Green Fashion - part I

Being a fashion photographer and leaning (a lot) towards being "green" - it's only natural that I find ecologically responsible designers so fascinating.

I did some research in the past few days, looking for "GreenER" designers, what they do and how they do it to stay responsible, and trying to answer a question - what does "green" mean both to me (as a consumer) and to a fashion designer. Is it all about natural fabrics? Being eco-friendly? What is it?

My knowledge was pretty limited to "Stella McCartney designs with only non-animal derived fabrics". I'm still to understand what does "organic wool" mean in terms of being vegan (where does it come from if not from an animal?)... but her pieces look incredibly cool and I'd love to photograph and/or wear them.

Turns out - there's much more to it than just "green" fabric. There's saving on shipping back and forth by keeping the production local to the designer; there's recycling of anything that can be reused. There's making the quality garments that last a lifetime as opposed to cheap stuff that falls apart after 5 times you wear them. There's a fair treatment and payment to the garment workers; using the alternative energies... And the question about dry cleaning clothes without doubt makes the red light come on. Would making clothes that can only be dry cleaned be ever considered green?

And I really love it when one item can be worn in many different ways. I've stopped by one local fashion designer's studio and she showed me a dress that I (as a photographer and a woman) was all over. Not only it's cute and soft (100% silk!) but the design lets you wear it on a casual summer day, then convert it to a party dress and then all of a sudden it converts into a skirt (WOW!!). Now it's a dress that in my eyes is definitely worth buying. And in how many ways can you photograph it too! *lol* (I'll show it to you when I get to photograph it *wink*).

And I think that taking all above mentioned into account - the garments still need to look fashionable and be affordable, otherwise the trend won't stick and all the "greenER" efforts will have no effect on the society.

All of that said - uff - I'm going to go out there today and see if the grass is being "greenER" in the other part of my photographic interest. The ShowBiz Expo is today and I'm not going to miss it!

Other than that, I'm going to see an opening of Francis Hills's exhibition "Alan & Me" featuring his work with Alan Cumming (http://www.figjamstudios.com/). Can you see why I'm all excited this morning? :)

Tested my new flash meter...

I have not used it previously. It was so convenient to just test lights one by one, since I only relied on Nikon infrared with Nikon SB flash heads. But when I got this new ring flash from Alien Bees, I found that it's not very easy to work with in slave mode. To be straight, I haven't been able to make it work for me in the slave mode *LOL*. The flash goes off, the model sees it, even I see it, but with my camera kicking it off before SB heads (ring flash mounted on camera and camera flash as a master to work it), it apparently goes off before the camera shutter opens. That's what I came to after terrorizing it in various modes.

So, nothing to do, I went to the store, got the flash meter, another pocket wizard (PW) unit (I figured if I use all lights in manual mode with PWs, then I better have flash meter, because it's no longer going to be the same as adjusting all lights from the camera), and assembled my SB heads with ring flash in manual mode with PWs.

To test the flash meter I used these models:



Aren't they cute? :) They are garnet beads I used to make some of my jewelry.

There were two lights hitting them. One from under the table, I measured it and set properly according to the f/stop I wanted to use for a shot. Then I measured and set another light, by turning the flash meter towards it, keeping it near the subject. Worked like a charm.

I must admit, it wasn't that easy to figure out all the modes, even after reading the manual. They start with all the details on one mode (measuring ambient light), and then cut it short closer towards the end, so I had to really think what to do with the reflecting lights... basically figuring it all out using a good old method of scientific-poke-around.

SIGH. The hardest work is done, now I can say that I see why all the pros use it in their shoots :). Photos come out just perfect, no need to increase exposure or change anything in raw - very nice.

And today is the 1st official day of spring! If I stayed home, I'd talk my hubby into having fire in the evening, but I'm going to the city to see a friend, so that will have to wait till tomorrow.

Catching the morning light...

More personal

Just read back what I've posted so far and decided to warm the place up a little :).

Our new bunny already knows how to get in and out of the cage, uses potty



and LOVES to play with our son's toys!



Also, yesterday went to my first networking meeting and realized that not everybody likes MOO mini-cards. There were a lot of folks who couldn't read on them - they are TOO tiny!

So, this morning I ordered standard sized ones for networking, and the other cool ones will be used only when I'm sure they'll impress. They really are very cool, but gotta admit - some of us need glasses to even see the pic on them! :)