Another Calendar Sale
December 27th, 2014
Calendars are on sale again at my publisher. You can buy them at a 25% discount if you do it before the end of the year. You can see my 2015 calendars in my on line store here. Or just click on the calendar above, or one of them over there in the right column. To get the discount use code: TREAT. Offer ends December 30th at 11:59 PM.
Merry Christmas
December 24th, 2014
Hoping the holiday season is a good one for all of you. May you and the world find peace.
Reveille’s Living Room
December 22nd, 2014
I didn’t only shoot with the crappy Polaroid camera when I visited Reveille at her home. I brought along the “real” camera and did some fun stuff in with her in the house.
As you can see, Reveille’s home is not decorated in an exactly conventional way. She’s an interesting person who lives in an interesting environment. It was fun to take a few snap shots to capture her in her own place.
And it was the kind of place that just demanded that I pull the fisheye out of the camera bag and use it to capture the whole scene at once. Including, of course, the cat.
These are all “available light” photos. I use the old photojournalist definition of available light: Any light that is available to light the subject.
Instant Reveille
December 18th, 2014
In my continuing work with Fuji’s now discontinued instant 3000 speed film, I did a shoot with a wonderful, beautiful model, Reveille at her Dayton home. I was trying to use one of the cheap Polaroid cameras I had bought on ebay. Since then I’ve given up on those crappy cameras and gone back to shooting this film with my Speed Graphic.
As you can see from these photos, even though the quality of the camera is pretty poor, it’s still possible to get some interesting photos with a very talented model.
Even the blurry shots can be interesting sometimes.
Finding the right exposure with those cheap Polaroid cameras is totally a hit or miss process. And there’s no screen on the back of the camera to preview the results. Every miss uses another piece of this precious film. But sometimes the misses work anyway. Some are underexposed, some overexposed, but still the results can be interesting.
I also took photos of this lovely young lady with a “real” camera. I’ll share some of those in my next post.
In an unrelated subject, I just added a link to my Ello page over there on the right, under “Dave On The Web.” Go check out what I’m posting over there. You might find something you enjoy. And check out Ello while you are at it. It’s a fun new place. I’m using it as my photo social media site. It’s in beta. It’s buggy and the interface takes some getting used to, but there are no ads, they don’t sell your info, and nudes are ok. I like it over there. https://ello.co/davel51
Another Calendar Sale
December 18th, 2014
Yep, my publisher is having another calendar sale. Order by 11:59 December 21 and you can get 30% off. Just use the code NEWYEAR. Order from my online store here. Or just click on the calendar above, or any of them over there in the right column.
Cold
December 12th, 2014
I sometimes ask models to do completely unreasonable things. I try to always make sure they know that they can say no. But sometimes, more often than any reasonable person might expect, they say yes to something no reasonable person would do. That’s what happened last December when I asked Pippy Couture to pose for me at a beautiful spot in the mountains of Vermont. From what she has told me, she thinks it was worth the suffering.
Looking at Old Stuff
December 7th, 2014
In case you are interested, I’m on Ello and I’ve been posting a lot of my old stuff on there. It will be my social media site for my photo work. Recently I’ve been posting my “docunude” series that I shot about 10 years ago. It’s environmental nude portraits of most of the models I worked with back then, like JoJo in the photo above. Come on over and check it out. I think you’ll be able to see my posts without joining Ello, but if you can’t, please let me know. I don’t know how to tell myself. And if you’d like to join Ello, a place that is sort of a cross between Facebook and Tumblr, but where there are no ads, they don’t sell your information, and it’s ok to post nudes…well, it’s invitation only, but I can invite you if you ask nicely. Here’s my page there: https://ello.co/davel51
Ello is in beta. It’s buggy and the interface takes some getting used to, but once you get the feel of it, it’s pretty easy to navigate. And it seems to be turning into a pretty nice community. I like it there. Check it out.
December 4th, 2014
A few more photos of Athena, this time taken with a “real” camera, my D7000 and my 50mm f/1.4 lens. I like that lens for portraits. These were shot stopped down one stop to f/2. It’s nice and sharp there, with a shallow depth of focus. The originals of these, of course, are in color, but when I was doing the edit it just seemed like black and white suited them, so I did the conversion. These were just quick and dirty conversions done in ACDSee.
These were taken at about the time Athena became pregnant with her twins. She has four kids now, so modeling is not her top priority. But I suspect she’ll get back to it one day. At least I hope she will.
Calendars On Sale
November 30th, 2014
In case you were thinking about buying one of my 2015 calendars…
Hurry. You can get 35% off your calendar order if you place it before 11:59 on December 3. Just use the code: WQT32
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/wayward
Instant Athena
November 26th, 2014
I’ve long enjoyed the 3000 speed instant film…both the Polaroid stuff and the Fuji copy. I was working on a project using that film when Fuji announced it was discontinuing it. That was a sad day. I have a stash of it and I’m continuing to work with it until it is gone forever. The film has a unique look that is quite lovely with beautiful tonality. It will be missed.
For many years I’ve used my Speed Graphic with a pack film back to work with this film. Shooting with that camera is a real pain in the ass, at least for me. I’m not well suited to the view camera way. So, I got to thinking, why don’t I pick up a cheap old Polaroid camera on ebay and just work with it.
Well, I ended up getting a half dozen of them and found a source for the unique batteries they use…I cobbled parts from some of them and got a few to actually work. And I found that they are real pieces of crap. Polaroid made a few good cameras, but those are hard to find and expensive. The run-of-the-mill standard Polaroid cameras that are out there in the thousands are junk. I tried to make them work and eventually gave up and went back to the Speed Graphic.
All this was back before Fuji announced they were no longer going to make this film.
But, as you can see here, I did take some crappy photos with the crappy Polaroid cameras. And some of them are not all that awful, in a crappy camera sort of way. I like these shots of lovely Athena from about a year ago…before she became pregnant with her new twins. With four kids now, Athena isn’t doing much in the way of modeling…but she’s still a great friend and a lovely person. I may coax her in front of my lens again one day. Maybe I’ll use a real camera next time.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
