Exposed For The Shadows

This Is The End, My Friends

2010-06-02T17:34:00.002-04:00

To see new blog posts go to my new blog here: http://davelevingston.com/blog/

This is the end of posts on this blog. But not the end of the blog. I've just had it with blogspot. I have a new website and it has a blog incorporated into it. So that's where you'll need to go to continue to read my ramblings and see what I've been shooting lately.

I had been thinking about getting the blog off blogspot ever since google started with the "I understand and I want to continue" bullshit. And in more recent days I've found this blog no longer appears on google searches. It seems the folks at google have decided to start deciding for us what we can see when we do a search. Of course, they've always done that, but at one time it was not done in a way that resulted in defacto censorship.

I fear google has become too large and successful, and thus fallen victim to the fate of all large, successful organizations. The original energy and idealism of google is gone...it is now just another large corporation whose main purpose is preserving itself and growing at the expense of anything that doesn't contribute to that. The old motto, "Do no evil" is just words now, with nothing behind them.

It's sad, but inevitable. Blogspot belongs to google and they can run it as they please. And I can chose to be somewhere else. Thus is life.

So come see me at the new blog...and while you are there poke around the site a bit and let me know what you think of it. A good friend built it for me and I'm very pleased with what she has done. As of this post it is still a bit under construction, but it's coming along nicely in my opinion.

Gallery Provocateur

2010-05-30T22:55:00.003-04:00

Last night was the opening of my show at Gallery Provocateur. It was a great night with the gallery packed with people all evening. I'm so used to openings where a dozen or so people wander in throughout the evening that the crowds that Veronika always seems to be able to draw for her gallery shows are always a pleasant surprise.

Among the folks who were at the opening were my friend Dave Swanson and the lovely model Sarah, seen beside my part of the show in the photo above.

The opening was also a launch party for f-eleven, Volume 2, a book with some of my photos along with a bunch of really fine photographers. In the photo above is Roman, one of the other photographers in Vol. 2, Mariah who is in Vol. 2 and was also in the show at the gallery, a model who was hanging out at the gallery...can't remember her name..., and Ken who is also in Vol. 2 and the gallery show. Note that the gallery encourages "creative attire" which Mariah took to a lovely extreme.

Another feature of the evening was a beautiful slide show of photos from f-eleven, Volume 2. I also took my copies of both Vol. 1 and 2 and put them out for folks to look through. That's Roman's self-portrait from Vol. 2 on the screen.

Up Close With Angie

2010-05-25T15:14:00.003-04:00

Here's a shot of Angie in my studio where I continue to play around with lighting in the new setting. Angie wanted some more classic figure photos for her portfolio, so, of course, I shot some for her. I'm usually not too enthusiastic about those pretty standard studio nudes, but every once in a while, with a great model like Angie, it's possible to do something that I like. That's what happened here.

Don't forget about the show opening this Saturday at Gallery Provocateur in Chicago. I hope to see a lot of friends there.

And bring your copies of the f-eleven books, both volume 1 and volume 2, and get them signed by several of the photographers in the book, including me.

Chicago Show Coming Soon

2010-05-20T18:24:00.006-04:00

Just over a week to go until the opening of my show in Chicago at Gallery Provocateur. That show has been keeping me busy getting my prints ready, and now I'll be spending a lot of time in Chicago. The first opening is Saturday night, May 29. I'll be there. And there's a second opening the following Saturday, June 5. I'll be there for that opening too. If you can make it to the show please come by and say hello.

The show at Gallery Provocateur is also serving as a launch party for the f-eleven Volume 2 book of photographs. That book as well as Volume 1, is still on sale. Bring your copies to the gallery opening and you'll be able to get autographs from several of the participating photographers, including, of course, yours truly. For more information about the f-eleven books please visit the f-eleven books site.

Both of the openings should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.

Kelsey in NUDE Photographed by Carrie Leigh

2010-05-17T09:14:00.004-04:00

That's one of my favorite models, Kelsey Dylan, as she appears in the new issue of Carrie Leigh's NUDE magazine. The photo was taken by Carrie Leigh herself http://www.carrieleigh.com/ If you'd like to have your own copy of this issue of NUDE, pre-orders are available until May 21st at http://www.carrieleigh.com/Nstrbckiss.html

Kelsey is a great model and a delightful young woman. I was looking forward to working with her again in Seattle, but had to cancel that trip. I hope we'll get the chance to make some more art together this summer when she is back in Ohio for a couple months.

In other news, I went to Chicago over the weekend (up and back in one day...12 hours of driving) to drop off my prints for a gallery show that will be opening on Saturday, May 29 at Gallery Provocateur. There will be a second opening on June 5. If you are in the Chicago area please try to come by and say hello. There will be a lot of art on display thanks to the several fine artists participating in this show. Hope to see you there.

The show at Gallery Provocateur is also serving as a launch party for the f-eleven Volume 2 book of photographs. That book as well as Volume 1, is still on sale. Bring your copies to the gallery opening and you'll be able to get autographs from several of the participating photographers, including, of course, yours truly. For more information about the f-eleven books please visit the f-eleven books site.

It's Personal

2010-05-10T23:27:00.006-04:00

No photo today. This isn't about photography.

And that's not how I do things here. I started this blog as a place to show my recent photo work and talk about what I was doing with photography. I'm not big on putting a lot about my personal life on line. But I feel I need to make an exception, so here goes.

I've received a lot of very nice messages and comments expressing condolences on the death of my father. Your thoughts and thoughtfulness are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, my situation is not typical and most likely not what most of you are thinking it is. So I feel the need to explain a bit.

My father and I were not close. In fact, he wasn't my birth father. My mother married her second husband when I was about two years old. He adopted me. But he never treated me as his son. I was just an obligation he took on when he married my mother. As a child I didn't have the tools to understand, but I knew something wasn't right.

As I grew up there were many conflicts between my father and myself. Eventually I started to be aware of him being cruel and abusive toward my children and I stopped taking my children to visit him. That also cut my kids off from contact with their grandmother, but I wasn't going to allow my father to do emotional and spiritual harm to my children.

After my children had pretty much grown up I started to visit again, and even encouraged my children to visit, although they seldom did because of the toxic environment surrounding my father.

My mother died about 5 years ago. In the aftermath of my father's death I learned, to no real surprise, that he had removed me from his will after my mother's death. One final hurt delivered from beyond the grave.

The financial impact of that is insignificant. The insult to my mother is troubling. If I believed in heaven it would be fun to imagine her up there kicking his ass. But my children assure me that they know they have something that I have never had: a father who cares deeply about them and loves them unconditionally. So it was a small price to pay to keep them safe from the hurtfulness that I've had to deal with throughout my life.

So, this has been a very complicated time of grief, but also of bonding within the healthy and loving family I've created. Creating that family was a challenge for me since I had no role model for how to be a good father.

It's been very hard for me to focus on much other than this for the past couple weeks. But the storm is clearing and I'm going to be getting back to work and back to blogging. I'll have new things here again soon.

I'm concerned that this all sounds whiny and complaining. I don't want it to sound that way. There are huge numbers of people in this world who have much more to complain about. My issues are minor in comparison. I am fortunate to have a loving wife and wonderful children. I am who I am because of all the things that have happened in my life, including my relationship with my father. And I'm pretty happy with who I am and the life I've made for myself. So I really don't want to complain.

Quoting from the Desiderata:

"...Be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world."

Thank you all for being a part of my life and for caring. I've always been a little suspicious of the whole on-line friend thing, but over time I've met a lot of my on-line friends in person and I have yet to be disappointed in the people behind the web presences. You are all a bunch of great folks. Thanks.

Washed Up

2010-05-03T14:32:00.003-04:00

Here's another photo of the fantastic Angie. A couple weeks ago we went out looking for wild flower photos. We shot some, but we also did this one...another naked chick on rocks photo. This is the one I ended up liking best from the shoot. Maybe I'll get wild flower photos next spring.

It's a difficult time for me right now, dealing with the death of my father and all that that means. I'm having a hard time being interested in blogging right now. But I'm planning some photo therapy through a couple shoots this week to try to get my mind off all the other things, so I hope that will inspire some new posts with some new photos.

Man Plans; God Laughs

2010-04-27T11:14:00.004-04:00

Things have changed overnight. I won't be going to Seattle. My father died last night.

That's Angie up there, struggling with the darkness.

A Feather In Her Cap

2010-04-25T16:05:00.005-04:00

Still playing around now and then with the cyc in the new studio, trying to figure out the best way to use my lighting gear in this new environment. _G_ came in to pose for me a week or so ago and brought this variation on the outfit she wore to the Dirty Show last fall. The variation being that she wore pasties to the show. I wanted to shoot the outfit in the studio because I thought it would be a good way to show off the beautiful detail in that skirt...not to mention the beautiful detail in _G_.

I've been refining the lighting setup since I did this photo. It's all working pretty well for me now. More to come.

Meanwhile I've been getting ready for the trip to Seattle this week. Sorting out equipment and rain gear (it is Seattle...rain gear is essential). Should be a good trip with fun at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival and some good shooting in the great rain forest there. Not looking forward to having to fly again, but I'll deal with it. I'll be at the artist's reception on Thursday night and the festival on Friday, so if you are going to the show try to find me and say hello.

And I'm going to be meeting some good on-line friends in person for the first time, so that's a great bonus for this trip. I should have photographic evidence of all the goings-on out there on the blog by this time next week.

It's The Bee's Knees

2010-04-22T14:47:00.006-04:00

That's what Angie thinks of the new f-eleven volume 2 that she's checking out in this photo. Do you have your copy yet? Better go to that link and buy one while you can. By the way, Angie is in two photos in vol. 2, in my self-portrait and also in my friend, Dave Rudin's self-portrait.

Sorry I've not been posting much lately. Getting ready for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival and for my upcoming gallery show in Chicago at Gallery Provocateur has been taking up most of my time.

And, of course, there was the trip to the eye doctor for that wonderful laser treatment. It wasn't bad at all. Once he started zapping my eye it only took about 5 minutes to do the full 100 zaps. It didn't hurt at the time, although for the next couple days my eye felt a bit irritated, kind of like I had gotten poked in the eye with a stick, or that I'd had something in my eye for a while. But that feeling is all gone now. I go back in a few weeks for a follow-up where I'll find out if the treatment worked and the pressure in that eye is lowered.

So now I'm starting to think about packing for Seattle. I'm working on the assumption that it will be raining while I'm there. That will give me a chance to work in bad weather, which always seems to result in the best photos. But I have to take extra pains to keep the gear at least dry enough to survive and be used another day. Except for one new piece of equipment that arrived yesterday. I now have one of those waterproof point-and-shoot cameras. If the weather is really bad out there I'll just shoot with it. And in the future when I want to go for a jaunt in a kayak or run around in the surf to take some shots, I won't have to worry about ruining the Nikon if anything goes wrong. I had considered getting the waterproof housing for my Canon S90, but this camera was actually less expensive than the housing, so I went with it.

Things may slow down just a bit now, at least until I catch that flight to Seattle. So maybe I'll make a few new posts before I leave. Or not...

Changes

2010-04-14T13:46:00.004-04:00

Well, it looks like I've set a new record. I think this is the longest period of time I've gone without a post here since I started the blog. Sorry about that. I'll let you in on a few of the reasons.

Let's start with my web site. It's gone. One day it was there, the next it was completely gone. Not even able to get it in google cache. Poof, no more. I'm not actually surprised. The webmaster is in Germany and it has been years since he has done so much as respond to an e-mail. I'm sure he has just moved on to other things and finally did away with the web space that I and a bunch of other photographers had been using with his web design.

So, I've been trying to figure out what to do. I've set up a temporary site using google sites. The website link to the right here will now take you to that site. It aint pretty, but it's functional and looks as good as I could make it look using the amazingly awful templates and tools available from google. Seriously, if google had something that was even remotely decent I'd just keep the site there, but it sucks so bad that I can't see doing that. I'm really surprised that google can't do any better than that. WYS aint WYG over there.

My friend Dave Rudin is in the same boat as me because his site was at the same place and also vanished. In fact, it was Dave who sent me a message telling me my site was gone when this happened. He has built a new site using GoDaddy templates that looks pretty good. I'm thinking I might just do the same thing. I'll let you know, of course, when I figure this out.

In other news, I finally got my prints shipped out to the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. I'll be going out to attend the artist's reception and will be at the festival on Friday night. I'll also be meeting up with some friends and doing some shooting while I'm out there. This will be my first visit to Seattle, and my first chance to meet in person some folks I've known on line for quite a while, so I'm really looking forward to the trip.

Now that I've finished the work to get things ready and shipped to Seattle I'm starting work on the prints for my next show, opening in Chicago at Gallery Provocateur on Memorial Day weekend, with a second opening the following Saturday night. I'll be there for both of those openings.

There's also been non-photo stuff going on that has kept me away from the blog. We've had a very pleasant visit by relatives from Vermont. We will be going out of town for a couple days to attend a memorial service for an aunt who has died.

And, last week I went for one of my regular eye doctor appointments to keep track of the glaucoma that I've had most of my life. The doctor had been warning me for about 10 years that the day would come when the eye drops would not be doing the job and a lazer procedure would be needed to reduce the pressure in my eyes. Well, that time has arrived and next week I'll be getting my right eye zapped about 100 times by a lazer. It's an office procedure and he assures me the only possible side effect is that it doesn't do the job and we need to try something else. Still, I'm not really looking forward to it. But, better than going blind, which is what would happen if this condition were left untreated.

With all that, I've also been doing just a little shooting. That's Angie up there stretching a lycra sack that I stuck her in. I shot a dance concert in March that included a reconstructed piece that was choreographed in 1953 that had three dancers inside similar sacks for the entire piece. I loved the effect and found some similar bags and ordered them to see what I could come up with putting figure models inside them and trying different lighting setups. This is from the first use of them, just using the morning window light in my new studio. I'm sure there will be more "sack full of model" photos coming in the future.

A reminder that both volume 1 and volume 2 of the f-eleven books are still available. All of the profits from these books go to support charities. They contain some wonderful photography. Check out the full previews and other information at those links.

Volume 2 Is Out

2010-04-02T10:29:00.004-04:00

f - eleven volume 2 by Wolf189 BOOK INFO

Coinciding with the month of autism awareness* and to raise attention to the effects of the Fragile X Syndrome, 100% of the proceeds from the sales of the f-eleven vol. 2 will be donated to autism research.

The coffee table quality photography book, edited by internationally published photographer and art director Wolf189, features the work of 19 talented photographers of multiple genres.

The result is a trend-challenging, and visually stimulating collection presented in a luxurious format. Printed on 100lb coffee table book standard paper with a silky finish, the book will handle many years of viewing.

f-eleven vol.2 is on sale now: ( at above or by visiting : )http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/1239715

“We hope that this book would help raise awareness and provide some financial assistance for this worthy cause,” said Leo Lam, a fashion photographer in Seattle, and one of the contributors of f-eleven vol. 2.

f-eleven is an exclusive private photography group. The book project was started by its members in late 2009, and since then have produced two book releases. The books are diverse and progressive, with the fundamental aim to effect small positive changes in worthy causes; one shutter click at a time.

website: http://f-elevenbooks.com/
blog: http://www.blog.f-elevenbooks.com/
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/f11books
twitter – http://twitter.com/felevenbooks
tumblr – http://f-eleven.tumblr.com/

List of contributing photographers:
Brooks Ayola (portraits)
Ralph Barker ( fine art landscape + still life )
Mariah Carle ( portraits )
Sita Mae Edwards ( fine art nude )
Stephen Haynes ( fine art nude + travel )
Patrick Robert James ( fine art nude + landscape )
Leo Lam ( editorial fashion )
Dave Levingston ( fine art nude )
Frank Love ( street / documentary work )
Darryl Martin ( fashion portraits )
Stephen Melvin ( journalistic wedding )
Ken Mierzwa ( documentary / commentary portraits )
D. Brian Nelson ( Nude Portraits )
Keith Allen Phillips ( fine art fetish portraits )
Sarah Robertson ( personal work )
Dave Rudin ( fine art nude + travel )
Ward Shortridge (street photography)
roman T. (street photography)
Wolf189 ( editorial fashion + erotic portraits )

Thank you for all of your support… help us to make our efforts count.

Our intention (editor and the contributors of this book ) has not been coordinated with this respectful charity yet, but it is our wish and intention to donate all of the profits of this book to autism research.

Learn about Fragile X Syndrome:
http://www.autism.com/autism/behavior/fragilex.htm

More Angie At Night And f-eleven Volume Two Coming Friday

2010-03-31T17:41:00.004-04:00

Here's another of Angie in the light from the street light outside my new studio windows.

Friday is the day for the new f-eleven book, volume two, to be officially released and available. I'll have a link to it here on Friday so you can go look at the preview and order a copy. It's a great book. Lots of very fine photographs from some amazing photographers. And some from me too.

Meanwhile you can find out more about volume one and read about the charities we are supporting with the profits from these books. Volume One profits are going to Friends Without A Border. Here is a bit about them from their web site:

"Every child has the right to a healthy and loving life. Friends Without A Border is committed to improving the health and well being of the children of Cambodia by providing quality medical care, extensive outreach and crucial medical education through Angkor Hospital for Children."

Volume Two profits will be donated to The Autism Research Intitute. We especially want to bring attention to Fragile X Syndrome.

