I decided this past week to attempt to travel via air with a decent approximation of a portrait photo studio packed neatly into my standard luggage. Since the airlines limit standard baggage to 50lbs it was a challenge. I was in Milwaukee for an auto show for ten days and had to pack normal clothing and supplies for that time in my checked luggage too.

Utilizing a bit of creativity, I was able to fit the following into my checked luggage: six t-shirts, ten boxer-shorts (answers that question), 11 pairs of socks, two pairs of dress shoes (required by contract), two vests, five dress shirts, two pairs of jeans, one leather belt, a set of scrubs with lab coat (always good to have on hand), track pants, slippers (a bit of home), and a dopp-kit. That wasn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is that I could fit in all my tertiary photo equipment: two light stands, a 24″ softbox with mount adapter, 18″ octagon,  48″ 5-way bounce, reflector clamp arm, 24″ 5-way bounce, 2 light-stand flash adapters, a wired mouse (for comfortable editing), and laptop tray (so I don’t overheat my baby while processing huge files). The whole checked bag, when packed, weighed in at only 46lbs and could be tossed around or stacked during transit without damaging anything. The interesting part is that the Dakine bag weighs at least eleven pounds when empty.

In my carry-on pelican case I packed all the secondary equipment like the tripod, secondary flashes, clamps, modifiers, adapters, batteries, chargers, and laptop. I also carry a Tenba Ultralight in which I pack my primary camera and gear including a secondary body, three lenses, my favorite flash, and a king size black sheet to use as a temporary backdrop or light flag. I packed the black temporary backdrop under the assumption that the hotel I was staying in would use white sheets, and that I could scavenge one to use as a white backdrop. The pelican case weighs in around forty pounds and the backpack is easily thirty. In case I have to gate-check the case, due to the jet’s size, I can remove the laptop and lock it. Everything else tumbles without damage.

This is the set-up I achieved in my hotel room.

I really only brought the equipment as a trial to see if I could. I figured it was better to try it in a no-pressure situation before committing to a future client (like you? ). I know I could always shoot on-site without the extra flashes, stands, and such by utilizing a local setting and daytime lighting, but there are no guarantees in weather forecasting.

At the top is one of the test shots I took of myself on the black background. I was just getting a bit goofy. Thankfully, I told my coworkers, in advance, that I planned on bringing my gear. I had a couple willing volunteers to test the set-up in exchange for free photos. As of writing this I haven’t touched up everybody’s favorites (’cause they haven’t picked them yet), but Heather of HeatherSkipper.com has agreed to let me use one of the shots as an example of the travel studio when used on someone more beautious than myself.

Hopefully, I’ll see you on the road in the future. I’ll be in Minneapolis this coming week and many other locations in the following months. If you’d like to discuss any photo projects you might need a shooter for, let’s talk. Just send me a note by way of the e-mails. info@jondeckerphoto.com

This week’s featured creative is Ay-leen the Peacemaker, editor of Beyond Victoriana and social media manager for Tor.com Steampunk. Ay-leen has also toured with The Wandering Legion of the Thomas Tew speaking at conventions and festivals about the exploration of multiculturalism within the Steampunk genre.

I saw Ay-leen the Peacemaker for the first time at the 2011 Steampunk World’s Faire and later met her at the signing of “The Steampunk Bible” in Manhattan at which she discussed her contribution to the book and her discourse on minorities and Steampunk. Her pursuit of equality within the Steampunk community sparked my curiosity and I decided to research her work further. Where other enthusiasts focus on the art, music, or makery fostered by the steampunk community, Ay-leen has chosen to examine the relationship between industrialization and culture as seen in the Victorian era and colonialism. I find this study of technology and culture fascinating and look forward to reading Ay-Leen’s exposition on the topic as it relates to Steampunk’s “fight the system” mentality. Ay-leen states that “talking about the tensions between technology and how it changes society is what fascinates me most about the [Steampunk] genre.”

