Kinsey and Turkey Run
November 5th, 2016
In May of last year my friend Dave Swanson came down from his hideaway deep in the woods of Minnesota for the opening of what turned out to be the last juried show at the Kinsey Institute. A change of leadership at Kinsey lead to the elimination of that show and a lot of other things that had made me a fan of Kinsey. Nothing lasts forever.
We were joined for the opening by a lovely model, Nadine. Here are Dave and Nadine at the Kinsey show opening:
After the opening in Bloomington we went over to Turkey Run State Park to do a few photos. That’s where I took the photo at the top of this post. Unfortunately I was still suffering from the aftereffects of my hospitalization in January and found I really wasn’t up to much hiking and climbing around in the park. So I took it easy and just let Dave and Nadine go off to do photos, except for a couple shots I got before I gave up.
Here’s a shot of Dave working with Nadine before I pooped out and went to take a nap.
And one more photo of Nadine that I managed to do before I was done.
2017 Calendars
November 1st, 2016
It’s calendar time. I decided to do only one calendar this year. And I’ve changed the format to make it a little less expensive than my past calendars. It still gets you a baker’s dozen of my best photos reproduced on heavy paper stock that’s 8 1/2×11 inches. You can use the calendar during the year and then take it apart and frame your favorite photos, if you want.
You can see a preview of the whole calendar by clicking on the cover photo above, or in the column to the right. Please check it out.
Happy Halloween
October 28th, 2016
I seem to do a lot of Halloween-themed photos, so I thought I’d share a collection of them to mark the spooky holiday this year. Theda is one of my favorite subject for these. There’s just something about her that lends itself to darker photos. Above she is being “Gothic Eve” for my Eve series. Below she’s being a bit “batty” continuing the Gothic Eve theme.
This photo below came about after Theda and I were talking about photos capturing a model’s soul. She told me, “No one can photograph Theda’s soul because she doesn’t have one. And, besides, she traded it to the devil for a mix tape many years ago.” That led to me making this photo, “Theda Trading Her Soul For A Mix Tape.”
Here are a few more of my Halloween photos from years past:
Thanks to all the lovely models who have a great sense of humor and are willing to help me make these kind of silly photos.
Getting Old
October 25th, 2016
I’m marking my 65th birthday today, so I thought I’d share a couple photos of an old friend. We did these a couple years ago to mark her 50th birthday. Age is just a number, but the higher the number the bigger the challenge to keep pushing on. But I think I’ll manage to keep at it for a few more years. My friend is obviously doing a fine job of aging beautifully.
These were taken at Blackhand Gorge near Newark, Ohio. This is one of my favorite places. I went there when I was a kid growing up nearby. And this old friend is one of my favorite people, so it was great fun to photograph her there.
Theda Tribute
October 22nd, 2016
First, another shot of Theda showing off her then new tattoo.
We did this shoot right around the time of Lucien Clergue’s death. He was on both of our minds. So we did a few photos in memory of him and his wonderful use of ‘striped light.’
A Visit To Theda
October 18th, 2016
In April 2015 I was starting to feel better, though I was still far from recovered from my health crisis. But I felt well enough to make a trip to New York City. I didn’t feel like doing any major shoots outdoors that would have required a lot of physical activity, but I did manage to haul some gear over to Theda’s apartment to do a shoot with her.
There was a nice view of downtown Brooklyn from her window, so I tried a few things working with that. And we wanted to feature Theda’s brand new tattoo.
Theda is one of the best models I’ve ever worked with. And her personality must be experienced to be believed. It’s always a pleasure to shoot with her, and there are always good results. There are more to come from this shoot.
Green
October 15th, 2016
The photo above has been selected for the upcoming show, “Green,” at The Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont. The model is the ever beautiful Peyton Fontaine. I took the photo some years ago at Wekiwa Springs near Orlando, Florida. It’s my favorite place to go when I’m in the Orlando area. Forget the theme parks. This lovely natural paradise is right in the same neighborhood. And the price of admission is one hell of a lot more reasonable.
The exhibit opens November 10 and runs until December 4. It looks like a fine show, as is the usual case for The Darkroom Gallery.
Angie at Some Waterfalls
October 11th, 2016
In April 2015 was feeling a little better, but still far from back to where I’d been before my little health crisis. A warm day came along and I took Angie out to a couple of our favorite waterfalls where we had shot many times before. I was slowly getting back into action with photography.
For all the years I had been photographing at the waterfall above there had been a large tree down across the stream blocking the view from the angle in the photo above. I was very happy that it finally fell on down out of the way and I was able to get that shot.
We went to a small waterfall in another park. I had never shot in this particular spot at it before. April is a good month for these waterfalls that sometimes dry up later in the year.
I’ve made a lot of successful photos at the spot in the photo above. A nice thing about waterfalls is that they are different every time you go to them.
Thanks, Angie, for helping me get going with my work again when we did these.
Ten Years
October 8th, 2016
Today is the tenth anniversary of this blog. When I started it I was a few weeks away from retirement from my day job. Soon after I retired I took off in my pickup for a drive around the country taking photos. I called it my freedom ride. I planned for the blog to be a place to document that trip, but it kept on going and going and going. At first I tried to do a post every day, but soon realized that doing that meant the blog owned me. I had other things to do so I dropped to just posting when I had something to post, rather than searching each day for something to post. I think that’s a healthier approach.
If you are interested in the earlier history of this blog, all the posts are linked in the column to the right.
I’m going to post some of the photos from the beginning. The photo above appeared in my first blog post. All these photos were posted in 2006 in the first months of my blogging. If you want to know more about a photo, you can look through the 2006 posts to find it and what I wrote about it. Or just enjoy the photos. Some of these photos were taken on that trip around the country. Others were taken earlier and posted to keep the blog active every day and to show my earlier work.
Panasonic GX8
October 6th, 2016
I have a new camera. A Panasonic GX8. I’d had my eye on this camera for a while, but hadn’t made up my mind. Then there was a sale going on that was just too good to pass up. I got it from Adorama with a “free” 12-60mm lens that seems just perfect and a $150 gift card, for under $1000. That’s close to half price. It just arrived today, so I can’t say too much, but it is pretty much love at first sight. Everything seems just right. I took this photo just to challenge the sensor with a lot of contrast. This is an unadjusted jpeg right out of the camera. All I did was reduce the size of the file. Pretty impressive. It was shot on program mode with no adjustment to the exposure.
Here’s that same GX8 photo after processing the RAW file in DxO Optics Pro 10 plus a quick run through Photoshop CS6. All the detail is really there in the highlights, as you can see in the crop.
Here’s the new toy sitting beside my battered old Leica M2 because that’s the camera this new one reminds me of…except that the GX8 has much greater capability, instant focusing and exposure, and weighs about half as much as the M2.
