7.16.2007

Digital plastic surgery

Awww... look at Faith Hill on the cover of Redbook Magazine:


She looks great, doesn't she? Of course she does, she has like, a bazillion dollars to hire only the best hair and makeup people, not to mention personal trainers, chefs, and the like.

Apparently Redbook isn't doing too poorly either; they must have beaucoup bucks to hire only the best Photoshop artists, for behold Faith Hill sans retouching:



The sad thing is, she looks kind of, well, her age for one (which a quick search says she'll be 40 this year). But she doesn't look that bad in this picture. Unfortunately, in today's society, crow's feet and flabby arms don't sell magazines--sad, but true.

I've always admired actresses like Kate Winslet, who--besides being my birthday twin--has sworn off any photo retouching when it comes to magazines. Because while we all might enjoy a little digital lipo (oh, come on, it's completely painless!), it's somewhat refreshing to see "real" women on the cover of magazines, flabby arms and all.

Years ago, I used to work for a trade publication, not only laying out the magazine, but coordinating files for the printer as well. I also had to, on occassion, sit with my boss and go over cover shots. Then I would watch as he took his red pen to the poor model:

"Get rid of all blemishes--birthmarks and beauty marks included."

"Whiten teeth and eyes."

"Smooth laugh lines..." and so forth. I always, always felt terrible looking at his remarks--especially since nearly all of the models we worked with were drop-dead gorgeous. Ever since then, I've always looked at magazine covers and model photoshoots with a grain of salt.

Ah, the power of Photoshop.

7.14.2007

Time flies

I can't believe it's the middle of July already--where has the summer gone? Anyways, just a quick post to apologize for not keeping up with the posting... it's been a crazy couple of weeks; old projects, lots of exciting new projects (which I will keep you up to date on), and softball.

Yes, that's right softball. My oldest's team just last night won the District 2 chamionship! They have this weekend off, and then it's on to the regionals all next week. So I'm looking at another crazy week filled with old projects, new projects... and lots of softball. And I will enjoy every minute of it.

Go Fairfield!

7.02.2007

This guy's my hero

I always have to give major props to a man who understands a woman's foot, and her obssessive quest for the perfect shoe. Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Kenneth Cole... and just today, I've added another name to the list: Michel Tcherevkoff.

Michel Tcherevkoff is a photographer (with a pretty impressive list of clients, if I do say so myself), who was shooting cosmetics one day, and was using flowers as props. He looked down at a leaf and saw a shoe:

    “The print was lying upside down on a table,” he recounts, “and I said — although no one was listening to me — ‘Hey, that looks like a shoe!’”

(Seriously, how cool is this guy? I thought I was the only one who say shoes in every day objects!)

Long story short, he started building these shoes out of flowers--and obviously photographing them, tweaking in Photoshop along the way. The photographs are now staring in a book: Shoe-Fleur, out in September. The end result is absolutely amazing: exquisite photography, gorgeous subject matter.


Unfortunately, the book's website isn't up and running yet, but you can read the article--and view a small gallery--here. I definitely plan on checking out the book this fall, if the couple of photos in the gallery are any indication, it just may be love at first sight.