Global On Magazine: June 2009

Body Painting - Mid-air

See the black paint stopping mid-air

Body painting Jessica Gomes

Watch this special video and see how Jessica Gomes got her body painted for SI Swimsuit 2008.

SI Swimsuit: Body painting Jessica Gomes
Uploaded by sportsillustrated. - Basketball, baseball, pro wrestling and more sports videos.

Belly Painting - Ring of Fire

This design by Thompson, a variation on an Arabic protection symbol, was inspired by a necklace belonging to the mom-to-be. "Protection symbols are common motifs for anything involving pregnancy or babies," Thompson says, adding that the flames symbolize strength, protection and purification.

Belly Painting - Pooh Bear

This belly painting was the first for Greenawalt, who has a day job as an electrical engineer. These days, he no longer has models go topless. "The belly paintings are so sweet, nice, and happy that I just don't feel like the nudity plays well," he says. Greenawalt often creates designs inspired by the baby's bedroom decor.

Belly Painting - Baseball

This model requested a baseball theme in honor of the baby boy she was carrying. "Painting the belly to look like a ball works really well," says Greenawalt. He painted this design at his home as the father looked on, and snapped this photo at home plate on a local baseball diamond.

Belly Painting - Zodiac

This design by New York-based artist RoByn Thompson incorporates the Zodiac symbols of the mother, the father, and their baby. Belly painting is growing more popular as a baby shower activity, Thompson says.

Belly Painting - Cowrie

For this mother-to-be, Thompson created a design based on Cowrie shells. "They're goddess symbols, and fertility symbols," she says. Coming up with the design is a collaborative process based on emails and phone calls with her clients, Thompson says. Her one-of-a-kind paintings start at $200.

Belly Painting - Jelly Fish

Phoenix-based artist Mark Greenawalt created this painting in front of a live audience as part of a jellyfish-themed gallery exhibition in Phoenix.

Nude Gisele Bundchen In Body Painting

Celebrity Gisele Bundchen goes nude for body painting. Stunning body, stunning painting.

Body Art By Macro Guerra

Great photo collection on body art and body painting . Body art by Marco Guerra and photography by Yasmina Alaoui.

Body painting - Bricks Series #3

Bricks camouflage, series #3. Body painting with camouflage theme and bricks as the motive.

Related posts:
* Body painting - Camouflage - Bricks, Series #2
* Body painting - Camouflage - Bricks

Body Paint Party Video

Ever imagine joining a party, full of bikini girls? Well, that could be nothing much special if compared with this body paint party! Well, not all are in body paint, but I am sure it is a great party.

Luminato: National Ballet's Carmen

As part of the massive Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, The National Ballet of Canada is performing a re-imagining of Bizet's classic opera Carmen.
This piece is choreographed by Italian Davide Bombana, and Carmen shares the bill for the evening with Dominique Dumais's Skin Divers, a dark and gothic-tinged work.

The leads for the opening night performance are Noah Long as Don Jose, and Heather Ogden as Carmen. Sonia Rodriquez is cast as Michaela.

Paula Citron of The Globe And Mail found Carmen 'Striking, but not satisfying'.
I found it striking and flat out amazing. The hard driving pace of the production, and intricate movement between characters was fascinating to watch.

While she didn't feel any heat between the performers, I thought there was a nice sensual edge to the evening's performance as characters intertwined suggestively, and lust and carnality were in the air throughout.

Some photos from Carmen's dress rehearsal.

The Cigarette girls, with whom Carmen works.

One of the dancers from the company.

Lise-Marie Jourdain as Carmen's romantic rival faces off here against Heather Ogden, as the gang lounges in the background.

Sonia Rodriguez plays the role of Michaela who has been recast as Don Jose's ex-wife in this version.

The main characters, Noah Long as Don Jose and Heather Ogden as Carmen. Chemistry between the two is quite solid, and there's an aching, doomed sensuality to their performance

In this sequence Don Jose and Carmen are alone for the first time and share intimate embraces.