Ay-leen has written for several publications including Beyond Victoriana and is a contributor in “The Steampunk Bible.” Ay-leen is also actively raising funds for relief aid in Japan, in association with Rising Phoenix Circle and Shelterbox, an international aid organization. Their goal is to raise $3,000 by the end of Labor day weekend, 2011.

In 2009 Ay-Leen was studying 19th century literature, during which her fiancé introduced Ay-Leen to the 19th century aesthetics of the Steampunk genre.

“To be honest, the impression I got was [that] this was a form of LARPing (Live Action Role Play) where people dressed up in pretty clothes, and I wasn’t too keen on making myself a steampunk character by ‘pretending to be British.’ I had asked a friend, out of curiosity, about the role colonialism played in steampunk and she replied with, ‘Oh, of course you can use the colonies in steampunk. For example, even though we’re Americans, we can still pretend that America was part of the colonies.’ Which, wasn’t the response I was looking for at all!  It did inspire me, however, to create a steampunk character that fought against European colonialism and rooted it in my own family’s Vietnamese history. Thus, Ay-leen the Peacemaker was born. My first foray into the genre was as a type of performance. As a cosplayer… with a background in political theater, I was particularly interested in creating a character that could both be over-the-top and ridiculous, but also provide commentary about the romanticization of [the] empire that I saw many other Steampunks becoming involved in at the time.”

Since discovering Steampunk and developing her genre character, Ay-leen began discussing race relations and the idealized colonialism of the Victorian era: “After Racefail2009, there was a lot of talk flying in the sci-fi/fantasy community about how marginalized… fans of color [were] treated in fandom spaces, and that discussion was the primarily motivator behind the creation of Beyond Victoriana, a blog about multicultural steampunk.”

Conference panels based on subjects from Beyond Victoriana; “Steam Around the World” and “Envisioning a Better Steam Society,” in association with author Jaymee Goh, were premiered at The Steampunk World’s Faire in 2010. Also, the recent inclusion of Ay-Leen the Peacemaker in “The Steampunk Bible” and her speeches given at an assortment of Steampunk conferences have cemented Ay-leen’s reputation within the community as a voice for the marginalized peoples of the fandom.

Ay-leen plans on re-entering academia this summer in pursuit of a degree in Steampunk as a performative identity and will be “published in the academic anthology Fashion Talks by SUNY Press in 2012.” She also has several current projects in the works including the Rising Phoenix Circle relief fund and a yet-to-be-announced collaborative photography project to be shown at a gallery in New York. “Academically,” she adds,  “I [also] hope to get some more papers about steampunk & performance out.”

To find out more about Ay-leen the Peacemaker, her ideas and creativity, check out Beyond Victoriana. Ay-leen can also be contacted via Facebook or the Twitters. Get involved with Ay-leen’s current Japan relief aid project by surfing over to the Rising Phoenix Circle and picking up a set of Steampunk buttons.

Here on “Grasping @ Creativity” I highlight a creative individual at least once a month with the hope of inspiring readers in their own pursuit of creativity. These highlighted individuals have all inspired me at various times in my life, whether through their creations or through their philosophy. It is my hope that readers will find these articles both interesting and informative, a source of inspiration, and a resource for initiating their own creative endeavors

This week’s featured creative is Margaret Killjoy, author of the book “A Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse” and publisher with Combustion Books. His new book “What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower” is available on AK Press.

I first heard of “A Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse” on a genre forum I happened across a while ago, and someone there was kind enough to post a link to the book’s pdf version (released under creative commons licensing), which can now be found in the downloads section of the SteamPunk Magazine website. The guide is a tongue-in-cheek (but well researched) look at the necessities of life in a post-culture society. I found the book both entertaining and fascinating as a reference for DIY living and for old-school off-grid construction.  Chapter four was rather entertaining with its descriptions of defense strategies, including trebuchet building and cipher coding; and I’d like to actually try some ideas in chapter three’s section on vertical farming, which I think could work well in the limited living spaces here in Brooklyn. The book is full of all sorts of creative tips that could be practical, even without waiting for the world to come to an end first.