To find out more about the charities visit this link: http://f-elevenbooks.com/charities.html

Here are more links to information on f-eleven and our books:

f-eleven books: http://f-elevenbooks.com/
f-eleven books blog: http://blog.f-elevenbooks.com/
f-eleven books twitter: http://twitter.com/felevenbooks
f-eleven books tumblr: http://f-eleven.tumblr.com/
f-eleven face book: http://www.facebook.com/pages/f-eleven-books/241223479911?created&v=wall

Studio Noir

2010-03-26T15:57:00.003-04:00

Finally got to do the evening shoot at the new studio, thanks to Angie once again. She's been great at making herself available for shoots regularly. I'm really pleased to be working with Angie so often. She is beautiful, talented and a real pleasure to be around.

I'm sure I'll be doing lots more stuff as I explore the possibilities of this "street light" available light in the new space. But I'm already pleased with what I've been able to do with it. Next I plan to spend some time seeing what new things I can come up with using studio strobes on that cyc.

As always, there is a lot going on. I have several things coming up in the next couple months that I'll be telling you about soon. Today I'll start with one of them.

I will have work in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival at the end of April/beginning of May. And I'll be making the trip out there to attend the festival. So if you are in the Seattle area and would like to get together while I'm there, let me know. I will be doing some shooting while I'm there. That schedule is pretty full, but if there's a model in Seattle who wants to work with me on this trip, I can probably fit in one more shoot while I'm there. Just get in touch and I'll see what we can work out.

More news to come soon. Stay tuned.

Cyc At Dawn

2010-03-20T14:44:00.004-04:00

Still haven't been able to do an evening shoot in the new studio. There seems to be a jinx on that idea. But Angie came back for another morning shoot, this time we started just as the sun came up. Daylight Saving Time made that a little less of a sacrifice than it would have been a few days earlier.

So, here's Angie on the cyc with the morning sun coming in through my big beautiful windows.

More Morning Light

2010-03-14T16:53:00.004-04:00

Well, my mystery model who was supposed to do the evening shoot on Friday called and cancelled at the last minute. So that didn't happen and her identity will remain a mystery. And I have no evening light photos for you from the new studio.

So, instead, here's another photo of Angie in the morning light. This week Angie will come in for a shoot even earlier in the morning (easier on us now that we are on daylight saving time) and also do a shoot in the evening. So there will be more photos of what happens with light through the big windows at the new place. I love Angie. She's always there when I need her and she is just so beautiful and talented.

Also this week I have a dancer coming to the studio to do some dance photos. I'll get to put the cyc to good use for those...it will be much easier than the backgrounds I had to hang in the old place, and there is a lot more room for the dancer to move around in, and for me to set the lights just where I want them, so that will be another chance to see just what I can do in this new environment.

That's all for today, but soon I'll have a bunch of new things to announce here. Lots going on right now, so it's a very busy time.

First Shoot

2010-03-10T15:43:00.003-05:00

After more than a month of moving and organizing and fixing I finally got the chance to do an actual photo shoot in my new studio. The giant windows face east, so I wanted to shoot with the morning light coming in through them. Light is a major interest of mine and I like to see what each natural lighting situation presents to me and see how I can use it to create something that works for me.

Of course, for this to work the sun actually has to be shining. That hasn't happened much lately around here. But Angie and I went ahead and set a date for a morning shoot and much to my surprise the sun cooperated and showed up. That's my favorite from the shoot above. And, yes, I know it relates to one of Edward Weston's most famous nudes. But it's different too. So it's mine. But I had to acknowledge the reference point in his work.

My second shoot in the new place will be Friday night. That will be something completely different with darkness outside those huge windows, and probably some street lights shining in. So I'm looking forward to that...and it will also be my first shoot with a wonderful model. We've been trying to work out a way to work together for years now, but all sorts of things, including an ocean, have prevented it from happening. If you haven't figured out who the model is, I'll just leave you in suspense until I'm able to post something from the shoot.

New Studio

2010-03-08T14:31:00.006-05:00

Sorry posts are so few and far between these days. It's a busy time. As soon as Dave Rudin headed back to his home in NYC I took off for a couple days of photographing a dance concert at Ohio University. I'm just now getting my head back above water. I'm still trying to get things organized at the new studio and there are shows coming up that I have to prepare things for. The show at River's Edge Gallery near Detroit ends this weekend, so I'll need to run up there and pick up my prints. If you haven't gotten over to see that show, it's worth a look and time is running out. Friday is the last day.

There has been some progress at the new studio, but it's slow going. Below you can see the condition the cyc was in when we moved in. That's all fixed now. It took me about a week of work, mostly while Dave R was here, to get the masonite replaced and plastered over well enough that the seams are blended. It isn't perfect now, but it's good enough for the purpose.

Except for the quick shoot I did with Angie and _G_ while they were helping me move in, I haven't had a chance to work in the place yet. Angie will help me end that drought tomorrow. And another, very special model will be visiting Friday. So I'll have new things to show soon. Meanwhile I thought I'd just share some more views of the place before I started working on it. Of course I think you'll enjoy the way Angie and _G_ decorate the place.

That hardwood floor is pretty and you can expect it to show up in future photos.

The ugly green blob and the little pink blob are gone now. When I had the paint roller in my hand from painting the refurbished cyc I couldn't resist blotting out those eye sores. That's the office up the stairs, where I'm now sitting typing this.

So now I have to get to work and start editing 20 gigs of dance photos. Hope to have that finished by the end of the week.

Meet the Artists

2010-03-02T15:58:00.006-05:00

I'm so far behind I'm afraid I'm going to lap myself. Not sure what that means. But I know it's time for another post, so here goes.

On the last full day of Dave Rudin's visit we drove up to Detroit for "Meet the Artists" night at the River's Edge Gallery where I currently have a couple prints in a show. It was a fun night with a lot of good friends. Those are my prints on the wall in the photo at the top. The rules for this show were to send your favorite work of art and a self-portrait.

The wonderful creative force behind this show is Patty Izzo. That's her on the right below with Dave and one of the hostesses for the evening.

And the big surprise for the evening was the arrival of Joe Crachiola who came all the way from his new home in New Orleans. He decided to do a road trip and visit family and friends as well as attend the opening where he had his own work in the show. That's the lovely Iris giving Joe a hug. Iris had some great work in the show too.

Tomorrow morning I take off for a trip to Athens, Ohio, to photograph a dance concert. It's always fun to get back down there and get back to shooting dance. I'm hoping to get some of the dancers up to Dayton in the near future so I can photograph them in the new studio with that 16-foot cyc that is now all repaired and ready for use. The rehearsals go late into the night, so although I expect to have internet access at my motel I don't know if I'll have the time or energy for another post before I get back...but there is still a lot to catch up on here, so I might give it a try.

I'm Tired

2010-02-26T15:10:00.007-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've just been too busy and too exhausted to sit down and write anything. Between Dave Rudin's week-long visit and working on getting the new studio ready for shoots I've not had much spare time. But I'll try to catch up in the next few posts.

First, there's the week with DaveR. After we got back from Chicago Dave worked with several models who I had suggested to him. Here he is in my new studio working with Ophidian Marie.

One day during that week I took Dave to the Steelepointe Gallery here in Springfield, where he showed his work to my friend and gallery owner, Rob Steele. Rob represents me through his gallery and has shown my work there practically since he opened. Of course he liked Dave's work and kept several prints to put on display.

For one shoot during the week, Dave talked a couple of my favorite models, Ophidian Marie and Angie in to doing a shoot in the snow. As some of you may know, Dave tends to work pretty slow. We joke that when we are shooting together I'll fill up a memory card while Dave is setting up his tripod. Well, he wasn't a lot faster out in the snow. Here it looks like Angie is praying that he'll finally take the damn photo so she can get her coat back on.

And here is Dave directing his frozen subjects. Note how Dave is dressed. He's using a tripod so he can't even claim he has to stay warm to avoid camera shake...that's my excuse when I do this kind of work.

I'll try to post more often now, but next week looks pretty busy too. I'll be in Athens, Ohio for a couple days shooting a dance concert at Ohio University. But there is more to tell you about Dave's visit, our trip to another gallery in Detroit, and my work on the studio.

A Day In Chicago

2010-02-18T17:39:00.011-05:00

The day after the gallery opening Dave Rudin introduced me to his friend, Ted Preuss, who does wonderful Platinum/Palladium prints from his 4x5 and 8x10 format photos of nudes. His work is amazingly beautiful. It was a real treat to get to look at his lovely prints.

We started our day by going to the Art Institute of Chicago, something I try to do every time I visit the Second City. I think the Art Institute is the best art gallery in the country. Their collection is remarkable. That's Dave R shooting a nude in one of the galleries in the new wing.

This time I got to see the new Modern Wing for the first time. It was not open yet when I was there last to see the Karsh exhibit. I have to say the modern wing is a wonderful addition to the institute. I do miss the room that used to be filled with Picassos. Seeing all those wonderful paintings all together was a remarkable experience. In the new wing the Picassos are scattered throughout the galleries, so the impact of the totality of their collection is somewhat diminished.

After the Art Institute we took a little walk around the area which, of course, included a stop at the "bean." That's the three of us being tourists at the bean. Well, Ted is a Chicagoite, so he's too cool to act like a tourist. I love the way Chicago has developed the lake front area. It's really a beautiful and fun place.

Next we walked across the river to visit the "American Gothic" statues and walk around the Tribune building looking at the stones from famous places around the world.

After we had gotten cold enough from all the wind (who would have thought it would be windy in Chicago?) Ted took us over to his new studio. He has just moved in and hasn't even had time to do the first shoot in the new space. It's a beautiful place and I'm sure he'll be turning out some great photos from it. You can see Ted and Dave R in the new space in the next to last photo down below.

Then Ted dropped Dave R and myself back at our hotel and went home to cook a valentine's day dinner for his wife. We went to a restaurant that Ted recommended, The Green Door. It's one of the oldest wood frame commercial buildings in the city because it was built in the very short time between the great fire and the passage of a law forbidding wood frame commercial buildings. During prohibition it was a speak easy. Today it is an excellent restaurant that proclaims with pride that the building is tilted to one side from age. The tilt is very obvious from inside.

So, that's about it for the Chicago trip. It was a great time. I'll look forward to my next excuse to visit there. I'm sure I'll be up for the "Hank Carter" show that opens at the art institute in the summer...but I may well find a good excuse to make another trip before that.

Detroit, Detroit

2010-02-17T14:53:00.003-05:00

I'll add a new post with more news from the Chicago trip soon, but first I wanted to let you all know that I'll be at the River's Edge Gallery near Detroit this Saturday night for "Meet The Artists Night" for the show I'm in up there. So if you are in the Detroit area come on by the gallery between 6 and 10 p.m. and say hi. Don't wait until too late in the evening, though, if you want to meet me. I'm driving up and back on Saturday, so I don't think I'll be able to stay all the way until 10 p.m. Dave Rudin, who is visiting me this week from NYC, will be coming to Detroit with me, so it's a chance to meet him too.

Hope to see you there.

Chicago, Chicago

2010-02-16T14:43:00.010-05:00

Yes, I spent the weekend in Chicago. It was a great time. So good that it's going to take 2 or 3 posts to cover it all.

The main reason for the trip was to go to Carrie Leigh's gallery show opening and meet her and her husband Gary. That's them at the show with my great friend and model, Unbearable Lightness, in the first photo. They are delightful people and I was very pleased to meet them and get the chance to thank them in person for giving me the Arts for Humanity Award.

The show was at Gallery Provocateur presided over by the lovely Veronika Kotlajic. That's her in the center of the second photo. She had done a great job promoting the show, which was obvious because the place was packed to capacity all evening. You can get some idea of that from the photos here.

It was a great evening, a lot of fun. I met some old friends and may have made a few new ones. One lovely model came to the show to meet me and I expect you will be seeing her here in the future, once the weather gets warm enough for more outdoor shooting. So, I'm thinking I'll be back in Chicago sooner rather than later. If this gawd-awful winter will ever get over with.

That Old Time Feeling

2010-02-11T10:03:00.004-05:00

For one of my last shoots in the old studio Angie brought in some Victorian dresses that she once wore to her high school proms. We were just playing around with some ideas that are pretty far off from my usual work. That's one of the things I love about photography: It's fun. I always enjoy just playing with photography to see what happens.

This time I shot with my regular Nikon with several lenses using the studio strobe system. But I also pulled out my new Canon S90 and turned on its built-in sepia mode. Just to see what would happen. I'm pretty pleased with the way it renders sepia. A lot easier to have files like this one right out of the camera without having to sit in front of the computer for an hour trying different setups to get a good sepia rendition.

I just used the modeling lights as the light source, put the S90 on Program, which is where I always keep it now, and let the camera chose the ISO automatically. It chose ISO 1000 for this shot. 1/20 second at f/4.9 at the long end of the zoom. Hand held with the image stabilization on.

As I said, not my normal sort of photo, but who wants to be normal?

My friend Dave Rudin is coming in tomorrow night for a visit. We are going to be busy while he is here, starting with a trip to Chicago for the weekend. We will be going to Carrie Leigh's gallery opening there Saturday night. Any of you in the Chicago area please come by the gallery and say hi if you can. I'm looking forward to meeting Carrie Leigh and her husband and thanking them in person for honoring me with the quite unexpected 2009 Arts for Humanity Award over there at the right of this page.

Dave will be here for a week and will be doing some shooting in the new studio while he is here. And we'll end the week with a trip up to Detroit on February 20 for the Meet The Artists night at River's Edge Gallery for the "Secrets Revealed" show I'm in up there right now. Hope to see a bunch of my Detroit area friends there.

Don't forget the f-eleven book is still available. You can buy it here. All the profits go to a great charity. There's now a website for f-eleven books. This is the link to it. And there's an f-eleven books blog too. Those links will give you lots of information about the current book, news about the contributors on the blog, and announcements of future books.

Also, I still have my calendars available, but not for much longer. I'd probably have them off the market by now, but I've just been too busy to deal with them...so you can still get one if you want. Hurry. Here's the link. You can get a 30% discount by using the coupon code TIMEFLIES through the end of February.

Moving On

2010-02-05T15:32:00.005-05:00

That photo above is literally an iconic image for me. It's been my icon or avatar image on Model Mayhem since I joined the site. I moved in to that studio in 2000 and did quite a bit of work to fix it up. When it was all painted I looked at it and said, "This room needs a ballerina." So I found a dancer and we made this photo. That was a long time ago. I was working with a new 3 megapixel Nikon that I'd paid $1,000 for.

That has been a good studio. But the rent has continued to rise every year and it has always been just too small, especially after accumulating ten years worth of photo gear and general junk.

I've been looking for another studio for some time. I wanted to get out of Dayton and find something in Springfield, preferably in a location that would let me walk to the studio from my home. That was not to be.

Instead I was offered a new space in the same building complex where I've been for 10 years. The new space is much larger, but it will be less rent because I'll be sharing it with my friend, GaryM. There's plenty of room for both of us and there's a much larger shooting area.

So I've spent this week moving. It was exhausting work, even with a couple great helpers, Angie and _G_. But it's done. Yesterday I finally got the last of the debris out of the old space and turned in the keys. I filled a dumpster with stuff I decided not to move in to the new space. And this morning I slept in and let my beat-up body recover from the week of physical labor. I'm getting way too old for this kind of shit. I hope this will be my last move and that my survivors can deal with getting my stuff out of this studio after my body goes to the local medical school.

Here's Angie in the old space after most of the stuff was removed:

And below is the new place with both _G_ and Angie decorating it. That background cyclorama is 16 feet wide. But the previous tenants tore it up, so there are holes in the curved portion blending the floor into the wall. It looks like I'll be able to fix that with a couple sheets of masonite.

Next week I'll try to put away all the piles of my crap that I moved in, and then get to work on fixing the cyche. There will be painting and some more minor construction to get the place up to standards. But it's ready for shooting right now. A new decade in a new studio. I'm looking forward to seeing what I'll be able to do with this new space. You'll get to see the results here.

I knew something was up...

2010-02-01T20:21:00.006-05:00

...But I didn't know for sure what it was. Now I know and, well, Wow!...just Wow! I'm blown away.

Carrie Leigh's NUDE magazine has given me their first annual Arts for Humanity Award for my participation in Free Speech Coalition et al v. Holder, filed in federal court in Philadelphia. That's the announcement from the magazine preview above.

The preview of the magazine is on line now. They have also printed two of my photos in the current issue of the magazine. I'm putting them in this post. _G_ above and Theda below. Thank you ladies.

And thank you Carrie Leigh and all the other folks at the magazine for this fantastic honor. I really don't know what to say. I'm involved in that lawsuit because I'm offended by the unconstitutionality of the 2257 law and the awful chilling effect it is having on the fine art nude community. I'm very pleased that others are recognizing how important this lawsuit is for the future of freedom in the United States.

Angie Inside

2010-01-28T14:28:00.003-05:00

Yes, Angie is just as beautiful inside as she is out in the snow. We shot this on the first day we did snow photos, before we went out and froze her cute ass off.

Lots of changes going on. It looks like it will be Monday before I'll be able to start moving in to the new studio. And then there will be lots of work to get it ready.

My long string of success with the annual photo contest at French PHOTO magazine has come to an end. Friends in France tell me that I did not get a photo in the magazine this year. So it goes. I'll try again next year. This is the first time since 2003 that I won't have at least one photo in that magazine.

