A New Life
September 8th, 2012
Back in June…yes, I’m still that far behind with my editing…Angie brought her new baby boy in to the studio for a few mother/son photos. Angie is a lovely woman and one of my favorite models. And it’s always fun to do these kind of photos.
We had a good time doing these photos and I don’t think we annoyed the baby too awful much while we were doing them.
As usual, I have way too much going on and not enough time to keep up with everything. But I’ll try to get some more new posts up here in the near future. And don’t forget the Dirty Show coming up on a couple weeks in the Detroit area. I plan to be there on Saturday night, so if you are there too see if you can find me and say hello.
And tonight is the opening of the show SPLASH at 1650 Gallery in Los Angeles. I have a print in that show, so, if you are in LA and have time, go check out that show tonight and let me know what you think.
L’Allure des Mots
September 3rd, 2012
My good friends Sam Beasley and Katherine Villari publish a wonderful magazine, L’Allure des Mots. Up until now it has been an on-line publication. But they would like to make it a printed product. It is so beautiful on line that I, for one, would love to see a printed version.
To make it possible to publish their first printed edition, they are doing a fund raising campaign. You can learn more about the campaign here. There are some fantastic perks available to those who donate. Go check it out and send them some money to get this lovely publication into printed form.
Upcoming Shows
August 31st, 2012
I’ve received word in the past few days that some of my work will be included in two upcoming shows.
The Dirty Show 13.5 is happening in Pontiac, Michigan September 21-23. This is a different time of year from the usual Dirty Shows that happen in February. They are doing an extra show in the fall this year. It’s also in a completely different location from past Dirty Shows, happening in Pontiac this time instead of Detroit. They chose two of my photos for this show:
I’m happy that they chose the Carhenge photo because I understand there is something of a history with the automobile in the Detroit area that might lead to interest in this photo. 😉 It’s also nice that the other photo is in the show because the two models who posed for it, Artistic Physique and Kelsey Dylan will be attending the show with me.
I also entered a juried show at the 1650 Gallery in Los Angeles. The theme of this show is water. They selected my all-time most popular photograph to include in the show:
The 1650 Gallery is located at 1650 Echo Park in Los Angeles. The show, “Splash: The Fluid World of Water,” opens next Saturday, September 8 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. You can view the show on line at this link. They don’t really allow us artists much time to get our work ready and shipped to them, but I should be able to get mine printed this weekend and in the mail on Tuesday. Doesn’t help that Monday’s a holiday. If you are in LA and able to go see this show I’d appreciate a review of the show and I’d like to hear your impressions of the gallery to help me decide if I’ll enter future shows there. I didn’t find out about the extremely tight window to deliver the work until after I was notified that my photo had been selected. I am particular about what shows I enter and things like too-tight deadlines that don’t really respect the work the artist has to do to get their work ready are factors I consider when I decide to enter a show or not.
But it looks like a good show. Check it out if you can.
Farewell New York
August 24th, 2012
This will be the final post from the shoot near New York City with Erica and Venus. It was a great day of shooting with two wonderful models. The weather was perfect…solid overcast with occasional light rain. Just what I look for when I’m trying to shoot nudes in nature.
And, don’t worry, this isn’t the last you’ll be seeing of these two lovely ladies here. They joined me in Maine for a couple days of shooting a few weeks ago…so those photos will be coming along in good time. Lots of editing to get done before they show up here, though. And meanwhile there are some other things I’ve shot that are due a turn on the blog.
Thanks Erica and Venus for a great day of shooting and a bunch of fine photos.
Erica’s All Wet
August 19th, 2012
When I talk to models about working with me I try to always promise them that they can plan on getting cold and wet and dirty. I put my models through a lot to get the photos I’m after. Most of the models I work with understand what I’m after and what is required on their part to get it. I’m often surprised at how enthusiastic they are to do what is needed. And that attitude is one of the many reasons that I’ve enjoyed working with Erica Jay.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Erica is drop-dead gorgeous. That always helps when I’m trying to create a vision of beauty in nature. She’s a natural beauty who just belongs in a beautiful outdoor scene. But you can see that for yourself here.
At least it wasn’t all that cold for this shoot, though it wasn’t exactly hot and it did rain lightly on us for much of the day. But Erica certainly did get wet and dirty for the sake of art.
I’m so fortunate to have been able to work with Erica on this shoot and again during my recent trip to Maine. Those photos will be coming along in a bit as I slowly catch up on my editing. Meanwhile you might want to also check out Erica’s Tumblr for lots more fun photos of her.
Birth of Venus
August 14th, 2012
I couldn’t help thinking of that painting when I started looking at these photos of Venus de Milo from our shoot just outside New York City. Of course, these photos are nothing like the famous painting. But the model is Venus and she is splashing around in water. That’s close enough for me. There was this beautiful pond filled with lilies where we were shooting. So, of course I asked Venus to get in the water. Being the wonderful kind of model that she is, she just waded in and did some beautiful work for me, as you can see.
