On the stairs
October 26th, 2006
Here’s another of Mindy at my friend’s house. This is on the basement stairs with all the light coming from up above. It was pretty dark and the space was very tight, but I loved the light and the background. My 12-24 lens took care of the tight space…this was shot at 14mm. And I put the ISO up to 1600. My D200 does very well at that high ISO. I think the “noise” or grain is much less of an issue than I was used to with Tri-X pushed to 1600. Mindy did her usual great job of posing and the photo came together.
Mindy in the window
October 25th, 2006
This was taken in the attic of an old house in my home town. There’s a story that goes with it. An old friend of mine and her husband have been buying old houses and fixing them up. She drove me around one day to show me what they were doing. When she pulled up in front of this house I couldn’t believe it. I’d tried to buy the house many years ago when I was buying my first house. I couldn’t come to terms with the owner and ended up with a different old house…but I always remembered how beautiful this house was and how many opportunities for great photos it had to offer, especially in the attic. Of course my friend told me I was welcome to bring a model over and take any photos I wanted. So, on a very, very hot summer day, Mindy and I went to the house and shot. The attic was like a furnace. Because the house was in the middle of renovations there was no electricity or water, let alone air conditioning. But we shot all day and it was a very productive day. I’ll post more from this shoot later, but for now enjoy the attic window and Mindy.
Mud Portrait
October 24th, 2006
Another of Shelly in the mud hole. I’ve found that often when a model is covered with something like mud or body paint their features and personality tend to get hidden. But not Shelly. I like this photo because I see her beauty, strength and power coming right through all that mud. And the light was working pretty well too. Makes me think of Eve being created from clay…
Mud Bath
October 23rd, 2006
It was Shelly’s idea. Honest. I’ve been known to make somewhat unreasonable requests of models in order to get a photo. But I always make it clear that they are allowed to say no. And I try to never put them into any real danger. Well, Shelly wasn’t in danger, but she sure did get seriously covered with mud for this shot…and she was the one who suggested it. I always consider my models to be co-creators of the photos we create together and I welcome their ideas during the shoot. I feel the collaboration of two creative minds is bound to produce something more than either could come up with alone. In this case, Shelly was in the process of digging a hole in her yard to install a kiln. And she just couldn’t resist the idea of getting down in the hole and covering herself with the mud down there. So, she did, and this is the result. And I like it. Great idea, Shelly. Thanks.
2007 Calendars
October 23rd, 2006
I’ve published some calendars for the coming year with an assortment of my photos from the past few years. And I’ve included one calendar that is all photos from this summer’s trip to Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. The Lake Cumberland photos have not been published or even exhibited on the web before this calendar. If you’d like to have some of my photos, the calendars are a cheap, easy and useful way to get them. You can order them directly from the publisher here: http://www.lulu.com/Wayward
Urban Landscape
October 21st, 2006
I was in NYC in May to do a shoot with Theda and Kat in a rented studio. But the fire escape outside the studio was calling to us, so out there we went. I’ve been trying to talk Theda into doing one of my nature shoots out in the woods somewhere, but this may be as close as she ever comes to that. She’s a city girl. I’ll keep after her, though…she would look great out on some rocks or in a stream. This was shot with my 12-24mm lens at 12mm.
Theda’s Model Mayhem portfolio is here: http://www.modelmayhem.com/member.php?id=1518
Mandy Slides Away
October 19th, 2006
I’m not a big fan of anonymous on-line critiques of images. I’ve rarely posted photos on the many different places where people rip each others’ work apart. I don’t see the point of that kind of critique. I always look to see who is making the comment and check out their own work before I pay any attention to a comment. This photo is a good example. I posted it on Deviant Art and got a comment complaining that the poster didn’t like it because it looked like Mandy was about to slide off the rock…Well, dude, that sort of was the point of the photo…oh well.
I’m also not big on writing a lot of words to try to explain what a photo is about. I like that popular quote from Robert Frost when someone asked him to explain a poem, “You want me to say it worse?” If I could communicate what I want to say with words I would. I’m better at using a camera. And I like that you can each find what you find in a photo and it doesn’t really matter what I meant. I guess that comment came from someone with issues of stability or something. But, for me, writing about photography is like dancing about architecture. And, yes, I know, it’s possible to dance about architecture. Many years ago I had the privilege to see John Cage and Merce Cunningham perform together. It was an unforgettable experience that is with me today very strongly and still influences what I do with my art. And I’m sure Merce could have done a fantastic job dancing about architecture. And it is quite possible to write about photography. Possible, but very difficult. Very few who try succeed in doing it well.
