The Turn Of A Decade
January 1st, 2010
I’m not much for the whole year end reflection/year in review kind of stuff. But, since this day marks the start of a new decade it seemed to me worth noting. The past decade has been a rough one in many ways that I really don’t need to recount here. But I have mixed feelings about the past ten years because for me personally it has been a very good decade.
I’m in my sixth decade on this strange planet and much that has been good in my life has happened in this past one.
It was May of 2002 when I made a trip to Maine and took the photo at the top of this post. That was the day I realized that I needed to be photographing the nude in nature. I started working professionally as a photographer in 1968. But, in the past eight years I have produced the vast majority of the photographs that I care about…the ones that seem to be the reason I am a photographer. It started the day I made that photo above.
Incidentally, that photo was taken with a 3 megapixel camera that cost $1000. It was recorded on a 128 Meg (not Gig) card that cost $300. I still have that card somewhere, but wouldn’t even consider trying to shoot with it…it would only hold a few photos. And I have my new 10 mp S90 in my pocket to shoot snaps…it cost much less than half what that old camera (which I also still have…I seldom part with my cameras) cost.
There are lots of photos I care about from the earlier years of my life, of course, but my “body of work” really began the day I took this photo.
Another major event this past decade was being able to retire from my day job and concentrate full-time on photography for the first time in many years. I never really stopped being a photographer for very long over those years, but thanks to the Peter Principle I found myself doing other things as my primary job for quite a few years. That made it possible to concentrate on photographing just what I wanted to photograph while also being able to support a family and eventually reach that retirement milestone. So that was all good, at least from the perspective at this end of that journey.
I also have to mention that the past decade made me a grandfather. I’m pretty happy about that new role for myself too.
So, despite all the tragedies, wars, global warming, recession, the “oughts” were pretty good to me. But that doesn’t stop me from hoping the “teens” will be a much better decade for the world. And I also hope that it will be another fine decade of productivity for me as a photographer…and that I’ll get to learn all about being a grandfather.
As the new decade begins I hope you can find the good in the past ten years and I wish you all the best in the coming ten and beyond.
More from the S90
December 30th, 2009
Phoenix Kelley was back in town for the holidays, so we did a long lunch and a quick shoot together. I took the Nikon and all my normal kit, but had to pull out the new Canon S90 for a few frames too. This is one of them. The camera was on Program Mode and set the exposure perfectly automatically. The Nikon wouldn’t do that, I had to tweak what the meter wanted to do to get a good exposure. The settings for this shot were ISO 400, 1/40, f/2.2 with the zoom lens at the widest setting. I did crop the photo a bit for composition, but I didn’t try to correct the obvious barrel distortion that the lens has when it is set this wide. But it would be an easy fix in PhotoShop, so I’m not terribly worried about it.
I’m still impressed. With the camera, that is. Phoenix has impressed me since the first time I met her and I’ve really enjoyed watching her grow up into a very beautiful woman, a talented creative artist, and a fine figure model. I wish she hadn’t moved so far away, but we aren’t going to let that stop us from working together more in the future.
I’m about to take off for rural Vermont again to celebrate the New Decade. Let’s hope it is a much better decade than the one we are ending. But that means dial-up only web access for several days…cell phones don’t even work well where we will be staying…so I may post some more while I’m away, if I can manage to get on line to do it. Or you may have to wait until the new decade is under way to hear from me again…only time will tell. And it also means you may have to put up with more photos of my favorite, most photogenic farm.
WOW!
December 27th, 2009
WARNING: Photo Geek Post
New Book
December 24th, 2009
I want to call your attention to a newly published book f-eleven which is a collection of photographs by a bunch of photographers, including yours truly. I’m really thrilled and honored to be in the company of the other folks in the book. There’s a preview at that link so you can check it out.
Over 260 images
20 photographers
160 pages (premium paper)
8″ x 10″ (landscape style)
Designed & Edited by WOLF189
featuring the following photographers:
Brooks Ayola ( Polaroid nude portraits )
Ralph Barker ( fine art landscape + still life )
Kincaid Blackwood ( erotic portraits )
Mariah Carle ( fashion + portrait )
Matthew Cherry ( fine art night photography )
Nicole Jaja ( travel + candid portraits )
Leo Lam ( editorial fashion )
Dave Levingston ( fine art nude in nature )
Brooke Lynne ( experimental nude )
Darryl Martin ( fine art thematic portraits )
Ken Mierzwa ( documentary punk rock portraits )
D. Brian Nelson ( personal work )
Trish Noble ( erotic portraits )
Keith Allen Phillips ( fine art fetish portraits )
Collin J. Rae ( fetish + erotic portraits )
Sarah Robertson ( personal work )
Dave Rudin ( fine art nude + travel )
Susan Michele Smith ( fetish+erotic portraits )
Kim Melia von Seidl ( candid portraits+erotic portraits )
Wolf189 ( editorial fashion + erotic portraits )
All of the profits of the book sales would be donated to “Friends Without a Border.”
“Friends Without A Border” is committed to improving the health and well being of the children of Cambodia by providing quality medical care, extensive outreach and crucial medical education through Angkor Hospital for Children.
Our intention (editor and the contributors of this book ) has not been coordinated with this respectful charity yet, but it is our wish and intention to donate all of the profits of this book to “Friends Without A Border.”
Here are some promo codes to buy the book with $10.00 off (until December 31)
The promo code must match currency used.
