More Char
July 17th, 2011
Here’s another of favorite model, Char Rose, at another favorite local waterfall. The waterfalls have been pretty amazing this year because of all the rain we’ve had, so it’s been hard to resist making multiple trips to photograph at them. In a normal weather year these falls would be all dried up by now. As you can see, that’s far from the case this year.
We are looking at a week of temperatures in the 90s every day coming up. I’m not looking forward to that. I have one shoot scheduled at the studio, but I don’t think I’ll be spending much time there because the air conditioning units we have running just can’t keep up when it’s this hot, so it’s pretty uncomfortable there as well as outdoors. But I can, at least, go and stand in front of the air conditioners to cool off now and then. And it does keep it cooler than outdoors most of the time. So it’s easier to shoot there this year than it was last summer when we had no air conditioning at all.
Speaking of uncooperative weather, I thought I might be sharing a photo of the moon with a couple nude models in the foreground. On Wednesday I saw the moonrise and realized it was a perfect time for that kind of photo. The moon was almost full, the sky was clear, the timing was right to be able to shoot the moonrise just before the sunset, so the light would be right. So I contacted some models and got a couple volunteers and spent most of Thursday scouting for a couple good locations. We set out in the early evening to get the shot. At the first location we found a bunch of kids fishing right were I needed the models to pose, so we went on to the second location, which also had many more people around than when I had scouted it earlier in the day. It looked like we would be able to find an out-of-sight spot to do the shot, though. But, it didn’t matter. After a full day of bright sun, a low cloud bank settled in along the eastern horizon. It completely blocked the moon from view until it was well up in the sky, too high to be a photo element with the models, and too late anyway because the sun had already set and there was no sunlight to light the models.
So it goes. Maybe next month.
Char at the falls
July 14th, 2011
Last month before I headed out of town I managed to fit in several good shoots with local models. I love having beautiful local models who are ready to work with me when the light is right. Char Rose has recently become a new favorite local model. I had shot her in the studio over the winter and one time outdoors practically in her back yard. But I wanted to find a good day to take her to some of my favorite local locations. We finally got all the pieces to come together and set out on a morning to see what we could come up with. It was a great day of shooting. Here is the first of many that you will be seeing from this shoot.
I have some big plans for Char in the near future. I hope it works out. If it does you’ll certainly see the results here.
Crack Up
July 11th, 2011
Yep, that’s a big crack up above Artistic Physique in this photo. I’m going to make this the last post from this highly productive shoot because I have several more shoots that I’ve done since then and more coming up soon, so I need to move on to the newer work. But, it’s just so hard to miss with a great model like AP and a great location like this gorge. I’ll be going through this shoot and pulling out more and more photos for a long time to come.
Thanks for the great work, AP. We’ll be doing more together soon, I hope.
Vermont Farm and a Suspicious Odor
July 9th, 2011
I’m just back home from a trip to visit family in Vermont. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know what that means…new photos of my favorite Vermont farm. Above is a view of the farm in the morning fog.
It was haying time. Things are done very differently from when I way a kid making some money in the summer helping bale hay. No more work for kids dragging hay bales back into the barn’s hay loft where the temperature was well above 100F. In the old days they hay had to dry in the field for a few days before it was baled. Now it is cut, chopped, sprayed into a truck and dumped into a storage pit, all in the same day. And all the hard work done by machine. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. My reaction after a few summers of work putting up hay was, “I need to find something to do so I never have to do this again.” I guess some people did that work and decided they wanted to be farmers…but maybe they then figured out how to get the hay in without all that back breaking labor and sweat. More power to them.
As soon as all the hay was hauled away the next step in the process began. The next day hoses were rolled out across the fields. Then the end of the hose was hooked to this rig behind a tractor. Have you guessed what the hoses carry? Liquid manure. Yep, no more old manure spreaders, now it is pumped in liquid form direct from the barn to the field where it is sprayed by that thing behind the tractor. The odor is something to experience. We were lucky this year and there was a rain storm in the evening after the spreading was done. That seemed to remove the odor from the air.
But, speaking of odors, we had a bit of an adventure with our van on this trip. On the last couple days of the trip I noticed that the blower fan for the a/c had stopped working. I just assumed the motor had worn out. That seems to be a weak point for Chrysler products. I think I’ve had to replace the blower motor on my Dodge truck at least three times. There was still some air moving when the van was in motion and there is a separate blower for the back of the van that was still working, so we still had enough a/c to keep it reasonably comfortable. No big deal, I thought…I’ll just get it in the shop when we get home.
