So .. it's the end of another month and in this little corner of Ren' that means it's time to nurture a budding tradition, the monthly Curtain Call of models featured over the previous weeks. Well, sort of "featured." I do this to allow a chance to see some of the alternate possibilities which might have been featured portraits. For the sake of those newer visitors and to refresh the memory of you ol' timers, here's how the whole thing came to be back on August 31st:

Earlier today I was going through the project folders for all the images I completed in August. I burn archival discs for each month's creative output no matter the medium. What struck me while reviewing the images not selected as "finals" was how many could have just as easily been the chosen one. I am sure this is true for many; choosing one of several possible candidates to present as a finished image. Working in photography was always like this, selecting One image from a day's shoot and several rolls of film. The choice is not always made on a "Best" scale but often the final is the image which most clearly communicates what the photographer was trying to say from the start or what the client required. With Poser I find myself falling back on methods and habits built up over years of working in photography. I throw away an awful lot. Much of this I literally throw away; rendering, but never saving off a copy of the render. There are other instances, however, when a render strikes me as really good but ends up not being the one I choose to work on as a final image. Revisiting with these second-choice renders today I was moved to give them some kind of exposure, as I really felt they deserved to be seen as much as the versions which ended up being posted to the gallery. Thinking about how to show these alternate portraits an idea came to mind of creating a "Curtain Call" image for the models I worked with over the past month. Hence, all this back-story to the image above. Each of the five renders in this image are as they came out of Poser during the original session. I did not re-open any pmd files. I can't tell you why I chose one over the other from today. You will find all of the alternates to these five portraits within the gallery. I decided not to name who is who. A couple are easily obvious but I thought some people might like to go back and forth and puzzle it out for fun. What I decided while putting this together is that I will do this at the end of each month as a kind of tradition. It was fun so why not make it a regular feature! If someone really likes one of these alternates over the original I might consider a request to call the model back and return to the studio. But ... you all know how it goes ... there's always some new delightful inspiration calling us ever on to new creations. So if you really want to see some more possibilities with a particular portrait ... make noise.

So that's how it started and it does seem to be something that will appear here at the end of each month going forward. I hope you enjoy viewing these as much as I enjoyed bringing them together! Happy Halloween!! Terry August 2009 Curtain Call September 2009 Curtain Call