Back Home
April 28th, 2008
I’m back from NYC and getting caught up here at home. I have a lot of work ahead for the next couple weeks. First is editing the dance photos from the concert. I have it edited down to about 1000 shots, taken over three rehearsal performances of the dance. Those all have to be individually photoshopped for exposure and cropping. I’m going to try running Noise Ninja on them first and see how I like the results. Based on past experience it will take Noise Ninja about 24 hours to run a batch process on that many files. I’ll try a few samples first to see what I think.
Another Diner
April 25th, 2008
I love New York City diners. Good ones are all over the place, in every neighborhood. I’m sad that the Cheyenne Diner, which was probably the last “train car” diner in Manhattan, has closed. But I hear from Dave Rudin that it is going to be moved to Brooklyn, so it may live on in a new location.
I did a shoot with Theda, as I always try to do whenever I get to New York. After we finished we walked to a nearby diner, the Grand Canyon Diner, in Brooklyn. Here are Matt and Theda after we ate.
The dance concert shoot is going well. This afternoon is the final dress rehearsal. I shot last night and will get another go at it tonight. The dance is wonderful and the lighting is beautiful. Should have some good photos to post, but it’s going to be a while before I’ll be able to edit them.
Yesterday in the morning before rehearsals started I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I spent some time in the new Photo Gallery and also saw the Jasper Johns and the Poussin exhibits. Saturday I plan to go back and see the Coubert exhibit before going to the dance concert in the evening.
I’ve seen two shows in the Met’s photo area now and I’ve been pretty disappointed in both of them. The both seemed to miss the mark. I wonder about the motivation of whoever is curating these shows. The main message I seem to see in them is that photography is dead and has no future as art. I, of course, disagree very strongly with that viewpoint. At this point I can’t recommend the Met as a place to view photography. Try MOMA instead.
Big Apple
April 22nd, 2008
I’m in New York City shooting a dance concert. And having a great time. A couple model friends were in town with just a one-day overlap with my visit, so we got together for breakfast before they flew out. That’s E-string and Brooke Lynne, from Minnesota, at Mike’s Diner in Queens looking great on an hour and a half of sleep after playing pool with James Graham until 4 a.m. the night before.
Working
April 16th, 2008
I’m staying pretty busy trying to get everything done that needs to be done before I leave for New York next week. Today a good bit of my time was spent editing my last shoot with Theda. I’ll be working with her again while I’m in the city…I always try to arrange a shoot with Theda when I go to NYC…and I wanted to give her a disk with my selections from the last shoot when I see her again.
I’m about a year and half behind on editing things I’ve shot. I like to let the photos sit for a while after I shoot them so I can be more objective when I edit, but I’ve been so busy and shooting so much that I never seem to get the time to do all the editing. Often I’ll do a quick look and pick one or two favorites, but then it may be months or even years before I go back and do a thorough edit. Maybe I just need to manage my time better.
Tomorrow I’ll get back to editing my recent dance photos and putting together a portfolio of those to take with me to NYC. I’ve contacted Lois Greenfield and hope to stop by one day while I’m there and visit with her again. I’d like to be able to show her what I’ve been doing with dance at Ohio University since I saw her in December.
The photo, of course, is Theda in her apartment. Last time we shot at night. I also made it an exercise in using my 50mm f/1.4, limiting myself to just that one lens for the entire shoot. I worked with available light…using the photojournalist definition “any light that is available.” This trip I plan to shoot there again with daylight from the windows to get a very different look and use some different lenses for more flexibility in the space.
Time is short
April 14th, 2008
And, no, I’m not talking about getting my taxes done. That was done a long time ago and the huge check I had to write this year has already cleared.
But there is a lot going on and not much time to get things done. I’ll be spending next week in New York City photographing a dance company there in rehearsal. I also plan to fit in a shoot with Theda and visits with some other friends. I’m trying to get a small portfolio of my dance photos printed up to take along on this trip. And I need to do some editing on my last shoot with Theda and take her a CD of my selections. There are a couple shoots to do this week too. I’ll probably get most of it done and whatever I don’t finish can wait.
In May I’ll be going back to Ohio University to shoot more dance there. This photo is from the first concert I shot there after I started doing dance photos again. This is Gretchen Ziolek dancing a piece she choreographed called “Kore.”
The trip over to Bloomington for the Kinsey Institute juried show opening was a great time. I finally got to meet Stephen Haynes and Dave Swanson as well as the lovely model Abigail. After the opening Stephen, Dave, Abigail and I had a nice dinner at an Irish pub and then after dinner I walked over to another fine Bloomington establishment for the after party for the opening. I spent the rest of the evening talking with Catherine Johnson-Roehr, the curator of the art collection at the Kinsey Institute, and with other artists who had work in the show.
The show was a bit smaller than I had expected, but as large a show as they could manage in their small gallery space. It was a good collection of high-quality work. A much higher level of quality than the Dirty Show. Lots of very fine art with a range from very erotic to sensual. As usual with this kind of show, my piece seemed to be the most tame piece in the show. I’m ok with that.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s Kinsey show and to a continuing relationship with that fine ground-breaking institution.
