Gallery Provocateur
May 30th, 2010
Last night was the opening of my show at Gallery Provocateur. It was a great night with the gallery packed with people all evening. I’m so used to openings where a dozen or so people wander in throughout the evening that the crowds that Veronika always seems to be able to draw for her gallery shows are always a pleasant surprise.
Among the folks who were at the opening were my friend Dave Swanson and the lovely model Sarah, seen beside my part of the show in the photo above.
The opening was also a launch party for f-eleven, Volume 2, a book with some of my photos along with a bunch of really fine photographers. In the photo above is Roman, one of the other photographers in Vol. 2, Mariah who is in Vol. 2 and was also in the show at the gallery, a model who was hanging out at the gallery…can’t remember her name…, and Ken who is also in Vol. 2 and the gallery show. Note that the gallery encourages “creative attire” which Mariah took to a lovely extreme.
Another feature of the evening was a beautiful slide show of photos from f-eleven, Volume 2. I also took my copies of both Vol. 1 and 2 and put them out for folks to look through. That’s Roman’s self-portrait from Vol. 2 on the screen.
Up Close With Angie
May 25th, 2010
Here’s a shot of Angie in my studio where I continue to play around with lighting in the new setting. Angie wanted some more classic figure photos for her portfolio, so, of course, I shot some for her. I’m usually not too enthusiastic about those pretty standard studio nudes, but every once in a while, with a great model like Angie, it’s possible to do something that I like. That’s what happened here.
Don’t forget about the show opening this Saturday at Gallery Provocateur in Chicago. I hope to see a lot of friends there.
And bring your copies of the f-eleven books, both volume 1 and volume 2, and get them signed by several of the photographers in the book, including me.
My first test post
May 24th, 2010
This is my first attempt to make a post on my new blog. It doesn’t look like it will be too much of an adjustment to this new blogging system. I’m looking forward to having the blog out from under the tyranny of blogspot and google. I’ll gradually transfer my blogging over to this new location over the next few weeks and eventually stop using the old blog, once everyone has had time to change their links.
This is a photo of one of my favorite models, lovely April. I don’t get to shoot her much anymore since she moved away, but we stay in touch and get together when we can, usually working a shoot into the time together. She’s awesome.
Chicago Show Coming Soon
May 20th, 2010
Just over a week to go until the opening of my show in Chicago at Gallery Provocateur. That show has been keeping me busy getting my prints ready, and now I’ll be spending a lot of time in Chicago. The first opening is Saturday night, May 29. I’ll be there. And there’s a second opening the following Saturday, June 5. I’ll be there for that opening too. If you can make it to the show please come by and say hello.
The show at Gallery Provocateur is also serving as a launch party for the f-eleven Volume 2 book of photographs. That book as well as Volume 1, is still on sale. Bring your copies to the gallery opening and you’ll be able to get autographs from several of the participating photographers, including, of course, yours truly. For more information about the f-eleven books please visit the f-eleven books site.
Both of the openings should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.
Kelsey in NUDE Photographed by Carrie Leigh
May 17th, 2010
That’s one of my favorite models, Kelsey Dylan, as she appears in the new issue of Carrie Leigh’s NUDE magazine. The photo was taken by Carrie Leigh herself http://www.carrieleigh.com/ If you’d like to have your own copy of this issue of NUDE, pre-orders are available until May 21st at http://www.carrieleigh.com/Nstrbckiss.html
Kelsey is a great model and a delightful young woman. I was looking forward to working with her again in Seattle, but had to cancel that trip. I hope we’ll get the chance to make some more art together this summer when she is back in Ohio for a couple months.
In other news, I went to Chicago over the weekend (up and back in one day…12 hours of driving) to drop off my prints for a gallery show that will be opening on Saturday, May 29 at Gallery Provocateur. There will be a second opening on June 5. If you are in the Chicago area please try to come by and say hello. There will be a lot of art on display thanks to the several fine artists participating in this show. Hope to see you there.
The show at Gallery Provocateur is also serving as a launch party for the f-eleven Volume 2 book of photographs. That book as well as Volume 1, is still on sale. Bring your copies to the gallery opening and you’ll be able to get autographs from several of the participating photographers, including, of course, yours truly. For more information about the f-eleven books please visit the f-eleven books site.
It’s Personal
May 10th, 2010
No photo today. This isn’t about photography.
And that’s not how I do things here. I started this blog as a place to show my recent photo work and talk about what I was doing with photography. I’m not big on putting a lot about my personal life on line. But I feel I need to make an exception, so here goes.
I’ve received a lot of very nice messages and comments expressing condolences on the death of my father. Your thoughts and thoughtfulness are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, my situation is not typical and most likely not what most of you are thinking it is. So I feel the need to explain a bit.
My father and I were not close. In fact, he wasn’t my birth father. My mother married her second husband when I was about two years old. He adopted me. But he never treated me as his son. I was just an obligation he took on when he married my mother. As a child I didn’t have the tools to understand, but I knew something wasn’t right.
As I grew up there were many conflicts between my father and myself. Eventually I started to be aware of him being cruel and abusive toward my children and I stopped taking my children to visit him. That also cut my kids off from contact with their grandmother, but I wasn’t going to allow my father to do emotional and spiritual harm to my children.
