Angie On Ice
January 17th, 2010
Here’s another from my first day of shooting with Angie out in the cold and snow. This was at another local waterfall that we had shot at in warmer days. I love the way the light is playing across the frozen waterfall and across Angie’s body in this one. More to come from our second, much more frigid day of shooting. Angie really did a fantastic job modeling in very adverse conditions. She’s just a wonderful model!
There’s still time to save 20 percent on one of my calendars. Use the code CABIN. The sale goes through Monday. Here’s the link.
My friend and great model blueriverdream said in a comment that the ORGANIZE code is expired at my calendar store. However, the code for valentines deals works for calendars and is LOVE. So use the LOVE code if you want to order one of my calendars and save some money in the process. Blueriverdream says that LOVE gets you 25 percent off. The CABIN code is supposed to be good through Monday, but it is only a 20 percent discount. So LOVE, of course, is better.
And the f-eleven book is still available. You can buy it here. There’s a lot of great photography in that book, and some of mine is in there too. All the profits go to a great charity. There’s now a website for f-eleven books. This is the link to it. And there’s an f-eleven books blog too. Those links will give you lots of information about the current book, news about the contributors on the blog, and announcements of future books.
Angie in the Snow
January 15th, 2010
Angie is really responsible for me continuing to work on snow nudes. Really, it’s all her fault. She sent me a message asking if I didn’t want to do a shoot with her in the snow. Now I always want to do a shoot with Angie any time, any place. And one of the things I love about her is that she is always bugging me to shoot with her. I love it when models do that. And Angie is so beautiful and talented that it’s always a pleasure to work with her. Plus she is a very nice person…always a huge plus in a model.
So, of course, I said I’d be happy to shoot her in the snow and we set a date, which was pretty easy since we’ve been buried in snow for the entire month. I picked a couple of my favorite local locations and we headed out. I did my best to make the suffering on Angie’s part as temporary as possible. I gave her my expedition down parka from my mountain climbing days in the Alps. I got heat packs and even found some that are insoles for her to put in her boots so she would have instant heat when she slipped them on after the shots.
As you can see from the photo above, Angie is a real trooper. But there’s a lot more to this story. I’ll fill you in on the rest of the details over the next few posts.
It’s Not Too Late For A Calendar
My calendar publisher is having another sale. It’s 20 percent off any order this weekend only. The offer is good through January 18. Just use the code CABIN when you check out and save some money when you buy one of my calendars this weekend. This is the link to my store.
I Love My Models
January 13th, 2010
The things my models will do for me…it’s just amazing. They are totally wonderful human beings. And tough as nails. And beautiful.
When Kelsey told me she was going to be back in Ohio for the holidays I knew I wanted to work with her again. She is so wonderful that I’d never pass up the chance to do a shoot with her. But the problem I had was that I just didn’t have any good ideas of what to do with her in December. I shoot in my studio, but I didn’t have any major projects going on, other than my head scarf and burqa photos. So we planned to do those. Kelsey particularly wanted to be in the head scarf project because she shares the underlying concerns for women’s rights that are driving those photos.
But what else to do with this fantastic model? I just didn’t know.
Then I woke up on the day of our shoot and saw a lovely gentle snowfall underway. And the temperature was pretty moderate for December. So I asked her how she would feel about going outdoors getting naked and freezing her pretty ass off for some photos. Kelsey thought it was a great idea, so off we went to one of my favorite local nature spots.
The snow was still falling gently, which I think adds a nice touch to this shot.
I’m actually not a huge fan of nudes in snow. It’s a pretty unnatural situation, unlike, in my opinion anyway, nudes in nature where the nude figure is as natural as the surroundings. Most nudes in snow just make me think about how cold the model must have been. The only thing they seem to say is, “Hey, look at that! She got naked in the snow!”
Well, I hope some of the photos I did with Kelsey go beyond that simple thought. I guess I think they do or I wouldn’t be showing them here.
There are a few photographers out there who really know how to make snow nudes work. Alex Ingram in Scotland and Dave Swanson in northern Minnesota immediately come to mind. They both live in places where it is very cold for much of the year, so I guess they know snow. I actually hate the cold and snow and want to move somewhere where I’ll never see snow again. But it doesn’t look like that is going to happen, so I guess I’ll have to keep looking for things to do over the winter.