It was fun to change the angle and direction of the camera as well as the location of Venus in the pond, resulting in all sorts of interesting changes in the color and tone of the water’s surface and the reflections. It’s those kinds of changes that I’m always watching and studying.
And sometimes interesting things present themselves during the editing process. This last photo is simply a rotated crop of the first photo in this post. No special effects. No fancy PhotoShop crap. I don’t know how to do the fancy PhotoShop crap and don’t plan to learn. This is the sort of thing that I might have found when fiddling around in the darkroom printing from negatives back in the bad old days. Now I try to pay attention when I’m working at the computer so I see things like this.
There’s lots more to come from this shoot. As I put this post together I had intended to include both Venus and Erica. But instead I decided to feature Venus this time and the next post will be all Erica. She did a wonderful job on this shoot too. I’m so blessed to have such great models to work with. Thanks Venus.
It’s Been a While
August 10th, 2012
Sorry I’ve been gone so long. I’ve been really, really gone. As in very limited internet, cell service, hell, not even any TV. I’ve been off in the wilds of Maine. It was a great trip with a bunch of friends, both photographers and models. I’ll tell you more about that trip in later posts.
But, for today here are a couple photos I did of Venus de Milo and Erica Jay back in June when I visited my old friend, Dave Rudin in New York City. For those who think there is no where near NYC to do this kind of work…well, you’re wrong. This is only a short drive north of the city. I’ve shot there before and find it easy to find good locations and getting away from other people to work in private is not a problem. We were fortunate this day with the weather. It drizzled on us a bit and was solidly overcast the whole time we were shooting. Perfect light as far as I’m concerned. Add a couple beautiful, talented models and it was a great day of shooting. More to come from this shoot in the next few posts.
And there will be lots more of Venus and Erica since they were two of the models who made the trip up to Maine. After working with them this time, I knew I needed to get them back in front of my camera again. You’ll be glad I did.
More Crimson in the Gorge
July 31st, 2012
No time to write tonight. And it may be a while before I’m able to post again. Lots going on that you’ll hear about here eventually.
Meanwhile, here are a few more photos of the fantastic Crimson Reign from our shoot in the gorge. Enjoy.
Crimson on the Rocks
July 28th, 2012
After we shot at the quarry Crimson and I hiked to some of the wonderfully colored rock cliffs that make up this gorge. This despite the cut on her foot that she got when she slipped on some of the rocks around the quarry. I cleaned up and bandaged the cut using my first aid kit and she was ready to go ahead and continue with the shoot. She’s a real trooper. I really appreciate dedicated models like Crimson.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that she is also beautiful and skilled at posing. A great model. And I love what her great skin tone is doing with these rock backgrounds. Wish she lived closer…if she did I’d be shooting her all the time.
A Different Tone for the Gorge
July 24th, 2012
A couple months ago my friend Cherrystone told me about a model who was going to be visiting our area who he thought I might like to work with. As soon as I saw Crimson Reign’s portfolio I knew she could be a great addition to the project I’m working on at a beautiful gorge near where I grew up.
We got in contact and agreed that we were both interested in seeing what kind of art we could make together. And Crimson is the kind of model I love to work with. She’s dedicated to getting the photo. She’s not put off by getting up before the sun rises so we can be at our location for the early morning light. And she isn’t afraid to get cold and wet and dirty…which is pretty much a given for any models who work with me. Add to that the fact that she’s a very nice person and fun to be around. Oh and, of course, she is quite beautiful. I’m so very happy we got to do this shoot together.
I had been looking at this “lake” for a while. It’s actually an old quarry. I have no idea how deep it is, but it’s very deep…and there is no shallow part. It drops right off to those unknown depths. So the first question I had for Crimson was if she could swim. I needed to know if immediate rescue was needed if she fell in, or if she’d be able to tread water and make it back up on shore. She is a swimmer or I would not have had her posing in some of these spots. Fortunately, she didn’t fall in, so that wasn’t an issue anyway.
This was a very successful shoot so there are lots more photos to come in the next few posts. Crimson’s beautiful skin tones add a whole new dimension to the tonal relationships in this project.
I spent most of yesterday editing and preparing the photos from this shoot. I did it all in PhotoShop CS6, starting with Camera Raw and then finishing the files up in CS6 itself. I have to say again that I’m very impressed with this software. I know I’ve not even begun to explore all it’s capabilities. I’ll have to take a few of tutorials to get familiar with some of the new features. But for now it is allowing me to process my raw files and get the results I want without having to deal with the awful Nikon software that I had been using.
