More R|J and some International Recognition
June 23rd, 2008
Here’s another photo of Bia T at Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills. A little different treatment of that location and situation.
And, there’s a new blog out of Prague that seems to be doing quite a few interviews with people around the web. I don’t know what brought them to me, but they asked me for an interview and I found a few minutes last night to answer their questions. The interview is now on line at their blog, so go check it out if you would like to read my addled meanderings about photography and art. http://nudeartworld.blogspot.com/
I had a great shoot today with Orixx at a couple local waterfalls. We went at dawn. That means I was up at 4 a.m. this morning. I’m tired now. So this is all you get on the blog today.
Into the woods
June 20th, 2008
Life is busy, as usual. Well, more so than usual right now. And I keep getting contacted by models wanting to do shoots. Not a terrible problem to have, to be sure, but I’m having a hard time finding time for everything I need to do and still fit in everything I want to do.
More NYC Dance
June 17th, 2008
Here’s another photo from Dario Vaccaro’s “Seguiti” performed in New York City in April. The dancers are Lex Cones and Heidi L. Kershaw in the foreground and Rosanne Ma in the back. On piano is Simon Mulligan.
Happy Father’s Day
June 15th, 2008
Just another day. To celebrate Father’s Day today so far I’ve finished painting the guest room and went shopping for porch furniture. Father’s Day doesn’t get nearly the attention that Mother’s Day gets, but that’s a good thing since the reason is that fathers don’t spend nearly as much effort inspiring guilt in our children.
The newly married daughter is coming over later to take me out to dinner, though…I must have gotten a little guilt going in her after all the work and expense for her wedding. My wife gave me a card, a CD and some sweets…I, of course, informed her, “I’m not your Daddy.”
It was a busy week, hence the lack of posts here. I had three photo shoots and then Friday night was spent gallery sitting at a new gallery that is showing my work in Dayton’s Oregon District. It was real quiet, as in no one at all came in, for the first couple hours, but then it started picking up as people wandered between bars and decided to stop in to see what was on the walls. And as the evening went by more and more people came in who seemed to actually be interested in the work that was hanging. The gallery displays work by a number of artists who have studios in the Front Street Buildings on Second Street not far from the Oregon District, so there is a wide variety of work on display.
The highlight of the evening at the gallery for me was a surprise visit by the former director of the Dayton Art Institute, Alex Nyerges. He was in town visiting and came down to see what was happening with galleries there. I greatly enjoyed his time as director of the local art institute. He’s an expert in photography and brought a number of very fine photo exhibits to the institute. Most notable was the Edward Weston show that he put together from the collection of Edward’s sister, who had lived most of her life in the Dayton area. Weston would frequently send her prints of his latest work, sometimes folding the prints in half to put them in a standard envelope. The stack of prints was discovered in the back of a closet by the sister’s son who brought them to the art institute.
The exhibit was a great survey of the life’s work of a great photographer. The catalog of the exhibit authored by Nyerges, Edward Weston, A Photographer’s Love of Life, is much more than a catalog. It’s a very fine exploration of the life and work of Edward Weston. It’s a good book to add to your library if you can find a copy.
Mr. Nyerges seemed to like what he saw at the gallery and even made some very generous comments about my own work. So I felt like the evening was a fine success. Nothing like a little praise from someone whose opinion you value.
That’s another Ohio University School of Dance Spring Concert photo up there. I still don’t have any credit information on that concert to be able to say more about it.
More Dance
June 8th, 2008
Another photo from the Ohio University Spring Concert. I still don’t have any information about this concert, so I can’t tell you the title of the piece or the names of the dancers. I’m pretty sure about the dancers’ names, but I don’t like to put up incomplete credit info and not having the program greatly increases the chances for error. So I’ll leave it at a photo for now.
It’s been busy around here. My older daughter got married on Friday. I’m still in recovery mode today. But it was a great wedding and we all enjoyed the ceremony, the reception and the visits with friends and relatives. But father of the bride is a stressful and expensive role.
Now, tomorrow I have shoots at the studio with two traveling models. Have to be up early to get in there and get things set up. So maybe it’s back to normal after weeks of wedding preparations.
More Dance from Ohio University
June 3rd, 2008
This photo is from another Ohio University School of Dance concert last month. May is a busy time for dancers in Athens, Ohio. There’s the Senior Concert produced by and showcasing the senior dance majors and also the Spring Concert with both student and faculty choreography and dancing as well as work by visiting artists. This dance was part of the Spring Concert. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend any of the actual performances of this concert and therefore I don’t have a program to provide the title of the piece and the names of the choreographer and dancers.
I never photograph actual performances because I consider it rude and a distraction for the audience to have someone firing a camera throughout the concert. My photos are taken at technical and dress rehearsals.
