Exposed For The Shadows

I’m taking off in a few minutes for a couple weeks of travel. I’ll be shooting in the Ozarks over the weekend, then in Texas.

Here’s a photo of the beautiful Charlye Raine as Eve. This setting was found in the entryway of a friend’s house. It’s a handmade headboard for a bed. The snake is a part of the headboard. When we saw it I knew we needed to do an Eve shot. Someone found an apple on the ground under a neighbor’s tree and we were ready to go.

I don’t know how often I’ll have internet access over the next two weeks, but I’ll post when I can.

Well, I ended up running a little accidental experiment here. A whole week without a new naked woman on the blog. When I realized this was happening, quite by happenstance, I thought it would be interesting to see what affect it had on the number of visitors. Much to my surprise, the number of hits has gone up this week. Could it be frustrated folks checking back to see if there’s finally a new nude? I prefer to think that many of you are coming here for more than T&A. Thanks. I appreciate you following my work here. I try to do something more than just nakedness.

Tomorrow I hit the road for a couple weeks of shooting. Heading south this time. A few days in the Ozarks, then down to Texas. I have some great models scheduled to work with me. It should be a fun and productive trip. And it will certainly be warmer than Ohio. Of course, as is usually the case when I head south, the forecast is for temperatures in the upper 60s here now that I’m leaving. But maybe my sinuses will clear up down on the Rio Grande.

Today’s naked photo is Beth naked at an old movie set in the desert in Northern Arizona. I should be making some new desert photos soon.

I’m enjoying posting some of my older work that isn’t nudes. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to posting figure work again soon. Meanwhile you’ll just have to put up with what I’m in the mood for.

This is an early digital photo. I had just rented my current studio space and spent several months fixing it up and painting to get it to where I wanted it. When the painting was all done I looked at it and said to myself, “This room needs a ballerina.” So I went and found one, brought her to the space and just asked her to dance. This is the result.

This was shot with a 3 mp digicam. Back then it had cost me more than $1,000. It was about as good as you could get at the time without spending many times more than that much money. It prints fine at 16×20. Later I used that camera when I convinced a magazine I was shooting for to try digital. They were skeptical. When the job was done they used all the digital shots and soon didn’t want to see film, only digital. They ran photos taken with this 3 mp camera double truck, across two pages, on a regular basis. Soon I had packed all my film cameras away and was shooting only digital.

I’m an old fart. I’ve been doing photography for a long time. A lot longer than most of my models have been alive. I’ve done all kinds of photography, but women have always been my favorite subjects.

My friend, Dave Rudin, has been posting some of his older photos on his blog. I was going through a file drawer at my studio yesterday and came across an old print. It was, and still is, one of my favorite photos of one of my favorite models. The print has held up well since it was made. The photo was taken sometime around 1974 and the print made at about that time, or within a year or two, anyway. The camera was either a Nikon Ftn or a Nikkormat Ftn. The lens was my wonderful 85mm f/1.8. Film Tri-X developed in 1-1 D-76. I think the paper was Agfa Brovira…but can’t really be sure now.

I hope this isn’t too much of a shock to my photographer friends who have never seen anything from me except digital color. I worked in black and white for many years. My move to color was a decision about my direction as an artist. That happened long before I switched from film to digital. The move to digital was motivated at first by the desire to take full control of the process. Now, of course, digital quality has surpassed film.

The model, Ginny, was someone I photographed a lot when we were in college. She was beautiful and fun and up for just about anything to get a photo. I haven’t had any contact with her since we left school way back then.

It got me thinking about what a great time machine photography is. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it only goes one direction. But here is beautiful Ginny. I’m pleased with how well this has held up as an image after all these years. She’s still as beautiful as ever and I don’t think there is anything about fashions or styles that really date the photo. Ginny is about 50 years old now. I wonder what she looks like today. I wonder what her life has been like and where she is today. I tried googling her with no success. I tried contacting her through our alma mater but the e-mail address they have for her isn’t working.

But, thank you Ginny for a fine photo. I hope you are well, wherever you are.

The weather has been fantastic here. Hard to remember that one week ago I was shooting in the snow at 23F. Yesterday I saw 79F on one thermometer. I spent yesterday hiking around looking for good shooting locations. Today I wanted to find a model and do some shooting, but couldn’t find anyone available on such short notice. Warm days in March always come with short notice.

So I spent most of the day working on plans for my next trip which will be to Arkansas and Texas. I have models I’ve worked with before who I plan to shoot, but I’m trying to find some other local models to add to the mix.

In honor of the warmth and impending Spring, here’s a photo from one of my favorite places in Ohio. I hope to get back there this summer and do some more work. Model is Lane who now lives in Florida.

Today is a very busy day. No time to write much for you, so enjoy another photo of Nemi taken with a homemade pinhole on my Nikon D100.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is coming. It’s the last Sunday in April. Details on how to participate are on this web site: http://www.pinholeday.org/

I try to participate every year. I hope I’ll manage to do a pinhole photo this year and submit it. This is one I did in the past. It is shot with a homemade pinhole on a Nikon D100. I have a new camera and some new laser-drilled pinholes that I’ll be working with this year.

Pinholes are fun. You can make them yourself or buy them ready made. You can make your own camera from scratch, buy one ready-made, or put a pinhole on your regular camera. Give it a try.

The model is Nemesis who is always happy to come by my studio to be the model when I’m playing around with something off the wall like this. Thanks Nemi.

But Mandy was up to it. More of this brave model out in the cold this week. It’s 6oF today…all that snow will be gone, probably until next winter.

Here’s another of Mandy, this time out in the woods in the snow. It was cold. There was ice under that snow. We slipped and slid, but we got some shots that made it worth the effort.