But at about the same time I learned that I will have some of my work in the coming issue of Carrie Leigh's NUDE magazine. Right now I don't know exactly what photo(s) they are going to print, or what the article will say. I do know it will have something to say about the lawsuit I'm participating in seeking to have the "2257" law declared unconstitutional. I know that because the writer asked me questions about that lawsuit. And I also know that my friend, Stephen Haynes, will be featured in this issue for his blogging about 2257 and photographer's rights. Way to go, Stephen!

As you may know, Carrie Leigh's NUDE prints in black and white only. It's a very high quality magazine with superb reproduction of the photographs. I've admired the magazine, but never considered submitting my work because, as you also must know, I work in color. A number of friends had encouraged me to send my work to the magazine, but I always declined for that reason.

Now I sometimes get a bit upset when someone comments on one of my photos to the effect that they would like to see it in black and white. Color is a very important part of what I'm doing with my work, so I usually would take such a comment as an indication that the person making it just didn't understand what I was trying to do with the photo.

But, I realized eventually that I was being a bit obtuse on this issue. And violating some of my basic beliefs about photography to boot. I remembered what another photographer had said to me more than 40 years ago when I was about to do my first professional job with color film. I was worried because I had only worked in black and white up to that point. He said, "The camera doesn't know if it has color or black and white film in it." I guess you can't really say that about a digital camera now, but the point is still valid.

And I remembered something Ansel Adams said that has always seemed true to me. "The negative is the score, the print is the performance." I've always felt that the final print was what is important. How you got to that print, what process you use, is important to the artist, but not to the audience.

So, one evening while watching TV I fired up my laptop and did a bunch of quick and dirty black and white conversions of a bunch of my favorite photos. Some of them worked just as well, though for different reasons, in black and white. A few of them worked even better in black and white. And some didn't make the transition to black and white at all. It was an interesting exercise and reminded me that the subject matter of all black and white photos is in color. Black and white is just a different rendering of a color scene. Sometimes an interesting composition with interesting light can work in both color and black and white. Showing some of my work in black and white was simply a different performance of the score I had captured in the original photo. Just as valid as the color version if it worked as a photo.

Well, I sent the successes from that exercise off to a friend and they eventually found their way to Carrie Leigh. And I'm pleased about that. I'm even thinking about producing some limited editions of some of my photos, printed in black and white on fiber silver gelatin paper. If I decide to do that I'll let you know here when they are available.

The cold I've been fighting for more than a week seems to finally be fading. That is making me a little optimistic that it will be pretty much over by the time I have to start moving the studio next week.

People still seem to be buying my calendars, so I guess I'll keep them available for a while longer. But not a lot longer, so if you want one you should get it soon. The calendars are a great way to get a bunch of my photos for a very low price, compared to buying prints from one of my galleries. Here's that discount code to let you save 25 percent until January 31. Use the code VALENTINE. Hurry. Here's the link.

Don't forget the f-eleven book is still available. You can buy it here. All the profits go to a great charity. There's now a website for f-eleven books. This is the link to it. And there's an f-eleven books blog too. Those links will give you lots of information about the current book, news about the contributors on the blog, and announcements of future books.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

2010-01-25T14:16:00.003-05:00

This is the end of the snow nudes. Full circle back to Kelsey again. The snow is all melted here now. There will no doubt be more of it before the winter is over, but I think I've frozen enough models, for this year at least. Both Kelsey and Angie did a great job of putting up with the cold and looking beautiful. Thanks ladies.

And something else is about at an end. I've been in my current studio in Dayton for something like ten years. Yesterday I agreed to move into a new larger space that I will share with a good friend. It will give me a lot more room to work, and will reduce my rent, which is a good thing with the way the economy has been this past year. I'll hate to leave this studio with so many memories, but I know I'm going to enjoy the new place. It's in the same building complex, so if you know where I've been you'll know where the new place is...just in the building next door.

Now, if I can just get this miserable cold I've been fighting since the middle of last week to end, that will be a happy ending. I seem to be on the upswing after having to spend the weekend pretty much in bed.

Lots more to post when I'm feeling better...and when I get caught up on all the stuff that hasn't been getting done while I've been suffering.

Angiesickle

2010-01-21T16:33:00.003-05:00

After Angie froze her cute ass at our first stop, with temperatures at 5 degrees, we got back in the truck, turned the heater up, and headed for a second location.

The first place we shot was an easy hike. It's actually handicapped accessible, with a flat, asphalt path back to the site. Not the case for our second destination. It has a steep, rocky trail along a cliff side. The trail had had a bit of traffic since the last snowfall, but was still completely snow-covered with ice on the rocks under the snow. Angie's boots didn't have real good soles for this kind of hiking, so she was sliding all over the place and having to hang on to me to keep on her feet as we hiked down to the spot.

It had warmed up, though. The truck thermometer was all the way up to 10 degrees when we started our hike down the cliff.

When we got there we found this wonderful frozen waterfall. This isn't much of a waterfall most of the time and it often runs dry in the summer. But it had frozen up in a very beautiful way. Angie found spots to stand and I found a good vantage point to do the photos. We worked fast. Angie, as always, was a real trooper, hanging in there to get the shots.

There was water still falling down the waterfall, but, of course, we put Angie in a spot where there was no water falling on her. What I didn't know because I couldn't see it from where I was, was that where she was standing had just a bit of water standing on it, on top of the ice. She never mentioned it.

After a few minutes shooting these photos we went to another area beside the waterfall and found a few other spots where Angie could pose. But, as soon as she took one boot off I saw that all her toes had turned blue. She then told me about the water she had been standing in. That was the end of our shoot. I really don't ever want a model losing toes doing a shoot with me.

Here's that discount code to let you save 25 percent on my calendars. Use the code VALENTINE. The sale goes through January 31. Here's the link.

Playing Ball on Frozen Water

2010-01-19T11:16:00.003-05:00

I've written here before about the tricks Mother Nature can play on you when you work outdoors with the nude. You have to be prepared for the unexpected and able to adapt to whatever happens.

Well, Mother Nature really did a number on us with this shoot. After the day of shooting that produced the photos in the last two posts Angie and I were feeling so good about the work we were doing in the snow that we decided to do a second day of shooting. This time we would be up and on the road before dawn to make a 2-hour drive to a great location in southeast Ohio. The weather forecast for that location was reasonable. It was supposed to be in the 20s with an overcast.

When I got up at 5 a.m. it was very, very cold. But we had clear skies overnight, which always means colder temperatures. If the clouds had stayed over our destination overnight it should be a lot warmer there.

I picked Angie up and we headed off in the dark. At one point during the drive the thermometer in my truck read 1 degree. As the sun came up we could see that the skies ahead were clear. No clouds to have held in heat over night. Why do we even bother with weathermen anyway?

By the time we got to our first location the skies were clear and the thermometer was reading 5 degrees. That's just too cold. But we were there and Angie wanted to give it a try anyway. So we hiked to the location. Angie had the heated insoles in her snow boots, "mega" heat packs to keep inside her coat, my expedition down parka and sweat pants. She was plenty warm enough with all that on...but, of course, to do any photos that would all have to come off.

Fortunately there was no wind, so it felt warmer than it could have. If there had been wind I would have called the whole thing off. But we worked quickly, with Angie nude for just short periods of time while I fired off a rapid burst of photos. Of course, my camera batteries started dying suddenly, always just after Angie had taken up a pose. But I switched batteries quickly and we kept working.

Angie is amazing. And tough. And determined. We got some good photos and she still has all her fingers and toes. More to come in the next post.

There's a new discount code to let you save 25 percent on my calendars. Use the code VALENTINE. The sale goes through January 31. Here's the link.

Don't forget the f-eleven book is still available. You can buy it here. All the profits go to a great charity. There's now a website for f-eleven books. This is the link to it. And there's an f-eleven books blog too. Those links will give you lots of information about the current book, news about the contributors on the blog, and announcements of future books.

Angie On Ice

2010-01-17T13:53:00.006-05:00

Here's another from my first day of shooting with Angie out in the cold and snow. This was at another local waterfall that we had shot at in warmer days. I love the way the light is playing across the frozen waterfall and across Angie's body in this one. More to come from our second, much more frigid day of shooting. Angie really did a fantastic job modeling in very adverse conditions. She's just a wonderful model!

There's still time to save 20 percent on one of my calendars. Use the code CABIN. The sale goes through Monday. Here's the link.

My friend and great model blueriverdream said in a comment that the ORGANIZE code is expired at my calendar store. However, the code for valentines deals works for calendars and is LOVE. So use the LOVE code if you want to order one of my calendars and save some money in the process. Blueriverdream says that LOVE gets you 25 percent off. The CABIN code is supposed to be good through Monday, but it is only a 20 percent discount. So LOVE, of course, is better.

And the f-eleven book is still available. You can buy it here. There's a lot of great photography in that book, and some of mine is in there too. All the profits go to a great charity. There's now a website for f-eleven books. This is the link to it. And there's an f-eleven books blog too. Those links will give you lots of information about the current book, news about the contributors on the blog, and announcements of future books.

Angie in the Snow

2010-01-15T15:45:00.007-05:00

Angie is really responsible for me continuing to work on snow nudes. Really, it's all her fault. She sent me a message asking if I didn't want to do a shoot with her in the snow. Now I always want to do a shoot with Angie any time, any place. And one of the things I love about her is that she is always bugging me to shoot with her. I love it when models do that. And Angie is so beautiful and talented that it's always a pleasure to work with her. Plus she is a very nice person...always a huge plus in a model.

So, of course, I said I'd be happy to shoot her in the snow and we set a date, which was pretty easy since we've been buried in snow for the entire month. I picked a couple of my favorite local locations and we headed out. I did my best to make the suffering on Angie's part as temporary as possible. I gave her my expedition down parka from my mountain climbing days in the Alps. I got heat packs and even found some that are insoles for her to put in her boots so she would have instant heat when she slipped them on after the shots.

As you can see from the photo above, Angie is a real trooper. But there's a lot more to this story. I'll fill you in on the rest of the details over the next few posts.

It's Not Too Late For A Calendar

My calendar publisher is having another sale. It's 20 percent off any order this weekend only. The offer is good through January 18. Just use the code CABIN when you check out and save some money when you buy one of my calendars this weekend. This is the link to my store.

I Love My Models

2010-01-13T17:02:00.005-05:00

The things my models will do for me...it's just amazing. They are totally wonderful human beings. And tough as nails. And beautiful.

When Kelsey told me she was going to be back in Ohio for the holidays I knew I wanted to work with her again. She is so wonderful that I'd never pass up the chance to do a shoot with her. But the problem I had was that I just didn't have any good ideas of what to do with her in December. I shoot in my studio, but I didn't have any major projects going on, other than my head scarf and burqa photos. So we planned to do those. Kelsey particularly wanted to be in the head scarf project because she shares the underlying concerns for women's rights that are driving those photos.

But what else to do with this fantastic model? I just didn't know.

Then I woke up on the day of our shoot and saw a lovely gentle snowfall underway. And the temperature was pretty moderate for December. So I asked her how she would feel about going outdoors getting naked and freezing her pretty ass off for some photos. Kelsey thought it was a great idea, so off we went to one of my favorite local nature spots.

The snow was still falling gently, which I think adds a nice touch to this shot.

I'm actually not a huge fan of nudes in snow. It's a pretty unnatural situation, unlike, in my opinion anyway, nudes in nature where the nude figure is as natural as the surroundings. Most nudes in snow just make me think about how cold the model must have been. The only thing they seem to say is, "Hey, look at that! She got naked in the snow!"

Well, I hope some of the photos I did with Kelsey go beyond that simple thought. I guess I think they do or I wouldn't be showing them here.

There are a few photographers out there who really know how to make snow nudes work. Alex Ingram in Scotland and Dave Swanson in northern Minnesota immediately come to mind. They both live in places where it is very cold for much of the year, so I guess they know snow. I actually hate the cold and snow and want to move somewhere where I'll never see snow again. But it doesn't look like that is going to happen, so I guess I'll have to keep looking for things to do over the winter.

It seems I've gotten on a snow nude kick...I've done two more shoots in the snow since this one with Kelsey last month. Must have something to do with it snowing all the freaking time since then, except for Christmas, of course, when it was warm. You'll be seeing the frigid results of those other shoots here over the next few posts.

Meanwhile, someone hand that girl a sweater or something.

Show in the snow

2010-01-09T16:01:00.004-05:00

Sorry I've been so absent. But I've been busy. First there was the drive back home from Vermont through a snow storm. Two days of driving in blinding snow left me pretty much exhausted. But we made it back home safely. Then my daughter came to visit, followed by a visit by my brother-in-law from Florida who was passing through on a road trip. Daughter is still here until Monday, so family time has dominated this past week.

But yesterday I had to make a drive up to Detroit to drop off prints for the show advertised by the poster above. It opens next Friday at River's Edge Gallery near Detroit. Thanks to Patty Izzo for organizing this show and inviting me to participate. It looks to be a very interesting set of work, worth a visit if you are in the Detroit area.

Meanwhile I'm tired of snow and cold. I want to move somewhere warm. But there's little chance of that happening any time soon.

But I should be back to posting more regularly soon, now that the holiday stuff is receding into the past for now.

Don't forget about the f-eleven book that is still available for sale at that link. I have my copy of the book now and I can tell you that the quality of the printing and the quality of the work by the many talented photographers included in it is simply outstanding. It's a great collection of fine work beautifully reproduced.

And my calendars are still available. I'll probably keep the calendars on the market for the rest of this month, but if you want one you should get your order in soon. You might be able to save a bunch on them if you order before January 15. When you check out enter the code ORGANIZE and it should give you a 25 percent discount.

A Bird In The Bush

2010-01-03T16:04:00.003-05:00

Still sitting here in the very warm house in Vermont, watching the snow accumulate. It is still coming down fast and furious. We are hoping it will stop or at least let up a bit over night, since we want to leave for home in the morning. The hour at which we start our drive will be determined by the snow plows.

Meanwhile I snapped this shot of the local Cardinal hanging out in some weeds near the house. Florida is looking better every day. But we just talked with my brother-in-law who lives in Gainesville where it was only in the 40s...and had been down into the 20s overnight. That's serious cold in that part of the country.

Vermont at the New Year

2010-01-03T10:40:00.002-05:00

We are in Vermont and it is snowing. That, of course, is redundant when said in January. However, this snow is a bit more than average. About a foot in the past 24 hours and no sign of letting up. We are supposed to hit the road for the drive home tomorrow, but that is not a certainty at this point. It isn’t snowing much in New York State along our route, so, if it lets up by the morning and the roads are plowed we might be able to stay on schedule. They do a pretty good job up here with plowing the roads.

Of course, this is nothing like winter in northern Minnesota where my friend Dave Swanson lives. It’s only about 10 degrees above zero here today. A real heat wave compared to what Dave has been reporting from his frozen outpost.

I’ve been taking photos of my favorite farmhouse. Here’s one taken just a few minutes ago showing what is going on up here. Just makes me even more resolved to someday move to a place where they don’t have weather that I have to shovel.

The Turn Of A Decade

2010-01-01T17:01:00.004-05:00

I’m not much for the whole year end reflection/year in review kind of stuff. But, since this day marks the start of a new decade it seemed to me worth noting. The past decade has been a rough one in many ways that I really don’t need to recount here. But I have mixed feelings about the past ten years because for me personally it has been a very good decade.

I’m in my sixth decade on this strange planet and much that has been good in my life has happened in this past one.

It was May of 2002 when I made a trip to Maine and took the photo at the top of this post. That was the day I realized that I needed to be photographing the nude in nature. I started working professionally as a photographer in 1968. But, in the past eight years I have produced the vast majority of the photographs that I care about…the ones that seem to be the reason I am a photographer. It started the day I made that photo above.

Incidentally, that photo was taken with a 3 megapixel camera that cost $1000. It was recorded on a 128 Meg (not Gig) card that cost $300. I still have that card somewhere, but wouldn't even consider trying to shoot with it...it would only hold a few photos. And I have my new 10 mp S90 in my pocket to shoot snaps...it cost much less than half what that old camera (which I also still have...I seldom part with my cameras) cost.

There are lots of photos I care about from the earlier years of my life, of course, but my “body of work” really began the day I took this photo.

Another major event this past decade was being able to retire from my day job and concentrate full-time on photography for the first time in many years. I never really stopped being a photographer for very long over those years, but thanks to the Peter Principle I found myself doing other things as my primary job for quite a few years. That made it possible to concentrate on photographing just what I wanted to photograph while also being able to support a family and eventually reach that retirement milestone. So that was all good, at least from the perspective at this end of that journey.

I also have to mention that the past decade made me a grandfather. I’m pretty happy about that new role for myself too.

So, despite all the tragedies, wars, global warming, recession, the “oughts” were pretty good to me. But that doesn’t stop me from hoping the “teens” will be a much better decade for the world. And I also hope that it will be another fine decade of productivity for me as a photographer…and that I’ll get to learn all about being a grandfather.

As the new decade begins I hope you can find the good in the past ten years and I wish you all the best in the coming ten and beyond.