I hope someone at OU will send me an electronic copy of the program for the Spring Concert. If that happens I’ll update with the proper credit information for this photo.
Primordium
May 30th, 2008
Here’s a photo from the Ohio University Senior Dance Concert that I photographed a couple weeks ago. The dance is called “Primordium.” Choreographer: Quiterie Gianina-Gabrielle Dancers: R. Eric Hill, Chelsea S. Goettge, Ryan Dick and Monica Pack Lighting Designer: Joshua Willett
Program note: Primordium: In embryology, an organ or tissue in its earliest developmental stage. Primordial cells are the first differentiated dividing cells in the fertilized ovum.
The senior concerts fulfill the capstone requirement for the BFA in Dance. The dances are original works choreographed by senior dance majors and are performed by seniors and other students in the School of Dance. The seniors are responsible for organizing and producing the concert including publicity, programs, costumes, sound and video. Some of them also stage manage the shows, design the lighting and handle the group’s finances.
It’s always a pleasure to be involved with the productions by these talented young people.
Remember
May 26th, 2008
It’s Memorial Day here. A day to remember those who have died in defense of this shining beacon of liberty known as The United States. It is not a day to honor veterans, even though it is often misrepresented as such, even by our current President, who can’t seem to get anything right. Veteran’s Day is in November. Today we should pause to remember those who gave their lives so we can enjoy our hot dogs and burgers at our cookouts this afternoon.
War, in all cases, is such a stupid waste of lives that we should all be working to make war a thing of the primitive past of humanity. But for all the waste of lives and tragedy they cause, wars have been a part of much progress. It took a war to establish this country on principles of individual liberty that were previously not even recognized as existing. It has taken wars to defend those liberties over the years. But we humans need to find better ways, civilized ways, to work out our differences and move forward with social progress. Maybe some day.
I took this second photo as my response to 9/11. I was seeing a lot of really bad flag photos around that time and I thought I could do a little better. I wanted it to express the mood of the country, saddened but patriotic.
9/11 was a huge tragedy which brought the sympathy and support of the entire world to the United States. It’s a second tragedy that our leaders squandered that sympathy on a senseless war that has done nothing but worsen the world situation and bred new terrorists. I look forward to a significant change in 2009 that, I hope, will mean fewer brave Americans will have to sacrifice their lives in service to their country.
Passing by
May 21st, 2008
Another from Dario Vaccaro’s dance, “Segiuti.” That’s Dario in front, along with dancers Christine Freeman on the right and Rosanne Ma in the back left.
I’ve photographed two dance concerts at Ohio University in the past week. I hope to get those photos edited in the next couple days and start posting some of them. But I also have a guest bedroom that I’m trying to get painted before family arrives for my daughter’s wedding the first weekend in June…and time seems to be slipping away.
But, more dance photos and some new figure work will be coming here soon. Stay tuned.
World turned upside down
May 17th, 2008
Here’s another photo of Dario and Heidi from “Segiuti.”
And, I have to take some of it back. Some of what I said about the new TTL exposure flashes, specifically, my new Nikon SB-600. I shot the wedding this afternoon. I shot the pre-ceremony and post-ceremony group shots with one of my old Vivitar 283s using this setup which allows me to rotate the camera from horizontal to vertical while keeping the flash at the top. The flash is connected to the camera with an SC-17 hot shoe cable. The camera was set on manual and I could control the shutter speed to provide a proper exposure for the stained glass windows in the background while the flash gave perfect exposures to the bridal party in the foreground. Here’s a sample. I didn’t even need to adjust levels in photoshop for this…it’s right out of the camera except for some minor cropping:
Then I went to the reception and switched to the SB-600 directly on the camera’s hot shoe. I used a Sto-Fen diffuser on the flash for all the photos at the reception, sometimes direct and sometimes tilted up for bounce. The value of the TTL flash setup in that situation, which involved moving from a dark indoor hall to a sunlit outdoor deck to an enclosed tent, was immediately obvious. I could just leave the whole setup on Program TTL flash and the exposures were pretty accurate. I did have to use exposure compensation ranging from -.3 to -1 in order to keep the white wedding gown and men’s white shirts from blowing out, but that was easy to do. This would have been a much bigger problem with the 283 and would have required a lot of adjustment as I moved from one situation to another…with some test shots to establish a correct exposure for each scene…it would have taken a lot of time and thought…not things that go well with doing a good job of taking photos of a wedding reception. So I’m pretty happy with the capabilities of that new SB-600 and TTL exposure.
Outside:
In the tent:
Please remember that I’m not a wedding photographer. I only do this for friends. My style of shooting is probably pretty much stuck in the 1980s which was about when I stopped shooting things like this for money.