After my children had pretty much grown up I started to visit again, and even encouraged my children to visit, although they seldom did because of the toxic environment surrounding my father.
My mother died about 5 years ago. In the aftermath of my father’s death I learned, to no real surprise, that he had removed me from his will after my mother’s death. One final hurt delivered from beyond the grave.
The financial impact of that is insignificant. The insult to my mother is troubling. If I believed in heaven it would be fun to imagine her up there kicking his ass. But my children assure me that they know they have something that I have never had: a father who cares deeply about them and loves them unconditionally. So it was a small price to pay to keep them safe from the hurtfulness that I’ve had to deal with throughout my life.
So, this has been a very complicated time of grief, but also of bonding within the healthy and loving family I’ve created. Creating that family was a challenge for me since I had no role model for how to be a good father.
It’s been very hard for me to focus on much other than this for the past couple weeks. But the storm is clearing and I’m going to be getting back to work and back to blogging. I’ll have new things here again soon.
I’m concerned that this all sounds whiny and complaining. I don’t want it to sound that way. There are huge numbers of people in this world who have much more to complain about. My issues are minor in comparison. I am fortunate to have a loving wife and wonderful children. I am who I am because of all the things that have happened in my life, including my relationship with my father. And I’m pretty happy with who I am and the life I’ve made for myself. So I really don’t want to complain.
Quoting from the Desiderata:
“…Be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”
Thank you all for being a part of my life and for caring. I’ve always been a little suspicious of the whole on-line friend thing, but over time I’ve met a lot of my on-line friends in person and I have yet to be disappointed in the people behind the web presences. You are all a bunch of great folks. Thanks.
Washed Up
May 3rd, 2010
Here’s another photo of the fantastic Angie. A couple weeks ago we went out looking for wild flower photos. We shot some, but we also did this one…another naked chick on rocks photo. This is the one I ended up liking best from the shoot. Maybe I’ll get wild flower photos next spring.
It’s a difficult time for me right now, dealing with the death of my father and all that that means. I’m having a hard time being interested in blogging right now. But I’m planning some photo therapy through a couple shoots this week to try to get my mind off all the other things, so I hope that will inspire some new posts with some new photos.
Man Plans; God Laughs
April 27th, 2010
Things have changed overnight. I won’t be going to Seattle. My father died last night.
That’s Angie up there, struggling with the darkness.
A Feather In Her Cap
April 25th, 2010
Still playing around now and then with the cyc in the new studio, trying to figure out the best way to use my lighting gear in this new environment. _G_ came in to pose for me a week or so ago and brought this variation on the outfit she wore to the Dirty Show last fall. The variation being that she wore pasties to the show. I wanted to shoot the outfit in the studio because I thought it would be a good way to show off the beautiful detail in that skirt…not to mention the beautiful detail in _G_.
I’ve been refining the lighting setup since I did this photo. It’s all working pretty well for me now. More to come.
Meanwhile I’ve been getting ready for the trip to Seattle this week. Sorting out equipment and rain gear (it is Seattle…rain gear is essential). Should be a good trip with fun at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival and some good shooting in the great rain forest there. Not looking forward to having to fly again, but I’ll deal with it. I’ll be at the artist’s reception on Thursday night and the festival on Friday, so if you are going to the show try to find me and say hello.
And I’m going to be meeting some good on-line friends in person for the first time, so that’s a great bonus for this trip. I should have photographic evidence of all the goings-on out there on the blog by this time next week.
It’s The Bee’s Knees
April 22nd, 2010
That’s what Angie thinks of the new f-eleven volume 2 that she’s checking out in this photo. Do you have your copy yet? Better go to that link and buy one while you can. By the way, Angie is in two photos in vol. 2, in my self-portrait and also in my friend, Dave Rudin’s self-portrait.
Sorry I’ve not been posting much lately. Getting ready for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival and for my upcoming gallery show in Chicago at Gallery Provocateur has been taking up most of my time.
And, of course, there was the trip to the eye doctor for that wonderful laser treatment. It wasn’t bad at all. Once he started zapping my eye it only took about 5 minutes to do the full 100 zaps. It didn’t hurt at the time, although for the next couple days my eye felt a bit irritated, kind of like I had gotten poked in the eye with a stick, or that I’d had something in my eye for a while. But that feeling is all gone now. I go back in a few weeks for a follow-up where I’ll find out if the treatment worked and the pressure in that eye is lowered.
So now I’m starting to think about packing for Seattle. I’m working on the assumption that it will be raining while I’m there. That will give me a chance to work in bad weather, which always seems to result in the best photos. But I have to take extra pains to keep the gear at least dry enough to survive and be used another day. Except for one new piece of equipment that arrived yesterday. I now have one of those waterproof point-and-shoot cameras. If the weather is really bad out there I’ll just shoot with it. And in the future when I want to go for a jaunt in a kayak or run around in the surf to take some shots, I won’t have to worry about ruining the Nikon if anything goes wrong. I had considered getting the waterproof housing for my Canon S90, but this camera was actually less expensive than the housing, so I went with it.
Things may slow down just a bit now, at least until I catch that flight to Seattle. So maybe I’ll make a few new posts before I leave. Or not…