More from the S90

2009-12-30T15:08:00.003-05:00

Phoenix Kelley was back in town for the holidays, so we did a long lunch and a quick shoot together. I took the Nikon and all my normal kit, but had to pull out the new Canon S90 for a few frames too. This is one of them. The camera was on Program Mode and set the exposure perfectly automatically. The Nikon wouldn't do that, I had to tweak what the meter wanted to do to get a good exposure. The settings for this shot were ISO 400, 1/40, f/2.2 with the zoom lens at the widest setting. I did crop the photo a bit for composition, but I didn't try to correct the obvious barrel distortion that the lens has when it is set this wide. But it would be an easy fix in PhotoShop, so I'm not terribly worried about it.

I'm still impressed. With the camera, that is. Phoenix has impressed me since the first time I met her and I've really enjoyed watching her grow up into a very beautiful woman, a talented creative artist, and a fine figure model. I wish she hadn't moved so far away, but we aren't going to let that stop us from working together more in the future.

I'm about to take off for rural Vermont again to celebrate the New Decade. Let's hope it is a much better decade than the one we are ending. But that means dial-up only web access for several days...cell phones don't even work well where we will be staying...so I may post some more while I'm away, if I can manage to get on line to do it. Or you may have to wait until the new decade is under way to hear from me again...only time will tell. And it also means you may have to put up with more photos of my favorite, most photogenic farm.

WOW!

2009-12-27T16:40:00.008-05:00

WARNING: Photo Geek Post

Santa was very, very good to me. There was a Canon S90 under the tree. If you haven't been looking at the latest point and shoots, this one has the same 10mp sensor as the G11 and has an f/2 lens (though only at the widest zoom setting) and image stabilization. And, to my surprise it has a feature that I've never before encountered in this size camera. When you push the shutter button it takes a photo. No hesitation that is really noticeable, at least to me. That's a big thing for me.

This is going to replace the old Casio EX-Z750 that has lived in my left front pants pocket for several years now. The Casio is still working, but the image quality is not good enough to let me print anything above about 8x10 from it. There have been times when I got a shot with the Casio that I wanted to print big, but the file just fell apart when it was enlarged.

Anyway, I've been just playing with the new Canon taking snaps around the house. I shot this one hand held at the longest tele setting on the zoom, ISO 1600, f/4.9, 1/13. It was on Program with auto color balance. With performance like this at 1600 combined with f/2 and IS...well, I think I'm going to have some fun with this little pocket camera.

END GEEK POST

On another subject, if you've been thinking about buying one of my calendars for 2010, the printer is having a sale until the first of the year. Just put in the code: AFTERXMAS when you do your order and you will save 30% off the list price. The calendars are a bit expensive, but that discount makes them a lot more reasonable...so order this week and save money. This is the link to my store:

http://www.lulu.com/wayward

New Book

2009-12-24T15:00:00.005-05:00

I want to call your attention to a newly published book f-eleven which is a collection of photographs by a bunch of photographers, including yours truly. I'm really thrilled and honored to be in the company of the other folks in the book. There's a preview at that link so you can check it out.

Over 260 images
20 photographers
160 pages (premium paper)
8" x 10" (landscape style)

Designed & Edited by WOLF189

featuring the following photographers:

Brooks Ayola ( Polaroid nude portraits )
Ralph Barker ( fine art landscape + still life )
Kincaid Blackwood ( erotic portraits )
Mariah Carle ( fashion + portrait )
Matthew Cherry ( fine art night photography )
Nicole Jaja ( travel + candid portraits )
Leo Lam ( editorial fashion )
Dave Levingston ( fine art nude in nature )
Brooke Lynne ( experimental nude )
Darryl Martin ( fine art thematic portraits )
Ken Mierzwa ( documentary punk rock portraits )
D. Brian Nelson ( personal work )
Trish Noble ( erotic portraits )
Keith Allen Phillips ( fine art fetish portraits )
Collin J. Rae ( fetish + erotic portraits )
Sarah Robertson ( personal work )
Dave Rudin ( fine art nude + travel )
Susan Michele Smith ( fetish+erotic portraits )
Kim Melia von Seidl ( candid portraits+erotic portraits )
Wolf189 ( editorial fashion + erotic portraits )

All of the profits of the book sales would be donated to "Friends Without a Border."

"Friends Without A Border" is committed to improving the health and well being of the children of Cambodia by providing quality medical care, extensive outreach and crucial medical education through Angkor Hospital for Children.

Our intention (editor and the contributors of this book ) has not been coordinated with this respectful charity yet, but it is our wish and intention to donate all of the profits of this book to "Friends Without A Border."

Here are some promo codes to buy the book with $10.00 off (until December 31)
The promo code must match currency used.

Orders from the US (using US $): GREATGIFT
Orders from UK (using UK £): GREATGIFT2
Orders from EU (using EU €): GREATGIFT3
Orders from AU (using AUD $): GREATGIFT4

Merry Burqa Christmas

2009-12-24T12:30:00.004-05:00

'Tis the season for cheesy Christmas photos. Why should I be any different? Kelsey stopped by the studio earlier this week...and she had those stockings with her. How could I resist?

Kelsey and I also did some other, perhaps a bit more artistic, photos that you will get to see in the near future. But, for now I'll leave you with this and with a wish for happy times in the coming few days of holidays. Now I have to go put lights on the tree that I finally found yesterday thanks to help from _G_ who spotted a place that still had a few trees left and called to tell me while I was driving from empty tree lot to empty tree lot. That's the problem with spending the two weeks before Christmas in Florida.

Up A Tree

2009-12-22T22:54:00.002-05:00

Another shot from my recent visit to Florida. This is Lisa Renee, a great model who I worked with for several days while I was there. I seemed to be on a "tree" kick on this trip and found myself always looking for great trees to shoot with a model. We found this one in a park near Sarasota. We saw wild boars running around not that far from where we shot this, so being able to climb a tree quickly was a good skill to practice.

I'm pretty much swamped with Christmas stuff right now, but I have something else shot special for the season to post soon. I'll probably get it up here Thursday or Friday. And there's lots more to come from Florida.

Hope you are all enjoying the season.

Tree Huggers

2009-12-17T22:34:00.005-05:00

I've been having fun and staying very busy down here in sunny Florida. It's been a little more sunny than I would have liked for the days I was shooting, but I managed to deal with the challenging light pretty well.

I got to work with JoJo Suicide again. She is one of my all time favorite models and a great person to be around. That's her on the lower branch in this photo. And on the upper branch is Rachel Haberhern, a "new" model who I just met and worked with for the first time on this trip. Rachel is a great model, so it was wonderful to have both her and JoJo to work with. I also worked with another new Florida model this trip, but more about her later when I post one of her photos.

This is the last photo I took on my last day of shooting. We had been out in the swamps and forests all day looking for good locations and had been having a good bit of success, despite the bright sunlight that was pushing the limits of the dynamic range of my camera. We had been shooting with a number of great trees, but were still looking for the "perfect" tree when Rachel spotted this one just a little way from the trail we were on. It was far enough away that JoJo and I didn't see it...maybe Rachel spotted it because she is six feet tall. Or maybe she was just paying more attention. Anyway, I'm very glad she found this tree because it gave us the shot we had been looking for all day. Thanks Rachel.

Tomorrow morning I load up the truck and head for home. I hear it's cold up there in Ohio. Not looking forward to getting back to winter. I've been wearing shorts and sandals. Guess I'll need to adjust the wardrobe for the return trip.

On the road again

2009-12-12T12:13:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted this past week. I'm on the road. Right now I'm in a motel in Tampa. This afternoon I'll be attending the wedding of an old friend. Then I'll hang around for most of next week in Kissimmee, then pick up my daughter from college and bring her home for the holidays.

But, part of why I've been too busy to post is that I've been shooting. I stopped near Atlanta on the drive down here and did a shoot with Susi, who I've known on line for some time, but had never met. It was a real treat to get to work with her. That's her in the photo above.

More shooting to do in the coming week with some favorite models and some new people too. If time and internet connections allow I'll try to post more as the week goes by.

Oh, and for my friends up in the frozen north, it's been very cold here in Florida. Yesterday my model was complaining about the cold. It's all the way down into the mid-60s. Burrrrr! Everyone here is wearing their coats and talking about how cold it is.

What's wrong with people?

2009-12-05T19:38:00.005-05:00

It's rant time. You have been warned.

I just can't get used to how rude and stupid people can be when they post comments on the internet. I'm especially annoyed by the cowards who attack people anonymously.

A very good friend of mine has recently been the victim of some of these internet bullies. Dave Rudin posted a photo over at his blog that resulted in a bunch of people getting their panties in a bunch and taking it out on Dave, who is one of the nicest, most decent people I've had the privilege to know. You won't be able to see the "offending" photo because the model asked Dave to remove it, so he did. I have no doubt that the model was also being subjected to attacks that upset her enough to make that request.

The cowardly attacks are completely wrong on so many levels, regardless of the content of the photo, that I feel compelled to rant a bit about it.

Let's start with a basic idea. Freedom of speech. It's in our country's constitution. It's a crucial part of the foundation on which all democracies rest. And free speech is meaningless if it is only for speech that I or you agree with. We all have the right to express our ideas. Everyone else has the right to agree or disagree. But they don't have the right to attack us for our views. I know that isn't a concept that is well understood in a society where political debates on television seem to be decided by which side can shout with the most volume. But if we all stop standing up for the core right of free expression, we will all lose that right. Dave had every right to take whatever photo he wants to take and post it on his blog without having to endure vicious anonymous attacks on his character.

Of course the issue is "political correctness." Political correctness is the death of art. The instant an artist starts to be concerned for what "They" will think of his or her artwork, all is lost. The work ceases to be the work of the artist and becomes just an empty regurgitation of the party line. As such it is worthless.

But the mobs are out there and the ability to remain unknown on the internet emboldens them to be much more rude and abusive than they would ever have the guts to be in person. They are despicable cowards and their venomous comments should be dismissed and ignored.

But they have always been with us. The internet just gives them a new way to poison the world. These are the people who burned "witches" at the stake. These are the people who enforced the black lists of the McCarthy era. These are the people who looked the other way while the holocaust took place in Europe. These are the Taliban who destroyed the ancient statues of Buddha.

The religions of the world warn us of the dangers of these people. When Jesus encountered the temptation to go along with the world his response was, "Get behind me, Satan!" Zen warns of it, most famously in the Koan, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

The point, simply, is that each artist, indeed, each human being, must listen to his or her inner voice. To be an artist is to express that inner voice for others to see or hear. The world will constantly try to stop that unique expression because it does not conform. An artist succeeds to the extent he or she is able to ignore the static of the world and express that inner voice truly.

And these cowards are doing their best to stop anyone from saying anything that they don't agree with. They must be ignored.

Now, even though you can't see the photo Dave Rudin posted, I'll say that I don't think it is his best work. I don't think Dave thinks it is his best work. It was an experiment with a possible new direction...a new idea that came from within. Artists must experiment. Artists must try new ideas. Artists must feel free to fail. Not every new idea is a good one. Not every new direction leads anywhere interesting. But often the only way to find out is to try. Artists deal with enough fear without having to worry about being attacked if someone else doesn't like one of their ideas or experiments.

I can't make the cowardly idiots go away. But I can promise to ignore them and I can encourage other artists to ignore them and continue with their work, wherever it may take them. That's what artists must do. Those who try to tell them otherwise are the enemies of art and the enemies of freedom.

It Aint Gonna Happen

2009-11-29T16:54:00.003-05:00

Well, that "fall into winter" photo that I wanted to shoot isn't going to happen. I have a model scheduled for tomorrow, and the weather is supposed to be cooperative, so I thought I might still be able to pull it off, despite the wind and rain we've had causing things to progress beyond the ideal point for the photo.

Then I realized that tomorrow is the first day of deer gun season here in Ohio. Shit! I don't go in the woods during deer gun season. Way too many "Pumpkin People" as Dave Swanson likes to call them, wandering around out there with a shotgun and a six-pack. Someone gets killed every year because a drunken idiot hunter thinks they look like a deer. And, the location I had in mind...and the one where I shot Angie earlier when the sun was against me...is a public hunting area. I ran into a bow hunter there when I was scouting the place.

Bow hunters don't worry me. They tend to know what they are doing, and they wait to be sure of their target before the let fly with an arrow. There could well have been one or more of them watching while Angie and I did our photos because they wear camoflage and stay hidden waiting for a deer to come along. If they were there, we'd never know unless we happened to walk right up on one of their blinds.

I tried to contact a local model to make a quick run out to the woods this afternoon before it was too late, but couldn't connect before the light was fading and a little rain had started. So it goes.

I might try taking tomorrow's model to a state park where hunting is prohibited. Of course, that's no guarantee that a drunken idiot with a shotgun won't be hunting there anyway. But the odds are better.

So, it looks like I'll have to settle for as close as I could get with the sun ruining the shot I had in mind. This one of Angie may be as close as I got. What I was really interested in was the color that had stayed in the underbrush long after the leaves were gone from the trees. It seemed to be much more dramatic and much more colorful than I ever remember before. Bare trees with about a 4-6 foot layer of bright color at the bottom. But it was only really at its most beautiful when a heavy overcast made the colors really come out. The sun just washed them away.

But I still like this composition with Angie being all tree-like and lots of interesting shapes and tones and colors going on. Just not what I had set out to capture. But Mother Nature always has something to offer if you are willing to see it.

Playing Ball on Running Water

2009-11-25T12:33:00.003-05:00

That Zen saying is one I think about when it comes to working outdoors and trying to make art. You can plan all you want, but Mother Nature is going to dictate what you can and cannot do and your success will be determined by how well you can adapt to what you find when you are out there trying to make photographs.

I'm pretty good at adapting. And I'm pretty good at planning and adjusting the plan as needed. But today Mother Nature was flat out fucking with me.

I'd seen some things happening with the changing of the seasons that is a little unusual. We've had an unusual year as far as weather is concerned and I think it's resulting in a little different progression of fall into winter. There was a situation that I thought would make a good figure shot. It required an overcast sky, which has been what we've had constantly for the past week...and what is forecast for today and the coming week.

So I called Angie and set up a shoot for this morning. Angie has become my "go-to" model for lots of things recently. She's beautiful, she's a talented model who is learning and getting better every time we shoot, and she's often available and willing to put herself through the torture that my models frequently have to endure, especially at this time of year.

When I got up this morning there was a heavy overcast. Perfect. But as I headed to my studio to meet Angie the clouds moved off to the east and clear blue skies appeared. Shit! But Angie and I went on the location I had scouted. And, as I knew would be the case, the photos I had in mind would not work with the harsh sun beating down on us.

Time to adapt the plan. We hiked around and found some spots that worked ok, but in a different way from what I had envisioned. While scouting I had spotted this log out in the lake. On the day I was there the air was still and there was that overcast. There were beautiful reflections in the still water. I didn't think it would work today, but we went there and Angie crawled out onto the log. This spot on the lake was sheltered enough that there were still reflections, despite a brisk, cold wind. Clouds started moving back in and added a nice element to both the sky and the reflections in the lake. So, we got a photo. Not the one I set out to take today, but still a keeper.

Of course, as we headed back to the studio the clouds moved back in and within an hour there was a full overcast again. We would have waited around, but Angie had to get to work at her day job, so that wasn't an option.

But, I have another shoot planned for Monday...maybe the clouds will be back...no telling if fall will have progressed into winter too far for the photo to still be there, but I'll just adapt the plan to what I find then.

2010 Calendars

2009-11-20T16:38:00.003-05:00

I've finally gotten around to publishing a new calendar for 2010. "The Figure In Nature 2010" has almost all new photos, with one or two oldies thrown it for nostalgia's sake. There's a smaller, less expensive version here. You can order the calendars here, or just use the link at the right.

I've also republished last year's calendar from my trip out west with Brooke Lynne for 2010. You can order it at the same place.

Rainy Day

2009-11-16T20:24:00.004-05:00

It rained all day Saturday. This is what the farm looked like through the rain and fog.

I'm back home. Drove all day Sunday and half a day today. Lots of work to do at the studio tomorrow to get ready for some dancers coming in for studio photos.

Now that I'm home I'll have to dig around for some photos of naked ladies to post here. But it might not happen until after I get these next dance photos done. Depends on how well the studio setup goes.

By Dawn's Early Light

2009-11-13T15:53:00.005-05:00

OK...here are two more versions of "my" farmhouse. The one below was shot this morning in the pre-sunrise morning twilight. The one above a bit later just after the sun rose above the Green Mountains.

I guess these photos are another of the many signs that I'm officially old. It seems it's only old photographers who become fascinated with the changing light on a given scene. I remember that Edward Steichen made a time-lapse movie of a tree outside a window in his house. I think he was in his eighties when he did that. I'm not quite that old, but I'm finding projects like this one increasingly attractive. Maybe I'll have to start shooting these on large format film. Or not. This was shot with my 18-200 lens at 200mm...so, on my D200 that's the 35mm equivalent of a 300mm lens. I don't even know what lens I'd need to match that on a 4x5 view camera. I doubt if I could afford the required lens anyway.

Don't know if I'll be posting any more before we return home next week. Depends on what I see up here, I guess. But this is probably it for the farm...or not...have to go and get a shot of it at sunset...

Vermont

2009-11-12T22:58:00.004-05:00

I'm in Vermont for a family visit. When I come up here I've been photographing this one farm for several years in various light and weather. There's something about the way this farmhouse looks that just draws me to it. I've posted some of my earlier photos of it on here before.

