Naked Girls reading

I just love the cat in this image!  Oh those eyes.

Is this the end?

I push aside the stars,

Scattering them like diamonds across the landscape.

Blackness opens in the sky. 

Tearing a hole. 

The cold rock withering,

It burns within. 

Passion fires inside. 

Doused again by the cold world.

Portfolio Review

Whew. It is always difficult to extend yourself and let someone else see your work in person. To show them your images one by one and listen to them comment on the body of work.

Good comments on some, a passing glance at others and no recognition on some of your favorites. Did they get it. Did they see the humor? The irony? The juxtaposition? Do they understand the links between the images? Before a juried exhibition with big time curators, editors, photographers and gallerists you have perhaps 5 seconds an image to impress them before they move on to another artists work. I fortunately only had one review and it told me how unprepared I was for an exhibition or review.

I had to glance back at DA to give me confidence to go back out there and continue my work.

One thing that I took from this weekend at PhotoNOLA.

Everything is connected.

So this is my new Mantra as I move forward to create a more cohesive body of work.

Anticipation and tattoos

The lovely Bella again, someone emailed me about using this for a tattoo. I would have never even thought about that. Of course I said yes. Oh and those vintage Bakelite welding goggles are the first item I actually won in a bid off of ebay.

Being prepared is one of those things that I strive for. It makes the shoot more productive, creativity happens but around a structured style. Today and tomorrow I have two beautiful models coming into the studio and I don't feel fully prepared. I have my typical concepts that I want to shoot but I don't have a crystal clear shot list and schedule to work with. Then there is the dynamic of two models. If they do not interact the shoot fails. Having two models is two poses that have to be in sync, two looks that have to be good, two emotions that work together and two expressions perfect.

I have a new ginormous(thanks Brittney for the description) printer that I have been struggling with for the last couple of weeks. With a gallery show in a week and 1 print of 10 done I am really behind the eight ball.

Sarah Takes the Streets of New Orleans

In a departure from studio work I hit the streets with a crew of six early last Sunday morning. Lots of emails and a fairly comprehensive list of what we were shooting and where. Planning it felt like it was a Heist. Getaway drivers, muscle, the computer guy, the director, the last minute guy all of the players were there.

5:00 am I am up grabbing my coffee so that I can make it to the studio to meet Karl, the videographer, Britney, my assistant and Kenny getaway driver, muscle and animal wrangler. I had another shoot the night before so I packed up the gear last night knowing that I am not a morning person. I look out the window to check the weather. Great news it looks like fog. I look again, damn, it's just humidity on the window.

6:00am I am at the studio getting ready and Britney is there just after me. She is sooo reliable. Karl and Kenny arrive shortly after. We load up softboxes and lights that we need for the shoot.

6:20am I get a call from wardrobe/models assistant who is supposed to pick up the lovely model Sarah from the hotel. The model is at the international hotel, right? Is this the right hotel he asks? No the intercontinental. Damn a snafu first thing in the morning, but wait I hear a female voice and laughter in the background. Jokes, my friend has jokes this morning. I hear Sarah say,"It wasn't my idea!"

6:45 am Jackson square parking lot. behind the canon. You know where the president said he would help out New Orleans. We decide to nix the wedding dress because it too hard to get off. Sorry Sarah for making you lug that all the way from S.F. Trenchcoat ready we get Sarah into Jackson Square in front of the Cathedral. The homeless guys are asking a lot of questions like who are you? What are you shooting? Then Sarah walks up and loses the trenchcoat. Silence. Then applause. One of the homeless guys insists he wants a picture to send to his buddy Howie. Stay away from the the model I say shaking my head, nervously clicking off frames. From behind me I hear a booming authoritative Voice. "Sit down Sir!" It's Kenny the muscle, getaway driver and animal wrangler. I hear it again "SIT DOWN SIR!" then I hear the homeless guy apologizing profusely. I am trying to compose the picture and do something but the cathedral is too big the angle wrong and I decide to move on.

Next post Pirates alley.

Dancer

So my next model arrives From England:

Katy T came dancing into the studio and I had only dynamic images in my vision. She was 100% professional and really wanted to make great images. Her knowledge of her body, hair, hands and where everything was relative to the shot was really great to see.

I had her leaping and jumping through out the studio and despite a lens problem we were able to create some of the most memorable images to date for the definewomen.com website. What a treasure to work with and in the end, we both felt that we had great images for our portfolio.

I can't emphasize how nice it is to work with a professional model again. If these are the outtakes , I can't wait to incorporate the other image for the book.