It seems I’ve gotten on a snow nude kick…I’ve done two more shoots in the snow since this one with Kelsey last month. Must have something to do with it snowing all the freaking time since then, except for Christmas, of course, when it was warm. You’ll be seeing the frigid results of those other shoots here over the next few posts.
Meanwhile, someone hand that girl a sweater or something.
Show in the snow
January 9th, 2010
Sorry I’ve been so absent. But I’ve been busy. First there was the drive back home from Vermont through a snow storm. Two days of driving in blinding snow left me pretty much exhausted. But we made it back home safely. Then my daughter came to visit, followed by a visit by my brother-in-law from Florida who was passing through on a road trip. Daughter is still here until Monday, so family time has dominated this past week.
But yesterday I had to make a drive up to Detroit to drop off prints for the show advertised by the poster above. It opens next Friday at River’s Edge Gallery near Detroit. Thanks to Patty Izzo for organizing this show and inviting me to participate. It looks to be a very interesting set of work, worth a visit if you are in the Detroit area.
Meanwhile I’m tired of snow and cold. I want to move somewhere warm. But there’s little chance of that happening any time soon.
But I should be back to posting more regularly soon, now that the holiday stuff is receding into the past for now.
Don’t forget about the f-eleven book that is still available for sale at that link. I have my copy of the book now and I can tell you that the quality of the printing and the quality of the work by the many talented photographers included in it is simply outstanding. It’s a great collection of fine work beautifully reproduced.
And my calendars are still available. I’ll probably keep the calendars on the market for the rest of this month, but if you want one you should get your order in soon. You might be able to save a bunch on them if you order before January 15. When you check out enter the code ORGANIZE and it should give you a 25 percent discount.
A Bird In The Bush
January 3rd, 2010
Still sitting here in the very warm house in Vermont, watching the snow accumulate. It is still coming down fast and furious. We are hoping it will stop or at least let up a bit over night, since we want to leave for home in the morning. The hour at which we start our drive will be determined by the snow plows.
Meanwhile I snapped this shot of the local Cardinal hanging out in some weeds near the house. Florida is looking better every day. But we just talked with my brother-in-law who lives in Gainesville where it was only in the 40s…and had been down into the 20s overnight. That’s serious cold in that part of the country.
Vermont at the New Year
January 3rd, 2010
We are in Vermont and it is snowing. That, of course, is redundant when said in January. However, this snow is a bit more than average. About a foot in the past 24 hours and no sign of letting up. We are supposed to hit the road for the drive home tomorrow, but that is not a certainty at this point. It isn’t snowing much in New York State along our route, so, if it lets up by the morning and the roads are plowed we might be able to stay on schedule. They do a pretty good job up here with plowing the roads.
Of course, this is nothing like winter in northern Minnesota where my friend Dave Swanson lives. It’s only about 10 degrees above zero here today. A real heat wave compared to what Dave has been reporting from his frozen outpost.
I’ve been taking photos of my favorite farmhouse. Here’s one taken just a few minutes ago showing what is going on up here. Just makes me even more resolved to someday move to a place where they don’t have weather that I have to shovel.
The Turn Of A Decade
January 1st, 2010
I’m not much for the whole year end reflection/year in review kind of stuff. But, since this day marks the start of a new decade it seemed to me worth noting. The past decade has been a rough one in many ways that I really don’t need to recount here. But I have mixed feelings about the past ten years because for me personally it has been a very good decade.
I’m in my sixth decade on this strange planet and much that has been good in my life has happened in this past one.
It was May of 2002 when I made a trip to Maine and took the photo at the top of this post. That was the day I realized that I needed to be photographing the nude in nature. I started working professionally as a photographer in 1968. But, in the past eight years I have produced the vast majority of the photographs that I care about…the ones that seem to be the reason I am a photographer. It started the day I made that photo above.
Incidentally, that photo was taken with a 3 megapixel camera that cost $1000. It was recorded on a 128 Meg (not Gig) card that cost $300. I still have that card somewhere, but wouldn’t even consider trying to shoot with it…it would only hold a few photos. And I have my new 10 mp S90 in my pocket to shoot snaps…it cost much less than half what that old camera (which I also still have…I seldom part with my cameras) cost.
There are lots of photos I care about from the earlier years of my life, of course, but my “body of work” really began the day I took this photo.