The above photo was taken mid-morning today. The one below, right as the sun was setting. Tomorrow I hope to try a shot at sun up. There should be frost on the ground then.

Of course, you all know that to do a photo like this this it's important to find just the right camera position and to be able to repeat that placing of the camera. I don't mind minor variations in the crop and composition, but the point of view needs to be pretty much the same. I've walked all over the place and tried many different camera positions before settling on this one. It happens to be that I shoot these out the living room window of my mother-in-law's house. That's the only place that gives me the right elevation to clear a bunch of obstructions. I've tried walking closer, but there is a serious slope between my mother-in-law's house and this farm, so moving closer destroys the composition. So I've just had to settle for shooting from the comfort of the living room. That will make the dawn photo tomorrow a bit easier than if I had to go hiking.

I'm on a dial-up connection up here. My mother-in-law hasn't joined the world of the internet. So I won't be on here much until we return home next week. But meanwhile, enjoy the sights of Vermont.

Art Walk

2009-11-08T15:50:00.005-05:00

Friday was the "First Friday" Art Walk in Dayton. It was also the night for the closing reception for the Creative Soul of Dayton art show where I had a couple prints on display. With that show ending my prints needed to be picked up either right after the closing reception on Friday or sometime Saturday. So I decided it was a good night to wander around the art walk with some friends.

Above are Fen and _G_ and a lovely new model I've started working with recently, Ophidian Marie. I shot this at my studio before we headed out for the evening. I was actually testing a new light modifier that I just purchased. I'm very pleased with the results.

We went to dinner where Gary M met up with us and then to several galleries, ending up at the Creative Soul exhibit in the old Armory at Sixth and Patterson.

_G_ was quite impressed to see that they had hidden my photo of her at Ash Cave in a corner and said she felt she should hide in the corner too:

My other print in the show, "Brooke In A Stream," was in a bit more prominent location. So we got Gary to take this shot of the four of us there:

At 10 p.m. the closing reception ended and I took my prints off the wall and headed back to the studio. All in all a very pleasant evening. No print sales, of course, but that seems to be the norm this year.

On another note I've finished editing my photos from the Fall Dance Concert at Ohio University and they are now uploaded to my fotki site. If you go there you will probably see more dance photos than you ever wanted to see. You might want to just wait a few days and I'll post a few of my favorites here.

Fall

2009-11-04T11:46:00.002-05:00

Waterfall, that is. After Angie and I did our Fall Colors shot we went to a nearby waterfall where I've shot a number of times. In the past something has always prevented me from getting the shot I was after. Sometimes the light was wrong. The waterfall faces south, so if there is any direct sunlight it is on the waterfall all day and the trees produce mottled sun and shadow that can be very unattractive, not to mention being beyond the ability of the camera to hold detail at both ends. The waterfall is seasonal, coming pretty close to drying up when there hasn't been rain for a while. So other photos have not worked well because there just wasn't enough water.

But this time everything fell into place. The cloud cover was perfect for just the right level of contrast. It's very unusual for there to be this much water here at the end of October, but this fall has been far from usual as far as weather goes, so the water flow was about the best I've seen in this spot.

And, fortunately, I had the beautiful and talented Angie with me to add just the right extra element to the scene that it needs for my eye to feel it's complete.

So, there you have it. Thanks Angie.

I finished the shooting for the Fall Dance Concert at Ohio University last night. So, today's task is editing. I should soon have some of those photos to share here.

Fall Colors

2009-11-02T13:08:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to get something with the fall colors this year, but the leaves just haven't cooperated around here. They pretty much turned brown and fell off the trees. The colorful days were few. On my trip up to Detroit and Chicago I saw fantastic colors on the trees, but I wasn't shooting on that trip, so I didn't get to take advantage of them.

But by hunting around I was able to find a few places where the leaves still had some color after they had hit the ground. Wonderful Angie is pretty much always available when I need her, so on a relatively warm day we set out to find and capture something with the colors. I think this one did about as well as was possible this year.

I'm in the middle of working on the dance concert at OU. Have to take off in a bit for an evening of shooting. Hope to have some new dance work to share in a few days.

Wishing You A Spooky Halloween

2009-10-30T17:00:00.004-04:00

There's Theda getting familiar with a very lucky Death. Just wanted to share something in keeping with the season. The trick or treaters, including that cute little boy in the last post, will be coming by looking for candy tomorrow night. I don't think they'll get any treats like Death did when he came calling on Theda, though.

I've seen half of the dance pieces that I'll be photographing next week. Sunday I'll watch the rest. Then Monday and Tuesday will be shooting days. I watch the lighting rehearsals, get familiar with each piece and take notes on the best exposures for each piece...and often for different parts of each piece if there is much change in the light levels. Lighting rehearsals are slow, but they offer a good opportunity to get to know what's involved in a dance. I've blogged before about what I consider the necessity to know what's happening when I shoot dance...not to just shoot it like a basketball game. I try to understand each piece and work to capture something of what the piece is about in my photos. It's impossible to do that, but it provides my goal and direction for what I try to do.

Monday and Tuesday will be technical rehearsals. I'll get to shoot each piece each night. Sometimes at a tech rehearsal they will run a piece more than once to get any technical kinks worked out. So it gives me plenty of opportunity to work to get just what I want. I would prefer to shoot the dress rehearsals, but at OU there is an audience for their dress rehearsals...usually classes from local elementary, middle and high schools. It's rude and disruptive to photograph when there is an audience, so I won't do it...and the school of dance agrees with me and doesn't allow photography at those rehearsals anyway.

Maybe one of these days digital cameras will get to the place that they won't be so noticeable during a performance. I see some developments recently that could get us to that point. There's really no reason cameras have to be so noisy. There's really no reason we need single lens reflexes with a noisy mirror flopping up and down. If I had a camera with a bright viewfinder (not through the lens), excellent auto focus, and high ISO performance like the latest pro Nikons...well that would be the perfect dance camera. With usable 6400 ISO and a short f/2.8 zoom...something in the 35-90 range (in full frame 35mm terms...I could get by with my 80-200 if nothing else was available) I'd be able to just go to the back of the performance space and shoot without anyone even noticing.

I have hopes that I'll live to see a camera that will do what I want for dance photos. The Leica M9 isn't it because it isn't auto focus. I've shot dance with my Leica M2. It's possible, but focus is a major challenge. I just did zone focusing and only used my wide angle lenses on the Leica for shots of the whole stage back in those days. I know better than to think I could get away with using the M9 for the main dance camera. I've actually been watching the new mini 4/3 cameras thinking one of them might provide what I'm looking for. They don't seem to be there yet, but maybe in their next generation they will get there.

Compared to what we had to work with back in the 1970s when I started photographing dance using Tri-X pushed in Acufine...well the current crop of digital cameras are just fantastic. But we always want at least a little bit more, don't we.

Grandson

2009-10-27T12:50:00.003-04:00

My grandson, Titus, came by my studio over the weekend to get his photo taken. He's about one year and one month old. I think he's pretty cute and a delightful little boy. But, hey, I'm not prejudiced or anything. I think this one does a pretty good job of catching his personality and mischievous energy.

I haven't been doing much else with photos in recent days. Just sticking close to home and working on other things the past few days. Tomorrow I'll be heading down to Athens to start the process of photographing a dance concert. That will involve four trips to Athens, two to watch the dances and two to photograph them. I missed the spring concert that I usually photograph because it happened while I was on the trip to Glacier National Park. So I'm looking forward to getting back to shooting some dance.

I've added some lighting do-dads to the studio that are particularly suited to shooting studio dance things, so I'm hoping to get some good dancers to make the trip to my studio soon for some shooting. This upcoming concert is usually where I see who the outstanding dancers are in this year's crop of seniors, so I'll probably have someone to shoot soon.

Smile!

2009-10-24T18:05:00.009-04:00

First, just let me say before it is too late: Today is United Nations Day. In observance of the day I did nothing.
My friend Wolf has just published a pretty wonderful book. That's the cover up above. I recommend you go check it out here. Here are a couple samples of Wolf's work from the book:

I think you'll find this book to be a very enjoyable experience. Wolf's blog is pretty fun to follow too.

I made it to Chicago and back with a load of roof tile that almost matches what I have on the roof now. Style is the same. Color is close, but not an exact match. But, when you are dealing with 100-year-old salvaged tile you have to be a bit flexible, I guess.

I also stopped by the River's Edge Gallery in suburban Detroit and dropped off some framed prints. So I'm now represented by that gallery in the Detroit area. I'm proud to be associated with them because it is a really fine gallery, well worth a visit if you are in the Detroit area and haven't already been there. Special thanks to Patty Izzo, a wonderful person and very talented photographer, for inviting me to join River's Edge.

Another View of Angie

2009-10-21T15:00:00.002-04:00

This photo is more along the line of what I usually shoot with Angie. She is lovely and a very good model. And she is willing to get cold and wet and dirty for me. We shot this photo this morning at a little waterfall where we've shot several times in the past. I've been trying to get some shots with fall colors, but the trees around here just aren't putting on much of a show this year. At least it has warmed up a bit from the frigid temperatures we've been having.

I have some travel to do over the next couple days and may not be on line much. I'll be dropping some prints off at the River's Edge Gallery in suburban Detroit where they will be part of their permanent collection and available for sale.

Then I'll visit with some friends up that way and spend the night near Chicago. On Friday I'll be picking up a bunch of old roof tile from a place south of Chicago. They have tile that match the ones on the roof of my house. I've been looking for replacement tile for a year so I can repair damage done when the neighbor's tree fell onto my house during Hurricane Ike. It will be good to finally get that problem taken care of.

I hope to be doing some more shooting...most likely in the studio or other indoor locations...next week. And I have lots of other recent stuff to share when I get time. But it's looking like outdoor shooting is done for this year, at least until I travel somewhere warm.

Enough of the lawsuit stuff

2009-10-16T12:24:00.003-04:00

OK...I left that last post on top for long enough. Time to get on with life. I expect to be involved in that lawsuit for the next year or two, but that doesn't mean I won't still be shooting.

So, here's something different. I do occasionally shoot things other than nudes. I always make the offer to my models to shoot anything they want for their own use, for portfolios or whatever. Angie has been a great model for me for some time now. She's always available for me to try out new ideas and lighting methods. She's been willing to get cold and wet and dirty for outdoor shoots in bad weather. And she's been willing to be the subject for some of my more off-the-wall ideas.

So, when Angie said she'd like to have some more commercial photos for her portfolio I was happy to shoot some things for her. And, since I'm always interested in color, this setting (and the setting sun) struck a chord with me. Of course I think I'd like it better without the dress, but that's not really an option in this location, so I'll settle for this.

I have some new lighting stuff that I've been experimenting with in the studio. Some of that will begin to show up here soon. And, don't be worried...most of those photos include nude models.

2257A Lawsuit

2009-10-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Free Speech Coalition et al v. Holder has been filed in federal court in Philadelphia . A news release about the lawsuit is here: http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/

I’m part of the “et al” in this lawsuit aimed at having the law known commonly as “2257A” declared unconstitutional. I blogged about how upset I am about this law here: http://exposedfortheshadows.blogspot.com/2009/03/2257-rant.html

In short this clearly unconstitutional law violates the guarantee of free speech contained in the Bill of Rights by making it a felony to fail to follow obscure, complicated and unclear procedures for record keeping for many types of completely legal photographs…and other forms of artistic expression such as painting and drawing. That’s right, it’s not just about photography. The idea behind this law appears to be to make it so impossible to follow the law that people will stop producing perfectly legal art work and at the same time make it possible for the government to pretty much charge anyone whose work they don’t like with a felony. Conviction can result in a 5-year prison sentence and designation as a sex offender.

My reaction to the law has been to restrict my photography to work that clearly falls outside the scope of this law. This has meant removing award-winning photos from display on the internet and has also resulted in not being able to successfully complete some new projects because the restrictions just made it impossible to produce effective work. I’m frustrated and very angry that my constitutional rights are being violated by this ill-considered law. It’s bad law that needs to be eliminated.

I’m participating in this lawsuit because I think it really matters, not just to me but to any photographer or other artist who works with the nude. If you do that kind of work and you think the law doesn’t affect you, I suspect you could be mistaken. If you photograph or draw or paint any nudes, if you photograph any bondage or BDSM scenes, even with the model fully clothed, then it is likely that you have produced at least some work that could be considered to fall under 2257A.

The law requires that you keep detailed, cross-referenced records of all the models you work with for those images. You also must publish a statement of where those records are maintained with each publication (including on the web) of any of those images. And those records must be available for unannounced inspection by federal agents at least 20 hours a week, every week. That’s right, if you maintain the records yourself you not only must publish your address, but you also can never go on vacation because you have to be there 20 hours every week in case an inspector wants to visit unannounced. Oh…and during that inspection they are permitted to look around for anything that they might consider a violation of any law, not just 2257A. So you have effectively given up your constitutional protection against warrantless searches.

If this concerns you, it should. If you think you could be affected by 2257A you should look into the details of it. The best way I know to do that is by reading the book Stephen Haynes wrote about the law. You can find it here: http://www.shaynes.com/2257_Book/index.htm

As the lawsuit progresses I plan to do updates here on my blog. So stay tuned for future developments.

More Brooke

2009-10-06T15:36:00.003-04:00

Life is busy right now, but that's a good thing. I've been shooting and there is more shooting coming in the next few days. Then there will be a trip, but not a shooting trip. I hope to do at least one more post before I take off. I may not have internet access for about a week while I'm traveling, but if I can I'll do a post or two while I'm away.

Meanwhile, here's another from my shooting with Brooke while she was visiting in Ohio after the Dirty Show.

And, speaking of the Dirty Show, it's over now and I have my prints back. It was pretty much a dud as far as print sales are concerned. Things are bad in the motor city. I may have sold a print, but I haven't taken the time to go through what came back to make sure. They'll let me know sometime soon and I'll take their word for it. Maybe things will be better by the time the February show comes around.

Brooke At Ash Cave

2009-09-30T22:20:00.005-04:00

Brooke stuck around after the Dirty Show. Today I took her to one of my favorite places on the planet, Ash Cave in Southeast Ohio.

I've shot at Ash Cave a number of times, but Brooke brought her unique talents to this shoot, so there was nothing we shot that was a repeat of anything I'd done there before. We left at around 5:30 a.m. for the two-hour drive so we could be there when the sun came up. It was a good day, in that for a couple hours we had the place all to ourselves before other people started showing up.

I haven't had time to do a thorough edit, but this one just jumped out at me when I took a quick look through what we had done. There will be more to come.

This trip was a bit different for me as far as shooting technique went. Every photo was taken with the camera on a tripod. I shot less than 1,000 photos during the whole day of shooting. I decided to do that for several reasons. It was dark. The day was cloudy, so when the sun came up, not a whole lot of light made its way down into the gorge where the cave is located. I wanted to use my 12-24mm lens, which doesn't have VR. And I've been trying to work on a self-portrait, which requires the camera to be on a tripod...no success with that task yet, but I guess I'll keep trying.

After we got back from the trip to Ash Cave we went to the studio for some more shooting. Looks like there might be some good stuff there too. Tomorrow we'll shoot some more at the studio...and maybe, if it is a bit warmer, make a short trip to a nearby favorite shooting location...then I'll take Brooke to the airport for her flight back home.

Behind A Burqa

2009-09-29T11:31:00.009-04:00

Here's another of JoJo Suicide, this time wearing a burqa...but I don't think she got it on quite right.

Brooke Lynne is hanging around for a few days, so I'm looking forward to doing some shooting with her before she goes back to Minnesota. Haven't shot anything yet, though, so it remains to be seen what we'll come up with. Of course, with Brooke doing the modeling it is hard to avoid making art, even if you were to try.

And there's another show that includes a couple of my photos opening on Friday. This time it's The Creative Soul exhibit in Dayton. I hope to get to the opening Friday night. All the details are at that link. Hope to see you there if you are in the Dayton area and can find time to stop by.

Back From the Dirty Show

2009-09-27T23:05:00.008-04:00

Back home tonight after another Dirty Show. I have to say this was the best one I've attended. It was a smaller show, less art and fewer people in attendance. That may not be the best for the show itself, but it sure made it a more pleasurable experience. Parking was free. It was not hard to get to the bar and get drinks. It wasn't too crowded to be able to see that art on display.

And the acts performing on stage were a huge step up from the past. I heard someone say that some of the acts this time were "semi-professional" a big contrast to the "sub-amateur" performers of past shows. There was a particularly good fan dance at one point in the evening. And there was a group doing aerial performances that were great to watch, and they weren't even dirty.

My crew for this show are also a bit smaller than at past Dirty Shows, but it also was very high quality. Unbearable Lightness, _G_ and Brooke Lynne were the models along with _G_'s boyfriend, Fen.

And, getting into the theme for the night, they all started getting dirty even before we left the motel to go to the show.

Here's _G_ beside the photo in the show that featured her.

And here's Unbearable Lightness showing off her contribution to the show.

We also did a little shooting in the motel room before we headed off to the show. Here are the three lovely ladies together.

All in all it was a great weekend. A lot of fun and good times with some very good friends.

Off To The Dirty Show

2009-09-25T15:58:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow I head to Detroit with some friends to go to the Dirty Show. Look us up if you are there too on Saturday night.

