The Photographic Magic of Tiger Lee
By Christine Market Lampe in No Quarter Given March/April 2008 Issue
Tiger Lee has made a specialty of showing up where ever pirates congregate, and photographing them. Tiger blends right in, for he is a pirate re-enactor himself, often dressing up as an Asian pirate long before “At World’s End” brought Asian pirates to the forefront of pirate consciousness.
He makes wondrous photographic shots in his portable ramshackle studio. He brings racks full of costumes for those who don’t bring their own swashbuckling attire, and has barrels and crates of props & weapons to help embellish and tell a story with images he captures. For the basic ‘pirate photos”, Tiger takes several shots, in different poses, using a variety of props or weapons. He has an eye for posing people in strong, fun, or even rough and threatening postures. Afterwards, the customer can view the images on computer screen and pick their favorites. Five-by-seven inch prints are made while the customer waits (or returns a little later in the day), and put into handsome sleeves for protection. Larger prints can be ordered as well.
For those who really want to make an impression, Tiger can make a “Pirate Portrait”. Starting with a great photo, he can add extra dimensions through the addition of special backgrounds, or text overlays to make a wated poster or movie poster with you as the “star”. He can enhance colors, remove colors for a sepiatone, add texture or hand- painting, and give an period antique look to your ‘painted’ portrait.
As he travels to many pirate events around the U.S. and even abroad, you might easily encounter Tiger sometime at your local pirate event. You can see a schedule of his planned events on his website. Arrangements can also be made for him to come to private parties or special events.
Capt. Michael and I had individual photos of us made at PyrateCon 2007. Tiger also took shots of the “Pyrate Royal Court”, of which we were a part (see the photo in the Jan. 2007 NQG issue).
At later events, Tiger has made photographs of our granddaughters. You can see one of them on the NQG website homepage. Though a little nervous, he readily put them at ease, and they had lots of fun posing with is various props, especially the rum bottle. A portrait of one of the girls, Powdermonkey Jack, is amongst the photos Tiger usually hangs up as display samples. Just look for the seven-year-old blond imp.
Las Dec., Tiger brought his pirate photo booth to the Buccaneer’s Ball in Glendale, AZ. Many of the Arizona Corsairs lined up to be immortalized by Tiger’s magic. By their onesies, and twosies, and even as whole crews, they waited their turn while enjoying watching those going before them ... Black Bonnie Mulligan was one of them. She told us, “I got my picture taken by him [Tiger] at the Buccaneers Ball and also I got a crew photo from him at the Yuma Ren Faire. I think he’s great, and he makes it a lot of fun, even for camera-shy pirates like myself... I think highly of him and plan to get more pictures from him at future events.”
Barbossa (Larry Dillie), another Arizona Corsair, reported, “Meeting Tiger was a joy. Tiger has great personality that makes you feel relaxed while he takes lots of pictures. The portrait he took of me with my lovely wife was awesome. It sits above our fire place and everyone comments about it when they come over.”
Learn more about the Pirate Photos & Portraits at: Pirate-Portraits.com
Tiger is also famous ... or probably more accurately, infamous ... for his “Hot Pirate Babes” Calendars. His first one came out in 2007. To find his models for the calendar, Tiger holds Hot Pirate Babe [Model Search] Contests at various events he attends, including the first PyrateCon. The events are just as fun for the spectators (maybe even more so) than for the contestants. He is just now finishing the masters for the 2009 calendar, so it will be available around the end of summer. Learn more about the calendars, and the 2010 model search at: Hot Pirate Babes.Com