Back From the Dirty Show
September 27th, 2009
Back home tonight after another Dirty Show. I have to say this was the best one I’ve attended. It was a smaller show, less art and fewer people in attendance. That may not be the best for the show itself, but it sure made it a more pleasurable experience. Parking was free. It was not hard to get to the bar and get drinks. It wasn’t too crowded to be able to see that art on display.
And the acts performing on stage were a huge step up from the past. I heard someone say that some of the acts this time were “semi-professional” a big contrast to the “sub-amateur” performers of past shows. There was a particularly good fan dance at one point in the evening. And there was a group doing aerial performances that were great to watch, and they weren’t even dirty.
My crew for this show are also a bit smaller than at past Dirty Shows, but it also was very high quality. Unbearable Lightness, _G_ and Brooke Lynne were the models along with _G_’s boyfriend, Fen.
And, getting into the theme for the night, they all started getting dirty even before we left the motel to go to the show.
Here’s _G_ beside the photo in the show that featured her.
And here’s Unbearable Lightness showing off her contribution to the show.
We also did a little shooting in the motel room before we headed off to the show. Here are the three lovely ladies together.Off To The Dirty Show
September 25th, 2009
Tomorrow I head to Detroit with some friends to go to the Dirty Show. Look us up if you are there too on Saturday night.
I don’t really have time to write much now. So, just enjoy this photo from my most recent shoot with JoJo Suicide. JoJo was the subject of my photo in the last Dirty Show back in February. She never fails to deliver photos that draw attention.
Noelle in the Swamp
September 22nd, 2009
One more of Noelle Elise before I get on to other things. This one comes the closest I’ve gotten so far in my efforts to capture the feel of Florida in my work. I think there is something more to be done here…probably something involving getting the model all wet and covered with slime. And/or maybe wresting a ‘gator. Any volunteers?
I’m getting ready for the Dirty Show coming up this weekend. I’ll be there with some friends on Saturday night. Track us down and say hi if you are there too.
I’ve updated the calendar link over there on the top right. I’m working on 2010 calendars. I have updated last year’s calendars featuring Brooke Lynne with 2010 dates. After the Dirty Show one of my priorities will be to create a new calendar with all new photos. This past year has been a good one for my work, so the new calendar should have lots of good new stuff in it. But the photos Brooke and I did on our trip out west are still highlights of my work and always will be.
Now, I’ll issue a photo geek warning. I’m going to write a bit about studio equipment. So you can stop reading if that stuff doesn’t interest you.
I’ve been reworking my studio strobe setup. Not really by choice. I’ve used Novatron powerpack strobes for more than 30 years. The reason is simply that 30 years ago someone was selling a Novatron kit for cheap and I bought it. I don’t really care about fancy features on a strobe system. I just want it to make a bright flash when I push the shutter button. So Novatrons worked just fine for me for all those years.
Over the years I’ve added a bunch of heads and more power packs until I had a pretty comprehensive system that could do pretty much anything I wanted it to do. At least for the kind of work I do. When I did some product work for a customer years ago I had to borrow a lot more power from a good friend, but I don’t do that kind of work very often…never if I can help it.
Over the years a power pack would occasionally fail. Sometimes that could be pretty dramatic, filling the studio (and in one recent case, a model’s home) with acrid brown smoke. When that would happen I’d unplug everything, let the pack cool down (outside) and then take it to my local photo store where they would ship it off to a repairman. In a couple weeks it would be back good as new for something like $100-150.
Well, last fall that failure in a model’s home happened. I sent the pack off…a 500ws unit. But this time it came back “unrepairable – no parts available.” Some checking revealed that the owner of Novatron had died and the company had been sold. The new company decided not to support the old units.
Another pack failed shortly after that. It also came back unrepairable. So my 400ws unit was gone too. That left me with just a 240ws unit that could only power 3 heads. Not enough power to do what I need.
I hunted around and found a good deal on an old Novatron 800ws unit. But it only works on half and quarter power. That means it will fail completely someday…no telling when.
The old Novatron factory workers (abandoned by the new owners) have established a repair business. In fact, they are handling warranty repairs for the new owners of Novatron. I called them and the gentleman I spoke to said, “I built them, I can fix them.”
