Sometimes the Magic Works; Sometimes It Doesn’t
October 6th, 2012
“Sometimes the magic works; sometimes it doesn’t.” That was one of the many wise things that Old Lodge Skins said in the movie, Little Big Man. And it wasn’t something he was upset about. It was just a fact.
Well, it’s true of the magic of photography. Especially true when you are dealing with the forces of mother nature. And it’s important to never let it upset you when the magic isn’t working. It’s just a fact that must be accepted.
For many, many years, decades actually, I’ve been driving regularly across southern New York state on a very beautiful road. And all those years I’ve been thinking, “I really need to bring a model here and shoot in this landscape.” Well in late July I got the chance. Brooke Lynne, my all-time favorite model, came to Ohio and we set out for Maine, following that familiar route. And, though we could easily have made it most of the way to Maine in a day, I allowed two full days just for that road so we we could stop as much as we wanted to shoot along the way.
But the magic just didn’t work. Mother nature was being very uncooperative, with bright sun the whole time making many of the best places just not well lit for good photographs. But it was more than that. I just wasn’t feeling it. The magic wasn’t there. It was a funny thing. When we got to Maine a couple days later the shooting was wonderful. You’ll soon be seeing the evidence of that. But strangely, it just wasn’t working for those two days along that very familiar road.
Looking back on it I at first thought that I’d just been wrong all those years and that, although the area is breathtakingly beautiful, it just wasn’t well suited to shooting the figure in nature. But I just drove the route twice again in the past week and I still think there are photos for me to make there. Of course, on these trips when I had no model with me the light was perfect with a lovely overcast the whole time. So it goes.
So, I guess I’ll go back again another time with a model or two. Maybe I’ll see if I can make it a dedicated trip to just that area and stay for several days, maybe even a week. And I’ll see if I can arrange it so I can go when the weather is what I want, though that’s really hard to do when there are multiple schedules to coordinate…but I’ll see if I can make that work.
Meanwhile, here is one photo from our first day on that road. Brooke did her usual wonderful job. And the light was being a little cooperative at this particular moment. There’s more to be done in this neighborhood, so I guess I’ll have to go back and try to do it.
But, just wait until you see the kick-ass stuff we shot on the coast of Maine a couple days later. It was magic.
Angie’s Back
September 30th, 2012
As you may remember from an earlier post, Angie recently had a baby. I enjoyed photographing them together in my studio. Well, Angie is back as a model and she’s as lovely as ever. So we went back to our favorite location to do some new photos. I’ve shot Angie here time and time again and it’s one of those places that just keeps on giving fine photos.
It’s been a while since my last post mainly because I’m working on other things now. You can see my main new project at my new blog here. It’s very different from what I’ve been doing here, but it’s where I’m going with my work.
But, I’m still shooting nudes now and then…and I’m way behind on editing and posting here. So expect things to continue to be added here indefinitely. These photos were done back in July. I’ve shot a lot of figure work since then. So stand by for more.
Pittsburgh Pinhole Adventures
September 21st, 2012
When I was over in Pittsburgh with Ayn and Sugar Dumpling I took advantage of the opportunity to work with my new wide-angle pinhole “lens” on my Olympus micro 4/3 camera.
The top photo was taken with the camera on a tripod with a 4 second exposure time. All the others were hand held with shutter speeds in the range of 1/8 to 1/15. It helps that the Olympus has image stabilization built into the camera body. All these were shot at 3200 ISO, the highest ISO available on my little Olympus and definitely a setting that pushes beyond the optimum quality that the camera can deliver. In most cases I limit the ISO to 800 at the top end, but the pinhole requires a bit more. In some ways I find the grain/noise to work well with the general softness of the pinhole images.