Mandy is a fine model with an incredible, sculpted body…to me the perfect form to place on that rock in what appears to be a precarious position. And maybe it has something to say about the position of human beings relative to rocks in the scheme of time…or it can say whatever you find it saying…that’s fine with me…
I’m a Guest Photographer
October 18th, 2006
I’m the guest photographer over at D. Brian Nelson’s Hotel Room Nudes blog. It’s a shot of Theda taken in a unique hotel room last May. Go check it out: http://hotelroomnudes.blogspot.com/
In the Heat of the Day
October 18th, 2006
Here’s Lani in a mountain stream in North Carolina. This was another of those very hot summer days. 110 degrees. Not what you expect up in the mountains. We hiked to some waterfalls and it was all downhill to reach them. I kept thinking, “This is going to be ugly on the way out.” I was right. We shot for quite a while and Lani got to cool off in the water. But the uphill hike out came pretty close to giving me heat stroke. I think I was suffering from heat exhaustion by the time we got out. I drank at least a quart of water, but I was sweating it out faster than I could take it in. My clothes were totally soaked with sweat. (That’s the sexy, glamorous vision of doing nude photos that you had in mind, isn’t it?) I was getting light headed and had to stop every few feet to rest. Lani ended up helping carry the camera gear. When we got to the truck I was disoriented. We stopped at a gas station right away and bought a bunch of gatoraide and drank it down.
But the photos were worth it all.
Lani is a great model and a wonderful person. I don’t know if she is still modeling now or not. I haven’t heard from her for a while. She may have started medical school and not have time for modeling or e-mail these days. She’s a very intelligent, accomplished woman who helped me make some of my favorite photographs, including the cover photo on my book, The Figure In Nature.
About cropping photos. I started out in newspaper photography. Everything got cropped to fit. Not always the way I would have wanted them cropped. But I don’t really understand the idea that photos should be displayed “full frame.” Every composition doesn’t fit in the standard rectangle of the camera frame. I don’t think there’s anything wrong at all with cropping an image to make the composition stronger. That’s part of the job of the artist with a camera. This photo was cropped from the top and the bottom. I couldn’t do that in the camera. With the heat exhaustion and the sweat pouring down in my eyes while I was working I probably wouldn’t have cropped it in the camera even if I could have…but back home in my chair in front of the computer it is obvious that this is the right way for this photo to be displayed, so that’s how you see it.
It’s in the timing
October 17th, 2006
There is a very small window of time when photos like the moon shots below can be taken. At each full moon there is a time when the moon is rising and the sun is setting and the light is right. Of course the weather has to cooperate as well. But the key is that the moon is in full sunlight. The exposure for the moon is the same as for any subject on Earth in full sun. So there has to be some sun lighting the subject on Earth or the dynamic range of the scene will be beyond the ability of the camera to capture both the light and dark ends of the exposure. You get about 15-30 minutes. Working fast is essential. After that, if you expose for the subject on Earth the moon will become just a white disk. Not nearly as interesting.
Nemesis and I waited a year for the conditions to be right for those photos. During that wait some suggested that it would be better to just photoshop a moon into a photo and not bother with the technical challenges of shooting it all together. I think you can see in the photos below that the effect of the moon light on the photos is a critical part of what makes the photos work. You can’t get that with a photoshopped moon. Well, maybe a master at photoshop could manage, but it’s one heck of a lot of work. I use digital tools to capture my photos, but they are pretty much “straight” photos…what I saw through the lens is what you see, adjusted in terms of tone, but not content. I have no problem with artists who create images in photoshop…that’s just not what I do, at least right now.
Today’s photo is a shot that also had a very short window of opportunity. The sun lit up those ferns for only a few minutes. I got the model, Charlie Rayne, into the right position and fired off a few frames. It’s been a very successful photo for me. It was published earlier this year in French PHOTO magazine. And, I like it.