Orders from the US (using US $): GREATGIFT
Orders from UK (using UK £): GREATGIFT2
Orders from EU (using EU €): GREATGIFT3
Orders from AU (using AUD $): GREATGIFT4
Merry Burqa Christmas
December 24th, 2009
‘Tis the season for cheesy Christmas photos. Why should I be any different? Kelsey stopped by the studio earlier this week…and she had those stockings with her. How could I resist?
Kelsey and I also did some other, perhaps a bit more artistic, photos that you will get to see in the near future. But, for now I’ll leave you with this and with a wish for happy times in the coming few days of holidays. Now I have to go put lights on the tree that I finally found yesterday thanks to help from _G_ who spotted a place that still had a few trees left and called to tell me while I was driving from empty tree lot to empty tree lot. That’s the problem with spending the two weeks before Christmas in Florida.
Up A Tree
December 22nd, 2009
Another shot from my recent visit to Florida. This is Lisa Renee, a great model who I worked with for several days while I was there. I seemed to be on a “tree” kick on this trip and found myself always looking for great trees to shoot with a model. We found this one in a park near Sarasota. We saw wild boars running around not that far from where we shot this, so being able to climb a tree quickly was a good skill to practice.
I’m pretty much swamped with Christmas stuff right now, but I have something else shot special for the season to post soon. I’ll probably get it up here Thursday or Friday. And there’s lots more to come from Florida.
Hope you are all enjoying the season.
Tree Huggers
December 17th, 2009
I’ve been having fun and staying very busy down here in sunny Florida. It’s been a little more sunny than I would have liked for the days I was shooting, but I managed to deal with the challenging light pretty well.
I got to work with JoJo Suicide again. She is one of my all time favorite models and a great person to be around. That’s her on the lower branch in this photo. And on the upper branch is Rachel Haberhern, a “new” model who I just met and worked with for the first time on this trip. Rachel is a great model, so it was wonderful to have both her and JoJo to work with. I also worked with another new Florida model this trip, but more about her later when I post one of her photos.
This is the last photo I took on my last day of shooting. We had been out in the swamps and forests all day looking for good locations and had been having a good bit of success, despite the bright sunlight that was pushing the limits of the dynamic range of my camera. We had been shooting with a number of great trees, but were still looking for the “perfect” tree when Rachel spotted this one just a little way from the trail we were on. It was far enough away that JoJo and I didn’t see it…maybe Rachel spotted it because she is six feet tall. Or maybe she was just paying more attention. Anyway, I’m very glad she found this tree because it gave us the shot we had been looking for all day. Thanks Rachel.
Tomorrow morning I load up the truck and head for home. I hear it’s cold up there in Ohio. Not looking forward to getting back to winter. I’ve been wearing shorts and sandals. Guess I’ll need to adjust the wardrobe for the return trip.
On the road again
December 12th, 2009
Sorry I haven’t posted this past week. I’m on the road. Right now I’m in a motel in Tampa. This afternoon I’ll be attending the wedding of an old friend. Then I’ll hang around for most of next week in Kissimmee, then pick up my daughter from college and bring her home for the holidays.
But, part of why I’ve been too busy to post is that I’ve been shooting. I stopped near Atlanta on the drive down here and did a shoot with Susi, who I’ve known on line for some time, but had never met. It was a real treat to get to work with her. That’s her in the photo above.
More shooting to do in the coming week with some favorite models and some new people too. If time and internet connections allow I’ll try to post more as the week goes by.
Oh, and for my friends up in the frozen north, it’s been very cold here in Florida. Yesterday my model was complaining about the cold. It’s all the way down into the mid-60s. Burrrrr! Everyone here is wearing their coats and talking about how cold it is.
What’s wrong with people?
December 5th, 2009
It Aint Gonna Happen
November 29th, 2009
Well, that “fall into winter” photo that I wanted to shoot isn’t going to happen. I have a model scheduled for tomorrow, and the weather is supposed to be cooperative, so I thought I might still be able to pull it off, despite the wind and rain we’ve had causing things to progress beyond the ideal point for the photo.
Then I realized that tomorrow is the first day of deer gun season here in Ohio. Shit! I don’t go in the woods during deer gun season. Way too many “Pumpkin People” as Dave Swanson likes to call them, wandering around out there with a shotgun and a six-pack. Someone gets killed every year because a drunken idiot hunter thinks they look like a deer. And, the location I had in mind…and the one where I shot Angie earlier when the sun was against me…is a public hunting area. I ran into a bow hunter there when I was scouting the place.
Bow hunters don’t worry me. They tend to know what they are doing, and they wait to be sure of their target before the let fly with an arrow. There could well have been one or more of them watching while Angie and I did our photos because they wear camoflage and stay hidden waiting for a deer to come along. If they were there, we’d never know unless we happened to walk right up on one of their blinds.
I tried to contact a local model to make a quick run out to the woods this afternoon before it was too late, but couldn’t connect before the light was fading and a little rain had started. So it goes.
I might try taking tomorrow’s model to a state park where hunting is prohibited. Of course, that’s no guarantee that a drunken idiot with a shotgun won’t be hunting there anyway. But the odds are better.
So, it looks like I’ll have to settle for as close as I could get with the sun ruining the shot I had in mind. This one of Angie may be as close as I got. What I was really interested in was the color that had stayed in the underbrush long after the leaves were gone from the trees. It seemed to be much more dramatic and much more colorful than I ever remember before. Bare trees with about a 4-6 foot layer of bright color at the bottom. But it was only really at its most beautiful when a heavy overcast made the colors really come out. The sun just washed them away.
But I still like this composition with Angie being all tree-like and lots of interesting shapes and tones and colors going on. Just not what I had set out to capture. But Mother Nature always has something to offer if you are willing to see it.
