enacting a super effective Pokémon/Chinese combo, straight out of the ‘Winning At Fatherhood 101’ playbook. Understand, I wasn’t entirely certain if she was totally physically ready to be the main pilot on this flight but here we are, setting out into the known unknowns with her at the joy-cons and daddy as an assist for walls of text.
To sit with her as she made her first, baby steps on this journey, into this world was…choice, to put it mildly
She has the battle system down cold and already trucks with the rock/paper/scissors system for those starters. Naturally, she is a Charmander main and I am at a disadvantage and I’m absolutely okay with this. To sit with her as she made her first, baby steps on this journey, into this world was…choice, to put it mildly and not a moment I shall forget any time soon. It might even be one she remembers. We’ll find out and we’re going to as we’re getting those Winds and those Waves next year, if all goes to plan so yeah. We’re in it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to catch a number of Abra and sweatshop them into Kadabra and y’all can find me in the lot out back trading eggs for bulk black market Alakazam…
I’ve been trying to get out of my comfort zone a little in the studio lately and was afforded the opportunity to try something new the other evening. Uilie is a new face for IMAGEX models and an absolute pro, straight out the traps. I didn’t even believe them when they said they’d never really been in front of a lens before. Wild. Before we got into my usual lighting setups, I decided to try going a little off-piste and landed straight in neon land. There are (counts) around four different lights in this setup: an eye-dropped yellow lifted straight from the Brazil shirt on the right, a really hard blue on the left that gives us a green blend mid shot, one stupidly red shoulder light behind on the left for the hair that also throws some incidental purple into the mix, and a siren blue flood on what was my favourite green backdrop. It…worked?
a proper conversion in ‘shop gives you almost unnatural control over what the once blue shadows are doing
I think? Particularly with this wardrobe and someone with such striking bone structure. I have to admit that I might just shoot all my portraits with this rig from now on. Maybe…and then convert them to monochrome. Shut up and hear me out! Look, the conversion is something to behold and I swear, I barely needed to over-juice a single damn thing. Proof, if ever we needed it that shooting in colour with different colours/gels really does make a difference when eventually landing in black and white. You end up with a completely different suite of variables to play with and while either version has totally legitimate vibes, a proper treatment in ‘shop gives you almost unnatural control over what the once blue shadows are doing on your off side, absolutely zero pun intended. I suspect there is a lesson in there somewhere, if only I can find it…
I am well aware that I am about as late to the party as I ever have been or it is possible to be but I have reasons? I might have heard that ‘Foundation’ was bad but then someone told me I would probably like it and while I’m trying not to be offended by that, it is a visual feast and it’s difficult to be mad. Also, I have heard very good things about the second and third season, proving that things can indeed only get better? Encouraging then that they have started in such a great place. It doesn’t quite have the mystery of something like Battlestar…but it might be close.
It also can’t only have been me to find the whole design of the vault to be a strange, circular experience
There are certainly things we don’t know that Harry probably does and it does have the lived-in feel of a Star Wars, if not the character and that hard, tangible quality that an Alien movie cuts its teeth on. These are all good things. It also can’t only have been me to find the whole design of the vault to be a strange, circular experience in which Asimov inspires ‘No Man’s Sky’ inspires Asimov ad infinitum…the effect is dizzying and it might just be greater or at least as great as the sum of its parts. That’s a very good place to be.
JD out.