Kelsey in the Cold March Woods
October 5th, 2016
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that in January 2015 I had a pretty serious medical episode that put me in the hospital for a while. I blogged about it here and here if you care to read about what happened. That’s when I started to get so far behind with my editing. For all of 2015 I was seriously slowed down by the after-effects of this. To be honest, I’m still not fully recovered, not back to the physical condition I was in before it happened, but I am much better now, almost back to my usual abnormal state.
Because of all that I didn’t do any shooting for most of the first quarter of 2015. But at the end of March Kelsey Dylan was in the area and ready to shoot with me. I thought I should give it a try and see what happened. We went hiking at a park near Columbus that I had not been to before and I managed to come up with these photos.
Thanks, Kelsey, for getting me back to work and making my first outing since the hospital such a success.
Crappy Instant Pictures
October 2nd, 2016
A while back I was suckered into participating in an on-line funding thing for a new Lomo instant camera. When I got it I found it was, as I have come to expect with Lomo products, a piece of junk. But it does take instant photos using Fuji’s small instant film, producing prints that are about wallet size.
When the camera arrived I asked Ayn to come by the studio so I could try it out. I don’t understand why Lomo can’t make a camera that works with the camera controls that we are all familiar with. This camera is too automatic to start with, though it does have some provision to allow a bit of control. Not enough, but it’s something. But the big problem is that Lomo insists on coming up with their own unique names for each control on the camera…and then marking those controls with only the first letter of their newly invented name. WTF!? It must be some stupid hipster thing. I can never figure out the controls without looking at the manual.
But I do manage to make photos with it now and then. I keep hoping that some company (Fuji, are you listening) will make a simple manual instant camera that just has shutter speeds and aperture controls. If it has a flash it must be possible to turn the flash off. How hard would that be, really? I’d even buy it from Lomo if they did it. Maybe I could put tape over their idiotic control names and write in what they really should be called. With Fuji discontinuing their “peel apart” instant films one after another, I’m guessing it won’t be long before my Polaroid pack film back for my Speed Graphic will be useless because there will be no film for it. And don’t get me started on the useless crap that the Impossible Project sells. Impossible to take good photos with, as far as I’m concerned.
Good old hipster Lomo insists on producing hipster stuff like fisheye lenses for most of their cameras. One came with this camera, so I had to try it out. Not all that bad, I guess. And, as I play around with the incomprehensible camera controls, I get all sorts of results, some interesting…and, yes, I know that’s the hipster thing…surprise results. I like controlled, purposeful results. I like to be able to replicate an effect. I think this last photo just shows the effects of underexposure, so I think I can make it happen again. I’ll keep playing with this POS camera from time to time until I find something better.
By the way, I did these photos in December 2014. And this is the last shoot of 2014. I’m finally caught up to last year on my editing. The next post, most likely, will be from a shoot in 2015. I’m slowly gaining ground on the backlog.
Street Light On Kelsey
September 26th, 2016
More of Kelsey Dylan at the studio in December 2014.
First we shot while it was still light outside and we had a mix of daylight and the street light, which had just come on in the growing twilight.
Then it got dark and we had just the street light coming through the window.
The ancient glass in some of the window panes makes the light even more interesting. Kelsey did her usual wonderful job and I think we ended up with a few fun photos.
These were all shot with my Nikon D7000 and my old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 stopped down just a little, between f/2 and f/3.5. That lens is pretty soft at f/1.4, but gets good at f/2 and is great anywhere above that. ISO was 1600, which is pretty much the same quality as ISO 100 with the D7000.
Kelsey In The Studio
September 20th, 2016
I’m going to get to work with the amazing Kelsey Dylan again this week, so this seems like a good time to post some older photos of her. I’m almost finished editing shoots from 2014. We did this shoot in the evening at the studio a couple days after Christmas.
We were playing around with the window light created by a street light outside in the early evening.
Kelsey is a lovely woman and a great model. I just turned her loose and let her play around in the light. These were all shot with my old 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens stopped down a stop or two.
Grandkids
September 9th, 2016
I did a few grandkid photos the other day. Grandkids are one of the few good things about getting old.
Welcome
September 8th, 2016
I just want to say a belated hello to all the folks clicking over from The Online Photographer. I wasn’t quite prepared for the influx, but I’m glad you came.
I use this blog just to post whatever I’m working on at any given time. If you want to see a bit more organized set of my photos, please click over to the portfolio tab above. While much of my work does have nudity, I certainly don’t think any of it is in any way pornographic, but rather in the tradition of artistic nudes. But I also have dance photography and landscape/nature work on the site.
Thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to leave a comment if you want.
More From My Trip
September 6th, 2016
Thought I’d post a few snaps from my trip last week. These were shot in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Above you see me trying to walk in the 80mph wind on top of Mt. Washington.
That was fun, but there really wasn’t much of a view. We saw hikers who had climbed the mountain and were determined to make it to the summit a few yards from the building at the top. They were roping up to keep from being blown off the trail. We didn’t try for the summit.