We drove from Vermont to my brother-in-law’s home in Canton on the first day of our return trip. No real problems on the road. The next morning I called my mechanic to make an appointment to fix the fan. He suggested percussive maintenance, saying that sometimes if you pound on the blower housing it will free it up and get it working again for a while. So I went out, started up the van, and did some pounding. Sure enough, the blower started working again…because the dead animal that had somehow gotten into the blower housing fell out of the way enough to let it turn. I cannot describe the odor that came rushing out of the a/c vents. Whatever it was had been dead for several days.
So, now driving home without fixing the problem was no longer an option. We got the van into my brother-in-law’s mechanic. They get to critter out and replaced the blower and filter. When we asked what the critter was, the reply was, “I can’t rightly say.” But it was certainly bigger than a mouse.
Well, there’s still a bit of that odor in the van, slightly disguised by a lot of air freshener stuff. I’m hoping it will go away soon. If it’s still there in a week or so I’ll take it to our local car wash/detailing place and see if they can do something about it. And on the next trip to Vermont I’ll try to park a little further away from the woods that surround my mother-in-law’s house on three sides.
It’s always something.
She’s All Wet
July 6th, 2011
Here’s another of Artistic Physique out in my new favorite shooting location near where I grew up. No, I didn’t oil her up out in the woods. That’s just water. It rained while we were out there hiking. Rain, as far as I’m concerned, is a great thing when I’m doing a shoot in the woods. The light is often beautiful. There are far fewer people out on the trails. Many photographers and models think rain is a reason to stay indoors, so they miss the great light and opportunities found during rain. And, hey, doesn’t she look nice all slick and wet?
I often say, “If you want to take photos that don’t look like everyone else’s photos, wait until everyone says the weather is too bad to take photos outdoors and go outdoors and take photos.
It didn’t actually rain all that hard during this shoot. We knew it was a possibility and were well prepared for it. And I’m very happy with the resulting photos.
Of course, this is another way that you can see just how wonderful my models are. Thanks AP!
Happy July 4
July 3rd, 2011
It’s the holiday weekend when we in the US celebrate the beginning of our country, the greatest, most successful experiment in government in the history of the world. Our country is certainly not without flaws, yet I must maintain that it is, nevertheless, the best country with the best form of government on the planet today. I’m proud to be an American. If this country isn’t wonderful, why do people from all over the world want so desperately to come here?
But, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to work on improving our flaws. And it doesn’t mean that we couldn’t lose our freedom and democracy to the forces that are always present trying to destroy any system that allows the people to influence and control the direction of the country. Those forces are stronger today than at any time in my life. I fear for the future of America. But I’m always hopeful. This country is filled with good people. But there are powerful people who want to control the country and the people and who will use any means to reach their ends. This is nothing new and there is little chance that it will change in the future. We must simply remain vigilant and challenge the lies that are being presented as truths these days.
I believe Lincoln was right. “You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Don’t get fooled.
I’m away from home for the holiday, getting together with in-laws in Vermont. This evening we will go to a big party thrown by a relative who is a big deal in Republican politics up this way. In past years the governor would attend this party. That won’t be happening this year since the current governor is a Democrat. I do my best to avoid talking politics at this event, but can’t resist an occasional barb or pointed joke…I’m not a member of any political party, never have been, but I am thoroughly disgusted by the actions of the Republicans in recent months. I hope it backfires on them as it should. Who do they think they are fooling?
OK, enough of that. That’s an old photo up above. I shot it a long time ago. Almost 10 years ago. It was my reaction to 9/11. I saw lots of really bad flag photos after that attack and decided I wanted to do a photo that captured how I felt and how I thought the country felt at that time. I think I succeeded. I hadn’t posted anything special for this holiday for several years, so I thought it was about time.
I’ll get back to posting recent stuff with the next post. Hope you have a happy 4th, those of you who are my countrymen and countrywomen.