I don't really have time to write much now. So, just enjoy this photo from my most recent shoot with JoJo Suicide. JoJo was the subject of my photo in the last Dirty Show back in February. She never fails to deliver photos that draw attention.

Noelle in the Swamp

2009-09-22T13:23:00.002-04:00

One more of Noelle Elise before I get on to other things. This one comes the closest I've gotten so far in my efforts to capture the feel of Florida in my work. I think there is something more to be done here...probably something involving getting the model all wet and covered with slime. And/or maybe wresting a 'gator. Any volunteers?

I'm getting ready for the Dirty Show coming up this weekend. I'll be there with some friends on Saturday night. Track us down and say hi if you are there too.

I've updated the calendar link over there on the top right. I'm working on 2010 calendars. I have updated last year's calendars featuring Brooke Lynne with 2010 dates. After the Dirty Show one of my priorities will be to create a new calendar with all new photos. This past year has been a good one for my work, so the new calendar should have lots of good new stuff in it. But the photos Brooke and I did on our trip out west are still highlights of my work and always will be.

Now, I'll issue a photo geek warning. I'm going to write a bit about studio equipment. So you can stop reading if that stuff doesn't interest you.

I've been reworking my studio strobe setup. Not really by choice. I've used Novatron powerpack strobes for more than 30 years. The reason is simply that 30 years ago someone was selling a Novatron kit for cheap and I bought it. I don't really care about fancy features on a strobe system. I just want it to make a bright flash when I push the shutter button. So Novatrons worked just fine for me for all those years.

Over the years I've added a bunch of heads and more power packs until I had a pretty comprehensive system that could do pretty much anything I wanted it to do. At least for the kind of work I do. When I did some product work for a customer years ago I had to borrow a lot more power from a good friend, but I don't do that kind of work very often...never if I can help it.

Over the years a power pack would occasionally fail. Sometimes that could be pretty dramatic, filling the studio (and in one recent case, a model's home) with acrid brown smoke. When that would happen I'd unplug everything, let the pack cool down (outside) and then take it to my local photo store where they would ship it off to a repairman. In a couple weeks it would be back good as new for something like $100-150.

Well, last fall that failure in a model's home happened. I sent the pack off...a 500ws unit. But this time it came back "unrepairable - no parts available." Some checking revealed that the owner of Novatron had died and the company had been sold. The new company decided not to support the old units.

Another pack failed shortly after that. It also came back unrepairable. So my 400ws unit was gone too. That left me with just a 240ws unit that could only power 3 heads. Not enough power to do what I need.

I hunted around and found a good deal on an old Novatron 800ws unit. But it only works on half and quarter power. That means it will fail completely someday...no telling when.

The old Novatron factory workers (abandoned by the new owners) have established a repair business. In fact, they are handling warranty repairs for the new owners of Novatron. I called them and the gentleman I spoke to said, "I built them, I can fix them."

I seriously considered sending my broken units off to them to be repaired. But I'm pretty upset about the company abandoning all us Novatron users who have used their strobes for all these years. And I worried how much repairs would end up costing and how long they would continue to be available.

But I knew something that doesn't seem to be common knowlege, or at least has come as a surprise to many people I've talked with who are well versed in studio strobes. Novatron packs and heads are interchangeable with Speedotron Brown Line packs and heads. The plugs are essentially the same. You can plug a Brown Line head into a Novatron pack and a Novatron head into a Brown Line pack and everything will work just fine. And Speedotron has been around even longer than Novatron, is still a going concern and still provides support for their old strobes.

So, I started shopping. I had good luck on ebay. Got a Speedotron 400ws pack for $80...much less than I would have expected to pay for repairs on one of my Novatron packs. Then I found a 1600ws pack for only $250. That's a lot more power than I've ever had available. All my heads are only rated for 400ws, but I can use that 1600ws pack on quarter power or use it on full power with four heads plugged in...or other in-between combinations. But, to allow me to take advantage of that power I made a trip to "The Camera Church" aka Columbus Camera Group and picked up a couple Speedotron heads that are rated for 1600ws (couldn't find any at good prices on ebay). Also got a couple reflectors of different sizes. I think I'm going to spring for a new beauty dish to use with one of those heads. At that point my transition will be complete.

Oh, and there's another reason that I wanted the 1600ws unit, besides the very good price. I shoot dance photos in the studio. One thing I learned when I studied with Lois Greenfield in NYC is that she uses her strobe system at a low power setting to get short flash durations to freeze the dance movement better. I'll be able to do that with the 1600ws unit, putting it on quarter power, getting a very short flash duration, and still having plenty of light output.

So, that's enough photo geek stuff for today. I'm also playing around with some other new gear I found on ebay (it's a dangerous place for your wallet). I'll write some more geek stuff about that in the near future.

In The Light

2009-09-18T11:52:00.002-04:00

Here's another of Noelle Elise taken outside Orlando a couple weeks ago. I can't say enough about how great she was to work with. I'm looking forward to shooting her more in the future.

We had quite a time getting this shot. It was a pretty open area in a state park. There's a road just a little way to the left of where we shot this. We saw the light and the trees and wanted to do something with that setting so we started walking out to get away from the road. But when we got a fairly safe distance from the one road we discovered there was another road leading to a campground just behind where this was shot. There were people out riding bikes on both roads and we were close to being within sight of the campsites. We almost gave up and left, but at the last minute we decided to give it a quick try between bikes and cars. We got the shot and I don't think anyone saw us.

I've been getting prints ready for two shows coming up. Sunday I'll drive up to Detroit to drop off my work and another photographer's work for the Dirty Show coming up in a week. I'll be at the show with a group of friends on the night of September 26. And there's another show, The Creative Soul of Dayton, coming up. I have two prints in it and will be dropping those off on Monday.

I finally have the studio back into a functioning form, though I seem to keep having problems finding the things I need, but I'll be working on digging everything out and organizing it so that I can work efficiently. I haven't hung any backgrounds yet, instead taking advantage of the chance to work with the windows and the light they provide before I block them with backgrounds again.

I'm making equipment changes with my lighting gear too. I'll write a bit about that in a future post. The new stuff will give me new toys to play with when it starts getting too cold to work outside again this year.

9/11

2009-09-11T10:36:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe that it has been eight years since everything changed. I remember the details of that day better than I do what happened yesterday.

I was working for the Air Force then. I was in a meeting with a 4-star general making plans for a scheduled visit from the Secretary of the Air Force...a visit that never happened. The general's aide came into the room, whispered in the general's ear and turned on a TV. On the screen we saw the smoke coming out of the first tower.

The general stopped the meeting and said we needed to find out what was going on. Back at my desk I had a TV to monitor the news. My job was media relations. I watched on the TV as the second plane flew into the second tower. And the news came in that the Pentagon had been hit.

Of course, at that time we didn't know who or what was behind the attacks...but we knew we, the nation, were under attack. Being the Air Force, with the country under aerial attack...well you may be able to imagine that there was a lot of activity, to put it mildly. I can't talk about everything I know that happened that day, and I know there is plenty that I don't know about that went on. That was a very serious day.

The feeling from that day that overshadows everything else was the uncertainty. We didn't know where the attacks came from and we had no idea if another attack would occur somewhere at any time. We were doing everything we could to prepare and prevent that from happening. For all we knew a foreign invasion could have been about to begin.

I ended up spending that night in an underground command post helping coordinate the Air Force response to the media around the country. I was the point of contact for more than a dozen bases for guidance on what they could say to the media. My guidance that night was to say nothing. That was not a time for PR. At one point I had a major who wanted to put out a news release saying we had F-16 fighters with full combat loads sitting on our runway ready to take off. I said no. Those planes were within easy mortar range of uncontrolled areas around the base. With our level of base security back then a squad of well trained attackers could have had a very good chance of piercing our perimeter and reaching those planes. The major couldn't seem to understand all that. Voices were raised. There was no news release.

I spent the first couple days after the attack under the assumption that we were at war with an unknown enemy. In a sense, of course, that was correct.

Some months after the attack I started seeing lots of really bad "Flag" photos. Everyone was in a patriotic mood and was trying to find ways to express it. I thought I could make a flag-themed photo that did a little better job of reflecting the mood of the country. The photo above is what I came up with.

The world is a worse place since 9/11. In many unfortunate ways the terrorists have succeeded. We live in fear now...mostly misplaced and misdirected fear. But the terror is there. I am hopeful that our current leadership will be able to do a better job of keeping the terrorists from achieving their ends and bring the world closer to a place where such actions will not be tolerated anywhere on the planet. That is my hope.

Swamp Cat

2009-09-09T14:23:00.003-04:00

I was talking with an on-line friend a few days ago about why we do what we do and what direction our work may take in the future. He said something that, as he said, is a pretty generic statement, but it is true and sometimes photographers are afraid to admit it.

"I like to look at naked women. It's even better when they are smart and creative naked women, and they're fun to talk to while we create the pictures."

One of the joys of traveling and doing this kind of work is meeting new models. And now and then I run across one who is smart and creative and fun to talk to while we create the photos. It's always a great extra charge to find another one of those models who I know I'm going to want to work with for years to come. I may find other things to photograph, but models like that are going to keep me coming back to figure work.

On this last trip to Florida I found one of them. Noelle Elise is a fairly new model, but she has dance training and a bright mind. She already understands how her body looks and what it takes to get a great photo. And she's willing to do whatever it is that needs to be done. Add to that the fact that she is fun to talk to and a very enjoyable person to be around. Well, you've just described the makings of a great shoot.

I had two models scheduled for the Orlando area. One of them flaked on me...that's pretty normal when booking models from Model Mayhem. I thought Noelle was flaking on me too, but it turned out there were some e-mail issues that almost kept us from getting together. I'm so glad we overcame those communication problems and did this shoot.

I've been wanting since I first visited Florida to do some photos that capture the feel of the swamps there. This is the first time I've gotten what I was after, despite several earlier attempts. Noelle suggested this location and it was perfect for what I was after.

Thank you Noelle. You really made this work and I really appreciate it.

The best news for me is that Noelle is moving up north in the very near future and will be close enough to me that we should be able to work together more than we would if she were staying in Florida. Of course it remains to be seen if her thin Florida blood can stand the kind of cold I tend to subject models to up here. I'm looking forward to finding out.

Fun With JoJo

2009-09-04T17:02:00.002-04:00

I'm back home and working on catching up on stuff. I have two shows coming up this month, one being the Dirty Show up in Detroit, and have to get the prints ready for them. And my truck is still not running right, so I don't have wheels.

But, I had a lot of fun in Florida and I'm starting to make my way through the photos. JoJo is always a treat to visit and we had fun doing this shoot. She is amazing and always provides a unique image. So, here's another portrait of sorts. More to come.

Phoenix Moving

2009-09-01T19:36:00.003-04:00

An old friend, artist and model is moving away. Phoenix Kelley is on her way to Portland, Oregon as I write this. We've known each other and worked together for years. It's been wonderful watching her grow from a shy and slightly awkward teenager into a confident artist and accomplished model. And all along she has been a fine friend.

Now she's off to start a new chapter in her life as an artist. As she was packing to leave she contacted me to make sure we did a shoot before she hit the road. This is one of the photos we did that day last week. She also wrote a wonderful post on her blog about our work together.

I'm sure this won't be the end of our collaborations to make art. She will be back to Ohio in the future, at the very least for visits. And the Pacific Northwest is the one part of the lower 48 that I have yet to visit, so it's very high on my list for future travel. Unfortunately it looks unlikely that she will be able to make it back for the Dirty Show later this month, where the photo of her with Athena and Unbearable Lightness in the post below will be on display. She has been part of my Dirty Show posse for the past two years, and one year caught the eye of Eric Kroll at the show, leading to a shoot with him. We'll all miss her at the show this time.

I haven't been posting much because I've been on the road myself. I'm in Orlando right now. I brought my daughter down to Tampa last week to start her junior year of college. Then I came over to Orlando to hang out for a few days before heading back home. I had two local Orlando models scheduled for shoots, set up through Model Mayhem. And only one of them flaked on me. That's better than average for that site. The one who did show up, Noelle Elise, was wonderful. More about her when I get some of her photos ready to post.

I also got to do another shoot with one of my favorite models, JoJo Suicide, over in Tampa. She's always a sure thing to make some fine photos, and she is a very fine person who is fun to visit with. I've looked through that shoot quickly and I know there's a bunch of good work there. You'll see some of it here soon.

Tomorrow morning it's back to Tampa early to catch a flight back to Ohio. Florida has been fun but I'm looking forward to being back home.

Dirty, Dirty, Dirty

2009-08-25T16:06:00.005-04:00

Just got the word that I'll have two photos in the Dirty Show at the end of September/beginning of October up in Detroit. This is the first time they've picked more than one of my entries for the show.

Here are the two that will be exhibited:

Bed Posts (Models: Athena, Unbearable Lightness, Phoenix Kelly) (Photographed before 2257A took effect)

Big Wood (At Flathead Lake, Montana. Model: _G_)

Also, for those of you in the Los Angeles area, the Erotic Signature touring exhibit will be there September 10-12 at BOXeight Studios, 1446 E. Washington Blvd. LA, 90021. I'm supposed to have four prints in this show, including two of my nurses, printed 30x40. If any readers happen to see the show I'd be very interested in your opinion of it since I've not been able to see it on exhibit yet.

More with Theda

2009-08-21T11:23:00.003-04:00

Here's one more from my shoot with Theda in NYC. I always try to arrange to get together and work with Theda whenever I visit the city because she is just a wonderful model and a person I really enjoy. She is taking a break from modeling right now, but if you were to twist her arm you might get her to agree to do a shoot...and it would be well worth it. (Now she's probably going to be pissed at me for saying that...but really, she's one of the very best models out there, and if you manage to get on the wavelength to "get" her sense of humor you will really enjoy her.) I hope her break from modeling turns out to be temporary. She just looks so damn good in a tight corset...

Not much to report from around here lately, at least as far as photography is concerned. Yesterday I was up a ladder trying to do a temporary patch of a hole in the roof with some roof tar...hope it will hold off the deluge until we can get someone who knows what they are doing up there to do a proper repair. We are in the process of getting a lot of work done on our house...painting the exterior and replacing a bunch of wood that has gotten water damage, replacing part of the roof on our garage, and, coming up, a bunch of repairs to our 100-year-old tile roof. (Don't worry, I wasn't putting the tar on the tile...just in some bad spots in a metal valley.)

Meanwhile I need to make a trip to Florida next week to take my daughter back to college. I'm working on setting up a few shoots while I'm down there, including getting together with another of my model favorites, JoJo Suicide. JoJo is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and a lot of fun to work with. She's also great to have a serious conversation with...she has her Doctorate in Fine Art from the Sorbonne in Paris. Oh, and she is NOT a Suicide Girl. She was JoJo Suicide before there were Suicide Girls.

When I get back from Florida I'll probably be making a quick trip to the Chicago area to pick up a bunch of roof tiles for the repairs to my house. Don't know if I'll be able to stretch that trip into a couple days to do some shooting up there or not...I'll have to figure that out when I get back from Florida.

I'll try to post now and then over the next couple weeks while all this goes on...but who knows if I'll succeed.

Another Portrait

2009-08-17T18:16:00.003-04:00

It's hot. A couple days in a row of 90+ temperatures. I'm trying to get my studio cleaned and rearranged, but it was 90 in the studio today with the a/c running. I got a little done, but not all that much. Even the violent thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon didn't cool things off.

There's plenty going on with me right now, but little of it has anything to do with photography. I'll get back into the swing of photo stuff soon, though.

Meanwhile here is another recent portrait. That's Angie from a quick shoot we did last month. Like I said earlier, I often shoot portraits...but seldom post them on the blog here. That's something I should probably correct.

Angie is on her way to the studio as I type this. I'm going to shoot some commercial/lifestyle photos for her to use in her portfolio. If I'm lucky there will be another downpour of rain and I can get her out in it and drenched...but if that doesn't happen we'll still get some nice stuff where she has clothes on and stuff so she can use them to get work from some agencies. She's a fine model, so I'm sure we'll do some good things...but it won't be art, at least for the most part. Nothing wrong with craft, though.

Maybe it will be cooler tomorrow and I'll be able to get more done toward putting the studio back in shape...or not.

I'm A Winnah!

2009-08-15T22:22:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note to announce that this blog won an award and I didn't even know about it. Seems that back on July 10 the blog was awarded the "I Understand and I Wish To Continue" award.

I couldn't be more proud.

I can't seem to find a way to comment or send a note to the blogger who bestowed this award on my humble blog...if any of you know how to contact him/her, please let me know...I'd like to express my appreciation.

One for Lin

2009-08-12T21:18:00.003-04:00

Lin said in a comment a while back that I should do more portraits. Well, I do shoot portraits regularly, but tend not to post them here. So here's a little something from my shoot with Theda. I've been playing around with some head scarves. I'm interested in what is hidden and what is revealed. I found the transformation in Theda's look when she put the head scarf on to be pretty interesting. I don't think I'd recognize her if I hadn't been there when she put on the scarf. And, somehow, it seems to me that she is more there...maybe with just a little bit of that illusive soul showing.

So, this is, at least to me, just a bit more serious a photo than the "Death" series. You did understand those were a joke, didn't you? I love Theda's sense of humor. It's dark and dry and delicious.

Which reminds me:

Sisyphus walks in to a bar and says to the bartender, "Give me a Rolling Rock."

