• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Street Color Girl in Flower Shop

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
On the way back from Physical Therapy for my broken rib, I stop at the flower shop and get some unusual flower.


This time, there were magnolia tree blossoms heavy with pollen. I asked the young woman working preparing orders to hold one bloom by the wall in filtered light from the shop window.

2333



Asher Kelman: Girl with Magnolia Blossom

Fuji GFX 50s 32-64 mm Fuji Lens


Asher










 

Peter Dexter

Well-known member
Somebody should have been stopping by the flower shop for you with your broken rib. Did you mean to chop her off abruptly at the top? She sure has got the eyebrows. Is she Middle Eastern?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Somebody should have been stopping by the flower shop for you with your broken rib. Did you mean to chop her off abruptly at the top? She sure has got the eyebrows. Is she Middle Eastern?
Not much sympathy here! After all I was warned not to jump from rich to rock in the surf with my heavy camera, LOL.

I pretended to everyone that I didn’t get hurt!

As to the chop, cramped space and owner of store objecting to his workers being sidetracked!

I wanted to grab her face with the entire flower and her frizzy hair that goes with being Middle Eastern, LOL!

I might add space above her working to make a print!

Asher
 

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Asher

I just love her... she already is a witch 🌹 Her eyes are strong however there is a deep softness in them I love she still has her apron on... gives the beautiful photo capture a good sense of integrity ! A keeper for sure...

Charlotte
 
So late to the party, but I've been busy. She's fabulous. Not a classical beauty but with much inner strength and very striking! She reminds me of the women painted by John William Waterhouse ... his many paintings of women smelling flowers. They feel so real and concrete and not like they will fall apart. I hope you get to shoot her more often and in poses that will bring that "je ne sais pas quoi" she has to the forefront as she is such an interesting subject; much more than a pretty little girl. This one screams Woman! :) Maggie
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Maggie,

I appreciate your visit so much and that you are willing to join me in celebrating the real people that actually are most of the fabric of our lives!

I found her very beguiling and we connected immediately!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
2424


Asher Kelman: Girl with Magnolia Blossom
Fuji GFX 50s 32-64 mm Fuji Lens



Wow! What a flower!

Asher, this is magnifique :)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher

I just love her... she already is a witch 🌹 Her eyes are strong however there is a deep softness in them I love she still has her apron on... gives the beautiful photo capture a good sense of integrity ! A keeper for sure...

Charlotte

Thanks so much Charlotte!

I want to capture real people as much as I do the models that are descended from Venus, (but like hardly anyone one meets on a day to day basis).

We have to celebrate the unique beauty in inherently good and valuable folk who are in our neighborhood. So I am trying to open my eyes to reality and celebrate the folk that are our friends, neighbors and co-workers too!

Mythology that sets the standards for everyday life is deceptive and actually not good for us, whether it’s who we hold up high and worship or who morph into prophets and gods.

Mythology should be fun and merely explore the unknown. Deifying these spirits is the biggest threat to man!

That’s why I treasure you as my prime witch. You can do magic and appreciate this flower girl as a kindred spirit but you are also a realist that I can rely on for sanity and good judgement!

Thanks!

Asher
 

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Asher

You should always look for that certain magic like this young woman....it will always be around you just have too see it! and you did!

I bet when you can make her genuinely laugh you will find so much more, just embrace it.

Thank you my dear friend! :)
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
La fleur est toujours aussi belle, comme la demoiselle !
En revanche je ne suis pas fan du traitement hyper contrasté et "dur" sur le visage et la main .
Pourtant, son expression, très bien capturée par Asher, en dit long sur sa connaissance de la vie !
Sorry Asher, I had to tell my true feeling, I'm in my soft, ethereal and velvet mood right now…
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
La fleur est toujours aussi belle, comme la demoiselle !
En revanche je ne suis pas fan du traitement hyper contrasté et "dur" sur le visage et la main .
Pourtant, son expression, très bien capturée par Asher, en dit long sur sa connaissance de la vie !
Sorry Asher, I had to tell my true feeling, I'm in my soft, ethereal and velvet mood right now…

Thanks, Nicolas,

Thanks for the visit and generous comment.

I studied many approaches to deliver the sense of self-worth and validity as a vulnerable hourly worker, earning her salary through her skill and labor, but retaining g her own sense of openness, humor, esprit, dignity and importance.

I discovered that I needed to leave behind soft seductive purity and “Vogue” perfection and deliver the reality of a life of hours on one’s feet, needing the shopkeepers approval

......and being sufficiently courteous to an odd old English fellow, buying flowers and taking her away from her employers tasks of arranging flowers!

Soft and gentle didn’t work!

Asher
 
Asher,
This woman may not look like a beauty because of her attire and the fact that she has not gotten the princess treatment that many of the girls I have seen
on these pages have. But believe me, this is a gorgeous woman. She has great big wonderful eyes, a pretty nose and a wonderful mouth.

for fun, I brought her into photoshop and gave her a bit of makeup. Now, just imagine her in a beautiful cream-colored satin dress and her hair done up. She's as beautiful a muse as any I've seen here.
I actually think that you should do shoots of her both ways. As the working girl with her cuffs all soiled as she works with flower and earth and then all gussied up so we can see the beauty within.

