Florida Heat and Light
March 2nd, 2009
Well, it seems I’ve set a new record. This is the longest I’ve gone without a post since I started this blog several years ago. Sorry about that. I’ve been busy.
I just returned from a trip to Florida where I got a break from winter, did some family stuff, and also got in a bit of shooting. It was a great trip, but very busy, and I just didn’t have the time or energy to try to do any blogging while I was away.
But I’m back now, at least for a few days, so I’ll try to make a few more posts when I can. I have a lot of work to get done this week, including photographing a dance concert at Ohio University, and then some more travel coming up, so no promises that you’ll see a lot of new posts in the near future. But I’ll try.
This is Athena clothed in light and shadow in the Florida sun. Obviously the sun isn’t the only source of heat down there.
More From Dirty Detroit
February 18th, 2009
I didn’t take any photos at the Dirty Show itself this year, so here’s another from the motel before we all left for the show. That’s _G_ and blueriverdream reflecting on their situation dimly through a dirty mirror.
It’s a busy time for me, still. I know I keep saying that, but it continues to be true. I’m working on the annual taxes puzzle and I’ve been doing some shooting and I’m trying to catch up on things I’ve promised to people before I take off this weekend for some time in Florida. I’ve had it with winter and I’m looking forward to getting good and warm down south, especially with snow in the forecast again for here in Ohio.
So, my next post will be from a condo in Florida. Now if I can just figure out everything I need to pack and load into the truck…
Dirty Pitchers
February 12th, 2009
Since 5 of my favorite figure models were among the folks who went to the Dirty Show with me, it was inevitable that some naked pitchers would get taken. These were done at the motel before everyone got ready to go to the show. Athena was absent doing photo shoots at the Leland Hotel, so she missed out on these photos. Too bad they have that dress code at the Dirty Show that requires at least pasties and a g-string or these might have been the outfits these lovely ladies wore to the show.
Dirty Show X Review
February 9th, 2009
I just flew in from Detroit and boy are my arms tired! Sorry…I love that old joke. Actually we got back from the Dirty Show late yesterday afternoon, but I was way too fried to even think about blogging last night. Still pretty wiped out today…but it’s time for my annual review of the show.
That’s this year’s crew in the photo. If you were there Saturday night you no doubt noticed Gaea. Seemed like everyone did. She had a crowd around her most of the evening. That outfit was quite a hit. But I have to say that everyone in my crowd this year was a lot of fun to be with. We had a great time.
The show itself was pretty good. It gets better each year. The crowd Saturday night seemed to be much larger than it was the last two years. That can only be good. The unseasonably warm weather may have helped the turnout. I hope it translates into some print sales. We’ll see.
I’m going to divide my review into two parts: The Art and the Stage Show.
The Art:
This is the strongest Dirty Show I’ve seen. In the past I’ve said that something like 1/3 of the show was good art and the rest was just dirty. This year is a huge improvement. I’d have to say the good art was something like 4/5 of the show. There’s still that 1/5 that seems to be lacking any reason to be on the walls except that it is dirty…but I’m very impressed with the quality of the show this year. I’m actually really pleased that my work is included. If you haven’t been to the show it isn’t too late. Go next weekend. Really. It’s a great show. http://www.dirtydetroit.com/
The Stage Show:
I really, really wish I could say something good about the stage show. I want to. Last year there was one excellent act. She wasn’t back this year. The show is just really bad. I understand that the performers are friends of the Dirty Show people. They are performers who have supported the Dirty Show since it began. I want to like them. I want to find something that was worth seeing.
Sorry. The stage shows were uniformly awful. Maybe I’m old and out of touch…OK…I AM old and out of touch…but I just can’t quite see how walking around the stage in trashy lingerie shouting “fuck you” and giving the finger to the audience can be considered an act. Maybe if some folks would take up a collection and get these poor girls some lessons at Arthur Murray or something…maybe that would help, because there was no evidence that any of them had ever had any training in dance…or that they had ever rehearsed their “acts” for that matter.
The performers were loud and almost naked. I guess that’s something. But the volume made it impossible to carry on a conversation for any period of time. I guess they help set the mood of the show. It certainly wouldn’t be quite appropriate to have a string quartet playing quietly in the corner…although if the musicians were as scantily clad as the performers Saturday night that might be interesting…
I know there are better burlesque acts out there. I know the performers who were there were trying hard and doing their best. But I can’t help but say that I think the Dirty Show would be a much better event if the quality of the stage show were raised. As it is now, it’s really just a noisy annoying distraction from the very fine art that is on display.
If you were there Saturday night and we didn’t get to talk, I’m sorry. There were a lot of folks I was looking for and didn’t find. The crowd was huge. I walked around for a while and then decided to just stay in one spot (near Gaea and most of the rest of my posse) and hope that those I was looking for would wander by. Some did…a lot didn’t. So it goes.
Dirty, Dirty, Dirty
February 4th, 2009
Yes, I’m in the Dirty Show in Detroit again this year. This is the photo they accepted, from my nurse series. I call it, “You Could Put An Eye Out.” The model is the incredible JoJo Suicide from the Tampa, FL, area. The nurse series is the most erotic work I’ve done, so it seemed appropriate to send it to the Dirty Show. I’ve blogged about my inspiration and goals for these photos earlier here. The photo of Theda in the last post…the one that was a finalist in French PHOTO…is, of course, also from this series.
