Hey Everyone,

First things first, to anyone who was worried about the light fixture fall, turned out it was only the bulb that broke, which is less than $5, so no worries.

I had a great time at my first FI event. This is my second true boffer event, but I've been a theatre style LARPer and GM for more years than I want to admit to.

I appreciate everyone's patience with the photography both Friday night and throughout the weekend. I understand (being a photophobe myself) how nervous it can make people to be photographed and not know if they will like the pictures, or know for sure where those pictures are going. The staff has assured me that these photos will only be made available in printed format at games, and in members only areas of the website.

For my part, I have no intention of ever using any of your images for my website, etc without express permission. I'm kind of a crusader when it comes to this sort of thing and feel strongly that people should have a right to say where their image is posted.

I also don't want to make anyone uncomfortable out of character around me or my camera, so feel free to let me know if you don't want me taking your photos during game. Now if your character doesn't want their photos taken... well that's another story.

I've asked and received permission to repost an essay of sorts from my blog about my philosophy on photos today and why we don't like them. I've decided to share it with you guys so you can understand some of my goals when it comes to shooting at games. Now in the case of during game, I'm not trying to capture you, but rather your character, but I feel the same rules apply. The text below is from my website, lassnerphoto.com (which I also have permission to cite). Please feel free to look at it and/or start a dialogue with me about your feelings on being the subject of photography. I want to be respectful of people's rights and feelings, because my art can sometimes be invasive.

Again thanks for being excellent sports, as soon as I have gone through the over 1000 photos I took at the event I'll hand them over to the staff.

Photo philosophy

Any person living in modern America can expect to be in hundreds of photos a year. Our culture is camera crazy, and digital photography has made immortalizing (and mortifying) your friends and family cheap and simple.

So why is it that with so many photo opportunities to choose from, so many people hate photos of themselves? I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and it boils down to three basic reasons.

1) You are not the real subject of the photos. Most photos these days are of groups of people at an event, or of a person or group standing in front of a landmark. We take photos to remember a specific event in our lives, and those photos are kept regardless of whether the person pictured in them looks good. Even the most beautiful people in the world can end up looking odd when they are frozen for an instant in time (in fact these days its a common feature of films to have this happen for comic effect). The problem is that while your sister loves this memory of you standing in front of the Eiffel tower, all you notice is that your face is flushed and your hair is sticking every which way.

2) When you look at the photo, you are looking for something that isn’t there. We all have a mental image of ourselves, but many times that mental images is years out of date. You are remembering yourself 20 lbs lighter, and 3 years younger, the last time you had a nice picture of yourself you liked. You may be looking for what you look like in your bathroom mirror, which is a different angle and lighting situation than the photo you are in.

3) Modern formal photography puts you in silly poses, and captures you when your clothing, hair and/or makeup aren’t normal. The poses that most photographers put families in hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. When people were first painting portraits, they had people stand in a way that was easy to maintain for 30 minutes at a time. People didn’t smile for this reason. Have you ever tried holding a smile for 30 minutes? The same poses were used for early photography, when the film took a long time to get exposed to enough light to capture the image. If people moved during that time, the image was blurry and out of focus. The problem is that much of formal photography still uses these “classic” poses, despite the fact that they make people look uninteresting and stilted.

In order to get a set of images that you really like, you need to overcome all these problems. You need the person taking the photo to be focusing on you, not what is standing behind you. You need them to only keep and display photos that captured your likeness in a pleasing light, not one where you moved slightly during the shot and so have a weird expression on your face. You need someone who has experience with taking pictures of people and knows some tricks of the trade that help make everyone look more appealing. Finally, you need to have photos taken where you have the chance to be yourself. If you can sit in a way that is relaxed, you will likely look relaxed. Its very hard to look relaxed and vibrant when you are holding a strange pose (the only people who can do that are models, which is why they are paid to do it.)

