Another Day in the Poconos
July 7th, 2014
I worked with Brooke Lynne and Blueriverdream for a second day when we went to the Poconos. On this day we started off with a hike to a remote abandoned mill with some wonderful features. And some interesting tree roots. Blue did a great job working with this root.
A little bit of moss and make a building into a fun background for a beautiful model.
I was really astonished by all the colors the light was making at this waterfall beside the old mill. A wonderful rainbow in the waterfall and a beautiful glow off the pool above it. Blue adds her own beauty to the scene.
Later in the day we went to another location, an abandoned farm house and barns. The light was doing some interesting things. I’m very pleased with this photo of Brooke and the shadow of some leaves on a concrete wall. This may be my favorite photo from these two days of shooting.
Happy Independence Day
July 4th, 2014
Another recent photo to mark the July 4 holiday. This was my most recent photo accepted by Photo Vogue Italy. I call it, “Keep Out.” Taken on my block.
Be safe, friends.
Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
July 2nd, 2014
It’s almost Independence Day. It’s been a while since I last posted this old photo. I took it in the aftermath of 9/11 when I was seeing a lot of really bad flag photos. I wanted to make something that reflected the mood of the country at that time. I think I succeeded.
With all the violence and suffering that is going on in the world today I found myself thinking back to that awful day and also thinking about this old song, written by Ed McCurdy back in 1950. If only it could come true. Think of all the good that could be done, all the hungry who could be fed, all the disease that could be eliminated, if we could turn the incredible expense and energy of war toward something positive. War is the main thing holding back humanity from achieving its potential.
But this song was written the year before I was born. Sadly, I see no hope that I’ll live to see it fulfilled.
Last night I had the strangest dream,
I’d never dreamed before.
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.
I dreamed I saw a mighty room,
The room was full of men.
And the paper they were signing said
They’d never fight again.
And when the paper was all signed,
And a million copies made,
They all joined hands and bowed their heads,
And grateful prayers were prayed.
And the people in the streets below
Were dancing ’round and ’round,
While swords and guns and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground.
Last night I had the strangest dream,
I’d never dreamed before.
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.
Blue In The Poconos
June 27th, 2014
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the tremendous good fortune to work with two of the best figure models in the country, if not the world, when we were in the Poconos. I’ve known and worked with both of these lovely ladies for many years. In today’s post I’ll show you a few of the photos I did with Blueriverdream.
I haven’t worked with Blue as much as I have with Brooke, but I really should change that. Blue is just so beautiful and talented and really understands what I’m doing with my work. She’s just a perfect model for me. If only she lived closer.
If you are anywhere near the Washington, DC area and work with figure models, you really should get in touch with Blue and work with her. You won’t find a better model.
Brooke In The Poconos
June 22nd, 2014
I guess it’s about time I get back to trying to catch up on posting my old shoots. So here are some more from the Poconos. This time it’s photos of the amazing, beautiful Brooke Lynne.
This waterfall was beautiful too…but it was a bit of a challenge to find good spots for the models and also a camera position that would work for those spots. Coupled with contrasty light, that meant very careful work was required. But I think we found some things that worked fairly well. Very well, actually.
And after working at the waterfall for a while we went on to some other spots where I could actually take advantage of the contrasty light to make something different. As always, Brooke was wonderful to work with and really worked at coming up with beautiful poses that made everything pull together.
A good week for shows
June 19th, 2014
There’s a lot going on lately with my photos being seen. I just got word today that the photo above was selected for an upcoming show at Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, VT. The show’s theme is XY; Masculinity in Photography. My photo was also selected for an honorable mention. I took this photo sometime around 1980 at a strip club on the west side of Columbus. The dancer was a friend who asked me to take some photos of him performing. It was ladies’ night at the club. There were undercover police women in the audience. After the show all the dancers were arrested because they had “allowed” the women in the audience to touch them.
A print of this photo is in the permanent collection of the Kinsey Institute.
And, with this upcoming show I seem to have become a “Darkroom Master” at the Darkroom Gallery. This is a distinction they give to photographers who have been in a bunch of shows at the gallery.
And, of course, Saturday at 6 is the opening of the show, Stray Light, A Summer Art Experience. I have a few prints hanging in the hallway outside the gallery, which is on the third floor of the building where I have my Dayton studio on the second floor at the Front Street Buildings, 1001 East Second Street, Dayton.
I plan to be there at the beginning of the opening if you’d like to stop by and say hello.
