If a tree falls in the forest…
November 10th, 2010
…does a beautiful model pose nude on it? Well, sometimes, certainly. This is Kat in a spot we found off the road over in Virginia in the George Washington National Forest. The Fall colors were coming to an end when we were there, but there were spots of beautiful color left and I tried to seek some of them for backgrounds. It had gotten sunny by the time we did this photo, but there was lots of shade down in that dry stream bed and it was getting late in the day so there was good direction to the light. And the way the sun lit up those leaves in the background really made this composition work for me.
My copy of Stephen Haynes’ new book, The Box Beauty Constrained, arrived today and I can tell you that it is a beautiful book. Lots of great photos and excellent reproduction. And my favorite model, Brooke, has a starring role. She’s in many of the best photos in the book, showing her great skill and talent as a model. I highly recommend this book.
And, while you are at Blurb looking at Stephen’s book, go ahead and order your copy of f-eleven, volume 3. You can still use this discount code: PROMO to get 20 percent off your entire order. That discount is good until November 26.
And my calendars are still on sale for 30 percent off with the code EARLYBIRD. But hurry…that sale ends November 15. You can buy my calendars here.
Leaf Peeper
November 8th, 2010
Kat seemed to really enjoy the fall leaves when we were in West Virginia. I guess she doesn’t see much of anything like that down in Miami. Of course she doesn’t see much snow down there either, but she really didn’t seem to enjoy that experience all that much. But I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of snow either. And October is my favorite month of the year because I love the fall colors and the beautiful weather that we usually have that time of year. But it’s past now for this year…and I need to get the snow blower out and ready to go…sigh.
This photo is still from our first day of shooting. This one was taken on Spruce Knob, the highest mountain in West Virginia. It had been many years since I rode my motorcycle up the gravel road to the top of Spruce Knob. I swore I’d never do that again on a motorcycle. It’s a very narrow, very twisty road…not fun on a bike when you have to deal with gravel. And I remember at the top there was a great view over the short twisted pine trees at the top. Well, it has been a long time…and things have changed. First, the road is blacktopped all the way up to the top…would probably be quite a bit of fun on the bike now. But when we got to the top I found that all those scrubby 5-foot-tall pine trees are now more than 30 feet high and not scrubby at all. And because of that there is really no view to be seen from the top…the trees block the view except in a few rocky spots…and they are so tall they even block the view from the observation tower at the top.
So I didn’t get the photo of Kat on those twisted little pine trees that I had in mind when I started up the mountain. Guess I’ll have to find another spot for those photos. But we still found plenty of good places to shoot.
And here are your reminders about books and calendars.
Blurb has a discount sale running right now good for 20 percent off of your order total. Use these codes at checkout to get the discount:
USD $ coupon code: PROMO
GBP £ coupon code: PROMO1
EUR € coupon code: PROMO2
CAD $ coupon code: PROMO3
AUD $ coupon code: PROMO4
This offer is good until November 26.
F-eleven volume 3 is available here.
And you have until November 15 to save on my calendars at Lulu. Just enter the code: EARLYBIRD when you place your order and you’ll get 30 percent off of all the calendars you order. Go here to see and buy the calendars.
Mossy Kat
November 5th, 2010
Here’s another photo of the lovely and talented Kat showing just how full of grace she is. This is from our first day of shooting in West Virginia along that stream that used to flow through the best campground in the world before the Forest Service eliminated it.
I’m only beginning to edit the photos from this trip. I could probably just post from these and have plenty of photos to last until next year. But I suppose I’ll be mixing it up with other things I’ll be doing. It’s really a treat to go for a few days of shooting in a beautiful location with a beautiful and talented model.
Calendar Sale:
If you are thinking about getting one of my calendars, now is the time. There’s a sale that will save you some serious money if you buy before November 15. Just enter the code: EARLYBIRD when you place your order and you’ll get 30 percent off of all the calendars you order. Go here to see and buy the calendars. Or just click on one of the covers below to go directly to that calendar in my on-line store.
A Perfect Pair
November 4th, 2010
A couple things to tell you about today. First, that’s Kat up above reminding you that the first two volumes of the f-eleven books are still available for purchase on Blurb. All the profits from all the f-eleven books go to charity, so you can feel good about buying them and enjoy a great collection of fine photography at the same time. Why not own the whole set?
