Now That's What You Call A Body!

Vertigo by Olaf Wipperfürth

Shame I don't know this amazing model with like the most awesomest torso I've seen in quite some time! Yup, that is what you call A BODY! :) Anyone know?... drop a comment :)

Olaf Wipperfürth Photography

shop designer swimwear at Luisaviaroma

Source: Homotography

Photograph of the Day > Stewart Shining

I'm not sure who the model is but I love this photograph. The shallow depth of field, pose and setting is a wonderful combination. To me this represents strength, beauty and a strange calmness. His face is relaxed despite his arms being tense from hanging on and I like how his feet are positioned. Our eyes read the photo following the barrier and after we admire his looks we realize this is set in a city (probably New York). The reason I've said strange calmness is that it is hard to find serenity in busy cities and to stop and look at something unusual is refreshing.

source: Homotography

See more: http://stewartshining.com/

Artist of the Week + Music Videos > Fefe Dobson

So Artist of the Week goes to Fefe Dobson, a fun young rock/pop chick with some cool attitude. I discovered her today on Ali's Blog. I love her individual style and how she doesn't like to be typecast into a typical pop/R&B star... I love her rock'n'roll edge. She's also a great singer-songwriter and has her songs covered by the likes of Jordin Sparks, Miley Cyrus and Selena and the Scene. Her songs has also been featured in many American commercials like Tommy Hilfiger, Whip It and America's Next Top Model and TV Dramas like One Tree Hill, 90210, Vampire Diaries and Hellcats.

Her latest singles are Stutterin' and Ghost which are great songs with a rock/pop edge however her earlier work you can really see her rock chick edge which is pretty awesome. It would be great to have her music come over to the UK! :)

fefedobson.com/ / Fefe Dobson Vevo / FD Myspace / Facebook

Buy her new album, Joy from Amazon.co.uk / HMV

Here's my top 6 official releases of hers:

MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

So it's come round again... Christmas! Must admit this year isn't going to be as big as previous years for me but the only ingredient you need for a great Christmas is family so that's who I intend to spend it with :)

Can't wait for the lovely roast dinner. I always look forward to that on Christmas day, the fun TV shows, the expressions on the faces you've given presents to and of course receiving presents (and the awful xmas cracker jokes!)...


Hope you all have a fabulous fun Christmas and a Happy New Year :)


HAPPY CHRISTMAS :)

M.A.S.H.

CRUSH: Daria Werbowy - Vogue Paris 2011 Calender

Bedsheets, breasts and beauty... that's Daria Werbowy for you.

BTW... NSFW! (for you non-abbreviation friendly folk out there; 'by the way... not safe for work!'

This week's CRUSH feature is the beautiful Daria Werbowy, one of my favourite models of all time as her beauty is mind-blowing and her modelling is breath-taking... she's certainly one of a kind! This is one of her sauciest shoots to date and I couldn't resist posting it! haha.

This is a sexy, stunning, sensual shoot of the beautiful 8th highest paid supermodel, photographed by Mikael Jansson for Vogue Paris 2011 Calender. She's styled by Anastasia Barbieri and wears a beautiful neck piece from Louis Vuitton’s Haute Joaillerie Collection. This issue also features Tom Ford as guest editor, so maybe that's why this shoot is so saucy! Ford is renowned for his signature notorious sexy adverts. See below:

      

Sources: Touchpuppet and ilvoelv

SEE UNCENSORED IMAGES HERE (via touchpuppet)

M.A.S.H

Nisha Haq Photography > Intimacy Studio Shoot

It's been a while since I posted my latest projects here but have been a busy bee editing, doing shoots, Christmas shopping (and spending time with family).. but I shall not succumb to being a lazy blogger! haha.. so Christmas in 2 days!! eek, thought I'd post what I've been getting up to lately before Xmas :)

3 weeks ago I did a photo shoot with the lovely Laura Nesbitt and her boyfriend, Morgan Hassall who agreed very kindly to do intimate shots for my A Level photography project > Intimacy. I wanted to use the studio to give a clean, soft, simple look that only focused on the couple, like the professional studios do for families. It was a struggle at first especially as I wasn't sure on studio lighting equipment as this was really my first time using the studio all by myself. I knew I had to get practice sooner or later particularly as I'm applying for Photography at University! I managed to find the awesome photography technician, Sarah who taught me how to use it. I had only had an hour with Laura and Morgan and practically 30 mins was used on setting up the lights and getting the right mood.

