Meeting Michael Johnston
September 2nd, 2016
We’ve just returned from a week-long trip driving through upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. We visited our niece and her family in the Buffalo area, attended the wedding of our grand nephew (boy, just typing that makes me feel old) in Cornwall, Vermont. I dropped in at the Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont where I dropped off a couple prints for their next show, The Environmental Portrait. Then we did some sight seeing and hiking in the north woods of New Hampshire which included a trip (in the Honda Pilot) up Mt. Washington. And, on the drive back home we stopped for a night in the Finger Lakes region of New York so we could meet and visit Michael Johnston.
If you don’t know who Mike is, you should. He is the author of the blog, The Online Photographer. If you have any interest in photography you should be reading this blog. It is the best written photo blog on the internet. It has an excellent balance between posts about cameras, posts about taking photos, posts about looking at photos and posts about the meaning of life.
Now that I’ve met him and visited with him for a few hours I can say that in addition to being a fine writer, Mike is also a very nice guy. And a great conversationalist. It’s always nice when things work out that way. That’s not always the case (the time I met W. Eugene Smith, for example). We had a wide-ranging conversation about just about anything you might imagine, including, occasionally, photography. It was great fun.
Yes, that’s Mike in the photo above. He is standing in the doorway to the living room in the Bed and Breakfast where we spent the night in Penn Yan, New York. Mike recommended La Belle Vie to us as a place to stay and it was an outstanding recommendation. A beautiful house, with fine details in its construction (check out the woodwork in the arch above Mike). Our room was beautiful, comfortable and very nicely decorated. The breakfast was to die for. Highly recommended to anyone visiting the Finger Lakes for any reason.
We met Mike at his lovely home on Keuka Lake and went to dinner in nearby Hammondsport at the Timber Stone Grill. I can give a hearty recommendation to the Timberstone Grill. Food doesn’t get much better than the meals at that fine restaurant. Both dinner and conversation were outstanding. It was late when we made it back to the B&B and we just went right to bed. The next morning Mike joined us for breakfast at the B&B. The conversation was so fine with Mike and the B&B owners, Llewellyn and Laurel, that we didn’t get on the road home until after 1 in the afternoon. And did I mention that the breakfast was wonderful? A really fine way to end our trip. We made it home around 9 in the evening and are now starting to get back into our routine. I’ll be back to regular posting in a few days. Meanwhile, go read The Online Photographer.
I just want to say a belated hello to all the folks clicking over from The Online Photographer. I wasn’t quite prepared for the influx, but I’m glad you came.
I use this blog just to post whatever I’m working on at any given time. If you want to see a bit more organized set of my photos, please click over to the portfolio tab above. While much of my work does have nudity, I certainly don’t think any of it is in any way pornographic, but rather in the tradition of artistic nudes. But I also have dance photography and landscape/nature work on the site.
Thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to leave a comment if you want.
Winged Reveille
August 26th, 2016
As always seems to be the case, I’m wading my way through old shoots trying to catch up. I doubt if I’ll ever succeed, but I do seem to be gaining a bit of ground.
Today I’m posting photos from a shoot with the lovely model Reveille that we did back in December 2014. That’s right, I’m almost up to last year’s shoots.
As you can see, Reveille arrived at my studio with a new set of wings that she wanted photographed. So that was what we spent most of our time doing.
After we finished with the wings, I did this portrait of Reveille which I think came out pretty well.
But, for me at least, the real success for the day came when I brought out my new toy, a Lomo instant camera that uses the small-format Fuji instant film. I’m not a huge fan of this camera. It’s cheaply made and has controls that ignore the conventions of camera controls, so I have to figure them out every time I use the darn thing. But, when I can force the contrary contraption to do what I want it to do, it can sometimes produce good results. I think that’s the case with this photo.
Thanks Reveille.
The Environmental Portrait
August 19th, 2016
Two of my photographs have been selected by the juror for the next show, “The Environmental Portrait,” at The Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont. It’s always a pleasure to have my work in one of the great shows that this gallery does. You can view the entire show at the link above. Or, better yet, if you are anywhere near the gallery, go see the show in person. You won’t be disappointed. If you can go to the artists reception I promise you’ll have fun.
Wrapped up Ayn
August 17th, 2016
I have some stretchy tube material laying around at the studio. One day Ayn and I decided to play around with it and see what happened. Here’s what happened.
I just used the window light for these.
Thanks Ayn for yet another fine shoot.
More of Lindsay
August 6th, 2016
Lindsay is a bold, beautiful young lady and she wasn’t afraid to do some of her aerial tricks without clothes. So I can now share more of Lindsay performing some of her aerial routine in the nude. She is a great performer.
I’ll be moving out of this studio by the end of this month. So it looks like there won’t be any future shoots with dance or aerial routines. I’m very pleased that I was able to do this work with Lindsay while I had the studio.
Aerial Lindsay
July 25th, 2016
Lindsay is a friend who I met when she was studying dance at my alma mater, Ohio University. After she graduated she moved near my studio and came in a few times to do studio dance photos. She also does aerial performances, so one time she brought her aerial gear to the studio and we set it up and did some shooting.
She is a wonderful performer, not to mention a very nice young woman. I’ll post some more of her in the next post here so you can see more of her.
More of Ayn at Hocking Hills
July 19th, 2016
This will be the last post from this great shoot at Hocking Hills. Ayn is the star of all these last photos. She did a fantastic job.
And here’s one last shot of Dave Swanson working with Ayn.
More Hocking Hills
July 15th, 2016
Life’s being pretty busy for me right now, so I haven’t had time for posting. Still busy, but here are a few more of Ayn and Nathalia at Hocking Hills. More to come.
Moving On To Hocking Hills
July 6th, 2016
After our shoot at Blackhand Gorge Ayn, Nathalia, Dave Swanson and I traveled down to the Hocking Hills for some more shooting.
Still More From Blackhand Gorge
June 29th, 2016
Yep, there are still more photos of Nathalia and Ayn from our day at Blackhand Gorge. These two ladies were doing a fantastic job and the photos just kept coming.
These rocks just seemed to cry out for some interesting poses. Ayn obliged.