Margaret Killjoy is a prolific creative: in addition to his Steampunk writing, he is also known for his art, design, and activism as a nomadic Anarchist. His book “Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction” is a collection of interviews with a cross-section of science fiction writers describing their political views and how those views affect their writing. There is a selected chapter of the book available for download via Strangers in a Tanlged Wilderness publishing. Killjoy’s current bibliography includes “A Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse”, “What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower”, “Mythmakers and Lawbreakers”, “Being the Adventures of One Fine Summer”, “Miti e Molotov #1″ and “Miti e Molotov #2″, as well as his articles in SteamPunk Magazine and other ‘zines.

Margaret Killjoy first discovered the Steampunk genre back in 2004:

“I was living in a squatted tenement building in the south Bronx. There was an anarchist paper in the city at the time, the New York Rat. While searching around the website that hosted it, I ran across some steampunk writings by ‘The Catastrophone Orchestra,’ including the manifesto that we published as ‘Colonizing The Past So We Can Dream The Future’ in the first issue of SteamPunk Magazine a few years later. It intrigued me: just crazy enough to be interesting, and it spoke to an aesthetic I’d long been fond of, of clanking gear machines and mad scientists hellbent on liberation.”

After discovering Steampunk, Killjoy and his friends designed several Steampunk inspired drum machines and “cabinet-sized music boxes” to use for busking (a form of street performance). His first official Steampunk-themed writing was for the website Steamy Punk.   He then took the aesthetic to another level by founding SteamPunk Magazine as an “outlet for all the crazy stuff” he was writing at the time. SteamPunk Magazine was soon picked up by the UK based publishing collective Vagrants Among Ruins and back issues are now available for download or printed order via their website.  I originally came across Margaret Killjoy’s work via SteamPunk Magazine back in 2009.  The magazine included original works of fiction, poetry, comic strips, interviews with featured artists and (my personal favorite) how-to guides.

Killjoy seems to enjoy Steampunk for its DIY ingenuity in design and mechanical engineering, beyond the iconic goggles and gears, and I have to say I agree. I also enjoy stories that use Steampunk in science fiction to explore mechanical alternate histories, parallel realities, or potential post-apocalyptic futures. As Killjoy points out, “(Steampunk’s) not just an excuse to wear silly clothes… it is an opportunity to question the whole of western history and humanity’s interaction with technology.”

“Now, don’t get me wrong,” he adds, “I love the clothes too.”

Currently, Margaret Killjoy is working on several new projects including a feature-length narrative film. He has also started writing again for the possible resurrection of the long-dormant SteamPunk Magazine, which he still claims as his favorite Steampunk project to date.

“Some of the pieces we published are absolutely some of the most important theoretical texts that shape my own thinking: the original steampunk manifesto we published, ‘My Machine, My Comrade,’ which addresses the ways that we as humans interact with machinery, and a piece on the nature of ‘progress’ as defined by western society that tears open the myth that, for example, the fixed-wing aircraft is superior to airships.”

I’m looking forward to the possible return of the bi-annual SteamPunk Magazine. In fact, I may consider submitting a couple DIY guides of my own if the publishers send out a request for submissions again. One way or another, it was interesting getting to meet Margaret Killjoy and seeing his creativity first hand.

Killjoy’s most recent book “What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower” was released on May 26, 2011 and is currently available for order via Combustion Books.

To find out more about Margaret Killjoy, his past works and future projects, please check out his blog at Birds Before the Storm. Killjoy can also be found on Flickr and the Twitters, and for his published works peruse Combustion Books.