More Gorge
July 1st, 2011
One of the great things about working with Artistic Physique is that she really loves a challenge. Of course, you can say that about all of my favorite models…that’s the kind of thing that makes them favorites. But AP is particularly up for things that present a physical challenge. That was the case with this shot. We hiked along…farther down the trail than I went with Brooke Lynne when she did my first shoot in this location, and saw this fissure in the rocks that just cried out for a beautiful nude figure. But getting there was no small ordeal for AP. But she was not going to give up, no matter what it took.
Well, she got to where she needed to be and, of course, posed beautifully for this photo. I work with the best models in the world and Artistic Physique is one of them. Thanks, AP. I couldn’t do it without you.
More to come from this shoot.
For those of you out on the left coast, specifically in LA, my friendDave Rudin has three of his photos in an upcoming show there. There’s more information on his blog: http://figuresofgrace.wordpress.com/ And here is the direct link to the show info on the gallery’s site: http://www.1650gallery.com/exposed2011_show.php
I also entered this juried show, but none of my work was selected for the exhibit, although they decided to include two of my entries in the “also ran” gallery of work they would have included if they had more space. You can see an on-line exhibit of the also-rans here: http://www.1650gallery.com/exposed2011-annex/index.html They are both photos of Brooke Lynne.
Back to the old home area
June 29th, 2011
When Brooke and I were shooting at the location near where I grew up it was chilly and we ran out of time before we got to all the possible locations there. So, of course, I’ve gone back. In fact, the place is so rich in photo opportunities and constantly changing with the seasons that I’m sure I’ll be returning many times in the future. I should have been working there for years. Don’t know why it took me so long to get around to it.
And, of course, each different model brings something new to each location. So there will be a variety of my favorite models visiting this place over the next few months and years. Next up was the delightful and lovely Artistic Physique.
More from this shoot coming over the next few posts. And I have done two other shoots since this one that I still have to edit and post for you. Got to get busy.
Waterfall
June 26th, 2011
Yes, Kentucky, there is a waterfall. And it’s a beautiful one. But, our visit there was not without a few complications.
First, when we finally had made our way down the trail and arrived at the waterfall that was our destination, we found it was not free of other people. In fact, we were pretty sure that was going to be the case since the church summer camp group of 8-year-olds and their teachers had passed us along the trail. They were all over the place enjoying the water and the rocks. Now this is not the most visited waterfall in Kentucky by any means. It’s quite possible we and this class were the only visitors there that day, maybe that week. But, of course, we were there at the same time. So we just made ourselves comfortable and waited. Eventually the kids left and headed back up the trail. Don’t know if they saw the rattlesnake on their way out, but I kind of doubt it since I think we might have heard the screams.
The second problem was the sun. As you can see, this waterfall has quite a deep overhang and that overhang was in deep shadow. For most of the time we were there, and for most of the photos I took, the sun was out and the contrast range between the sunny foreground and the shadows under the cliff was just too much for the camera. I thought about doing some blended exposures and took some bracketed exposures to try that, but I’m just not that happy with those photos anyway. The sun was just too harsh, and the light was still not all that nice, even with the contrast issues dealt with.
But, right before we headed back up the trail for our encounter with the rattlesnake, the sun went behind a cloud for a few minutes and I was able to get this shot. I still had to work on it in photoshop for a while, but the info was there in the file, and the light was pleasant at least for a brief moment. We probably would have worked on some other angles and poses, but the cloud passed and it was getting later than we had planned anyway because of the delay while we waited to have the place to ourselves. So, I guess a return visit to this spot will be on the agenda for the future. Maybe I’ll find a day that isn’t quite 100 degrees too.
Thanks, Ikaros Ex, for a great adventure and shoot. We’ll do it again before too long.
The Root of Everything
June 24th, 2011
This trail to the waterfall in Kentucky was a really fine trail. Lots of places to shoot before we even got to the waterfall. I really liked these roots beside the trail. This was taken right before we encountered the giant bug on the trail.
We’ll get to some photos of the waterfall soon, I promise.
I’ve been very busy shooting in the past few days. I did a shoot this morning and did one yesterday morning. Both with favorite models at favorite locations. You’ll be seeing the results here in good time. But first there are more photos from my shoot with Ikaros Ex, and then there’s another shoot that produced a lot of fine photos from last week. So, there’s plenty more and different stuff to come, but first I have to find time to edit the shoots.
All in good time, my friends. Until then, just keep enjoying my work with Ikaros.