Hope you like this portrait, Lin. I'll try to post that kind of work a little more often.

Changing subject, since I complained here about the Delta terminal at JFK, I should now tell you that they responded to my complaint with an apology and a small travel voucher for a future flight. At least they paid a little attention. Now if they would just do something about that disaster of a terminal. I still won't fly Delta to JFK again until I know they have.

And while I'm talking about things not working, blogger wasn't working most of today...or at least it wouldn't let me get to this blog for most of the day when I was trying to make this post. I have no idea what the problem was, but it seems to be gone now.

A Quiet Evening At Home with Death and Theda

2009-08-09T20:04:00.005-04:00

I've been busy since I got back home from my visit to New York. But I'll try to catch you up a bit now.

First, whatever you do, don't use Delta to fly out of JFK in New York. I like Delta in general, but their terminal at JFK airport is horrible beyond words. It took me an hour and a half to get through check-in and security. The vast majority of that was check-in at Delta. The terminal was complete pandemonium. Absolute chaos. A huge mob of passengers, almost no organization or signage. People all around me were crying and screaming because they had missed their flights. The Delta workers were doing their best to help, but there was no way they could overcome what has to be the worst managed and organized terminal I've ever seen anywhere in the world. I've already written an e-mail to Delta to tell them I won't fly with Delta through JFK again until they fix that mess. I asked them for a response. That was Wednesday. I haven't heard anything from them yet.

The last time I stayed with Dave Rudin in Brooklyn I was able to use someone's unsecured wi-fi to get on line with my laptop at his place. Not this time. Lots of wi-fi signals, but all secured. So I wasn't able to easily do blog posts while I was there.

On Monday in addition to our trip to MoMA that I described in my last post, we went to B&H and Dave introduced me to a friend, Dean Lavery, a fine photographer who also works at B&H. Dean told us that he had heard that Adorama had just gotten in a shipment of the last run of Polaroid 600 film to come out of the factory before it closed. So we took the subway to Adorama to see if it was true. Sure enough, they had the film, but were asking $20 for a pack of 10 exposures. I am working on a little Polariod project that isn't quite ready...but I've shot up all my film. Still, $20 a pack was just too much for me. Instead I bought one of the new Fuji instant point and shoot cameras and a bunch of film for it...and paid less than just that much Polaroid film would have cost. I'll try to finish the project with the Fuji camera and film.

Yes, I do shoot film now and then.

Dave and I finished off the day Monday with a trip to the Strand bookstore and dinner at the Washington Square Diner.

Tuesday I was on my own since Dave had to go back to work at his job. I went to the NY Public Library where, "under the lions," I met the beautiful and charming Claudia of Museworthy. What a treat it was to meet and talk with her. We sat in Bryant Park behind the library and talked for several hours...moving from time to time to get away from the jack hammer crew that seemed to be following us around. I love Claudia's blog. Now I know that the author is just as lovely and charming as her words would indicate.

After Claudia had to leave for her evening modeling job I walked over to the International Center of Photography at one corner of the park and spent a couple hours looking at the Richard Avedon exhibit. Well worth a stop if you are in NYC while it's up. I do have to say that, while the prints were certainly of high quality, I didn't completely agree with the decisions about how they were printed. Of course, I know that the norm for fashion black and white is high contrast, but in many of the prints there seemed to be so much contrast that there was very little detail in the blacks. Often the black areas just became a large black shape with no detail at all. I have to think this was intentional, but I don't think it was particularly effective, nor was it a good example of what a black and white print can be. But the photos are excellent, even with that print quality. And I had to enjoy that there was a great series of photos Avedon did featuring a fashion model and a skeleton.

After the ICP closed I went back to Bryant Park and sat for a while, checking my e-mail with my i-pod touch on the free wi-fi there. Then I caught a subway to the upper west side where I met my good friend Diana Diriwaechter for dinner and a long evening of good conversation.

Then the long, uneventful subway ride back to Sheepshead Bay and Dave's place. And up the next morning to go to JFK and enter Dante's Delta Terminal. Death returned to Ohio with me in my checked bag, which, once again, was not opened by TSA. Damn!

So, with that segway, we'll return to Death and Theda. We had a good time with Death. As you can see, Theda feels right at home with him...or maybe he feels right at home with Theda. I'll share a couple more from that part of our shoot and get to a few somewhat more serious photos in my next few posts.

Theda Playing Chess With Death:

Theda Cheating Death:

The Soul of Theda

2009-08-04T10:55:00.004-04:00

Some of you who read this blog regularly may recall a rant I wrote a while back about a model's complaint that photographers were trying to capture her soul in their photos...and she felt this was in intrusion on her. To sum up my rant, I said that was just the photographers trying to do their job...and she was complaining about being asked to actually do the job she had been hired to do.

Well, one of my favorite models, Theda, let me know that she disagreed with me and informed me that no one could ever photograph the soul of Theda. "And besides," she said, "I traded my soul for a mix tape about 10 years ago. But I still have the mix tape if you want to photograph that."

Sounded like a challenge I couldn't resist. So, on this trip to NYC I set up a shoot with Theda and I brought along a prop...the character of death...to complete the photo I had in mind, based on a classic portrait of Faust. Death travelled to NYC in my checked bag, but, unfortunately, TSA failed to open my bag for inspection this time.

On Sunday I humped my photo gear and a backpack full of Death over to Theda's place through a downpour of rain, which I understand has been the standard weather here in New York for most of the summer. Theda had the mix tape ready. You see the result above. "Theda Trading Her Soul for a Mix Tape"

We did some other things too...some with Death and some without. You'll no doubt be seeing some of those over the next few weeks.

I'm still in NYC. Soon I'll be heading out to meet Claudia, the delightful muse and blogger of Museworthy. And this evening I'll meet my good friend Diana Diriwaechter for dinner and conversation. Then tomorrow morning I'll catch a flight back home to Ohio.

Of course, I owe this whole trip to a great friend and host, Dave Rudin, who invited me to come and join him for a lecture by Mary Ellen Mark. Dave did all the driving to get us up to Woodstock for the lecture on Saturday...and it was a very, very long drive...more than twice the normal time because of construction and traffic tie ups. It took us more than 2 hours just to get out of the city...Woodstock is normally about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Dave's place in Brooklyn.

Yesterday Dave and I went to MoMA, one of the few museums and galleries that is open on Mondays. We were disappointed to find the entire photography gallery closed for installation of a new exhibit, but enjoyed spending some time with the rest of the permanent collection. The few photographs that were on display outside the photography gallery once again left me with the feeling that whoever is choosing photographs to add to the MoMA collection and to display there must have a very deep-seated hatred of the medium. But there are other places to exhibit photographs that actually possess some beauty and content. And perhaps this fad of hatred will pass from MoMA one day.

Hitting the Road

2009-07-31T10:42:00.003-04:00

I'm heading for the airport in a few minutes to catch a flight to New York. I'll be visiting my good friend Dave Rudin, going up to Woodstock to hear a lecture by Mary Ellen Mark and visit a few galleries, working with a couple wonderful models, and getting together with some other friends. It's looking to be a really fine trip with a lot of fun packed into a few days.

I had intentionally left the last post up for a while to make sure it received the attention I think it deserves. Go visit that gallery in Canton, Ohio, if you are anywhere near.

But before I leave I'm sharing another photo of the lovely _G_ from our most recent shoot. She is a very fine model, a nice person, and a good friend. It's really wonderful to have her handy when an idea for some photos comes along.

Don't know if I'll be posting again before I get back from the big city...but it could happen...

Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography

2009-07-26T15:42:00.011-04:00

At the beginning of July we were visiting relatives in Canton, Ohio, when my brother-in-law told me there was a new photography gallery downtown and that it was the evening of the First Friday Art Walk. So we went down to do the art walk and see the photo gallery.

I didn’t make it to any of the other art walk galleries or events. This new gallery had the best collection of photographs that I have ever seen in one room. I’m not exaggerating. I include the galleries and museums in Chicago and New York City in that evaluation.

This weekend I was back in Canton and took advantage of the opportunity to visit the gallery again and talk with Stephen McNulty, the general manager.

The Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography, owned by Tim Belden of Canton, has work by more than 160 photographers. And if you pay attention to photography you have probably heard of most of them. The philosophy of the gallery is to collect and show “blue chip” photographers…only the best from the history of photography.

I know you think I’m exaggerating. Really, I’m not. Here is a list of just some of the photographers in the Saxton collection:

Bernice Abbot

Eddie Adams

Atget

Margaret Bourke-White

Brassai

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Wynn Bullock

Robert Capa

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Lucien Clergue

Alvin Langdon Coburn

Imogen Cunningham

Edward Curtis

Robert Doisneau

William Eggleston

Alfred Eisenstaedt

Elliot Erwitt

Walker Evans

Roger Fenton

Lee Friedlander

Ralph Gibson

Ernst Haas

Philippe Halsman

Lewis Hine

George Hurrell

William Henry Jackson

Yousef Karsh

Robert Mapplethorpe

Mary Ellen Mark

Steve McCurry

Duane Michaels

Barbara Morgan

Felix Nadar

Beaumont Newhall

T.H. O’Sullivan

Marc Riboud

Sebastiao Salgado

W. Eugene Smith

Edward Steichen

Alfred Stieglitz

Paul Strand

Jock Sturges

Josef Sudek

George Tice

Jerry Uelsmann

WeeGee

Brett Weston

Edward Weston

Garry Winogrand

And that’s not all of them. You get the idea.

The gallery is large and beautiful, renovated, maintained and lighted to archival standards. If you visit you won’t see the entire collection on the walls, but there is enough space that some prints from nearly all the photographers in the collection are usually on display.

The breadth of the collection is just breathtaking. The goal was to provide something for everyone. “We wanted to produce as many ‘ah ha’ moments as possible, said McNulty. “Everyone pings on different things. We don’t want to be a niche gallery.” But rather, he said, they want only the best photography, but with something that will appeal to every visitor.

This is a commercial gallery, not a museum. The prints are for sale. And some of the prices are pretty attractive for the level of work in the gallery. Most print prices fall in the $2-3,000 area, but there are a lot of prints for less than $1,000.

But, before you pack up your portfolio and rush off to Canton, I need to tell you that this gallery is NOT accepting any portfolios from photographers for review. But don’t let that stop you from paying them a visit. The collection is wonderful to see and the folks running the gallery are very knowledgeable about photography and happy to talk to visitors. It’s a very friendly place.

But don’t go there expecting to talk with Joseph Saxton. He hasn’t been around for quite a while. Even most historians of photography may not recognize his name, but he was the first photographer in North America. According to a news release from the gallery, he produced the oldest extant daguerreotype made in the United States. Made only a few months after Daguerre invented the process, it depicts the Philadelphia Central High School and was captured using a cigar box and glass lens, then developed with mercury heated in a spoon. Saxton has ties to Canton and his brother was the founder of the city’s newspaper, The Repository.

I should also say a bit about the wonderful building which houses the gallery. It is in the Wilson building at 520 Cleveland Ave. Built in 1909 and originally a Cadillac dealership, the building boasted the largest free spanning space between the Mississippi and New York City. This is made possible by bridge trusses that hold the roof up.

The Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography is a treasure. It’s wonderful that we have it right here in Ohio. It deserves attention and support from anyone who loves photography. I urge you to pay the gallery a visit. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 5.

Their website is pretty sparse, but here is the link: http://www.jsaxtongallery.com/

Wild Flower

2009-07-23T11:37:00.003-04:00

Not much going on and I haven't really been that busy this week. But I just love that last photo of _G_ so I wanted to leave it for a while. I think that's the best photo I've done this year, and that's saying something with all the fine stuff from Glacier and the other shoots I've done in 2009. But that photo in the last post seems to me to be very much exactly what I'm after when I go wandering around in the woods with a camera and a nude model.

So, I had to do some thinking and hunting to decide what photo was going to follow the last one. I think this one of Brooke out in Glacier National Park does the job and holds its own pretty well. A very different setting, a different form of beauty, but beautiful all the same; a different use of color, but still with color as a central element. I am quite fond of this photo. Thanks, Brooke.

I think we all found ticks on us after this day of shooting.

Gaea Bridge

2009-07-19T15:36:00.003-04:00

Here's _G_ providing a bridge over the troubled water of the past few days. No major disasters, but a lot of frustration in things going on right now. I won't go into details, but most photographers who work with models have learned that dealing with flaky models is part of the process. You get used to it...and you weed out the flakes. The same goes for models who have to deal with flaky photographers.

But I've had a new experience lately, dealing with a seriously flaky client. This guy hired me to set up a shoot for him. He asked me to find the models and make all those arrangements while he would provide the location and the other props to be included in the photos. He was going to use the photos for posters and calendars. I don't do much of this kind of work, but, for a variety of reasons, I agreed to do this job.

I spent quite a bit of time finding models who were available on short notice to do the shoot. I got my gear together and went a couple days ahead, as we had agreed, to do some test shots to make sure the lighting and background were going to work well. When I got there at the pre-arranged time, he was not ready to do the test shots. So I agreed to show up a couple hours early on the day of the shoot so we could have time to work out any kinks in the setup.

Good thing I got there plenty early. The client failed to show up. Didn't answer his phone. Never did show up at all. I left messages and when I didn't hear from him I called the models and told them not to come. At least I caught them before they had left home...but at least one of them had cancelled another shoot so she could do this one.

That was yesterday morning. As of now I still have not heard a word from this asshole. Needless to say, this is the last time I will be involved in any work with him of any kind. I'm sure he will have some lame excuse for why this happened, but no-show, no-call is just absolutely unforgivable. What a jerk!

This will help me remember that I really don't want to do any commercial work anyway.

So, I'll turn my thoughts back to the beauty of the figure in nature. I've found this great location close to where I live. It's the same place where I shot Kelsey. Kelsey and I went there at dawn. I wanted to see what it was like at a different time of day, so _G_ went there with me at mid-day to do this photo. The gorge is so deep and the tree cover so thick that even in the middle of a sunny day the light is still great down in the gorge. I'll be doing lots more work here as the seasons change. That's a happy thought to push aside the problems with that idiot client.

Angie In The Morning

2009-07-15T09:46:00.003-04:00

I have my truck back! It is running better than new. I'm happy. I missed it. To celebrate I shot a model at dawn today. The waterfall had much less water going over it than when I was last there, but I still managed to get Angie pretty cold and wet. She's cold and wet, but she sure is pretty.

Now that I have transportation again I'll be able to get out and about better and should start doing more shooting. I have some trips planned for the not-too-distant future too.

Kelsey Indoors

2009-07-13T15:39:00.003-04:00

Here's one more of Kelsey, but this time it's one from near the end of our shoot when we were working indoors at mid-day in an old building. I don't know what you might think...but it seems to me that Kelsey is completely ignoring that "No Smoking" sign.

Another Kelsey

2009-07-09T09:54:00.004-04:00

You may have gotten the idea that I am very happy with the photos from my shoot with Kelsey. And, of course, you would be quite correct. It's rare to have so many photos from one shoot that look so likely to remain on my "A" list permanently. I have barely scratched the surface of all the photos we got that day. Wish she hadn't moved away a few days after we did this shoot. But I'm sure I'll find a way to work with her again.

I've been pretty busy, as usual, but not for the usual reasons. I'm on jury duty this week and next. Yesterday we returned a guilty verdict and sent a thief off to prison for a while. I have today off, but have to call tonight to see if I need to report tomorrow for another case. Each day next week I also have to call in each evening to find out if I'm on a jury the following day. Makes it kind of hard to schedule anything. But I'm getting the itch to shoot, so I'll probably try to set something up with one of my local favorite models in the next few days and just call to cancel if I find out I'll be doing the jury thing on the day we set up.

Of course, I'm still waiting to get my truck back, so transportation continues to be an issue. That should be changed in a day or two and I'll be back behind the wheel of my trusty truck. Can't wait.

Clean Kelsey

2009-07-05T19:28:00.005-04:00

Another of Kelsey from near the beginning of our shoot, before I got her all dirty and exhausted. I think I have enough good photos from our day of shooting to keep posting them here for the next month. Did I mention earlier that she is a fantastic model and a great person?

The photo of Kelsey in my last post was featured this weekend on the French blog Univers d'Artistes. Thanks UL.

I hope you all had a great July Fourth weekend. We, as usual, went to a family gathering near Cleveland and so have been away most of the weekend. It's always a fun get together with lots of good food and good conversation.

When I got back into town this afternoon I went to check on the progress of my alleged new studio. The landlord had promised that he would be working all this weekend and that it would be ready for me to move in this week. I gave him a letter setting a deadline of this coming Friday for everything to be completed. Well, as usual (and pretty much as expected) nothing has been done. I'll go tomorrow and tell him my patience is at an end and we are going to end our business together. I'm a little hopeful that there may be another prospective location with a much more reliable landlord on the horizon, but I need to finish with this fiasco first.

Meanwhile a couple more new models have contacted me recently about doing shoots and I've been talking with a couple of my old favorites about some projects, so I'll be getting some more photo work done soon...not that I need any more photos, what with all the great stuff of Kelsey that I still have to edit.