When I work with a client who worries about how the photos will turn out, we discuss these issues and how to deal with them. I won’t show you a single shot that I don’t think is appealing, and if the shoot really didn’t work for you, we will try again until we can come up with something you are happy with. I don’t believe in airbrushing or obscuring any facial features, the photos are supposed to be of you, not an idealized image that I can make on the computer.

Thank you for your endeavor to capture in pictures the madness that is Catalyst and Future Imperfect!

---

-Amber
Retired Logistics Goddess

Neve O'Brien(RIP), Magnus Sulara Oratia Somerton, Songbird, Elias Amory, Dr. Ara Grintner (formerly ZG) , Jane Sawyer, and Grace (just Grace)

I second that!

Could we use the pictures taken for sprucing up the in game atmosphere? Specifically, I am thinking of Three Man posters, but I am sure there could be other uses.

I know plot will be; its one of the reasons we got these pictures taken. Scrapbooks, wanted posters, three-man promo items, kill-on-sight posters...

I mean...

Kittens. I like kittens.

Yes, we need to train the kittens to hunt these people down for snuggles. Yup!

GET EM 1B!!!

No photo-fear here.

You have my expresed permission to use images of myself for anything within your sphere.

Thank you so much for everything you guys did!

-Rob
STRIKE A POSE MONKEYS!!!!

By the way, you guys had some amazing costumes. Hats off in particular to the two gents wearing the white and crustacean armor.

Rob -
Tis a shame then that Grinner objected so strongly to getting a photo taking in that fabulous hat!

haha. The Derby!?

I didn't realize you were there

Didn't you know? She's a Ninja Photographer.

Dink would've loved her!

(to death)

Rob, that is so not TRUE! I heard Grinner mention her to his conversation mates right as I was about to snap a shot, and he seemed not to be enthused about being photographed.

However, in his defense, I think he was talking about something 'important.'

Thank you very much Lisa for coming to our game and helping out by taking photos, we really appreciate it!

Daniel

Your PhotoPhilosophy strikes true. I have a few friends who're photographers--as in, folks with a proper camera, not someone with a camera in their phone-- and they say the same things. Be comfortable. Don't worry about the camera. Just do what feels right. In the end, it makes you look so much more awesome in the photos.

The one time I've been a proper model for one of my friends looking to build her portfolio, we just went for a walk through the woods, paused at some places with awesome lighting, and rolled with it. We told jokes, stories, just chatting along the way. Her photos are my favorite ones of myself.

I also don't know if this rings true for anyone else, but I feel more comfortable getting photos done if it's a costume or garb; more like it's a fraction of my mind being shown, in full. If it's me in plain-clothes, I get really awkward. But (to use one of my other LARP characters as an example) if I'm dressed up as Phee, she's a whole separate entity, all from this one small part of my mind, fully fleshed out.

I could also just be a strange cookie.

Amanda S Wrote:
--
> I also don't know if this rings true for anyone
> else, but I feel more comfortable getting photos
> done if it's a costume or garb; more like it's a
> fraction of my mind being shown, in full. If it's
> me in plain-clothes, I get really awkward. But (to
> use one of my other LARP characters as an example)
> if I'm dressed up as Phee, she's a whole separate
> entity, all from this one small part of my mind,
> fully fleshed out.
>
> I could also just be a strange cookie.

You are not alone Amanda. Most of my larp photography was in a 24-7 game where I did full portrait shoots for people who were in character. Not only are many people more ok with having their larp personas photographed, but often afterwards they like the photos better because the photos are of someone else. It's an interesting phenomenon in my opinion.

BTW, if people responding to this thread could let me know their character names or if they were cast that would help enormously. I'm great with faces, horrible with names

We're all strange cookies, no worries.

I like to think I am Oatmeal-Walnut-Cranberry-Chocolate-Chip, myself.

(A little healthy, a little nutty, a little bitter, and a little sweet.)



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 06/15/12 03:32PM

so is there anywhere to view these photos? (also, I have no problem with my image being used for any purpose.)

There isn't yet. I still have to finish editing them.