I have pinholes that I’ve used on my Nikons for years. Some I made myself and others were store bought. They all share one characteristic that makes them less than ideal for some photos. Because of the mirror in slr cameras the pinhole must be mounted far enough from the sensor to allow for clearance for the mirror to move up and down. The effective focal length of a pinhole is determined by the physical distance of the pinhole from the sensor or film. What this means is that pinholes mounted on slr cameras are always moderate telephotos. Not always a problem, but a limitation for some photos. Since micro 4/3 cameras are mirrorless there is no constraint on how far back into the camera a pinhole can be mounted. This store-bought pinhole that I have for the Olympus is nicely made and places the pinhole way back inside, so it becomes a wide-angle.
Of course, another characteristic of pinholes is that they have infinite depth of focus…or depth of fuzziness. At any rate, they are equally sharp or unsharp no matter how near or far the subject is from the camera. This last photo was an attempt to exploit that part of the nature of pinholes.
I’ve been enjoying playing with this pinhole on the little Olympus. I’ve done a number of photos outdoors. So you can expect to see more fuzzy pinhole photos on here in the next few months.
Pittsburgh Adventure and New Directions
September 18th, 2012
I know it’s been a long time since my last post. Sorry about that. But you might as well get used to it. I’m working on some different things these days and those things are not going to be posted in this blog. I’m doing much less work with nude models now, although I expect to continue to shoot nudes from time to time. And they’ll be posted here when I do. Meanwhile I’m so far behind on editing the nude work I’ve already shot that I have plenty of stuff to post here through the rest of this year and beyond, even if I didn’t shoot anything new. So this blog will continue for the time being and probably as long as I’m still able to hold a camera.
I am working hard on two new non-nude projects that I expect to be the main focus of my work for the next decade. The first of these projects now has a little bit of work on line in a new blog that I’ve built just for it. You can see the beginnings and read about the project at this new blog: http://davelevingston.com/press/
And, here are a couple photos of Ayn and Sugar Dumpling from a trip we made over to Pittsburgh back in July. I was going over to pick up prints from a gallery show. We met my friend Sita Mae, who is a great photographer, and spent some time shooting at the gallery.
Enjoy these for now. There’s lots more to come from this summer’s shoots. And please follow my new efforts on the new blog and let me know what you think.
A New Life
September 8th, 2012
Back in June…yes, I’m still that far behind with my editing…Angie brought her new baby boy in to the studio for a few mother/son photos. Angie is a lovely woman and one of my favorite models. And it’s always fun to do these kind of photos.
We had a good time doing these photos and I don’t think we annoyed the baby too awful much while we were doing them.
As usual, I have way too much going on and not enough time to keep up with everything. But I’ll try to get some more new posts up here in the near future. And don’t forget the Dirty Show coming up on a couple weeks in the Detroit area. I plan to be there on Saturday night, so if you are there too see if you can find me and say hello.
And tonight is the opening of the show SPLASH at 1650 Gallery in Los Angeles. I have a print in that show, so, if you are in LA and have time, go check out that show tonight and let me know what you think.
L’Allure des Mots
September 3rd, 2012
My good friends Sam Beasley and Katherine Villari publish a wonderful magazine, L’Allure des Mots. Up until now it has been an on-line publication. But they would like to make it a printed product. It is so beautiful on line that I, for one, would love to see a printed version.
To make it possible to publish their first printed edition, they are doing a fund raising campaign. You can learn more about the campaign here. There are some fantastic perks available to those who donate. Go check it out and send them some money to get this lovely publication into printed form.
Upcoming Shows
August 31st, 2012
I’ve received word in the past few days that some of my work will be included in two upcoming shows.
The Dirty Show 13.5 is happening in Pontiac, Michigan September 21-23. This is a different time of year from the usual Dirty Shows that happen in February. They are doing an extra show in the fall this year. It’s also in a completely different location from past Dirty Shows, happening in Pontiac this time instead of Detroit. They chose two of my photos for this show:
I’m happy that they chose the Carhenge photo because I understand there is something of a history with the automobile in the Detroit area that might lead to interest in this photo. 😉 It’s also nice that the other photo is in the show because the two models who posed for it, Artistic Physique and Kelsey Dylan will be attending the show with me.