Dirty

2009-07-02T14:20:00.003-04:00

Kelsey is a great model and she really worked hard for me on the day we shot. Not only did she get up very early in the morning so we could start shooting at dawn, but she kept working all day long and went from one dirty uncomfortable setting to another with never a complaint. I shot this after she got up from a pose on the floor in this old building. Not the cleanest place in the world. But I liked what the dirt and sweat was doing on her back, so I had her do this pose. Just another dirty picture.

Thanks Kelsey. All the best to you out there in Seattle.

What's Going On

2009-06-30T11:59:00.004-04:00

It's been a very frustrating few days. I guess I'll let any of you reading this know what's been happening.

I'm looking at moving to a new studio. I've already rented the new space, but it needs some work to get it ready for me to move in. It's more space for less rent and it's within walking distance of my home, as opposed to the 30-mile drive I now have to do to get to my old studio.

I was supposed to move in this past weekend. I had movers and a truck all set and I tore the old studio apart, emptied all the cabinents and desks and packed everything up. But the work didn't get done to make the new space ready, even after a promise from the landlord as late as Saturday morning.

Needless to say, I was pissed. I had to cancel the movers and truck at the last minute. My old studio is now non-functional, unless I undo all the work I've done to get ready to move. And the landlord has been nowhere to be found.

Finally this morning I went down there and found him. I walked in ready to demand my rent money back and just walk away and forget about moving. But, he told me he had been out of town because of a sudden death in his family. I decided to believe him, at least for the moment. So, the work is to be done over the next few days. But I won't be able to schedule the move again until the middle of the month. And, of course, I have to go ahead and pay July rent at the old place.

At least it's summer, when I don't do much studio shooting anyway. I often question why I even have a studio...but I have so much stuff there that I need a place to store it anyway...no room for it at my house. My wife would kill me if I tried to move all that stuff home. Maybe someday I'll decide I just won't do any more studio work and I'll just get rid of most of that stuff...but it is nice to have a place to work...a place to go and be away from the house to get stuff done.

So, everything is in turmoil right now. I'm waiting to see if the work actually gets done this time at the new space. But I'm not going to undo all the preparations I've done for now.

On a happier note, that's the beautiful Adrina posing in an old building in my town...not the building I'll be moving into, in case you were wondering. I'll obviously be posting photos taken in that new building soon, assuming I actually do the move. Stay tuned.

More Kelsey

2009-06-28T15:38:00.004-04:00

I'm having a real busy and fairly unpleasant weekend. So, here's something pleasant to look at. Another of Kelsey from this week's shoot. She is a very fine model. Seattle's gain is certainly my loss.

Hanging out

2009-06-26T19:04:00.010-04:00

A while back I edited my profile on Model Mayhem with the aim to cut down on the number of models contacting me wanting me to shoot them. I was getting way too many messages that essentially said:

"I've been modeling for 15 minutes now and I'll be coming to your area and I think you should shoot with me. My rate is $300 an hour. And I don't shoot nudes, so don't even think about asking me to pose nude."

I try to respond to my messages, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to remain polite when I wrote back to those models. I kept wanting to say, "Are you nuts?" "Did you even look at any of my photos?" "Who told you you could be a model?"

Anyway...instead of sending messages like that I wrote a profile designed to frighten those models away. It seems to be working. The number of messages like that that I receive has dropped dramatically since I did the new profile.

But, one of the joys of places like Model Mayhem is that occasionally a model reads all that stuff on my profile, looks at my photos and still wants to work with me. And the ones who do that have a wonderful tendency to be both very talented models and very nice people.

Kelsey Dylan is the latest of these fantastic models who I've been blessed to be able to work with. She contacted me saying she was moving to Seattle next week and really wanted to do a shoot with me before she left the area. If you look at her portfolio you'll understand why it was just not possible to say no to her.

So, I decided to give her a real workout and find out just how sincere she was about doing this shoot. I told her to meet me at my studio yesterday morning at 6 a.m. so we could do some outdoor shooting at dawn. Not only did she not hesitate to get started that early, she actually showed up early. Now that's my kind of model!

We spent most of the day shooting in two outdoor locations and two indoor spots after the sun came up too high and hot for outdoor work. I'm overwhelmed by how many successful photos we got. That's Kelsey in the photo up top at the first location we visited yesterday.

You folks out in Seattle better be paying attention. This is one fantastic model. Work with her. You'll be glad you did. And you'll find yourself in the company of a delightful, beautiful young woman.

Thanks Kelsey. I'll be looking for a way to work with you again.

Wild Flowers

2009-06-23T13:10:00.002-04:00

I'm staying pretty busy with shoots and computers and editing, so I haven't had much time to blog. The truck is still in the shop. I'm finally running a 38-hour synch process on two 1.5T external hard drives that will, when it eventually finishes, have all my work duplicated on each drive. Still some more editing of duplicate folders to do, but I'm getting close to having that problem solved for the time being.

In the past couple weeks I've had two models who I'd not had any previous contact with ask me to do shoots with them. Both of them are very beautiful women and very talented models. You've already seen here one of the photos of Adrina that resulted. Later this week I'll be shooting with another new model, so I hope to have something from that shoot to show you soon.

Lots more stuff to post, just no time for editing and writing just now. I hope that will be changing in the next few weeks.

Back to Glacier for today's photo. That's Brooke adding her beauty to a field of wild flowers.

Twins

2009-06-17T16:54:00.004-04:00

Twins are on my mind these days. First and foremost because I have new twin grand nephews down in North Carolina who were born a bit early and are having struggles in the hospital. I keep up with them through the blog their parents are keeping up. It's been a real roller coaster, but both seem to be doing pretty well under the circumstances.

And, I'm spending lots of time playing with twin hard drives as I try to get my new backup system working. This is involving running a synchronization program on several drives in order to make sure I have everything in my old files saved. Some of these sync operations are taking close to 20 hours to run. And, since my truck is still torn apart and without an engine or transmission at the moment, getting back and forth to the studio is a bit of a challenge. I have the motorcycle, but it's been raining pretty much every day. Or, worse, they have been predicting rain which fails to fall, but convinces me to stay home to stay dry.

So, in honor of the twinness that is going on in my life right now, here is a portrait of twins Cat and Christy. Cat is an accomplished model and lovely person who I've worked with a number of times over the years. Christy is her fraternal twin sister who I met when I convinced the two of them to come in to the studio for a shoot together. They are both lovely women, but, as you can see, they are very different. That difference extends to more than their physical appearance. But I enjoyed working with both of them and hope they will each be back in my studio in the future.

The twin sync job that is running on this computer right now says it has 7 hours left to run. I'll not be sticking around for all of that...and it doesn't look like I'll make it in to the studio tomorrow because of the weather. Maybe I'll try to make a quick trip between thunderstorms and start a new sync job to get a little closer to having this chore finished. Then I might be able to start thinking about doing some new photos.

Adrina

2009-06-15T14:10:00.004-04:00

There are still many photos from the Glacier trip to be posted, but I thought I'd take a break from them today and post something I've done since I got back home. A delightful and beautiful young woman passed through Ohio last week on a modeling trip. She contacted me and offered to do a shoot if I was interested. It was an offer I couldn't refuse, of course.

So we met and went to an old building to see what we could do in a very brief shoot. It was quite a success for a very small investment of time. The credit for that goes in no small measure to this talented young model who knew just what to do with very little direction from me to get what I was after. We had cloudy weather most of the time, but the sun came out briefly and created this beautiful bit of light which we both jumped to take advantage of.

I usually promise my models that they will get cold and wet and dirty if they work with me. Well this shoot didn't quite live up to that. Adrina got pretty dirty, maybe just slightly wet, and it was definitely not cold where we were working.

You can find Adrina on Model Mayhem and One Model Place. She is a very fine model. If you are a photographer and get a chance to work with her I strongly suggest that you jump at the chance. You won't be sorry.

Thanks Adrina.

Field Of Dreams

2009-06-10T14:09:00.003-04:00

You can dream about baseball if that suits you. I'll stick to something more like this. Brooke and _G_ at Glacier.

Things continue to be very busy with most of it non-photo related. The truck engine and transmission have been removed and are both being rebuilt. I'm limited in my travel to either riding my motorcycle or hijacking my wife's van by taking her to and from work. Since it is raining here today, and I hate riding my motorcycle in the rain, I'm spending the day at home. I expect the truck to be out of commission for at least another week and a half, so I'm concentrating on my many jobs that need to be done around the house.

I've spent the last several days transferring data from the old home computer onto the new computer and setting up a somewhat logical backup scheme. I think I have that all under control now. I used a program called Goodsync to get everything transferred and make sure I didn't lose something in the process. It worked very well, but some of the sync operations took as much as 10 hours. We're talking lots of gigs of photos here. But thanks to the sync program I was able to free up a couple hundred gigs of unnecessary duplication on my external hard drives. Now there is just one of everything on my old drives and they and the internal drive on the new computer all back up onto a new external 1.5T drive. Tomorrow I'll start trying to do something similar with the data on the studio computer. But there I'm dealing with about 10 times as much data and something like eight external drives in various stages of confusion and duplication and triplication. It's going to take some time. When I finish I hope to have each file stored and regularly backed up on two drives using two 1.5T drives and four 500 gig drives. Then I'll start making another backup using the blu-ray burner on the new studio computer.

Now if I could just figure out how to free up more space on the C: drive of the old computer. I've uninstalled a bunch of my old programs, like PhotoShop CS, that took a lot of space, but it still seems to have at least 5 gigs of space taken up by something that doesn't need to be there and that I can't find to delete. We are giving the old computer to our cousin who doesn't need a lot of computing power and should be able to get a lot more use out of it. But the C: drive has less than 1 gig of free space...not enough to even let me defrag it. If everything else fails we'll just take it to Best Buy and have them wipe the drive and reinstall windows XP. I'd try that myself, but the computer didn't come with an XP disk, so I can't. It started life as a Best Buy floor sample and has always had some issues that must have been caused by that.

Meanwhile I've been getting estimates to have my 100-year-old house painted. _G_'s boyfriend is going to do the job. That should get started in the next couple weeks and take most of the summer to complete. The house is tall so one of the first steps was to buy a used 40-foot extension ladder. That was accomplished last night. They tell me the new paints are better than what was available about 10 years ago when we last had it painted, so this paint job should last at least 15 years. That would be nice.

And I need to make some calls to get someone to do a bunch of little jobs on the exterior of the house. I still haven't found a roofer to repair the hurricane damage to the house's tile roof. But I hope to get that taken care of within a month or so.

I also have some commercial photo work that I should be doing over the summer. Nothing all that exciting, but work that will pay some bills...maybe even let me put enough aside to get a new Nikon when the next digital generation is announced.

So, posts may be less frequent for the next few weeks while I deal with "real life"...but there are lots more photos to come from Glacier, not to mention a bunch of other shoots that I've never gotten around to putting up here. And I have a couple shoots planned over the next couple weeks. Have to keep shooting, no matter what.

Blame CS4

2009-06-04T14:07:00.005-04:00

Yes, I haven't been here posting updates because of CS4. I'd been putting off upgrading my version of PhotoShop for quite a while, mainly because I knew my old studio computer would not be able to handle the newer versions. I was still using the original CS. My studio computer was so old that I had to add boards to it to give me USB2.o and to get an ethernet port. It still ran pretty well, but was showing signs of future problems.

So, I finally bought a new computer. I've been spending this week getting the new machine set up, working out a new backup scheme for my files, loading software...all that stuff. I'm not done, but I've made a lot of progress. My old scanner isn't supported in Vista, so I decided it was a good time to upgrade that too. I don't use a scanner much, but with the new Epson V500 I ordered I may start working on scanning some of my old negatives. I'm also about to shoot a polaroid project, using up the last of my stock of polaroid film in the process. I want to be able to make good scans of those prints when that project is finished.

So, I'm working on the new computer now...and editing files with the new CS4. I don't see a lot of changes, but I think that's because I just don't know what I'm doing with the new program yet. I'm one of those old weirdos who actually read the manual that comes with software...but, alas, no manual was in the box. I suppose there's one stashed somewhere in pdf form, but I haven't found it yet. I think I'm going to break down and buy a book about this version and read it...I really should take a course since I've never had any formal PhotoShop training. Or maybe I'll just take another drive up to Stephen's in Minneapolis and pick his brain. He seems to know everything there is to know about PhotoShop.

I'm still driving the truck, but it will soon be going into the shop for major repairs. I'll be riding around on my motorcycle for a few weeks while the work gets done. I'm going to have the transmission rebuilt while the engine is out, so I'll have a new truck when it comes back...ready for another 200,000 miles.

So, here are a couple of my first photos edited on the new machine with CS4. That's Brooke and _G_, of course. Above, taken on our first day of shooting at Glacier in the very cold morning light. Below on a later day after a steep climb up an occasionally snow-covered trail to reach that waterfall in the background. My models are tough as well as beautiful.

Flathead Lake and Tina

2009-05-30T14:38:00.003-04:00

One of the things I enjoy about traveling to do my figure work is the chance to meet and work with a variety of models who live in the areas I visit. I've encountered some very beautiful and talented models this way. Tinytina is a perfect example of this. I contacted her through Model Mayhem and am very glad we were able to work together.

First, she is a very accomplished model...totally professional and brave and bold enough to go ahead and get nude for photos despite the terrible weather on the day of our shoot. It was cold. It was sleeting. There was a strong wind blowing. Tina is a tough lady.

Also, she took us to a location that I would never have found without her guidance. I really appreciate her willingness to share this bit of local wisdom with me. Not every model or photographer is open to sharing location information. But that's a subject for another blog post.

One of the advantages of bad weather is sometimes beautiful light. I really like the light and color in these photos. They would be very different photographs if it had been warm and sunny. Of course I wouldn't have had to worry about the models turning blue, but that's another issue too.

So, thank you Tinytina for being willing to freeze for me. Thank you for being beautiful and talented and making a very difficult situation work despite the weather. I hope we get to work together again, perhaps in a bit warmer situation.

This last photo of Tinytina is pretty different from most of my work. I'm usually looking for a somewhat romanticized sort of photo with everything all beautiful and perfect...a romantic illusion of what nature might be in paradise. But I find myself really drawn to this much more "real" photograph that communicates a bit of the struggle Tinatina was going through to make the photos work. I'm not sure why I like this one so much, but I keep coming back to it, so I decided to go ahead and share it with you.

The news on the truck is not good. The deer did a lot of damage. And the engine isn't running well now...can't tie that directly to hitting the deer, but the engine started running a bit rough right after that happened...and it had been running just fine before. Now one cylinder is way down on compression. So the engine is going to have to be rebuilt. A couple weeks of work and several thousand dollars of expense. The radiator also will need to be replaced along with some other stuff that got smashed. I'm looking at possibly having the transmission rebuilt while the engine is out, just because it has a lot of miles on it and will need that done sometime in the future. So, no trips for a while...no wheels for a couple weeks. I've been trying to sell my motorcycle, but guess I'll put that on hold so I can have it to ride around on while the truck is torn apart.

At least the truck kept running through the whole trip and got us all safely back home. So I can't really complain about anything. These repairs will probably ultimately extend the service life of my truck for a few years longer than I had planned. It only has 200,000 miles on it, so it's just getting broken in well.

2009-05-28T13:21:00.002-04:00

I'm at the studio today catching up on e-mail and setting up my new studio computer while my mechanic figures out how much damage the deer did to my truck.

Not much new to report here, but here's another photo from the trip. That's _G_ freezing on a fallen tree at Flathead Lake. You may want to click on the photo to see it larger.

Home Again

2009-05-27T15:38:00.004-04:00

_G_ and I made it home last night after a long two-day drive from Dave Swanson's place in northern Minnesota. It was a great visit with Dave and his wife. A fine way to end this trip.

We traveled 4930 miles in 83 hours and 10 minutes of driving time. We had a great time, though the 1310-mile day was a bit much. We hit one deer. The truck goes to the shop tomorrow morning to see just how much damage that really did. It ran fine for the rest of the trip, but there seemed to be a vibration problem when the air conditioning was turned on. So we left it off. That wasn't a problem until the last two days when it got a bit warm as _G_ and I were on the last leg of the trip. Also, a close look through the busted up plastic grill seems to show that the radiator is not exactly where it should be. So it should be interesting to see what my mechanic finds when he gets the hood open. But we made it home ok, so all is well. I think I'll get one of those big pipe deer catcher bumper/grill guards for the next vehicle. That should guarantee I'll never hit another deer.

At Dave's suggestion we stopped briefly at a state park in Indiana to take a few photos. _G_ and I were both feeling the need to get on home, so our stop was a quick one, just long enough to take a quick look around the park, which is beautiful, as Dave had said, and to take a couple quick photos. This is one of them.

And now for something completely different...

2009-05-24T09:25:00.006-04:00

We are on our way to Dave Swanson's home for a visit. Stopped for the night in North Dakota and went to check out a ghost town not far from where we are staying.

No time for words...have to get on the road...but here are a few shots from our quick ghost shoot.

Up The Creek

2009-05-23T00:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we hiked a trail up to Apikuni Falls on the east side of the park. It was only a one-mile hike, but the trail guide described it as “calf burning.” It was all steeply uphill. There was still snow on the trail in many places. But there was no exposure to a fall, at least where there was snow, so it was a safe hike, if not an easy one. The reward at the end of the trail was this beautiful waterfall. And we had the entire trail completely to ourselves…no one else was on the trail at all while we were there. This is just one of several good photos I was able to get thanks to the hike and the efforts of my beautiful models.