Le Poivron Rouge

Just a girl from a small town who ended up living on the wrong side of the tracks. The red pepper district, to be specific. Through no fault of her own, really. But a girl must make a living somehow. I think I'll call her . . . Roxxxxxxxxxxxxanne.

The soundtrack: El Tango de Roxanne, from Moulin Rouge. And a bonus track: The Police, with Roxanne.

Technical notes (aka, behind the scenes on a Dancing Girls/Crittergator photo shoot):

1. I tried this shot before, but my red pepper was too skinny and so it ended up looking weird. Also, the prior pepper was uneven, so I had to prop it up with a water bottle lid, which showed in the photo. Dang. Try, try again.

2. When shooting using a Dancing Girl as a model, it is best to pluck the Dancing Girl from the fuchsia plant (gently, carefully, just a fingernail will do it) and soak the green tip (head) in water at least several hours. This will soften it up and make the petals a little less pert, so the skirts will be easier to position when photographing. You can keep the blooms up to a day or two when they've been stored in water, but be careful when pulling them out after a day or more, as the green heads tend to pop off quite easily! Also, be sure to wipe any water droplets off the Dancing Girls before shooting.

3. The red pepper is sweating a bit because it just came out of the fridge. First, I cut the pepper, and I did one shoot with a Dancing Girl, but she was a bit too large to fit the window/hole I had made in the pepper. I stowed the pepper in the fridge thinking I might try another variation later. And so I did. And it turns out that a much smaller Dancing Girl fit better in the slot I had made. (Both small and large Dancing Girls are reclining in a comfortable space at home, even as I type this. They are on standby, in case I need them for further shoots.)

4. Try and try again. You might think that it would be easier to shoot with models such as these. However, the Dancing Girls keep jumping off the peppers. Fortunately, the Crittergators are standing by below, on guard, and they caught them . . . every . . . single . . . time. Number of pictures taken to achieve this one Blip? 109 shots. Number of photos with a Tabbycat photobombing the scene: 2 (much, MUCH lower than usual).

5. I am saving the red pepper in case I want to try another variation on this theme. I put it back in the fridge and asked my husband please not to eat it. (Husband: *eyeroll; disapproving look* "WHAT ARE YOU DOING PLAYING WITH THE FOOD AGAIN!?") However, I suspect he may want a vegetable omelet for his breakfast on this day and I am not home to defend the pepper. So I fear the worst. My husband - what can I say - he has no respect for the arts.

6. Oh, and the glamorous "studio" of this erstwhile (low-budget) photographer consists of (are you ready for this?) two pieces of blue paper set up on our bathroom sink (bathroom = best light in the house). Hey, back in the VERY beginning, we didn't even have two pieces of blue paper to rub together!

Possibly related Blips:
Our green (and red) peppers are guarded by the fiercest of butterflies.
The Dancing Girl who lived in a green pepper
The Dancing Girls: apartment living
A glimpse behind the scenes: the Dancing Girls in the Festive Pumpkin photo shoot