The view was much better just a little way down the road from the summit.
After going up Mt. Washington we hiked to Glen Ellis Falls, I nice easy hike. I shot these closeups of some of the plants along that trail.
The next day we drove the Kangamagus Highway and did a climb on a “moderate” trail that was pretty tough going for us old folks. This view was the reward at the top of that mountain. Considerably lower than Mt. Washington.
At the end of the day we stopped at Lily Pond along the Kangamagus to see if any moose were hanging around. Didn’t see any moose, but it was still a pretty place.
All these photos were made with my little travel cameras. Micro 4/3 and also my old trusty Canon S90 that is always on my belt.
Meeting Michael Johnston
September 2nd, 2016
We’ve just returned from a week-long trip driving through upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. We visited our niece and her family in the Buffalo area, attended the wedding of our grand nephew (boy, just typing that makes me feel old) in Cornwall, Vermont. I dropped in at the Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont where I dropped off a couple prints for their next show, The Environmental Portrait. Then we did some sight seeing and hiking in the north woods of New Hampshire which included a trip (in the Honda Pilot) up Mt. Washington. And, on the drive back home we stopped for a night in the Finger Lakes region of New York so we could meet and visit Michael Johnston.
If you don’t know who Mike is, you should. He is the author of the blog, The Online Photographer. If you have any interest in photography you should be reading this blog. It is the best written photo blog on the internet. It has an excellent balance between posts about cameras, posts about taking photos, posts about looking at photos and posts about the meaning of life.
Now that I’ve met him and visited with him for a few hours I can say that in addition to being a fine writer, Mike is also a very nice guy. And a great conversationalist. It’s always nice when things work out that way. That’s not always the case (the time I met W. Eugene Smith, for example). We had a wide-ranging conversation about just about anything you might imagine, including, occasionally, photography. It was great fun.
Yes, that’s Mike in the photo above. He is standing in the doorway to the living room in the Bed and Breakfast where we spent the night in Penn Yan, New York. Mike recommended La Belle Vie to us as a place to stay and it was an outstanding recommendation. A beautiful house, with fine details in its construction (check out the woodwork in the arch above Mike). Our room was beautiful, comfortable and very nicely decorated. The breakfast was to die for. Highly recommended to anyone visiting the Finger Lakes for any reason.
We met Mike at his lovely home on Keuka Lake and went to dinner in nearby Hammondsport at the Timber Stone Grill. I can give a hearty recommendation to the Timberstone Grill. Food doesn’t get much better than the meals at that fine restaurant. Both dinner and conversation were outstanding. It was late when we made it back to the B&B and we just went right to bed. The next morning Mike joined us for breakfast at the B&B. The conversation was so fine with Mike and the B&B owners, Llewellyn and Laurel, that we didn’t get on the road home until after 1 in the afternoon. And did I mention that the breakfast was wonderful? A really fine way to end our trip. We made it home around 9 in the evening and are now starting to get back into our routine. I’ll be back to regular posting in a few days. Meanwhile, go read The Online Photographer.
I just want to say a belated hello to all the folks clicking over from The Online Photographer. I wasn’t quite prepared for the influx, but I’m glad you came.
I use this blog just to post whatever I’m working on at any given time. If you want to see a bit more organized set of my photos, please click over to the portfolio tab above. While much of my work does have nudity, I certainly don’t think any of it is in any way pornographic, but rather in the tradition of artistic nudes. But I also have dance photography and landscape/nature work on the site.
Thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to leave a comment if you want.
Winged Reveille
August 26th, 2016
As always seems to be the case, I’m wading my way through old shoots trying to catch up. I doubt if I’ll ever succeed, but I do seem to be gaining a bit of ground.
Today I’m posting photos from a shoot with the lovely model Reveille that we did back in December 2014. That’s right, I’m almost up to last year’s shoots.
As you can see, Reveille arrived at my studio with a new set of wings that she wanted photographed. So that was what we spent most of our time doing.
After we finished with the wings, I did this portrait of Reveille which I think came out pretty well.
But, for me at least, the real success for the day came when I brought out my new toy, a Lomo instant camera that uses the small-format Fuji instant film. I’m not a huge fan of this camera. It’s cheaply made and has controls that ignore the conventions of camera controls, so I have to figure them out every time I use the darn thing. But, when I can force the contrary contraption to do what I want it to do, it can sometimes produce good results. I think that’s the case with this photo.
Thanks Reveille.
The Environmental Portrait
August 19th, 2016
Two of my photographs have been selected by the juror for the next show, “The Environmental Portrait,” at The Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont. It’s always a pleasure to have my work in one of the great shows that this gallery does. You can view the entire show at the link above. Or, better yet, if you are anywhere near the gallery, go see the show in person. You won’t be disappointed. If you can go to the artists reception I promise you’ll have fun.
