Vermont Sunset
January 1st, 2007
It’s a new year. I hope it is a good one for all of us.
I’m visiting family in Vermont. This is the view at sunset (shot a couple years ago on another visit) from where I’m staying. Of course, being a sunset, it is looking west from Vermont. Those are the Adirondack Mountains. Lake Champlain is hidden, but between Vermont and the mountains. Sometimes from here you can catch a glint of sunlight off the lake if you look carefully.
Tomorrow I’ll take a break from family and do a shoot with a beautiful Vermont model. If all goes well you should soon be seeing some photos from that shoot.
Am I the only one who sees a similarity between this photo and the last one I posted?
More Old Stuff
December 31st, 2006
I could say this one is for my good friend Dave Rudin who asked for more old film photos, but I had actually planned to post it today before he commented on yesterday’s photo. It’s from around the same time as the last photo. Again, the copyright notice refers to when I first posted it on the internet.
Sometimes when I used to show this photo I wouldn’t mention that it was a nude and often the viewer thought it was a landscape with a sunrise. Of course, I’ve always felt there is a connection between the figure and the landscape.
Happy New Year!
Classic
December 30th, 2006
I’ve been spending some time looking through some of my older work. This one is from many years ago when I started doing figure work again after a break of some years. It’s a simple photo, single light source in my studio. At this time I was just simply exploring light and the figure to find pleasing shapes and forms. Some might call this classic figure photography. I think it’s a necessary step for any photographer who is interested in figure work. My work has moved in another direction over the past 10 years or so, but there’s nothing wrong with some of these older photos. Looking at them has me thinking about doing some new work along these lines and seeing how my view of the figure in this style has changed over those years. And it will give me something to work on while I wait for the weather to warm up so I can shoot more photos of naked women on rocks, because as we all know, the world just doesn’t have enough photos of naked women on rocks.
Once again this photo is so old it was shot on film. 35mm color negative, Kodak Royal Gold…or whatever it was called back then…Ektasomething, I think. And it was shot long before the copyright date on it…that was when I first scanned it and placed it on a web site.
Yin Yang
December 29th, 2006
Here’s a real old one. Some of you may be able to identify the model by her tattoo. It’s Nancy Freshour from quite a few years ago. In fact, this is so old it was shot on film. Imagine that! I lit it with a single strobe fired through a cookie that I had made to create this effect. I was working on abstracting the figure.
Maybe this is a good time for me to talk about tattoos on models. I know some photographers really have issues with tattoos. Some won’t photograph models with tattoos. Myself, I just don’t care. I really don’t think it’s any of my business. And part of the joy of doing this kind of work, at least for me, is finding what each model brings to the shoot and using all those unique things about this particular person to make a photo. If the model has tattoos I may work them into a composition, as I did in this case. Or I may do a photo where the tattoos are not obvious, if that seems to be what works. Or I may just shoot and not worry about the tattoos. I have been known to remove a tattoo if I felt it detracted from the final composition, but that is rare. I respect the decision a model has made to put ink on her body…the tattoo has become a part of her body and in most cases should be there in the photo. It’s part of who she is and what she looks like.
The most common argument against tattoos in “fine art figure” photography (what the hell is “fine art” anyway? How about some coarse art? How is fine art different from art?) is that the photos aren’t timeless because of the tattoos. Well, why should our photos be timeless? One of the most valuable things that photography does is record our times. I don’t mind if my photographs are considered to be anchored in our current times (though I suspect some would say my photos are anchored in the last century, or even the century before that…but that’s another discussion). At any rate, the “timelessness” issue isn’t one that I’m concerned about. My photographs represent my personal reaction to my life and times. I’m an old fart from the 60s, so that’s in there. Of course, I work with younger women in many cases (though many of my favorite models are closer to my age than to their teen years) and I try to make our shoots collaborative, so their ideas are also part of the final image. Timeless? I’m reminded of the question, “Do you know the difference between ignorance and apathy?” The answer, of course, is, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
I’m traveling and I’m on a dial-up connection…a slow dial-up connection, it takes forever just to load this blog…but I’ll try to keep posting over the next few days.
More Triangles
December 28th, 2006
How many triangles can you find in this photo? This was shot in my studio a while back. The model is Gia. I worked with her several times, but it’s been a while. I have several photos of Gia that I am very happy with, but this may be the best of them. Just taking advantage of the sun through the windows in the studio.
This works for me as a cubist composition. I particularly like the light on her face. The triangles don’t hurt, either.
I’ll be traveling over the next week or so. I’ll post when I’m able, but it may be sporadic because I don’t know when I’ll have web access. I’ll be doing one shoot while I’m on the road, so I should have some new photos to post soon.
Shelly under a bridge
December 27th, 2006
This photo of Shelly was taken about a year and a half ago during my first shoot with her. She is in the Tar River under a bridge. I’ve often found good light and settings under bridges. I think this one worked very well. A beautiful model doesn’t hurt either. I like the light, the reflection of Shelly and the overall color palette.
It pays to go back and look through old shoots from time to time. I had pulled this shot out and put it in my “selects” folder when I did my first edit, but never did anything with it. A look back through brought it to my attention and now it has the place it has always deserved in my body of work.
Triangular Kris
December 26th, 2006
Triangles are fun to play with in compositions. Especially when the light offers them to you. The female figure, of course, is full of triangular possibilities.
Here I was photographing Kris in an empty building owned by a photographer friend in New Albany, Indiana, across the river from Louisville. The light was doing interesting things later in the day and Kris did a great job of posing to take advantage of it.
I’ve been trying to contact Kris about setting up another shoot sometime in the next month or two. Hope I succeed. I’m sure there are a lot more great photos to be made with her.
In the middle
December 24th, 2006
Here’s a studio shot in between the extremes of the last two posts. This photo was actually done on assignment for a magazine, one of the very few times there has been a commercial application for my figure photography. It was used to illustrate a story on back pain in a national women’s magazine.
The model does not normally do nude work, but was willing to pose this time because of the magazine tear sheets it provided for her. I’ve photographed her many times, but this is the only figure shoot we’ve done. That’s a bit of a shame because she has a wonderful, powerful body, as you can see, with great potential for fantastic figure work. But, I never try to talk any model into posing nude. That’s a very personal decision and I’d never want a model to do a shoot and then feel bad about it afterwards. Afterall, it’s only photography.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
High Key
December 23rd, 2006
This is a studio shot of Nemesis from a while back. Several tattoos back, in fact. Couldn’t do this shot with her now without a lot of photoshopping. Here it’s just high key lighting and exposure with a bit of adjusting in photoshop as you would do in the darkroom when printing a negative. I like the little touch of color in the lips and nipples. That’s what I think makes this one stand out a bit from the many millions of similar shots done over the centuries.
Thanks Nemesis…
You can buy a 2007 calendar of Nemesis photos here: http://www.lulu.com/Wayward
Low Key
December 22nd, 2006
Like most everyone I’m very busy with holiday things this time of year. It will be that way for the next couple weeks, but I’ll try to post as much as I can.
I’ve decided to post some of my older studio work, for a change of pace. This is a low key shot of a beautiful black model, Miana, who I worked with a few times some years back. Haven’t heard anything from or about Miana for years now.
Consider this my tribute to yesterday’s winter solstice, the darkest day of the year.
