Lake Powell
November 5th, 2006
Here’s Kimothy on the rocks at Lake Powell. The rock there is the same red rock that is in the desert in southern Utah/northern Arizona. But the drought out there has dropped the level of the lake, exposing rock that had been underwater and is coated with mineral deposits, providing a completely different color scheme.
I hope I’ll be shooting with Kimothy again sometime this year. She’s a great model, a beautiful woman and a very nice person. Someone who is a lot of fun to work with. And she has a real appreciation of art and the process of creating it.
I had a good, though short, shoot with Cathleen Hope yesterday in St Louis. Today I’ll be shooting with my old friend and model, Amy Jo, in Iowa City. If I get some time to edit you may see something from those shoots in the next few days.
Another Eve
November 4th, 2006
Here’s another from my “Eve” series. That Halloween witch was a Witchy Eve, in case you didn’t notice. This is Lani shot in the door of an abandoned building near the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.
I’m on the road for the next couple weeks. I’ll try to post when I can, but I know I won’t have internet access every day. And I’m limited to what is on my laptop and the external drives I have with me, though I may post from the shoots I’m doing on the trip if I get time to do the editing that would require.
Down in the Bayou
November 1st, 2006
Several years ago I happened to travel through southern Louisiana on the way to Texas in February. I was impressed by the beautiful monochrome character of the swamps along I-10 at that time of year. I knew immediately that I had to return and find a nice pink model to put out in the middle of all that gray and brown. So a year later I made that trip, arranging to work with several local models . Nico here came to my motel a couple days before the shoot we had scheduled to meet me and talk about what we were going to do. When I saw her I thought she was probably not going to work very well for me. She was very cute, bubbly, a sorority girl kind of person. I thought maybe if I held her underwater for, say 20 minutes, she might start to have the look I was after. This is proof that first impressions can be very seriously wrong.
I worked by loading two models into a small boat and heading out into the bayou each day. I told the models that I was taking two so if we lost one to an alligator we wouldn’t have to stop shooting. Of course the ‘gators were hibernating at that time of year. We didn’t see one the whole week I was shooting. But Nico turned out to be the real trooper of the shoot. I’d find a location like this one and pull up to it with the boat, one of the models would climb out and work on finding a pose that worked while I backed the boat off and got it into position for the shot. It’s not really that easy to steer a boat with an outboard motor, correct for drift in the current and handle the camera at the same time, but we managed. Nico is in pain in this photo. She is wedged into the fork in the tree and that bark is rough. But she knew exactly how to pose and make her body look relaxed and graceful. A really beautiful young woman and a talented model.
This has been a pretty successful photo. French PHOTO magazine chose it for publication later that year. It’s also always popular when I include a print of it in gallery shows.
Happy Halloween
October 31st, 2006
Hanging Out
October 28th, 2006
One more photo of Mindy at my friends’ house. It was hot in the attic and even hotter up above where Mindy’s head is. But we both knew this would be a fun photo, so we did it. You can make whatever you want out of this shot. I like the light and the lines and angles in contrast to the curves of Mindy. And, of course, it isn’t a scene you are likely to see on a regular basis.
Mantlepiece
October 27th, 2006
Another from that old house. I just love the color here and the way the light modifies it to give different tones. And I love the way Mindy’s hair seems to repeat the pattern of the wood carving below her. And, of course, Mindy did a great job of looking comfortable and secure on a narrow shelf that barely had enough room to hold her. When our friends went back in the house after our shoot and having seen some of the photos we did they said they saw the house in a whole new way. And they enjoyed the butt prints scattered around the place.
On the stairs
October 26th, 2006
Here’s another of Mindy at my friend’s house. This is on the basement stairs with all the light coming from up above. It was pretty dark and the space was very tight, but I loved the light and the background. My 12-24 lens took care of the tight space…this was shot at 14mm. And I put the ISO up to 1600. My D200 does very well at that high ISO. I think the “noise” or grain is much less of an issue than I was used to with Tri-X pushed to 1600. Mindy did her usual great job of posing and the photo came together.
Mindy in the window
October 25th, 2006
This was taken in the attic of an old house in my home town. There’s a story that goes with it. An old friend of mine and her husband have been buying old houses and fixing them up. She drove me around one day to show me what they were doing. When she pulled up in front of this house I couldn’t believe it. I’d tried to buy the house many years ago when I was buying my first house. I couldn’t come to terms with the owner and ended up with a different old house…but I always remembered how beautiful this house was and how many opportunities for great photos it had to offer, especially in the attic. Of course my friend told me I was welcome to bring a model over and take any photos I wanted. So, on a very, very hot summer day, Mindy and I went to the house and shot. The attic was like a furnace. Because the house was in the middle of renovations there was no electricity or water, let alone air conditioning. But we shot all day and it was a very productive day. I’ll post more from this shoot later, but for now enjoy the attic window and Mindy.
Mud Portrait
October 24th, 2006
Another of Shelly in the mud hole. I’ve found that often when a model is covered with something like mud or body paint their features and personality tend to get hidden. But not Shelly. I like this photo because I see her beauty, strength and power coming right through all that mud. And the light was working pretty well too. Makes me think of Eve being created from clay…
Mud Bath
October 23rd, 2006
It was Shelly’s idea. Honest. I’ve been known to make somewhat unreasonable requests of models in order to get a photo. But I always make it clear that they are allowed to say no. And I try to never put them into any real danger. Well, Shelly wasn’t in danger, but she sure did get seriously covered with mud for this shot…and she was the one who suggested it. I always consider my models to be co-creators of the photos we create together and I welcome their ideas during the shoot. I feel the collaboration of two creative minds is bound to produce something more than either could come up with alone. In this case, Shelly was in the process of digging a hole in her yard to install a kiln. And she just couldn’t resist the idea of getting down in the hole and covering herself with the mud down there. So, she did, and this is the result. And I like it. Great idea, Shelly. Thanks.
