September 29, 2008
KAT CAVERLY Beauté
Thomas Hudson Reeve photographed by Kat Caverly
Looking beautiful is all about the lighting. Looking ugly is all about the lighting too. BEing funny as Tom shows us in the test above, well is all about personality!
When we have a choice we choose beauty lighting. And now we can bring the studio with us on location with the right equipment (and the right assistant).
I worked on the specifics of the equipment and the lighting ratio for a couple of weeks and then discovered Lastolite! lastolite has come out with the HiLite which is a softbox that can be used as a background making a High Key beauty lighting a bit easier and totally portable. The 6'x7' version folds down to a 40" circle. WOW. It takes a bit to master the folding back up but thanks to the brilliance of my esteemed colleague Thomas Hudson Reeve, he was able to get it done in under 3 attempts with just a bit of practice.
The key here (excuse the pun) is SOFT. I chose a extra large softbox 48"x72" for the fill light and after much testing I chose a Speedotron beauty dish shooting through an ultra white umbrella (for the shape on the eyes) for the Key light. the key to the Key is soft soft soft.
The HiLite serves as the background in this scenario and gives an fabulous cleanliness to the whole look and I only needed 48" between the background and the model. Overall I just needed 20 feet of space to setup and get a studio look while shooting outdoors!
Special thanks to international make-up artist Susan Sterling who achieved that perfect young, fresh and beautiful make-up, and I couldn't do any of this with grace without Tom Reeve.
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September 21, 2008
On the Road Again
Location shoots! Such excitement. I have to admit that things have gotten so much better in the last 30 years. Strobes are faster and smaller. Softboxes have gotten quite creative and truly portable. I just got my 6x7foot HiLite from Lastolite and I am so enamored. Fabulous!
And in this age of eBay it is easy and cheap to get a full lighting kit. But it all had to fit in the boot of my MINI!! I am hoping to add a faster, lighter power pack before the end of the week but I am ready now. I have a vintage Speedotron 2400ws pack with an old anvil case. Really brings me back!
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July 27, 2008
My First MINI Moments
©Kat Caverly and Thomas Hudson Reeve
I was told that I would have to get a car but until yesterday I had only driven our Honda once since we moved upstate. I thought I really did not like to drive and I was not looking forward to picking up my new car, especially since I would have to drive 70 miles to get her home.
But to my surprise I LOVE driving my MINI Cooper, really really alot of fun! So after I got home I created a special music CD, MINI1 and Tom and I went on another road trip, starting with just figuring out how the radio/cd player works!!
She is the cutest thing. She looks like you could pop her in your mouth and that she'd be sweet! This is my first new car since I was 17 years old (a '72 Mustang) and yesterday I drove more than I had in the last 30 years combined!!
This is happiness!
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June 11, 2008
When Life requires a h.umoro.us soundtrack
Rubber Chicken by h.umoro.us 2008
Introducing H.UMORO.US a company dedicated to making the world giggle. One of the things I have enjoyed most over my term as producer/cco of NOEvil Productions is the creation of funny music and songs, and I love working with Chris Leap.
So WHO do you know that needs to hire a comedy producer? And please enjoy the music, Rubber Chicken.
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June 7, 2008
Climb Every Mountain
or "Why is this woman so happy?"
photo © Thomas Hudson Reeve
I took my first hike yesterday. It was Tom's idea and as you can see from the picture I was pretty happy about it!
I had every reason to be happy about it. I have been battling with a diagnosis of "severe bronchial asthma" since 1999 and this hike proved that I have WON! I really don't have asthma and I stopped all medications in 2003. But after those 4 years under doctor's supervision my real problem was de-conditioning and my cardiologist (yes it went from a supposed serious problem with my lungs to a potential serious problem with my heart!) said those magical words, "When can you get back into the gym?"
It is true, surprising but a fact, I had stopped regular physical training. Since 1984 I had been swimming, body building, practicing hatha yoga, training in Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Tai Chi; I even took mime classes from Marcel Marceau! And there I was being told that the level I train at would cause damage to my heart because of my "condition". So I stopped and started to investigate what was really going on.
And yesterday, after 18 months of daily physical training, I was able to walk up a steady incline 1400 feet. Oh baby! It was a challenge but I did it!!
I figured it out on my own, in spite of the doctors but my primary care doc is smart and I consulted with him along the way. It was not easy, in fact it was alot of hard work; still is. We determined that I must have congenitally smaller bronchial tubes which makes me "fail" the breathing tests but the only time I ever had trouble breathing was when I was under the care of the leading pulmonologist in New York City, and taking 4 different asthma medications! My diagnosis went from "severe bronchial asthma" to COPD in a year because I did not respond well to the medication. So he gave me MORE medicine and I got even worse! What he never hear of a paradoxical reaction to medication?? It even caused a jump in my blood pressure. And to make matters worse I herniated two discs in my lower back along the way (lack of exercise??) and was told my a neurologist that I could no longer do anything that had impact on my back. What? Was I suppose to stop walking??
So now I do stair cardio 2-3 hours a week, in addition to aerobics, strength, flexibility, endurance, core stability and plyometric training. I have to do this to regain a healthy blood pressure, train my lungs to be able to do more (like climb mountains) and to be able to keep my back strong enough to do anything!
Don't let anyone, even a doctor, ever tell you that you can't do something. The body was designed to move and it is a miracle how it works. It takes time; lots of time if you do it right. I didn't want to hurt myself with the cure. I even hired a trainer for a year (bless you Christy Miller) who taught me the foundation of how to regain my strength and train safely.
Now I have my own gym in my studio and a pool right across the street! I even am training Tom now. So when he suggested that I climb this 1400 feet to the top of a mountain I knew it was what I had been training for. Going up was strenuous and a real challenge for my lungs but my muscles were ready and my heart is very strong! But harder yet on the muscles was the coming back down - calves, feet, shins, quadraceps, knees; WOW. It took about an hour to climb up and about 40 minutes to come back down which is a good clip for 2.5 miles.
I am proud of myself. I have come a long way.
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