10/52 Mirror Face

Hah-zah! I’ve reached the double digits of the 52 weeks! October is also here, which means I can get a hold of some eccentric props and masks.

52 by Melly Lee (mellylee.com)

Inspiration

Since Halloween is coming up at the end of the month I  was poking around online for random, eccentric trinkets that I could possibly inspire me for a future shoot or expand my vocabulary for costuming. One item that caught my attention was a Mirror Face Mask. It’s a plastic, string tied mask that is completely smooth with no facial features. I’m pretty sure that my neighbors were scratching their heads at me.

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Only when you accept that one day you’ll die can you let go, and make the best out of life. – Fábio Moon

I discovered the quote mentioned above while reading the graphic novel, Daytripper (2011,) when I was stuck in Hurricane Sandy a few years ago. The quote embodies the memento mori idea that I’ve been governing my life by. When I’m asked what my goal is in life the answer isn’t to reach some level of success. Instead it’s to experience all the ups and downs of life and to never lose the need for curiosity. Often times I feel that our generation will metaphorically kill themselves over an idea of what they think their lives should be rather than breathing in and appreciating what life is.

Execution

The setup for this shot is pretty simple. The final image is a composite of me jumping high up into the air and me face planted eating the ground. om nom nom nom!

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Because the mask is extremely reflective I set up a medium-sized softbox on an Einstein 640 on camera left. This way when I’d jump to make myself levitate the light would hit the mask and take away the surrounding reflections.

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The camera was locked at a low angle on my tripod and connected to the off camera flash with a pc cable. The shutter was tripped using Pocketwizards, which I kept hidden in my jacket pockets.

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Equipment Used:

Induro Alloy 8M AT214 Tripod
Nikon D800
Sigma 35mm/1.4 (Canon/Nikon)
Pocketwizard N10-ACC-1 Remote Camera Cable (1′)
Pocketwizard Plus III Transceiver
Sandbags (15lbs)
Einstein 640

More on Project 52:

Why I’m taking the challenge: blog.mellylee.com/2014/09/52-week-challenge
Week 6: blog.mellylee.com/2014/09/652-never-give-good-luck-will-find
Week 7: blog.mellylee.com/2014/09/752-garden-state
Week 8blog.mellylee.com/2014/09/852-going-back-to-nature
Week 9: blog.mellylee.com/2014/09/952-up-up-and-away

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