But soon Carmen returns to her flirtacious ways and jealous rage drives Don Jose to kill his love. Here he mourns her loss.

Carmen continues from June 10 - June 14 at The Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts.

All photos done with the Olympus E30 with Digital Zuiko 35-100mm f2 lens

Body Painting - World Cup Flags

Body painting on a group of naked Asian women with world cup flags.

Body Painting - I Love Animal Rescue

Body painting on nude woman with I Love Animal Rescue as the theme. Stunning. Lucky dog bone.

Body Painting - Leopard Pattern

Body painting on naked woman with leopard skin pattern.

Body Painting - Japanese Manga

First series on body painting of Japanese Manga. Clever use of the breasts as the eyes.

Nelly Furtado at MuchMusic. I was under the impression she was launching a CD for herself, but it turns out that this appearance was merely to lend her fame to a recently signed band on her own label.
First time with the 35-100mm f2 shooting at the MuchMusic studio. It's a perfect focal length from where we are allowed to shoot.

After the shoot at Much I hiked it down to Habourfront Centre's Enwave Theatre - such is the traffic situation Toronto it's not even worth taking the car downtown most the time - to shoot Melanie Doane' guest appearance with The Art Of Time Ensemble.
One of my favourite groups, this ensemble consists of an ever shifting cast of gifted musicians who will offer up a classical concert one performance and morph into a jazz group, or integrate dance into the next.

Led by master pianist Andrew Burashko, The Art Of Time are one of the gems of the Toronto music scene.
This evening they were doing very different arrangements on classic popular Canadian songs, with Melanie Doane handling the vocals.

Seen above, she opens the show with a beautiful slow arrangement, bathed in nostalga, of Kim Mitchell's Patio Lanterns that was unlike any other version you've ever heard of that song.
The 35-100mm f2 is a bit too short in this circumstance and some cropping was required on the final image.

Then from Enwave Theatre I walked back up Bay St. in the dying evening light for a late dress rehearsal of The National Ballet of Canada's production of Giselle.

This was the farewell performance for Principal Dancer Chan Han Goh after a twenty year career with The National Ballet. At their season announcement last Feb. Karen Kain had tears in her eyes as she broke the news of Chan Han Goh's leaving.
The performance itself was quite beautiful. Nice and fluid, easy to anticipate where things were going, unlike a lot of contemporary dance.
This is where I really fell in love with the 35-100mm. Absolutely perfect range of focal lengths to cover a performance like this, and it's high speed optics came in handy during the darker moments.

Next day, Mandy Moore, at Much again.
She's actually more beautiful in person, although I think she photographs very well. Quite tall, with statuesque model proportions. She seemed very friendly and down to earth when talking to the host.

Next night The Toronto Criterion Bike Race.

A fun shoot, I brought along my folding step stool ( a vital part of every photographer's kit and only $15 at Canadian Tire!) to sit on so I could shoot the race through the bars of the safety fence. With bike racing the action is in the corners.
Here I'm using the 1.4 teleconverter on the 35-100mm, and it's a very nice combo for framing in tight on the rider's faces, or widening out to include more of the location in the background.

The fellow in the middle was the ultimate winner with the rider in greenand white behind coming in third.

Lastly, DesiFest at Yonge Dundas Square. With a gloomy looking sky and low clouds threatening rain, I decided to zip down there and cover the afternoon concerts and activities in the square before the skies opened up.
Turned out to be a good decision as the evening portion of the one day festival was a pretty wet affair.
Here some traditional dancers wait off stage, preparing to go on with a Desi-style rapper. It was an interesting cultural mash-up, and I found myself really getting into the music.

This is a fun, friendly festival. Very colourful, and the music whether traditional or contemporary Indian Pop or Rap, was really enjoyable. It's the third edition of DesiFest. I haven't photographed it since the first, and was impressed with how far it has come from it's beginnings.

All photos done with the Olympus E30 w/ 35-100mm f2 and 50-200mm 2.8 Digital Zuiko lenses.

Global On Magazine