I seriously considered sending my broken units off to them to be repaired. But I’m pretty upset about the company abandoning all us Novatron users who have used their strobes for all these years. And I worried how much repairs would end up costing and how long they would continue to be available.
But I knew something that doesn’t seem to be common knowlege, or at least has come as a surprise to many people I’ve talked with who are well versed in studio strobes. Novatron packs and heads are interchangeable with Speedotron Brown Line packs and heads. The plugs are essentially the same. You can plug a Brown Line head into a Novatron pack and a Novatron head into a Brown Line pack and everything will work just fine. And Speedotron has been around even longer than Novatron, is still a going concern and still provides support for their old strobes.
So, I started shopping. I had good luck on ebay. Got a Speedotron 400ws pack for $80…much less than I would have expected to pay for repairs on one of my Novatron packs. Then I found a 1600ws pack for only $250. That’s a lot more power than I’ve ever had available. All my heads are only rated for 400ws, but I can use that 1600ws pack on quarter power or use it on full power with four heads plugged in…or other in-between combinations. But, to allow me to take advantage of that power I made a trip to “The Camera Church” aka Columbus Camera Group and picked up a couple Speedotron heads that are rated for 1600ws (couldn’t find any at good prices on ebay). Also got a couple reflectors of different sizes. I think I’m going to spring for a new beauty dish to use with one of those heads. At that point my transition will be complete.
Oh, and there’s another reason that I wanted the 1600ws unit, besides the very good price. I shoot dance photos in the studio. One thing I learned when I studied with Lois Greenfield in NYC is that she uses her strobe system at a low power setting to get short flash durations to freeze the dance movement better. I’ll be able to do that with the 1600ws unit, putting it on quarter power, getting a very short flash duration, and still having plenty of light output.
So, that’s enough photo geek stuff for today. I’m also playing around with some other new gear I found on ebay (it’s a dangerous place for your wallet). I’ll write some more geek stuff about that in the near future.
In The Light
September 18th, 2009
Here’s another of Noelle Elise taken outside Orlando a couple weeks ago. I can’t say enough about how great she was to work with. I’m looking forward to shooting her more in the future.
We had quite a time getting this shot. It was a pretty open area in a state park. There’s a road just a little way to the left of where we shot this. We saw the light and the trees and wanted to do something with that setting so we started walking out to get away from the road. But when we got a fairly safe distance from the one road we discovered there was another road leading to a campground just behind where this was shot. There were people out riding bikes on both roads and we were close to being within sight of the campsites. We almost gave up and left, but at the last minute we decided to give it a quick try between bikes and cars. We got the shot and I don’t think anyone saw us.
I’ve been getting prints ready for two shows coming up. Sunday I’ll drive up to Detroit to drop off my work and another photographer’s work for the Dirty Show coming up in a week. I’ll be at the show with a group of friends on the night of September 26. And there’s another show, The Creative Soul of Dayton, coming up. I have two prints in it and will be dropping those off on Monday.
I finally have the studio back into a functioning form, though I seem to keep having problems finding the things I need, but I’ll be working on digging everything out and organizing it so that I can work efficiently. I haven’t hung any backgrounds yet, instead taking advantage of the chance to work with the windows and the light they provide before I block them with backgrounds again.
I’m making equipment changes with my lighting gear too. I’ll write a bit about that in a future post. The new stuff will give me new toys to play with when it starts getting too cold to work outside again this year.
9/11
September 11th, 2009
It’s hard to believe that it has been eight years since everything changed. I remember the details of that day better than I do what happened yesterday.
I was working for the Air Force then. I was in a meeting with a 4-star general making plans for a scheduled visit from the Secretary of the Air Force…a visit that never happened. The general’s aide came into the room, whispered in the general’s ear and turned on a TV. On the screen we saw the smoke coming out of the first tower.
The general stopped the meeting and said we needed to find out what was going on. Back at my desk I had a TV to monitor the news. My job was media relations. I watched on the TV as the second plane flew into the second tower. And the news came in that the Pentagon had been hit.