So, look for my photo if you are going to the Dirty Show. I printed it 30×40, so it should be pretty easy to spot…being larger than life. Of course, JoJo is larger than life in person, so the even larger print really does tend to stop traffic.
I’ll be at the Dirty Show myself, along with a bunch of friends, on Saturday night, Feb. 7. So look for me and say hi if you are there too.
Oh…and changing the subject, you may have noticed that the warning screen you have to click to to get to my blog has changed back to the “objectionable content” warning that the church ladies had them put up. I had gone ahead and put the “adult content” warning up instead of that one, but for some reason that screen has not been working and I couldn’t get to the blog and assume some of you had the same problem. Changing to this warning seems to have fixed the problem. I noticed several of the blogs I visit were having the same problem, so it must be something blogger has screwed up.
I’ve been considering moving my blog to some other format or host. Blogger is easy, but seems to be having increasing problems and to have gotten much too concerned about the nature of what we are posting here. Just part of the transformation of Google from the great organization it once was into the next Microsoft. Too bad, but inevitable, no doubt. My problem with moving the blog is that I am not a techie at all and really don’t know what I’m doing with all this computer stuff, so I’m afraid I’ll screw it up, or end up with something that is a lot harder to use than blogger. Any advice?
More From France
February 2nd, 2009
Thanks to Stephen at Magic Flute I learned today that French PHOTO has published all the finalists in their annual contest on their website here. So I learned that two of my entries were selected as finalists, though only one was published in the magazine. Here is the page with my winners. The second finalist was this photo of Theda from my nurse series. I call this photo “Bend Over.”
I think Theda is disappointed to come so close, yet not appear in the magazine. And, interestingly there is another photo of Theda by another photographer directly below my photo of her on the same page of finalists.
Busy, busy, busy
January 30th, 2009
I’m behind getting things ready for the Dirty Show in Detroit in a week. I’ll be driving my stuff and stuff for Gary and Athena up to Detroit on Saturday. Usually I try to have all the stuff done well in advance, but the snow storm this week threw my schedule off. Then I ran out of plastic bags for the store prints and the place I usually get them was out.
But I’ll get it all together by the end of the day tomorrow. And maybe after that I’ll have time for more posts. Meanwhile here’s another photo of the lovely and inspiring Tantila.
Off To A Good Start
January 25th, 2009
This is from my first shoot of 2009. I just did it this past week. I drove over to Indianapolis to shoot with Tantila, who I met because she has also modeled for Antoine de Villiars.
This was what I sometimes call a “get acquainted” shoot. But it went very well. Usually I don’t really expect to get many photos I’m excited about from a first shoot. I do better with models who I work with repeatedly over a long period of time. I like to work with models who get what I’m trying to do with my work and who I get along well with. But after this shoot I find myself with a bunch of photos that I really like and feel pretty sure that Tantila is going to be one of those models who I work with for a long time to come.
This shot was done with available light and my old single-element soft focus lens on my Nikon D200. My “Digital Holga.”
Today I did my second shoot of 2009…photographing three student dancers from Ohio University in my studio. I’ll be posting more dance photos soon…but I have some other things I want to post first. Maybe I’ll be able to pick up the pace soon and post more often again, but I have a ton of work to get done this week, getting entries in to several juried shows that have deadlines coming up and getting prints ready for the Dirty Show in Detroit early next month. More details on Dirty coming soon.
Thank you, Tantila, for a great shoot. Let’s do it again soon.
The French String Continues
January 20th, 2009
Thanks to my friend, Chris at Univers d’Artistes I’ve learned that once again I have a photo in the Jan/Feb issue of French PHOTO magazine. I’ve had a real run of good luck with that magazine, which some consider to be the best general circulation photo magazine in the world. I first sent photos to their annual contest, the largest photo contest in the world, in 2002. One of my photos was chosen for the Jan/Feb 2003 issue. I’ve had a photo in every Jan/Feb issue of the magazine since that year. One year they ran another of my photos in the following issue.
This year the photo they chose is the one above of Brooke Lynne taken in a frigid mountain stream near Rocky Mountain National Park. Thank you Brooke.
Why I’ve had such good luck with French PHOTO is a mystery to me. I don’t have any special insight to the magazine. I don’t know who the judges are or what they are looking for. I don’t shoot with the magazine in mind. I don’t speak French. I can’t even pronounce most French words. I’ve never been to France, though I’ve traveled through most of the other Western European countries. I just pick my favorite photos of the past year and send them in before the contest deadline. Every time I’ve sent in photos at least one of them has ended up being printed in the magazine.
Of course I’m pleased, happy and proud to be included in such a quality publication. Maybe I’ll try again next year if I’m still shooting this kind of work.
In passing…
January 17th, 2009
Well, it’s been another week with no post here. I continue to be far too busy and besides, it’s just too damn cold to think, let alone think of something to post. I need to move south.
But that’s not going to happen any time soon, so I guess I’ll just have to deal with the cold.
I haven’t done any shooting since the new year started. Looks like that will change this week. I was going to post some dance photos I did in the studio right after Christmas, and I’ll get to those soon, but the passing of Andrew Wyeth seemed to require a mention.
OK…so this photo is actually a satirical look at Wyeth’s most famous painting. But still, even a satire pays tribute to the source material. Wyeth was a great painter who painted what he wanted to paint regardless of the changing styles and fashions of the art world. In my view that makes Wyeth an artist.
Thanks to RJ for helping me make my little commentary on Christina’s World.