For people who cannot see it, look here at her: I must add, I did not change the size of her lips or her eyes or anything. Just a bit of makeup and nothing else. She is quite beautiful; as beautiful as the flower she holds. Perhaps, Asher, you can do a series of shoots of the working girls and the princesses that resides inside of them
2451
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Maggie,

You are brave to edit my pictures but I trust you and it’s fine by me!

Yes, she does blossom in your hands. But you always are skilled in gentle strokes as is Nicolas.

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
This is quite interesting.

First, congratulations to Maggie for her Photoshop skills. The added makeup is both appropriate to the person and believable, which is not as easy as it looks.

But Maggie is a woman. It makes sense that her perception of the portrait is influenced by what is socially expected from female portraits.

As to myself, born male, this series of portraits is refreshingly different to what Asher gifted us previously, because that flower shop model does not follow the classical "female portrait" treatment. I like the image because it is different. I especially liked the ambivalence in the first portrait, with the rough work clothes, the uncombed hair and the veins on the hands. The second portrait may be a bit too gritty, but I prefer it without added makeup. Mens tastes are a bit more complex than what women's magazine would like you to believe.
 
Actually, I didn't want her to be all made up, I liked her "au naturel" but thought that some may need to be able to see past the shiny face and the dirt accumulated because
she works with earth and flowers and show that this is actually a beautiful woman. Asher had a former muse visit him last week or so, and I could see her where she was sitting
that she had a lot of makeup on and also had redrawn her eyebrows, which I did not alter anything about this woman.

I do however think that if she was in a fashion style photo-shoot, she would have a bit of makeup and some lipstick, which is basically what I gave her.. oh, I also put a bit of eyeliner to accentuate those beautiful eyes. Darn, she has great eyes!! Her hair would
also be pinned up and pretty. I like her both ways and I would love to see her both ways. I do not expect her to be all dolled up to go to work at the shop.
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Maggie, it was not a criticism, just a reflexion on how different people may see the same image. Nothing more. It is good that you tried the makeup, we would not have learnt as much without you.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Maggie and Jérôme,

This discussion is so appreciated!

I already stopped using make up on some of my studio models about 5 years back. But still they are uncommonly beautiful as I invite women to model when my heart turns upside down on one glance across the room, in the mall or in a museum.

Here I stopped by a shop window and we looked at each other and smiled and knew I had to photograph her immediately.

The store owner didn’t want her work at the back of the store disturbed, but I told them I would buy some flowers!

So this shoot was the camel pushing its nose in the tent, so to speak!

I have to return and see if she will sit for a shoot.

...not to necessarily have her in a gown, but allow her to breathe free!

But I will give her the choice of makeup after shooting her, “au natural”!

It’s important to me that I value her for who she is and not for how close I can present her as either someone’s party treat or as in the pages of Vogue!

Asher
 
Maggie, it was not a criticism, just a reflexion on how different people may see the same image. Nothing more. It is good that you tried the makeup, we would not have learnt as much without you.
Oh, Jerome,
I didn't take it as a criticism, and I'm sorry that my response may have come off that way. I just wanted to make it clear that I didn't do it because I thought she should be working all dolled up like going to a gala. I just felt that perhaps some people
couldn't see that she was actually quite beautiful. I discussed this with Asher and he told me that some thought she was not as feminine or curvy etc., as they thought she should be and I wanted them to take a closer look.

Now I need to make sure I don't freeze as it's Halloween and it's SNOWING!! (Oh no!!) and little monsters will soon be descending on my house! :-D
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Now a total surprise!

1. She is gone. Met a man, fell in lover and was married weeks later!

2. Moved to Miami for the winter.

3. Gave me a pseudonym, in spite of many hugs and smiles!

2456


Aeiriol: Own Picture
The owner of the flower shop says she is “young and nuts”! I like her more already!

The polished skin I can go for but the left nostril is so different!

I will try to get hold of her and am offering the couple free studio pics!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Does instagram have magic and creative filters?

Anyway, my (now so obvious), attempt at despotic realism of a woman has been shattered and smashed by the subject, herself!

See how far off my portraits have been.

These are her own photographs and she has no knowledge of my editorial use and so doesn’t necessarily endorse any opinions expressed here. Nor are they meant to represent any endorsement of OPF or of anyone here!

They are just shown to illustrate and expose how limited our “portraits” are!


2459



2460



2461



2462


To me, each was a surprise as it revealed to me another hidden aspect of her life.

It’s quite humbling how simplistic my careful and conscientious attempt at “reality” was.

Asher
 
OMG! looks how very beautiful she is. I knew it. She had such fantastic bone structure and of course, working with the flowers and earth, there was no reason to make herself pretty for work. But now we can see her fabulous style choices for her makeup and her clothes. She looks fantastic. I know she didn't tell you her real name but then, perhaps it was just so smart of her to not trust you without actually knowing you. I'm glad to see her like this. We now can see her life is much fuller than we perhaps thought and a good reason to not judge a book by its cover!

:)
Maggie
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
OMG! looks how very beautiful she is. I knew it. She had such fantastic bone structure and of course, working with the flowers and earth, there was no reason to make herself pretty for work. But now we can see her fabulous style choices for her makeup and her clothes. She looks fantastic......

:)
Maggie

You are so right, Maggie!

She is so fabulously energetic, magical, whimsical and attractive. What a multifaceted super person!

But now I will no longer be in such awe of portraits in the national Gallery in London, LOL

The “portraits” say 85% about the photographer and perhaps a few percent of the subject at best

Asher
 
Top