Nude Kentucky Wildlife
June 8th, 2011
I’ve spent the past couple days off in the wilds of Kentucky taking a few photos. It was hot. I had a few encounters of a kind I’ve not had before. It was hot. I went to a lovely waterfall. It was hot. I also shot at a friend’s home in a secluded place in the country. And, did I mention that it was hot?
I was around 9 years old when I started wandering out into the woods to spend the night. I love the woods. I love being outdoors. I’ve hiked around in 47 of the 50 states. I’ve hiked and boated and swum in the Amazon rain forest. I’ve hiked and done rock climbing in the Alps and in many spots in the U.S., including the desert southwest. In all those 50 years of being outdoors I’ve never seen a poisonous snake in the wild. Until yesterday.
Wandering down the trail on the way back to the truck from a waterfall, there he was, right on the trail. Rattle going full speed and his eyes right on me. He was definitely not interested in letting me go on down the trail. And I was definitely not interested in challenging him for the territory. So we did a bit of bushwhacking to give him a nice wide berth. I appreciate his inclination to warn us rather than just attacking. That’s a nice thing about rattlesnakes. That blurry thing sticking straight up on the right is his rattle, warning us to keep our distance.
On that same trail we also saw this creature above. I put my boot in the shot below to give you some sense of scale. That is one big bug! I have no idea what it is and I’ve never seen anything like it before. Maybe one of you readers can identify it? I was thinking centipede, but it seemed to only have six real legs, so that probably isn’t what it is.
But I can assure you that neither of these creatures had a single stitch of clothing on. So I’m counting them as nudes. Of course I shot some nudes that are a little more along the lines of what you are used to seeing here…those will be coming soon.
The Way Herb Sees It
June 4th, 2011
Usually any photos you see here on my blog are taken by me. But Herb Ascherman has generously given me permission to make an exception and post some of his photos here. Above is one of Herb’s photos of Brooke taken in Herb’s studio with his 8×10 view camera. Take a look at that pose. And then remember that Herb was using a 4 second exposure for these photos.
I also must point out that what you see here, a jpeg on a computer monitor, can in no way come close to representing what Herb’s platinum prints look like when you hold them in your hands. Those platinum prints are absolute objects of beauty in themselves. In another act of generosity, Herb also spent a few holders of that 8×10 film on yours truly. So I really do know how hard it is to hold completely still for a 4 second exposure. And Herb sent me a beautiful platinum print of the photo below.
I really like Herb’s portrait of me. I think he made me look something like Rodin. Not so sure I’m worthy of such a monumental presentation, but I can’t help enjoying seeing myself in Herb’s light. And Brooke makes a pretty nifty background too, don’t you think. Thanks Herb.
A Different Way To Photograph
June 3rd, 2011
When Brooke was here visiting I drove her up to Cleveland so she could work with a friend of mine, Herb Ascherman. Herb is a fine photographer with quite an international reputation. And he works in the classic manner, using black and white film in an 8×10 view camera and making his prints using the platinum/palladium process. I can tell you first hand that those platinum prints are wonderfully beautiful objects…a real joy to see.
Now, I’ve worked with an 8×10 view camera. But when I did it I had to use many more four-letter words…in fact, I don’t think I heard Herb curse or snarl at the camera even once. He worked the ground glass, shutter and those giant 8×10 film holders like it was second nature for him…which of course, it is, since he does this all the time. He did take many fewer photos than I usually do on a shoot…but then again those sheets of 8×10 film are a lot more expensive than the electrons I use to record photos.
The sky was overcast on the day we were in Cleveland, and Herb prefers to work with natural window light. But there wasn’t a lot of that light, so the exposures ended up being four seconds long. That’s a really long time if you are trying to hold completely still. But Brooke is an amazing model and did a great job.
Below you can get an idea of what things looked like from where Herb was standing. I took all these photos with my little Canon S90. Herb has shared his photos with me and I’ll share a few of them with you in my next post. Stand by for beauty…and maybe a little bit of beast.
I’m In a Great New Magazine
June 1st, 2011
I had different plans for my next post, but a very nice surprise turned up today. That’s it above. A new magazine L’Allure des Mots has just published their first issue. There’s an interview with me, accompanied by a bunch of my favorite photos, starting on page 62. But the whole magazine is beautiful, a real work of art, cover to cover, so you’ll want to look at it all.
Obviously I’m very pleased and proud to be a part of this wonderful new magazine. I’ll get to the post I was planning in a day or two.
Meanwhile enjoy.
The End of the Gorge
May 30th, 2011
Here are a couple more of Brooke in the gorge location. There are more from this shoot that I could post, but in my next post I plan to move on to something else that Brooke and I did while she was here. It is truly something completely different, so come back in a couple days for a total change of pace…literally.
Hope you in the U.S. are enjoying the Memorial Day holiday today and remembering what the day is about. ‘Nuf said.
More From The Gorge
May 25th, 2011
Here are a couple more photos of Brooke Lynne from our shoot near my childhood home. Brooke seems to be doing well over in the south of France where she is spending the summer modeling for painters. You can follow her adventures on her blog.