Here on “Grasping @ Creativity” I feature at least one creative each month with the hope of inspiring readers in their own pursuit of creativity. These highlighted individuals have all influenced me at various times in my life, whether through their creations or through their philosophy. It is my hope that readers will find these articles both interesting and informative, a source of inspiration, and a resource for initiating their own creative endeavors.

This month’s featured creative is Art Donovan of Donovan Design and curator of “Steampunk: Devices + Contraptions Extraordinaire” at the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford, UK.  His new book “The Art of Steampunk: Extraordinary Devices and Ingenious Contraptions from the Leading Artists of the Steampunk Movement” is available on Amazon.com – currently “pre-order” status.

I came across Art Donovan’s work in 2007 via an article on “Brass Goggles”, the UK based Steampunk blog. Along with several other artists creating new Steampunk flavored designs, Donovan’s clock and lamp designs caught my eye because of their inherent craftsmanship and implementation. Where other start-up Steampunk artists are categorized more in the collage or patchwork art domain, Donovan’s art is derived from a background in interior lighting design and detailed craftsmanship. Donovan’s pieces are not only hand crafted, but more often than not made from scratch, which I find much more inspiring than the scavenging and re-purposing often attributed to Steampunk art.

Art Donovan designs for a variety of clients, most of whom are not Steampunk related. This pre-existing design background is what gives Donovan the sharply unique, custom-manufactured look that I find so appealing. His company Donovan Design was established in 1990 as a contract and residential lighting design house. Donovan’s designs have a heavy dose of Art Deco stylization which I attribute to his early influences from working with Donald Deskey, designer of Radio City Music Hall.

Art Donovan discovered the Steampunk genre in August of 2007.

“It was the most exciting new style that I had seen in over 30 years as a designer. Steampunk combined all of the interests that I ever had- science fact, speculative fiction, early sci-fi films, history, antique technologies, Jules Verne novels… It was even more surprising to discover that Steampunk embraced such unexpected things as arcane spiritualities, traditional Victorian manners and everything else that was thriving in culture of the late 19th and early 20th century.”

After discovering Steampunk, Donovan created two introductory pieces, a distressed brass clock and a Steampunk style table lamp, both of which were featured in several Steampunk blogs including Brass Goggles. His next more elaborate piece, the Siddhartha Pod Lamp, cemented his name in the minds of Steampunk fans across the globe and catapulted his design career into the Steampunk world. Donovan was recently dubbed the “world authority on the visual genre of Steampunk” and is continuing to expand his line of designs.

Much of his fanfare comes from Donovan’s having been curator of the “Steampunk: Devices + Contraptions Extraordinaire” exhibit at the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford, UK. The exhibit brought the Steampunk genre to light in the art community, and showcased the high quality artistic creations emerging within the genre. Donovan also recently wrote his own review of the experience, in which he stated, “True Steampunk would be an artifact of grace and artistic ingenuity.  It would at first pay homage to the antique arts and sciences but ultimately point to a ideal or concept  greater than itself.”  This “artistic ingenuity” is the very aspect of Steampunk art that drew me into the aesthetic so many years ago, and I think Donovan makes a good point when describing Steampunk as an “artifact of grace and artistic ingenuity” rather than as a simple label, which I find even more appealing when tempered by a studied application of craftsmanship and pre-conceived design.

Art Donovan has new book coming out soon that promises to be a very informative look at the Steampunk art community. “The Art of Steampunk: Extraordinary Devices and Ingenious Contraptions from the Leading Artists of the Steampunk Movement” will soon be available on Amazon.com, and I highly recommend you take a look at it when it arrives. More information about Art Donovan can also be found at his blog “Art Donovan: Steampunk Art + Design.”

Here on “Grasping @ Creativity” I highlight a creative each month with the hope of inspiring readers in their own pursuit of creativity. These highlighted individuals have all inspired me at various times in my life, whether through their creations or through their philosophy. It is my hope that readers will find these articles both interesting and informative, a source of inspiration, and a resource for initiating their own creative endeavors.