I also entered a juried show at the 1650 Gallery in Los Angeles. The theme of this show is water. They selected my all-time most popular photograph to include in the show:
The 1650 Gallery is located at 1650 Echo Park in Los Angeles. The show, “Splash: The Fluid World of Water,” opens next Saturday, September 8 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. You can view the show on line at this link. They don’t really allow us artists much time to get our work ready and shipped to them, but I should be able to get mine printed this weekend and in the mail on Tuesday. Doesn’t help that Monday’s a holiday. If you are in LA and able to go see this show I’d appreciate a review of the show and I’d like to hear your impressions of the gallery to help me decide if I’ll enter future shows there. I didn’t find out about the extremely tight window to deliver the work until after I was notified that my photo had been selected. I am particular about what shows I enter and things like too-tight deadlines that don’t really respect the work the artist has to do to get their work ready are factors I consider when I decide to enter a show or not.
But it looks like a good show. Check it out if you can.
Farewell New York
August 24th, 2012
This will be the final post from the shoot near New York City with Erica and Venus. It was a great day of shooting with two wonderful models. The weather was perfect…solid overcast with occasional light rain. Just what I look for when I’m trying to shoot nudes in nature.
And, don’t worry, this isn’t the last you’ll be seeing of these two lovely ladies here. They joined me in Maine for a couple days of shooting a few weeks ago…so those photos will be coming along in good time. Lots of editing to get done before they show up here, though. And meanwhile there are some other things I’ve shot that are due a turn on the blog.
Thanks Erica and Venus for a great day of shooting and a bunch of fine photos.
Erica’s All Wet
August 19th, 2012
When I talk to models about working with me I try to always promise them that they can plan on getting cold and wet and dirty. I put my models through a lot to get the photos I’m after. Most of the models I work with understand what I’m after and what is required on their part to get it. I’m often surprised at how enthusiastic they are to do what is needed. And that attitude is one of the many reasons that I’ve enjoyed working with Erica Jay.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Erica is drop-dead gorgeous. That always helps when I’m trying to create a vision of beauty in nature. She’s a natural beauty who just belongs in a beautiful outdoor scene. But you can see that for yourself here.
At least it wasn’t all that cold for this shoot, though it wasn’t exactly hot and it did rain lightly on us for much of the day. But Erica certainly did get wet and dirty for the sake of art.
I’m so fortunate to have been able to work with Erica on this shoot and again during my recent trip to Maine. Those photos will be coming along in a bit as I slowly catch up on my editing. Meanwhile you might want to also check out Erica’s Tumblr for lots more fun photos of her.
Birth of Venus
August 14th, 2012
I couldn’t help thinking of that painting when I started looking at these photos of Venus de Milo from our shoot just outside New York City. Of course, these photos are nothing like the famous painting. But the model is Venus and she is splashing around in water. That’s close enough for me. There was this beautiful pond filled with lilies where we were shooting. So, of course I asked Venus to get in the water. Being the wonderful kind of model that she is, she just waded in and did some beautiful work for me, as you can see.
It was fun to change the angle and direction of the camera as well as the location of Venus in the pond, resulting in all sorts of interesting changes in the color and tone of the water’s surface and the reflections. It’s those kinds of changes that I’m always watching and studying.
And sometimes interesting things present themselves during the editing process. This last photo is simply a rotated crop of the first photo in this post. No special effects. No fancy PhotoShop crap. I don’t know how to do the fancy PhotoShop crap and don’t plan to learn. This is the sort of thing that I might have found when fiddling around in the darkroom printing from negatives back in the bad old days. Now I try to pay attention when I’m working at the computer so I see things like this.
There’s lots more to come from this shoot. As I put this post together I had intended to include both Venus and Erica. But instead I decided to feature Venus this time and the next post will be all Erica. She did a wonderful job on this shoot too. I’m so blessed to have such great models to work with. Thanks Venus.