My original intention was to create the John Lennon, Yoko Ono Rolling stones cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz however after the time taken with the lights I only had  15 mins to shoot. I scrapped that idea after I couldn't get the right angle as I couldn't get high enough above them to shoot down. I decided to simply get 'coupley' shots and go with the flow. Despite not being very organized Laura and Morgan were very patient and were great to work with especially with Laura's radiant natural beauty and their sweet chemistry they conveyed to the camera together. I was pretty pleased with the variation they gave me and didn't need too much direction as they were very comfortable in front of the camera which is always a bonus. Even though I roughly had 10 good minutes of shooting they came out pretty good.

Here are some final images from the shoot. More to come soon!

Check out Photography Facebook / Flickr / Deviantart

Have a lovely day and a Merry Christmas! :)

Been A Busy Bee!

Hey Guys

Apologies for my lack of blogging lately. Just checked my posts and realized I've only done 2 this month which is really bad and irregular! Must post more interesting entries! I've been surfing the net, researching artists for my A level Photography & Graphics and finding out different perspectives in my Sociology class, so there's a few topics to write about.

Also I've been busy with photo shoots lately and my rather large back log of edits that I need to do! There's so many awesome photos to choose from! I shall be posting my latest shoots very shortly however you can see some images already on my Flickr Photostream and Facebook. These get updated regularly as soon as I finish an edit. You can see my latest Flickr uploads at the side of my blog >>

I'm currently doing a project called 'Intimacy' where I've already recreated an iconic image (see Nisha Haq Photography > Gustav Klimt - The Kiss recreation) using the awesome Lauhren Jones and her boyfriend. I've also done a studio shoot with 'couples' style photography. I'm going to incorporate different styles of photography to achieve intimate portraits such as night life (e.g. clubs, parties, gigs), commercialised studio shots (e.g. couples), paparazzi theme (e.g. gossip mags& blogs) & fashion campaigns (e.g. Tom Ford, Calvin Klein). Hopefully I can get this project into motion and not to leave it to the last minute before my deadline!

This Thursday I'm going to the RAG Day (charity day event) and then the club party in the evening where I hope to take some night life style documentary photographs. Been researching on http://shootnightlife.com/ which is a great site for tips and advice. Am also taking photos in the day of people in fancy dress. I'm going as a cowgirl! Was pretty excited when I put my outfit together :)

For my graphics project I've decided to create a Feminist Art magazine. I'm going to use all my skills learnt from my current A Level subjects and hopefully get some interesting articles & the magazine created by Feb.

So a fair few projects including commissions, bookings and organizing more test shoots! Oh and my UCAS statement for University! Almost there! I've finally written my personal statement (which took forever to cut down) and all I need to do now is certify my 5 choices. At the moment I have 6 and don't know which to cut and what my first and second Uni choice. The 6 Universities I'm finding difficult to cut to 5 are: Glamorgan, Arts London, Southampton Solent, Nottingham Trent, UWE and Westminster. The italics are the universities I'm not 100% sure about. My friends are all getting offers and interviews so I thought I better get my ass in gear and get applying before it's too late! (The general national deadline is 15th Jan 2011). Cross my fingers I get a place but first I need to send my application off first! I hope to do that today! :)

In addition to all of the above I'm trying to launch my freelance business and in the process in revamping my logo (including M.A.S.H logo) for Nisha Haq Photography. I've made a Facebook page and website (currently in blog form). Hopefully I can get these sites up and running.

Anyway..lots to blog about and so little time! note to self: also review Alter Bridge, Kids in Glass Houses, 30 Seconds to Mars,

Shall keep you guys posted about new projects & ideas :P

Nisha

Hurricane > 30 Seconds to Mars - New Music Video

EEK! New Music Video Alert! > Hurricane by 30 Seconds to Mars! I had found out about this video last Thurs night/Fri morning and was absolutely blown away by how amazing it was! I was even more excited about this video after watching all their preview material from their youtube channel, 30 Seconds to Mars and after seeing them live in Cardiff International Arena 2 weeks (OMG amazing!). I believe its the best video of this year, trumping Lady Gaga's monster music videos such as Telephone & Alejandro, Eminem's Love the Way You Lie and many others from the likes of Rihanna, Beyonce, Kanye West and Katy Perry.