Of course, at that time we didn’t know who or what was behind the attacks…but we knew we, the nation, were under attack. Being the Air Force, with the country under aerial attack…well you may be able to imagine that there was a lot of activity, to put it mildly. I can’t talk about everything I know that happened that day, and I know there is plenty that I don’t know about that went on. That was a very serious day.
The feeling from that day that overshadows everything else was the uncertainty. We didn’t know where the attacks came from and we had no idea if another attack would occur somewhere at any time. We were doing everything we could to prepare and prevent that from happening. For all we knew a foreign invasion could have been about to begin.
I ended up spending that night in an underground command post helping coordinate the Air Force response to the media around the country. I was the point of contact for more than a dozen bases for guidance on what they could say to the media. My guidance that night was to say nothing. That was not a time for PR. At one point I had a major who wanted to put out a news release saying we had F-16 fighters with full combat loads sitting on our runway ready to take off. I said no. Those planes were within easy mortar range of uncontrolled areas around the base. With our level of base security back then a squad of well trained attackers could have had a very good chance of piercing our perimeter and reaching those planes. The major couldn’t seem to understand all that. Voices were raised. There was no news release.
I spent the first couple days after the attack under the assumption that we were at war with an unknown enemy. In a sense, of course, that was correct.
Some months after the attack I started seeing lots of really bad “Flag” photos. Everyone was in a patriotic mood and was trying to find ways to express it. I thought I could make a flag-themed photo that did a little better job of reflecting the mood of the country. The photo above is what I came up with.
The world is a worse place since 9/11. In many unfortunate ways the terrorists have succeeded. We live in fear now…mostly misplaced and misdirected fear. But the terror is there. I am hopeful that our current leadership will be able to do a better job of keeping the terrorists from achieving their ends and bring the world closer to a place where such actions will not be tolerated anywhere on the planet. That is my hope.
Swamp Cat
September 9th, 2009
I was talking with an on-line friend a few days ago about why we do what we do and what direction our work may take in the future. He said something that, as he said, is a pretty generic statement, but it is true and sometimes photographers are afraid to admit it.
“I like to look at naked women. It’s even better when they are smart and creative naked women, and they’re fun to talk to while we create the pictures.”
One of the joys of traveling and doing this kind of work is meeting new models. And now and then I run across one who is smart and creative and fun to talk to while we create the photos. It’s always a great extra charge to find another one of those models who I know I’m going to want to work with for years to come. I may find other things to photograph, but models like that are going to keep me coming back to figure work.
On this last trip to Florida I found one of them. Noelle Elise is a fairly new model, but she has dance training and a bright mind. She already understands how her body looks and what it takes to get a great photo. And she’s willing to do whatever it is that needs to be done. Add to that the fact that she is fun to talk to and a very enjoyable person to be around. Well, you’ve just described the makings of a great shoot.
I had two models scheduled for the Orlando area. One of them flaked on me…that’s pretty normal when booking models from Model Mayhem. I thought Noelle was flaking on me too, but it turned out there were some e-mail issues that almost kept us from getting together. I’m so glad we overcame those communication problems and did this shoot.
I’ve been wanting since I first visited Florida to do some photos that capture the feel of the swamps there. This is the first time I’ve gotten what I was after, despite several earlier attempts. Noelle suggested this location and it was perfect for what I was after.
Thank you Noelle. You really made this work and I really appreciate it.
The best news for me is that Noelle is moving up north in the very near future and will be close enough to me that we should be able to work together more than we would if she were staying in Florida. Of course it remains to be seen if her thin Florida blood can stand the kind of cold I tend to subject models to up here. I’m looking forward to finding out.
Fun With JoJo
September 4th, 2009
I’m back home and working on catching up on stuff. I have two shows coming up this month, one being the Dirty Show up in Detroit, and have to get the prints ready for them. And my truck is still not running right, so I don’t have wheels.
But, I had a lot of fun in Florida and I’m starting to make my way through the photos. JoJo is always a treat to visit and we had fun doing this shoot. She is amazing and always provides a unique image. So, here’s another portrait of sorts. More to come.