Volume 1 benefits Friends Without a Border and can be purchased at this link.
Volume 2 profits go to support Autism research. You can get volume 2 here.
And, while you are at Blurb, please check out the new book from my friend Stephen Haynes. It’s a great collection of nudes he did in a project working with the models in and around a box. You can read more about it at his blog and go to Blurb to preview it and buy a copy here.
Buy them all at the same time and use this discount code to get 20 percent off the entire order: PROMO
Of course you can use that code to buy a copy of the new book, f-eleven volume 3, too. Just know that you can only use the code once, so it’s best to get all your books in one order and save big bucks.
Volume 3 Preview
November 3rd, 2010
Hey, I just figured out how to imbed the preview for f-eleven, volume 3 here in my blog. So you can look through it right here. And then order a copy. All profits go to the Kinsey Institute. Go here to order your own copy.
f-eleven volume 3 published today
November 1st, 2010
The third volume of the f-eleven series of photo books was published today. I have work in this volume, as I have had in the previous two. This time my photos include some of my most recent work as well as some old favorites, like the photo of Lani above. Water is the unifying theme of all of my photos in this book. Volume 3 is an excellent publication with some great photography. Please take a look at the preview and order a copy if you like what you see.
If you are planning to buy a copy you might want to do it right away and use the code BOOKIFY when you check out. That will give you a 25 percent discount. But the discount expires tomorrow, November 2. So buy it now and save some money.
You can order a copy from this link: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1682381#
And the direct link to the preview is here: http://www.blurb.com/books/1682381
As with the other two books, all the profits go to charity. This time 100% of the profits of this book go to The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/
Over 190 images (including fine art nude images )
15 photographers
160 pages (premium lustre paper)
8″ x 10″ (landscape style)
Designed & Edited by WOLF189
http://wolf189.com/
featuring:
Brooks Ayola (nude portraits)
Ralph Barker ( fine art landscape + still life )
Matthew Cherry ( fine art )
Sita Mae Edwards ( fine art nude )
April-lea Hutchinson ( nude portraits )
Leo Lam ( editorial fashion )
Dave Levingston ( fine art nude )
Clay Lipsky ( portraits )
Frank Love ( street / documentary work )
Brooke Lynne ( fine art nude )
Ken Mierzwa ( fine art nude)
Trish Noble ( portraits )
Dave Rudin ( fine art nude )
Ward Shortridge ( portraits )
Wolf189 ( editorial fashion + erotic portraits )
f-11 or f-eleven is a private photography group. Visit us at:
f – eleven books: http://f-elevenbooks.com/
f – eleven books blog: http://blog.f-elevenbooks.com/
f-eleven face book: http://www.facebook.com/f11books
Snow Day
October 29th, 2010
I’m still in West Virginia, but I head back home tomorrow. We’ve had pretty good luck with weather down here, although yesterday was too sunny for good photos and yet windy and cold too. But this morning we woke up and saw it had snowed overnight, as it’s quite capable of doing in these mountains in October. I can remember several Columbus Day weekend motorcycle trips down here that included the unmatched thrill of riding in snow. The snow continued to fall, with wind making it pretty much seem like it was falling horizontally, throughout the morning. And it’s seriously cold out there too. And for some reason my Miami-based model seems to have some sort of issue with posing nude in conditions like this.
But we had actually planned for today to be a “down day” anyway. We wanted to do some shooting in the condo and this was the day we had set aside to take it easy and just do some shooting indoors. So that’s what I did. You can see one of the results up above. I did a variety of things, from my regular gear to my little instant Fuji camera, pulling out my old single-element soft focus lens that mounts on my Nikon for some nice soft photos. That’s the lens I sometimes call my “Digital Holga” and what I used for the photo of the lovely and talented Kat that I’ve posted here.
My ankle has not been much of a problem…sore but healing up well and not stopping me from doing any of the hiking I wanted to do. Should be good as “old” (given that there is nothing new about me these days) in a week or two.
Tomorrow is the long drive back to Ohio. Weather should be better. If the opportunity arises we might stop for a photo or two along the way…weather permitting.
Wet, Wild and Wonderful
October 27th, 2010
I’m in West Virginia this week working with the wonderful and stunning model, Kat, who I met recently when I was in Florida. She is a very special person. I knew as soon as I met her that she was going to become one of my favorite models…and that first instinct was absolutely on the money.