Kinsey Show and Travel
April 10th, 2008
The opening of the Kinsey Institute Juried Show is tomorrow evening. I plan to be there. It should be interesting. Not least because I’ll get to finally meet Dave Swanson and, I hope, Stephen Haynes. Stephen is in doubt, as you can read on his blog, because of the airline problems that are going on. His flight has been cancelled. He may still decide to drive down to the opening…I hope so.
I’m worried about the airline situation as well. In a week I have to go to New York City to photograph a dance company in rehearsal. I’ve decided to fly. I can only hope that the airline I’ll be flying on will not be doing wholesale flight cancellations when my time to fly comes along.
I used to enjoy flying. Now I try to avoid it if there is any alternative. The airlines seem to have completely lost sight of their mission: to serve their passengers. I’m so old I can remember when passengers were treated well, when the seats were large enough and had enough leg room that you could actually be comfortable during a flight. I remember courteous ground and flight personnel. I can even remember good food on airplanes.
Now, flying is torture. And it’s a crap shoot as far as where you will end up and whether your luggage will be there with you. The seating on airplanes should be considered a violation of the Geneva Convention. And, of course, you could starve to death on an airplane these days.
The air travel system is broken. I don’t think anything short of some completely new, revolutionary system of air travel, perhaps small “air taxis” or some other different approach to moving passengers around will solve the problem. Meanwhile I’ll continue to drive whenever it is an alternative.
That’s the poster for the Kinsey show…not one of my photos. Come see the show tomorrow night if you are in the neighborhood.
A walk at the lake
April 5th, 2008
No Joke
April 1st, 2008
It’s April Fools day and I got fooled. Over on Model Mayhem there was a fake message to everyone on the site telling them their account was suspended because of a complaint from Theda that they had sent her inappropriate messages. Of course, I knew that wasn’t true for me, so I immediately shot off an e-mail to Theda asking her what was up. About 10 seconds later I realized what was going on and sent a follow-up “nevermind” message.
A lot of people over at Model Mayhem seem to be unable to take a joke and are taking it out on Theda. To them I’ll just say, “Lighten up, people…it’s a joke!”
But I was already thinking about Theda today because I just realized that Chris is back in action over at http://universdartistes.blogspot.com/ and had actually featured this photo of Theda on his great blog. I’m so glad to see that Chris is feeling better and is well enough to be back to blogging.
I really can’t say enough good about Theda as a model. She has a wicked dry sense of humor too, so I’m quite certain she is enjoying this little April Fools prank. If nothing else it brought a lot of traffic to her Model Mayhem portfolio.
I shoot with Theda whenever I get a chance. Every time I’ve worked with her I’ve ended up with a photo that is in my permanent portfolio…the work that I consider my “body of work”…my life’s work. Theda is a sure thing, as a model. And she is a lot of fun to be around, once you figure out how her sense of humor works.
Hats off to Theda today…and that’s no joke.
edit: Theda just told me that she didn’t know about this little joke and came home to a mailbox full of angry messages from people who didn’t get the joke. That’s a pretty nasty joke to play on Theda. I hope it generates a few photo shoots at least. She is really a wonderful model…the best figure model out there, as far as I’m concerned.
Daughter
March 30th, 2008
Now your children are your children,
even when they’re grown.
When they speak to you,
you got to listen to what they have to say.
But they all live alone now,
they have TVs of their own
but they keep on coming over anyway.
And much as I love them,
I’m always kind of glad when they go away.
–Randy Newman
“My Country”
I don’t post much personal stuff here because that’s not what I’ve intended this blog to be for. But I’m making an exception today. I also don’t post song lyrics, but that Randy Newman song was playing while I was getting this ready and it just seemed too appropriate to not share.
My older daughter will be getting married in a couple months. She’s been out on her own for a while now, but she had never cleaned out her room. Since we want to have a guest room when people come for the wedding we’ve had a Hazmat team in there for a while trying to find the floor and walls. Well, actually it’s been my wife and her cousin who are doing all the work. When they get it cleaned out I’ll be doing the sanding and painting to try to make it suitable for human habitation again.
But today we noticed this little bit of paste-on graffiti and thought it was worthy of preservation. And I thought it was enough fun to go ahead and share it with all of you. Enjoy.
Gaea
March 26th, 2008
Wow. It’s been a whole week since my last post. Time flies. I think that’s the longest I’ve gone without posting since I started the blog. It’s just been busy.
My daughter was home from college on spring break. Then Easter came along and we did some nice family stuff. Then I had to get all those prints ready for the shows coming up. The three framed prints have now been shipped off to Miami for the Erotic Signature touring show. The framed print for the Kinsey Institute show is packed up and ready for me to drive it over to Bloomington on Monday. So I can catch my breath now and get back to blogging.
I’m looking forward especially to the Kinsey show because a couple other photographers who I’ve been wanting to meet are going to also be there. Stephen Haynes, and Dave Swanson, both from Minnesota, have photos in the show and plan to attend the opening. So it will be well worth the trip over there for the opening.
I’ve heard from the Hobart Gallery out in California that it was a good weekend. They sold several of my prints that they have on display on Easter Sunday. So 2008 has already surpassed last year for gallery sales. If it keeps up at this pace it could turn out to be a very good year.
And, since I’ve been so busy, of course I had to do a figure shoot. I went over to Gaea’s apartment yesterday for a couple hours and disturbed her afternoon’s sleep. That’s one of the photos from yesterday, shot in her newly painted bedroom.
