Thursday, December 27, 2007

longer response and a ramble

A response to TM:
Thanks about the skirt, I'm starting to polarize to extremes among expensive and cheap things, so in a simple cheap-splurge I bought some vanilla clothes. Which is kind of ironic because the stuff I bought is considered edgy (if not just goth-y) however comparative to latex it's pretty uninteresting stuff and was amazingly cheap, compared to rubber, which is pretty darn expensive as everyone reading this already knows.I'm also wearing these gloves from the same online shop that I got the skirt. I actually like these a lot. They're made of rubber and cost me like... 6 dollars or something obscenely inexpensive.

Also, about the ads, I should be able to have some control over what is displayed here, however I've been too lazy to get into the nitty-gritty with how to pick and choose which ads I want shown.
I should get on that..

Now for the ramble:
Yesterday and today I've been kind of out of it with nothing to do, so as a result I've been bumming around the internet an alarming amount, spending most of the time looking though clothing stores of both latex and vanilla varieties trying to figure out what else I might buy myself for Christmas... even though I know that I really shouldn't get anything else.

I've also been looking at lots of masking pictures and masking videos and I've noticed a few trends, most of which I've fallen victim to myself.

The main one that I've seen has been the way that many maskers look like they're gonna pop when cross dressing. What I mean by this is that lots of maskers have their corsets strung up super tight, gigantic size triple-E breasts torpedoing out of their chests, and unbelievably tight costumes cutting off their ability to breathe. As a result lots of maskers look like tightly packed sausages ready to explode, which is not really a good look.
Believe it or not, lots of the time when I mask I feel the exact same way, but I make sure to try to look relaxed, which is helped most by forcing my arms down and shoulders back to give the illusion of being comfortable. Regardless of the fact that I sometimes feel like I'm gonna blow out of my skin.

The next is that we don't know what to do or where to do it!
I see lots of pictures and videos where it's someone awkwardly standing in front of a sheet trying to either hide their home or to create the illusion of a cheap photo-shoot.
Does this sound familiar?(red pointers indicating my own use of previously mentioned sheets)
I've grown to dislike how this looks, but at the same time, have no answers as to what we should do about it or where we should go. The thing is that most pictures tell a story of sorts, but most masking pictures are just flat displays saying; "I bought these clothes, I used these methods to look female, what do you think?" However, as to how we can add 'stories' to our pictures, I'm still unsure.

I know that many of us have tried to change the settings where we mask and rubber up, but lots of the time it still seems awkward to be totally covered in latex out in the woods or near picturesque locations or even in public areas and fetish parties. So I don't know what to do about the settings of our pictures.

Additionally, when taking these pictures, lots of the time we don't know what to do. Although, I guess we don't have to do anything, I just noticed it being especially weird when I see masking videos where someone is just standing in front of the camera or slowly rotating around or worst of all, when someone is grabbing and groping their new girl parts uncontrollably.
However, since I've started taking short movies of myself I too have realized that it's not so easy to think of something interesting to do. So I have no answers.

I do have a female friend who agreed to take pictures of/for me every so often upon request. So I'm hoping that I can get some more organic, better shots out of it.. even though I don't know what I'm going to be wearing, where I'll be having the pictures taken, or what the 'theme' will be... but I'm hoping they'll be better.

Anyway, I've got more to say, but there's no rush. So until next time...
and remember, comments are easier to leave now
=D

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

In general, I've found many of your pics to be much more dynamic-looking than the average masking pics. That must be because you're a dancer: showmanship comes more naturally (or at least, it's second-nature) to you, compared with other maskers.

For pictures, I'm not quite sure what to suggest, but for videos, I think we could do much worse than to look at furry, kigurumi and cosplay videos for inspiration: while many suffer from the same problems, I've seen many that are certainly more visually interesting. For instance, there's a video up on Youtube (or at least, there used to be, at some point) of a GG in a generic kigurumi getup playing Dance Dance Revolution. That's way more interesting to watch than someone just looking coy or simply twirling.

There have recently been a couple of japanese videos on youtube that featured a girl wearing a Natori mask while on some kind of cruise. That was certainly more visually striking. The location was nice, but the camera work also helped a lot.

Which leads me to the final point: the reason most of the videos are boring tends to be due to the fact that we have to set everything up solo, since most of us are alone with our fetish, a static camera is the only option, we rarely have more than a few choices for camera placement, and we can't easily do any dramatic camera angles, as that would mean cutting off too much of what we're hoping to show.

Lighting also suffers the same problems, in general, since few of us know how to put together proper lighting (and few of us have the necessary equipment.) So we go for boring, plain lighting. You, on the other hand, have done some interesting things with lighting. Kudos on that!

Anyway, I hope you and anybody else reading this starts thinking about this kind of thing. It's the next step for our community. With the rise of "the Youtube generation" proficiency in camera work, lighting, etc. should hopefully start going up, and the price of the necessary hardware should go down. Things should start getting really interesting, really soon.

Anonymous said...

i don't know whether you noticed, but i think the site you posted with some of your pictures might be down.

then again, it might just be for me.

Anonymous said...

to shutz:
Thank you for the compliment about my pictures, or at least my posture. Also, thank you for the in-depth message.

I agree with you about the whole 'doing it solo' thing. I've definitely noticed that myself, however I think that with a tripod and a self-timer or remote control, we can do a lot. but nothing will replace actually having someone behind the camera.

Anyway, I too think that these are issues with masking, and I'm happy to see that some other people (ie. you) are also seeing these problems and giving them some thought. I'll definitely make sure to check out some other videos on youtube to perhaps get some inspiration. However, I already have a batch of media to release pretty soon.

To Teejay:
yup, that link is dead. When I get the chance and am able, I'll try to re-post a public/mature gallery.

Anonymous said...

I remember a few Kigurumi pictures (Can't find the site or the person it was of anymore) that were taken throughout their house, One they were wearing only an full length apron holding a spatula in the kitchen, yes a bit silly after thought but it looked nice.

I know I'm probably in the minority here (Or anywhere in the community for that matter) but someone masked while wearing just simple Jeans and a tee shirt tucked in would look very cool to me. Also one of the poses I've never seen is someone masked and wearing an oversized man's dress shirt, (A pose often seen in the movies). Those are just two that stick in my mind of something I'd like to see yet never have.

Ultimately I enjoy all of your pictures and as stated your efforts at posture and pose have made them all the more inviting to view.

Oh yes Happy Holidays!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you about the sameness of many photo/video shoots (and I'm just as guilty). I'm planning a new music video that I hope will jazz things up a bit. But these things take time and patience, often in short supply.

Kerry

Anonymous said...

To Sheyd:

I agree, I've always liked more casual looks too, however I've found it really difficult to pull that image effectively as a cross-dresser. Also, next time I dress I'll see how a dress-shirt with nothing else looks =P.

Thank you for the support & comment.

To Kerry:
The music video sounds interesting and yes, like it will a lot of time and effort. However, when you do finish it please let me know because I'd love to see how it turns out!