So, I’ve been dragging her around to my favorite places in this beautiful state and she has been doing a great job of modeling, despite having to cope with wind and rain and cold…and being a Florida person who isn’t used to this sort of weather.
This photo was taken near Seneca Rocks. It’s actually somewhere close to the old Seneca Rocks campground. That was the most beautiful, perfect campground I ever camped in. There was a rocky stream flowing right beside it. Each campsite was surrounded by trees separating it from the other campers. I would fall asleep to the sounds of that stream rushing past. There are many fine memories of good times associated with that place. Of course the Forest Service decided to do away with it and built a new campground in a field on the side of a hill nearer to the rocks. It seems they have completely obliterated all signs of the old campground. At least I have not been able to find the location despite several attempts.
But this is near where it was. Kat is posing on rocks above that stream that filled my tent with such peaceful sounds back in those days. So, I guess this is close enough.
That was on our first day of shooting. The next day we went to Hills Creek Falls. To my dismay the trail to the lower falls was closed, so we hiked all the way down to the middle falls and were unable to go on to the best location to shoot. We did some good shots at the middle falls, though.
Then on the hike back up I was walking on a flat rock covered by leaves when I stepped into a hidden hole and twisted my ankle. I heard the crack sound as I went down. I layed there for a moment taking stock of the situation. Then I slipped my pack off and slowly stood up on the uninjured leg. It wasn’t as bad as the last time I did something like this when walking in a dry stream bed in California where several inches of dust hid a rock that caused a similar injury. That time I was forced to cancel several days of outdoor shoots because I really couldn’t walk.
It’s not that bad this time. The ankle is swolen and it hurts, but I can walk on it without much of a limp. So we continued with our hiking and shooting today and will do more tomorrow. I’m glad it was this minor. I would have hated to call off shoots here when it is going so well…and I don’t think Kat could have carried me up out of those waterfalls by herself.
There hasn’t been a lot of wildlife to see here at this time of year. Kat commented on the lack of insects…but it’s after the first frost, so they are pretty much gone…and that’s a good thing. But we have had some sightings. For example here’s a shot of a West Virginia Wildkat running for cover. You just never know what you are going to see out in these woods.
Red On Black
October 25th, 2010
When I met Angie at the studio to head out to the farm for our shoot last week I saw the sunlight doing this on a piece of black foam core in the studio. I really liked the effect of what the light was doing. So I asked her to do a quick pose there for me. I had already loaded my gear into the truck, so I just pulled out the Canon S90 that is always on my belt and shot it with that. I’m pretty pleased with the result.
Right now I’m in West By God Virginia having a great time shooting with a great model in some of my favorite places. I think West Virginia is one of the most amazing, beautiful places on this planet. And I’ve visited here often, usually on my motorcycle, for more than 30 years. It’s great to have the chance to revisit favorite places with a model and do photos that have existed in my mind for years. You’ll be seeing some of the results here in a day or three. Too busy shooting to spend much time editing right now.
And, to all those new visitors here who have come from reddit, welcome. I hope you enjoy the visit and feel free to come back often to see what I’m up to. To be honest, I’d never heard of reddit until I saw all the visitors coming from there tonight. I had to ask my model what it is…and she doesn’t really know. So, I don’t really know how or why this is happening, but I’m always pleased to have more people seeing my work…so, again, welcome. Y’all come back now, hear.
Take That, Damned Sun
October 20th, 2010
Another shoot yesterday and my luck with the sun continued. Monday it rained all day. But yesterday morning when I met Angie to do a shoot on a local farm the sky was completely clear and the sun was beating down on us. Of course we went on to the shoot and I managed to get a few things despite the bright sunlight.
But then, in the late morning, some nice puffy white clouds started to show up. Not enough cloud cover to help with the lighting, but it ended up being the perfect sky for me to shoot another of my “Magritte Skies” series of photos. I don’t get to shoot these often because everything has to come into place: just the right sky, a good setting for the photo and, of course, an available model. So I pulled out the polarizer and the hat and the umbrella and we did this shot. And, yes, I do keep bowler hats and umbrellas in my truck all the time so they will be there when an opportunity appears.
So here’s Angie in a tribute to Surrealism.
And, here’s my favorite lightbulb joke:
How many Surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two.
One to hold the giraffe and one to fill the bathtub with brightly colored bicycles.
