Big Dune
September 21st, 2008
Driving along the road east of Death Valley we saw a sign with an arrow that simply said “Big Dune.” And looking in the direction of the arrow, there it certainly was…a big dune. So we stopped to shoot. It was well worth the stop.
This is Vima adding a little foreground interest to the shapes of Big Dune. It was a great shooting location. More photos to come.
I’m still in LA. I had the great pleasure Saturday morning to finally meet a wonderful photographer who I’ve “known” on line for some time. Had breakfast with Sita Mae. We met at a great LA place, Pie ‘n Burgers, in Pasadena. Best omlet I’ve ever had. And Sita is every bit as delightful a person as I’d always heard she was.
Saturday evening I had dinner at a great old Mexican place, El Cholo on Western, with a friend from many years ago. MP was a dance major at Ohio University when I was there studying photography. She modeled for me back in those days. I put a photo of her dancing on the blog a while back. We traded stories of our lives and I did a few new photos of her. A very pleasant evening.
Sunday I’ll be spending most of the day at the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax. Several friends and internet accquaitances from the LA area will be stopping by to say hi. That should be fun. If you are in LA please come by and say hello.
Titus Canyon
September 20th, 2008
As is often the case, I had my models climbing the walls while we were shooting. In this case Vima and Neva are climbing the wall of Titus Canyon in Death Valley…and looking quite sensational while doing it, I must say.
We didn’t do a lot of hiking in Death Valley. It had cooled off to the balmier September temperatures. The highest we saw was 113F. Most of the time it was between 95 and 105. When it got down to 90 we started feeling chilly. Anyway, not the greatest conditions for backpacking unless you are a lot more hardcore about it than I am.
But Titus Canyon seemed like a good walk, so we gave it a try. There’s a jeep road through the canyon, but we just drove to the mouth of the canyon and walked up into the canyon for a short distance. It was worth the walk.
And, there’s some special significance for me to this particular location. My grandson was being born at about the time we were in this canyon. And his mother and father named him Titus. They had no idea that I was in Titus Canyon at the time. They just like the old TV show.
The Moon Sets Over the Amargosa
September 20th, 2008
While we were shooting in Death Valley and the surrounding area we stayed at a wonderful place, The Amargosa Hotel and Opera House in Death Valley Junction, just outside the park. You can read the very interesting story of the Amargosa and its owner, Marta, on its web site.
I had hoped to meet Marta while I was there, but unfortunately she recently fell and was confined to her home while we were there.
But it is an interesting place to stay, with a lot of history. And maybe we added just a small bit to the story when I took this photo of Neva as the moon was setting one morning before we headed out for the day.
Rules Are Made To Be Broken
September 19th, 2008
I’m in Los Angeles after 4 wonderful days of shooting in and around Death Valley. It was a great trip, largely because of the fantastic models who went out in the desert with me. NevaehLleh and Vima just did a fantastic job day after day in the heat and sun, on the rocks and in the dirt and sand. I couldn’t imagine better models to work with.
But that’s because I was very lucky. These weren’t the models I had originally planned to take to Death Valley. One of my rules is to not go on multi-day shooting trips with models I’ve not previously met and preferably worked with. It may come as a shock, but not all models are nice people. Some are very difficult to be around. I won’t work with difficult models. I won’t work with unpleasant models. Life is too short. So I want to know what a model is like before I take off with her for several days of work.
But the models I had originally planned to use for this shoot all dropped out for a variety of perfectly valid reasons. And I ended up looking for replacements on Model Mayhem. And I got lucky. Very lucky. NevaehLleh and Vima are as good as any models I’ve encountered. And that goes both in front of the camera and in all those other times between shots. Very nice young women who I can highly recommend to other photographers. Really great models, these two.
There is lots more stuff from Death Valley, of course. I’ll be editing and posting them as I get time…
A few more days in LA, then it’s back home. I’m looking forward to getting home even more than usual this time since my first grandson just arrived in this world a couple days ago and I’m looking forward to introducing him to his grandpa.
Green Hawaii
September 14th, 2008
Hawaii is green. Everywhere, green. Overwhelming green. Green that seems like it might swallow you up if you turned your back. It’s not a threatening sort of thing, just a powerful one. Here’s Leona Anne again, about to succumb to the greenness of Hawaii.
I’m in LA now. Heading out to Death Valley with a couple models before dawn tomorrow. No internet out there. I’ll be back to LA on Thursday. Should have more for you to see when I return from the desert. Don’t think I’ll be seeing so much green out there.
Lost…Under the Banyan Trees
September 12th, 2008
Did some shooting yesterday with Leona Anne who got up before dawn and very capably guided me to some excellent locations for shooting, then added her beautiful form to the beauty of Hawaii. For those of you who are still fans of “Lost” (I think the show jumped the shark after the first season and stopped paying any attention to it myself) that Banyan tree Leona is leaning on in the shot above is the one Charlie hung from. It’s near the trail head for Manoa Falls.
Students Achieving Oneness Will Advance To Twoness
September 11th, 2008
I stole that post title from Woody Allen…one of my favorite quotes from him.
I spent most of today wandering around in the vicinity of Manoa Falls and the Lyon Arboretum. So I thought I’d share a few of my snapshots from the day.
Aloha
September 7th, 2008
Don’t hate me. I’m in Hawaii. In a hotel on Waikiki Beach. These photos were shot from the balcony of our room.
I’ve never had any desire to visit Hawaii. I don’t know why, it was just never on my list of places to go. I’m here because my wife’s old college roommate invited us to join her and a lot of her other friends here to help her celebrate her 60th birthday. She used to live here. She worked on Magnum PI. She wrote a couple scripts for the show back in those days.
So, we’ve been running around with her and a bunch of really nice folks who either live here on the island or flew in for the party.
I have to say that here in Honolulu I’m not all that entranced with this version of paradise spoiled. It’s just a very busy city with a beach and hot weather. Beautiful in a sadly ruined way. But over the coming week we’ll be exploring the less urban parts of the island and I suspect I’ll find that more to my taste. We’ll see.
I’ll have more photos as the week goes by, no doubt. And if this really, really bad internet connection holds up well enough, I may be able to upload a few more. We’ll see. I certainly can’t recommend Skywave Wi-Fi in Hawaii. Terrible service, regularly dropping the connection, very complicated, difficult sign-on. But it seems to be the only option, so it’s what I’m struggling to use. A good example of what you get with no competition.
Graceful Athena
September 4th, 2008
I don’t really have time to write today. I’m catching a plane in a little while. I hope to have internet access while I’m traveling, so I’ll post more when I can.
Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of the lovely and graceful Athena from last Friday’s shoot.
More when I can.
Steely Phoenix
September 1st, 2008
Life has been busy and it looks to continue to be for the next few weeks. But I managed to fit in a good shoot with a couple favorite models in Dayton on Friday before the holiday weekend started. Here’s one quick pick from that shoot. That’s Phoenix Kelley showing the contrast between her fine figure and some steel plates in a studio.
I’ll have a few more to post from this shoot over the next few posts and I’ll probably be going back over the things I shot on the trip out west and the Tampa trip to find some other photos to post from those. But with the schedule I have ahead of me for the next 3 weeks or so, I’ll make no promises about how many or how frequently I’ll be able to post new things here. But stop by now and then and see what I’ve managed to do.