Another major event this past decade was being able to retire from my day job and concentrate full-time on photography for the first time in many years. I never really stopped being a photographer for very long over those years, but thanks to the Peter Principle I found myself doing other things as my primary job for quite a few years. That made it possible to concentrate on photographing just what I wanted to photograph while also being able to support a family and eventually reach that retirement milestone. So that was all good, at least from the perspective at this end of that journey.
I also have to mention that the past decade made me a grandfather. I’m pretty happy about that new role for myself too.
So, despite all the tragedies, wars, global warming, recession, the “oughts” were pretty good to me. But that doesn’t stop me from hoping the “teens” will be a much better decade for the world. And I also hope that it will be another fine decade of productivity for me as a photographer…and that I’ll get to learn all about being a grandfather.
As the new decade begins I hope you can find the good in the past ten years and I wish you all the best in the coming ten and beyond.
More from the S90
December 30th, 2009
Phoenix Kelley was back in town for the holidays, so we did a long lunch and a quick shoot together. I took the Nikon and all my normal kit, but had to pull out the new Canon S90 for a few frames too. This is one of them. The camera was on Program Mode and set the exposure perfectly automatically. The Nikon wouldn’t do that, I had to tweak what the meter wanted to do to get a good exposure. The settings for this shot were ISO 400, 1/40, f/2.2 with the zoom lens at the widest setting. I did crop the photo a bit for composition, but I didn’t try to correct the obvious barrel distortion that the lens has when it is set this wide. But it would be an easy fix in PhotoShop, so I’m not terribly worried about it.
I’m still impressed. With the camera, that is. Phoenix has impressed me since the first time I met her and I’ve really enjoyed watching her grow up into a very beautiful woman, a talented creative artist, and a fine figure model. I wish she hadn’t moved so far away, but we aren’t going to let that stop us from working together more in the future.
I’m about to take off for rural Vermont again to celebrate the New Decade. Let’s hope it is a much better decade than the one we are ending. But that means dial-up only web access for several days…cell phones don’t even work well where we will be staying…so I may post some more while I’m away, if I can manage to get on line to do it. Or you may have to wait until the new decade is under way to hear from me again…only time will tell. And it also means you may have to put up with more photos of my favorite, most photogenic farm.
WOW!
December 27th, 2009
WARNING: Photo Geek Post
New Book
December 24th, 2009
I want to call your attention to a newly published book f-eleven which is a collection of photographs by a bunch of photographers, including yours truly. I’m really thrilled and honored to be in the company of the other folks in the book. There’s a preview at that link so you can check it out.
Over 260 images
20 photographers
160 pages (premium paper)
8″ x 10″ (landscape style)
Designed & Edited by WOLF189
featuring the following photographers:
Brooks Ayola ( Polaroid nude portraits )
Ralph Barker ( fine art landscape + still life )
Kincaid Blackwood ( erotic portraits )
Mariah Carle ( fashion + portrait )
Matthew Cherry ( fine art night photography )
Nicole Jaja ( travel + candid portraits )
Leo Lam ( editorial fashion )
Dave Levingston ( fine art nude in nature )
Brooke Lynne ( experimental nude )
Darryl Martin ( fine art thematic portraits )
Ken Mierzwa ( documentary punk rock portraits )
D. Brian Nelson ( personal work )
Trish Noble ( erotic portraits )
Keith Allen Phillips ( fine art fetish portraits )
Collin J. Rae ( fetish + erotic portraits )
Sarah Robertson ( personal work )
Dave Rudin ( fine art nude + travel )
Susan Michele Smith ( fetish+erotic portraits )
Kim Melia von Seidl ( candid portraits+erotic portraits )
Wolf189 ( editorial fashion + erotic portraits )
All of the profits of the book sales would be donated to “Friends Without a Border.”
“Friends Without A Border” is committed to improving the health and well being of the children of Cambodia by providing quality medical care, extensive outreach and crucial medical education through Angkor Hospital for Children.
Our intention (editor and the contributors of this book ) has not been coordinated with this respectful charity yet, but it is our wish and intention to donate all of the profits of this book to “Friends Without A Border.”
Here are some promo codes to buy the book with $10.00 off (until December 31)
The promo code must match currency used.
Orders from the US (using US $): GREATGIFT
Orders from UK (using UK £): GREATGIFT2
Orders from EU (using EU €): GREATGIFT3
Orders from AU (using AUD $): GREATGIFT4
