Its Mallory's Birthday!

Happy B Day, Mal! :)

Mike

Nadine and the elbow

Framing your Subject, 2008

Nadine fell and hit her elbow recently and is now sporting a 'cracked' right elbow at the moment. :( Pace yourself with left handed texting and get better Nadine! :)

I also added Like, Dislike, and Cool reaction buttons to the bottom of my blog posts. I did it in a few seconds. Facebook has not added a Dislike button in years despite millions of requests. 

More. Advanced. Than. Facebook.

Mike

Mallory and the bricks

 Mallory & the bricks #3

I have been enjoying shooting in colour. Not sure why, as most of my work has been in black and white. But regardless, with Jennifer and now Mallory, all the recent images from the two shoots were in colour. Vibrant colour. Mallory had this outfit she wasn't likely to wear often and boots that, while they look cool, are a challenge to wear out as they are a bit uncomfortable to walk in, so that made for a cool all-in-black shoot.

When it was warm two weeks ago, we headed to a location I found by chance one day that was shielded from afternoon sun and with interesting textures. And void of cars on a Sunday. Every time I shoot Mallory she gets better, and picks up on things she hadn't before. I am thinking an Art History degree is a handy thing to have as a model.

 Mallory & the brick #1 

 Mallory & the bricks #2

 Mallory & the bricks #4

 Mallory & the bricks #5

More images from this shoot to follow.

Mike

Anyone interested in modeling for outdoor nudes?

Just a quick note.

I went on a location scouting trip last weekend with my friend Mallory.  After a couple of  dead ends - literally dead end country roads, we found a great location not too far from London that will allow for some really cool nudes. Natural forest. Fallen trees. A good amount of natural light without all the canopy leaves grown in yet. Good sight lines and angles available to shoot close up and from a distance.

The spot affords lots of privacy - for the time being. Not really any foot traffic or vehicles. Easy walk to the location. I will have one of my female friends likely act as an assistant/lookout, but Mallory and I saw no one in our walk about the area. You might see some deer, bunnies, and certainly some squirrels, but likely no people. I am thinking some classic black and white nudes amongst the trees.

And as a selling point for someone thinking about it but teetering on the edge because its a touch not summery: there are no mosquitoes. This spot, from what I recall when I was there last a few years ago, is a mosquito haven when its hotter. I certainly won't  be using it then. :)

If you are interested or want to know more, send me a private message.  If you have done nudes before all the better, but if you have been interested in the idea, are comfortable with your body and don't think you would be camera shy, let me know.  Depending on how long we shoot, I will provide up to ten high res images edited and suitable for printing and some more G rated crops suitable for posting on Facebook, etc.



Mike

Jennifer a natural in the outdoors

 Plastic fantastic #1

While my very good friend Jennifer has modeled for me - and for others - before, to this point she has never done nudes for anyone. We talked about that one day, and she said - with little encouragement needed from me, that she wanted to give it a go. Not wanting to wait, when there was a warm blip of weather at the end of March, we headed out to a wooded location with a river near her place and did some shooting.

Plastic fantastic #3

Plastic fantastic #2

I had this idea for some of the shots where she was wearing a sheer rain poncho and boots if it was overcast. So therefore it was sunny - of course. :) Surprisingly, it did keep her initially a touch warmer,  but it did present some challenges with reflections and random blown out elements... :)

Red's river #1

The results were beautiful. She is a stunning woman with great eye contact. Did you know she has had two children? No? Well you certainly can't tell from these shots.

Red's river #2 

  Red's river #3 - detail

The above close up bare shoulders square crop is for Facebook portrait purposes. Facebook doesnt like nudes. Shame. They don't know what they are missing.

Red's river #3

Looking forward to more outdoor nudes this summer. Details to follow.

Mike

Dreadnought Jaclyn

 Dreadnought #1

This was the first set of creatives I have done in a very very long time. It was back in the end of February, a biting cold out, probably only about zero C, but it felt a lot colder on the hands without the sun. I was Jaclyn's last stop on her trip South, and we shot for about 45 minutes or so before packing it in. We got some food at Harry's Char Broiled and spent more time catching up than shooting I think. Then with Cartman being her Tom Tom co-pilot, she headed back home. 

One thing I noticed doing the post work: I am rusty. I missed obvious things. Some basic attention to detail items I don't usually overlook when shooting I didn't catch this time. Some was related to it being cold and rushing a bit. More being out of practice. And none related to Jaclyn. I really wonder if I will fully get back in the groove or not. ** Edit: I wrote that back in March and I have shot a couple more times since then and it is slowly coming back to me...

Having said that, I really like the images and wouldn't do much different. Working in colour, which I don't do often, was interesting. Besides, Jaclyn's dreds - that she made herself - required the colour for the most part.

 

Dreadnought #2

 

Dreadnought #3

Dreadnought V

This was also my 400th post on my blog since July of 07.

Mike

Annie Leibovitz "At Work"

 Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sun Valley, Idaho 1997, 

© Annie Leibovitz

This morning, while having coffee, I read Annie Leibovitz's book At Work. A really good book detailing her life as a photographer. Complete with photos and information on how some of the shoots came about. Worth locating at your bookstore, library or Amazon.

There are dozens of fantastic and readily recognizable images in the book. Such as the Rolling Stone cover of John Lennon's last image taken hours before his murder curled up nude with Yoko Ono. Demi Moore's nude pregnant profile for Vanity fair. The recent shots of Queen Elizabeth II - and the story behind the controversy of that shoot.  I also found out she was the photographer behind the American Express 'Member Since..." campaign in the 1980s.

Aside from the iconic Austrian skier shot of Arnold above - shot while she was lying in the snow during a brief lull in a blizzard, this shot of Nixon's helicopter - which would no longer have the designation of Marine One - leaving the White House after his resignation really struck me. Nixon's absence in the photo, and the red carpet entangling the US Army guards as they held on to their hats in the rotor wash was a great shot. She wrote that other White House pool photographers who had long lenses shot his V salute on the steps and had all but stopped shooting when she snapped this in between shot with her Nikon F before the helicopter was fully aloft. It ran in Rolling Stone.

Richard Nixon leaving the White House. Rolling Stone, Sept 1974

© Annie Leibovitz

One quote in particular from the book that I think rings so true:

"I'm always perplexed when people say that a photograph has captured someone. A photograph is just a tiny slice of a subject. A piece of them in the moment. It seems presumptuous to think that you can get more than that."

Mike

Happy Chocobunny weekend

Mallory shot today with one of my Japanese bronze bunnies. Have a good Easter weekend everyone.  

Mike