WATCH IT NOW BELOW (CENSORED VERSION) IN HQ )720dpi).

CLICK HERE FOR UNCENSORED VERSION.

I do not own any video copyright and I really hope I haven't breached any copyright laws! 

All copyright EMI Music 2010.

(NSFW)

I think this may be the longest music video of this decade let alone this year at a lengthy 13.00 minutes of sex, violence and topless Leto. :P Debuted at MTV.com this video certainly is controversial with the many scenes of S&M and bondage, secret fetishisms, violence with creepy guys in masks and religious connotations with a Rabbi, Imam and Priest throwing holy books into the fire. Exactly how did 30STM get away with it? Despite the many 'CENSORED' shots flashing across the screen in bold black and red there is still a lot of sex & violence which is exciting and in a way refreshing to see it not done in a sleezy manner. Bartholemew Cummins (writer and director aka Jared Leto) certainly knows how to story tell and open the viewer to a new unexplored fantasy. This video is ambitious, daring, enticing, provocative and simply brilliant! On jaredleto.com he states how various scenes had made the video explicit content and censored scenes. Check out the list here.

I think it's ridiculous how so much is cut out when on prime-time TV there are scenes of sexual nature and violence. One video that particularly comes to mind is Lady Gaga's Alejandro video where she is practically having 'dry' sex on a bed with gay guys and kind of having group sex in a nun's PVC outfit. Also videos from 50 Cent and other rappers have used many sexual videos with half naked ladies doing provocative gestures. In addition, Maroon 5's Misery video was fairly violent (this was altered for UK play with animation on top). I think the censorship board or whoever decides on what can be aired on TV should be less stingy and allow the creativity of storytelling. The censorship ruins the flow of the video and the very erotic scenes only flash for a second or less. It's not as if Jared Leto is shoving sex down your throat.

Anyway, after my rant on why so much is censored there are probably a lot of people who would disagree such as parents non sexual fanatics. This does exploit dark fantasies however the mind-blowing cinematography with CGI effects and an imaginative narrative of birth, life & death outweigh the controversies associated with this explosive music video that is HURRICANE! :D


What do you think about this video?

Nisha Haq Photography > Gustav Klimt - The Kiss recreation

Hi everyone!

I've been fairly lazy with posts for the past few days however been busy with edits and new projects and photo shoots! I've finally edited my modern interpretation of Gustav Klimt's 'The Kiss' image. For my A2 photography class assignment we had to recreate an iconic image and originally I was going to choose Steve McCurry's 'Afghan Girl' however after realizing many people were using that image as their original source of inspiration thought I'd try something completely different and choose this beautiful painting. (scroll to bottom of post to read an excerpt from my essay on why I chose this iconic image (c) Nisha Haq) Part of my 'Intimacy' project.

This was quite a fun shoot to do and I chose lovely real life couple: Lauhren Jones & Dan Ecclestone. Very kind of them to agree to this and they look adorable together here! Dan even carried a ladder to Lauhren's bedroom (she lives round the corner from me) so I could get a high above angle to shoot down. Also they were great to work with despite my often confusing direction (trying to recreate the poses in the image) they grasped the concept very quickly and got right into it which is always the right attitude to work with. Thanks guys!

Photography, Post-Processing: Nisha Haq

Models: Lauhren Jones & Dan Ecclestone

Taken: 25 Nov 2010

Location: Lauhren's bedroom

Camera: Canon EOS Kiss x4

Software: Photoshop CS2

(c) Nisha Haq

It was rather a pain to edit this considering the original image was messy with objects and unnecessary things in the picture. There was a lot of cloning and airbrushing done but I eventually got there. I realize this image isn't perfect and there could be extra Photoshopping done however as a first go I believe its ok. What do you think? Check out the before & after photo effects:

(c) Nisha Haq

Gustav Klimt's - The Kiss

Here's an excerpt from my essay for part 1 of our photography project: 'Why The Kiss is such an iconic Image':

For this project I have decided to create a modernised version of Gustav Klimt’s, ‘The Kiss’ painted in 1907-08 which is one of the most beautiful oil paintings I have seen. It’s one of Klimt’s most recognizable pieces and is the pinnacle of his ‘Gold Period’. I later saw a very iconic image by Annie Leibovitz of John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the front cover of Rolling Stone, Jan 1981 issue which reminded me of ‘The Kiss’ as the bodies were in similar shapes however Leibovitz cleverly and artistically reversed the gender roles. These two images shows intimacy, sensuality and emotion captured never before and I’m captivated by the raw beauty and how the two are very different but share similarities as well. By selecting two very famous images, one a painting the other a photograph shall give me the freedom, creative burst and the best aspects of different art mediums yet also a challenge to recreate a 21st century interpretation in my own style...

