I haven’t been doing a very good job of blogging. Here is one photo from each of my shoots in 2018.
In March I photographed Abigail and her aerial hoop. She’s an amazing athlete.
In April, India was next as part of my food series, covered in modified corn starch. Look at how it wrinkles the skin when it dries.
August was a busy month. I got a new lens, the Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8, and asked Melissa to shoot so I could try it out. We spent 4 hours walking around downtown Madison and the UW campus.
My trip to New York City in mid-August worked with three different models.
Anna Russel is a professional ballet dancer. We had an amazing morning in Central Park.
Dane Halo is a Canadian model who was visiting New York, we spent the afternoon in the Meatpacking District.
Jo Patrice was able to secure this amazing rooftop location in Brooklyn.
In September just before classes started Maria was the next in my food series, with a new product from Wilton called Color Mist Food Coloring Spray.
Angie Marie, a model and photographer stopped by in August and was covered with Lemon Pie filling.
And in December, Natalie was back in Madison visiting family and we got in a quick shoot.
I’ve known Alicia for about five years. (You can see more of Alicia here) We’ve worked together a number of times and the photos always turn out amazing. So when she contacted me about doing some pinup type photos I was eager.
One of the things we did is shown above. I have a lofted area that looks over my living room. It’s one of the reasons I bought this unit. Particularly because it lets me lean over and shoot at people laying on the ground. The problem is that I usually forget about it when I’m shooting. So it was nice to actually get to use it.
I am very impressed with the two images above. I think they both look very retro, very much in the pinup style.
Since the begining of the year I’ve been trying to do this series of photos with models covered with various foods. Flour, cocoa, sugar, and others.
The problem was, I’d have tons of people interested, but after a few messages they’d disappear, stop responding. Or maybe some would respond, we’d actually set up a shoot, then at the last minute they’d cancel. Both of these scenario’s happened MANY times. I was begining to think the series was cursed. So I stopped looking for a few months.
Then Elena contacted me, and we actually got to set up something and shoot it! These are the results of that. Elena is covered with flour in this set.
Keesh Lorraine is an amazing model in the Madison area. You can see some of her other work on her Model Mayhem site. I first contacted her about working with gold leaf, such as the ones I’ve done with Rebecca. We ended up going a slightly different direction doing outdoor nudes at Devil’s Lake State Park. While not the first time I’ve visited the park (many times as a boy scout), it was the first time I’d photographed there. And I hadn’t been there in quite a few years.
After stopping at the Visitor’s center for a vehicle sticker, we went to the south side of the lake to climb the east bluff.
In the far left distance you can see the lake, about a third of a mile away. At this point we’re about 200’ above the lake, though we’d only gone 75’ horizontally. I’d wanted to go higher, but, um, I’m not in that good a shape. So we stopped here and got quite a few pictures.
As you can see we’re above the tops of most of the trees. The colors of the rocks, and the lichen really match well with her skin.
This next pictures is my favorite. The diagonals of the rocks, the matching angles of her arms and legs, the straining of her muscles.
On the way back down, we took a little side trail, and found a boulder field much closer to the ground.
That’s right she has super powers. She can defy gravity. She can fly. I have the pictures to prove it. These were taken in the hallway next to the Memorial Union Theater.
So this is a very large post in terms of the amount of pictures. Depending on your connection it might take a while to download them all. We took these pictures just after the last set.
This post isn’t about any particular view that she and I share or differ on. It’s about her apparent non-desire to communicate with her readers. There is no comment system. I could not find an e-mail address anywhere on the site.
I, and many others, especially of my generation and younger, have come to expect the ability to interact with content creators. Be it a musician, photographer, writer, etc., the idea that you’re finished once you’ve created something is very much a last century idea. I know that sometimes in the blogs I follow the comments are more interesting and informative than the original work. I’m not saying that to be detrimental to the creators. The original work is generally outstanding, but the ability to question, appreciate and criticize, especially when paired with the different views, experience and knowledge from people all over the world, makes it better.
Creators that I can’t communicate with seem to be saying “This is what you should think (do, look at, listen to).” rather than “This is what I think (do, look at, listen to).” It’s the difference between a lecture of 300 students, and a discussion with the professor at his/her home. It’s the difference between radio and iTunes. It’s the difference between being passive and being active.
And I would much rather live in a world of active people, who are part of the conversation, than passive people who do exactly as they’re told.
This is the second set with Sydney Max. Again, these were shot on August 20th. The weather this day was difficult from a photographic standpoint. The temperature was good, but the sun kept moving in and out of the clouds. In one frame the sky looks like it’s about to storm, in the next frame it’s a beautiful summer day. To try to compensate for that we moved to the chairs under a small tree.