Little Show Saturday
June 16th, 2014
Just a quick post to let you know that I have some prints in a show in Dayton that opens Saturday. I got the prints hung today and made the above crappy quick and dirty pano of them on the wall. They are actually hanging straight, it’s just the bad pano that makes them look crooked.
The opening is Saturday night starting at 6. I plan to be there at the beginning, but will be heading out to get dinner with my wife after an hour or so. So, if you’d like to meet me at the opening, come early and say hey.
There is more info about the show, STRAY LIGHT: A Summer Art Experience, here.
More Camera Geek Stuff
June 15th, 2014
Before I get back to posting more photos from my shoot last June in the Poconos, I’m going to detour again with some more stuff about shooting with my Panasonic G5.
Went to a concert in the park tonight. The Springfield Summer Arts Festival lasts a month, from mid-June to mid-July and has a free performance pretty much every night for more than a month. It’s a nice thing to have within walking distance of our house. The band last night was a Springsteen tribute band. They turned in a pretty lackluster performance, but it was a beautiful night and the price is right.
But, this show did give me a chance to play with my Panasonic G5 and the 45-200 (90-400 in full-frame terms) lens that my wonderful wife got me for Christmas. The lens performed pretty well. It’s f/5.6 at the long end, so the auto ISO was picking 1600 most of the time. The auto focus worked only OK at keeping up with the singers. It hit often enough, but not as often as I’d like. I left everything at the program, auto settings…dialing in some exposure compensation later in the evening when the stage lights took over from the setting sun. I shot jpegs and have posted them here unedited, other than a reduction in size. You can see that the color balance shifts around due to the changing colored stage lights. My Nikon D7000 does a better job of finding a good color balance under conditions like this.
I wasn’t real impressed with the performance of the camera and lens in this application, but it wasn’t awful. And the jpegs are nice and clean, even at 1600 ISO. Not the equipment I’d chose if I were getting paid to shoot a concert…but then again, if that were the case I wouldn’t have just stayed in my seat the whole time either.
Bottom line on the camera/lens: I could have done better with my D7000 and my 80-200 Nikkor. But the Panasonic was adequate. I think I got a few OK shots.
I also shot video of one song they performed, “Youngstown.” If you are interested in what the camera does with video you can check it out on my facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=468177136618322&set=vb.100002781188493&type=2&theater It’s not great video…hand held and there are some problems with the camera keeping focus when the lens is zoomed. You’ll see what I mean if you check it out.
Back to the Poconos
June 12th, 2014
Getting back to catching up on my old shoots, we return you to days of yesteryear…about a year ago, in fact.
I love working with models who are also photographers. They always have a much better idea of what I’m trying to do as a photographer if they struggle with the same questions and issues when doing their own photography.
Both Brooke Lynne and Blueriverdream are excellent photographers as well as wonderful models. When I’m working with models who also do photography I always encourage them to shoot as well as model if they want to.
As you can see, both Brooke and Blue took me up on that offer during this shoot and I think they each enjoyed working with the other and made some fine photos of their own. And, it also makes for some interesting behind-the-scenes shots for me.
Morning in the Smokey Mountains
June 7th, 2014
I’m going to interrupt the Poconos posts because I have some new photos that I just took and really want to share. I just returned from a week in the Smokey Mountains, one of my very favorite places on the planet. The Smokies are my favorite mountains in the world. I love wandering around in them and enjoying the amazing beauty that is there.
This was a family trip, but I did sneak away one morning to do a shoot with a new (to me) model from Asheville, Lilith Noir. It’s always a crap shoot when I look for new models on Model Mayhem. This time I found two who said they wanted to shoot with me on the trip, but, as often happens, one of them went missing a few days before we were supposed to shoot. But, like at a crap shoot, sometimes you win big. That’s the case with Lilith. She’s a wonderful model and a great person. We had fun and made some photos that I’m very happy with.
As you can see, we went to a waterfall. This particular waterfall is a little-known one near the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’m not going to publish the name because I’d kind of like it to stay little known. So many of the good places in the Smokeys are so overrun with people these days that it’s starting to interfere with enjoying the place, let alone doing figure photography.
There’s another reason that shooting in the Smokeys is so special for me. Some of my favorite photos, including my most popular photo, were taken down there, many with a wonderful model, Lani, who also lived in Asheville at the time we were working together. Lani moved on from modeling to other things long ago. It very nice to have found another great model in Asheville. I hope to be doing more with with Lilith in years to come.