... Why choose ‘The Kiss’? There are many great aspects in this painting, one noticeably being the vibrant gold leaf he used with the oil paints and distinctive symbols and colourful flowers. This image features in my mother’s bedroom and I always find it fascinating to look at every time I walk in. The pure intimacy of the moment and how Klimt manages to paint all the small details from her shoulders hunched in from ‘breathing’ him in and embracing his sensual touch to his hands passionately grasping her jaw and head. Her feet peeping out of the elaborately decorated dress is a wonderful touch to the painting and adds character and a greater story. This theme of intimacy follows on nicely from my previous Exposed project where I explored themes of voyeurism and desire. This project will be about the softer side in a relationship and the way people connect and interact with each other.

What are your views on my new Intimacy project? Get regular updates on this project at Flickr > Intimacy Project

Nisha

Photograph of the Day > Jared Leto by Bryan Adams

Eek! Singer/songerwriter, frontman, director and actor Jared Leto shot half naked by singer/songwriter musician and photographer Bryan Adams for Zoo Magazine (from Germany FYI)! How excited was I to find this out!! Totally had to blog about this seeing that M.A.S.H's current 'crush' is Jared Leto :D Leto stars in the editorial 'Renaissance Man' for issue #29 for Zoo. Styled by Lotta Aspenberg.

I love Adam's composition and the drama the black/white gives. The playfulness is refreshing to see from Leto who is often seen as the mysterious blue eyed beauty however the spikey blonde hair (he's back to brunette now) and the apple core in his mouth with the rusty wall adds character and a hard edge which works great. It's also quite random and that's another reason why it's memorable and my favourite from this shoot. 

Sources: Homotography  /  Bryan Adams Photography

See more from this shoot:

© COPYRIGHT BRYAN ADAMS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Sociology Trip to Wells & Glastonbury

Hey guys

Yesterday went to on a Sociology trip to Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury and walked up Glastonbury Tor which was like hell! haha. I think it was -100 C (in the wind!) and I think my toes almost fell out, nevertheless it was a fun day despite cold conditions and was happy that I had an opportunity to take photographs of two infamous towns in Somerset. My current module is religion and what better place to find out about New Age Religions and beliefs, Glastonbury and Wells :D

First went to Wells and had a tour of Wells Cathedral. The stained glass windows and Gothic architecture were beautiful. Shame I couldn't take photos inside (had to pay) however failed to see the relevance of the tour to my Sociology course.

I find Gothic architecture fascinating. 

Saw a dead pigeon outside Wells Cathedral. Think I'd be the next World Press Photographer of the Year with this? haha

Mary n Me :D

Saw this delicious sweet shop in Wells. ...come take me to the candy shop.. woah!

Xmas Chocolates!

Snap!

evil yet cunning looking Matt! Bless

In the afternoon went to visit the Glastonbury Goddess Temple where we had a very insightful talk about their beliefs & religion. It's great how open they are to anyone and not concerned if you're homosexual, smoker, drinker, fornicator etc, their belief is in helping the individual regardless of who you are. I learnt they have 8 seasons in a year and it originates from Pagan culture. Also found out the Priestess of Avalon, Georgina lead a successful life in business however was spiritually deprived but found that her life was more fulfilled by the Godess Temple. In a  way this is quite inspiring as this is an example of how money can't motivate you through life.

Check out their site to learn more: Goddess Temple

Georgina the Priestess

Inside the Goddess Temple

Snapped the Sociology teachers! Fe (left) is a great teacher! :D

Inside YingYang spiritual shop, Glastonbury

Self-portrait inside YingYang shop :D

At the end of the trip we walked up Glastonbury Tor which was a trek, especially in the harsh cold! Managed to get to the top in once piece and it was so worth it! The view was spectacular! There were rays of sunshine peeking through the clouds and the cold mist fused into the sky created a beautiful landscape!

At the top of Glastonbury Tor

What a great day! :D

M.A.S.H