I’m starting to get a little caught up on stuff, though I still have a bunch of scanning to do at the studio. I’ll probably try to get to that tomorrow. And I’m working on setting up some more shoots with local models and a minor short trip or two to some good locations not that far from home. So there will be some new things to share here soon, I hope.
But I don’t know how I could top the work I did with Brooke at this spot. I’m going to see about it, though. I plan to go back there with a couple of my favorite local models sometime soon. Brooke and I ran out of time and only got to about a third of what is there. And the progress of Spring into Summer will have made significant changes to what is there by now. So it should provide a great source of new photos for some time to come.
Light At The End of The Tunnel
May 19th, 2011
One of the features of the place I took Brooketo shoot when she was here is an old railroad tunnel. It provides some interesting lighting opportunities. And it gave me a place to do another fisheye shot that doesn’t look all that “fishy.” It’s fun exploring the characteristics of a new lens and learning what can be done with it. A little light fill flash made all the tones in this one come together.
Brooke is on her way to France now. I’ll miss her this summer…I’d have surely looked for more chances to shoot with her if she were on the same continent. But she’ll have a wonderful experience and will be back in the fall…and I’m already working on some plans for then.
Meanwhile there are some other wonderful models who are nearby and I’ll be working with them in the near future. I’m starting to get dug out of the hole I found myself in when I got home from Florida. I hope in a week or so to be all caught up and be better able to look toward future projects and be constantly trying to just catch up.
I could use a couple more models for the local projects I have coming up over the summer…so if any Ohio models are reading this and want to volunteer, send me an e-mail and let’s talk.
And I should mention that this weekend is the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. I have work on display at the festival and in the festival store. Thanks to all the other travel I’ve been doing, I wasn’t able to plan a trip out to Seattle to attend the festival. I hope next year will turn out to finally be the year that I get to go to SEAF. But if you are out that way, you shouldn’t miss this festival. And if you go look for my photo on the wall and let me know what you think. And say hello to my friend, Mariah Carle, who is teaching a couple workshops at the festival.
Off The Road At Last
May 15th, 2011
I love to travel. But for the past two weeks it’s been pretty much constant travel and I’m really ready to stop and hang out at home for a bit. I’m taking a day off today, after finally getting back home to stay for a while last night. Tomorrow I’ll get to work trying to catch up on things. But you were in need of an update here on the blog, so I’m going ahead with that today.
Here are a couple more photos of Brooke Lynne from our shoot last month in scenes from my youth. Brooke is leaving in just a few days to go to France for the summer where she will be modeling for painters. I’ll miss her, but will be looking forward to working with her again when she returns in the fall…and she is sure to have a wonderful adventure over the summer. So I’m sending good thoughts her way as she prepares to depart.
As is is finally warming up around Ohio I hope to start setting up more outdoor shoots in the next few weeks. If it ever stops raining it would help…but I have a few ideas to take advantage of the volume of water that must be going over the local waterfalls while this record rain is going on. I just need to line up a few victi…er…models who don’t mind getting very wet and cold. I’m sure I’ll be able to find some volunteers.
I don’t think I’ll be posting any snapshots from Disney World…sorry Lin…but I’ll just say that it was every bit the abomination I expected it to be. My daughter has been informed that if she wants to go back with my grandson and any future, not yet arrived, grandchildren I’ll be happy to get them the condo in Orlando, but I won’t be coming along. The thing that amazes me is that so many millions of people are willing to pay the extortionate cost of spending time being abused at Disney. As someone who studied marketing and spent a great deal of my working years in public relations I appreciate the incredible success of the marketing that is Disney. And the way the place is very carefully structured to extract the maximum amount of cash from each visitor is masterful. But I’ll never subject myself to it again under any circumstances.
We Interrupt This Blog…
May 7th, 2011
…for a personal message. I’m in Florida on a family vacation for the magna cum laude graduation of my younger daughter from the University of Tampa. That’s her with her boyfriend in the photo above as she arrived at her seat following the processional.
My other daughter, her husband and my grandson are also with us. I’ll be ending a life-long boycott Monday when I go along with all of them, my ex-wife, who is the mother of my children, and my wife to visit Disney World. Grandfather duties override my general distaste for places like Disney.
To add a minor photo note to this post, that photo above is a crop of a very tiny part of the image area of a shot made with my D7000 and my 80-200 f/2.8 at 6400 ISO. It was dark in that arena. And I was a long, long way away.
Here are my daughter and her nephew:
And finally a shot of the graduate with her fossil of a father. Both these photos were taken with the Canon S90. My wife did the shot with me in it.
In the next post I’ll return to our regularly scheduled naked chicks on rocks. But every once in a while it’s important to mark the major events of real life. I’m a very proud father. And I’m loving my role as “paw-paw” with my grandson.
More on the rocks
May 5th, 2011
After wandering through the old canal lock and stopping to smell the flowers Brooke and I came upon this lovely cliff face and stopped for a few more photos. Again, I had always known there were photos here to be taken, but the combination of this location with all its memories for me and my favorite model in the world…it was a very good day.
I’m traveling on a family trip right now, so I don’t know how much more posting I’ll be doing for the next week or so, but I’ll probably find time to share some more photos from this shoot when the family events allow.