April Moving
September 1st, 2009
An old friend, artist and model is moving away. April is on her way to Portland, Oregon as I write this. We’ve known each other and worked together for years. It’s been wonderful watching her grow from a shy and slightly awkward teenager into a confident artist and accomplished model. And all along she has been a fine friend.
Now she’s off to start a new chapter in her life as an artist. As she was packing to leave she contacted me to make sure we did a shoot before she hit the road. This is one of the photos we did that day last week.
I’m sure this won’t be the end of our collaborations to make art. She will be back to Ohio in the future, at the very least for visits. And the Pacific Northwest is the one part of the lower 48 that I have yet to visit, so it’s very high on my list for future travel. Unfortunately it looks unlikely that she will be able to make it back for the Dirty Show later this month, where the photo of her with Athena and Unbearable Lightness in the post below will be on display. She has been part of my Dirty Show posse for the past two years, and one year caught the eye of Eric Kroll at the show, leading to a shoot with him. We’ll all miss her at the show this time.
I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been on the road myself. I’m in Orlando right now. I brought my daughter down to Tampa last week to start her junior year of college. Then I came over to Orlando to hang out for a few days before heading back home. I had two local Orlando models scheduled for shoots, set up through Model Mayhem. And only one of them flaked on me. That’s better than average for that site. The one who did show up, Noelle Elise, was wonderful. More about her when I get some of her photos ready to post.
I also got to do another shoot with one of my favorite models, JoJo Suicide, over in Tampa. She’s always a sure thing to make some fine photos, and she is a very fine person who is fun to visit with. I’ve looked through that shoot quickly and I know there’s a bunch of good work there. You’ll see some of it here soon.
Tomorrow morning it’s back to Tampa early to catch a flight back to Ohio. Florida has been fun but I’m looking forward to being back home.
Dirty, Dirty, Dirty
August 25th, 2009
Just got the word that I’ll have two photos in the Dirty Show at the end of September/beginning of October up in Detroit. This is the first time they’ve picked more than one of my entries for the show.
Also, for those of you in the Los Angeles area, the Erotic Signature touring exhibit will be there September 10-12 at BOXeight Studios, 1446 E. Washington Blvd. LA, 90021. I’m supposed to have four prints in this show, including two of my nurses, printed 30×40. If any readers happen to see the show I’d be very interested in your opinion of it since I’ve not been able to see it on exhibit yet.
More with Theda
August 21st, 2009
Here’s one more from my shoot with Theda in NYC. I always try to arrange to get together and work with Theda whenever I visit the city because she is just a wonderful model and a person I really enjoy. She is taking a break from modeling right now, but if you were to twist her arm you might get her to agree to do a shoot…and it would be well worth it. (Now she’s probably going to be pissed at me for saying that…but really, she’s one of the very best models out there, and if you manage to get on the wavelength to “get” her sense of humor you will really enjoy her.) I hope her break from modeling turns out to be temporary. She just looks so damn good in a tight corset…
Not much to report from around here lately, at least as far as photography is concerned. Yesterday I was up a ladder trying to do a temporary patch of a hole in the roof with some roof tar…hope it will hold off the deluge until we can get someone who knows what they are doing up there to do a proper repair. We are in the process of getting a lot of work done on our house…painting the exterior and replacing a bunch of wood that has gotten water damage, replacing part of the roof on our garage, and, coming up, a bunch of repairs to our 100-year-old tile roof. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t putting the tar on the tile…just in some bad spots in a metal valley.)
Meanwhile I need to make a trip to Florida next week to take my daughter back to college. I’m working on setting up a few shoots while I’m down there, including getting together with another of my model favorites, JoJo Suicide. JoJo is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and a lot of fun to work with. She’s also great to have a serious conversation with…she has her Doctorate in Fine Art from the Sorbonne in Paris. Oh, and she is NOT a Suicide Girl. She was JoJo Suicide before there were Suicide Girls.
When I get back from Florida I’ll probably be making a quick trip to the Chicago area to pick up a bunch of roof tiles for the repairs to my house. Don’t know if I’ll be able to stretch that trip into a couple days to do some shooting up there or not…I’ll have to figure that out when I get back from Florida.
I’ll try to post now and then over the next couple weeks while all this goes on…but who knows if I’ll succeed.
