Two short topics today, as I'm jet-lagging horribly. Two hours sleep last night and in to the office by 4AM. This isn't normal.

OK, the topics are Pubic Hair and My Photographic Limits.

On pubic hair: It's not my business what women choose to do with their personal grooming, so unless I have some specific photograph idea that requires it one way or another (hardly ever), I don't care. What I like personally isn't any of your business ... but I'll tell you anyway. I don't care. (Kinda weasel-worded wasn't it? True though.) Same goes for tats and piercings. The jury's still out on scarification.

On my photographic limits: Provided I'm photographing attractive naked women in my own style, photo limits are almost entirely dependent on what the woman wants to do. I will not shoot anything that involves what I judge to be significant real pain, blood or shit, no matter what the model wants. Of those things, the only one directly requested has been pain. While I'm not really into bondage, it often involves some intimate handling of a naked chick, so I still do that when asked or suggest it when I know the model has an interest. I also used to be a Boy Scout, so it's good to keep in practice.

Uma, bound in our hotel room in Chicago. I haven't shown any of her with the dildo on top of the TV set yet because I need to assure myself that the images on the TV are fair use and I won't get sued by some c@rtoon network.

Alright, this one HAS been digitally manipulated, though I'm pretty sure I could have done it in the darkroom, too. I kept seeing Angela as an elf. For two frames I reached out and held her ear back with my fingers, which caused the out of focus condition, which in this case adds that romantic Edwardian feeling to the picture. In my cheap version of PhotoShop I used the clone stamp to continue the edges of her ears until they met in the point. That also removed my thumb.

You know, I think this is the very first time I've tried digital manipulation to actually change a feature of a model or of a photograph. Now I'm going to be getting all sorts of requests for elf pictures, just wait and see.

This could be my new thing! And faeries. Gotta do faeries too, if I'm going to be in the elf business.

No goddam gnomes though.

I'm trying to get back on San Diego time so I stayed up until midnight or so last night. But I woke up at 11AM, so I've probably caught up on sleep, though probably not on the right schedule. That's OK as the dayjob owes me some time off for weekend work and I'll can check in late tomorrow. Rode around on my seriously hot & green Kawasaki Z1000, running errands and picking up a Patagonia rain shell and some drugs (prescription), and generally hooning about. It's so damned hot and muggy here that riding a fast bike wearing a Hawaiian shirt seems like a good idea. Feels like a good idea. Back here in the mildewed studio it again seems like a particularly good idea.

Archie Summers at Lone Sloan Delirius has critiqued this blog. At some point I'll comment on his critique, but right now I'm sitting back to see what other comments might appear first. 'Nuff said for now.

This is Phelanie Angel's (probably not her real name) butt. In November or December of 2004 she came down from Orange County for a bondage shoot. Though warned, she brought her boyfriend, who I made wait in the car outside in the rain. The car had a broken driver's side window. I'm pretty sure he was miserable. Phelanie just kept wanting to shoot more and more, but finally I was out of ideas and had about two remaining frames of 35mm Tri-X left. She suggested this and we shot it. Please look at the fingers. It is the most memorable of the pictures, though the rest can also be seen at my erotic site.

I'm wearing mismatched socks. I left Seoul- Inchon Airport at 5:35PM Saturday and arrived back in San Diego 2:00PM Saturday. My studio had been flooded by the new neighbors while they were cleaning up the warehouse next door and my place now is mildewed and a few things have been ruined.

Fortunately I don't have to write today because we have for the very first time a guest model, Molly, pictured here.
__________________

I often look back on my four years in Miami and wonder if the experiences I had there have harmed or helped me on my journey to become the person I am today. I love and respect beautiful photos, whether they be fashion, art or something in between. I used to just think that they were pretty pictures in a magazine, but after four years of "behind-the-scenes" work, I know how much goes into making the "perfect" photo.

I originally went to Miami with the hopes of becoming a model, my dreams pumped up by a then-mediocre photographer who needed someone to support him. I was 3 inches too short (although still tall by normal people standards) and although I was skinny, I was clueless when it came to styling myself. I was an awkward 19 year old who wanted nothing more than to rebel against everyone's expectations. So I called my advisor at college, took a leave of absence and flew down to Miami with nothing but $200 and a few new student credit cards. I spent the next year supporting the phototographer. His film developing costs went on my credit cards and I spent my time trying to convince girls who had no chance of making it to shell out $500 for a test shoot with him. I even worked at a little no name agency so I could funnel him more testing work. He kept telling me that I shouldn't go to the open calls to show the bookers my polaroids, but to just tag along with him when he dropped off prints...that they couldn't help but notice me. By the time I tired of this game and got up the courage to go by myself, I was almost 21, too old to be developed, I had gained 5 pounds (not a lot on my frame, but enough to put off the bookers) and I was itching to go back to school and do something serious with my life.

Feeling that I didn't deserve to return to my prestigious college up north, I enrolled in an art school's fashion design program. I picked the program at the urging of the photographer/boyfriend/manipulator. Do I regret it now? No. I can sew a masterpiece, I can sketch a dream outfit and I can shop without buying junk. I met some amazing and some not so amazing artists, many of who have gone on to great careers. During my 2 years at art school, I worked as a wardrobe stylist for this photographer's test shoots. Did I have the talent? Not really. I could certainly put together a decent outfit, but I was no ultra creative stylist. It was his excuse to collect more money from the girls he sucked in. I rarely actually got that money, since we lived together he would just claim it was going to pay the bills and such.

My father rescued me. He offered me a summer job working for him after meeting the boyfriend for about 5 minutes. He knew he couldn't be trusted. Those 3 months away from Miami were a major wake-up call. When I got back, I dumped the photographer, moved into my own apartment and enrolled in a liberal arts college to finish my B.A. I burned my "modeling" pictures and changed my phone number.

What does all this have to do with photography and Don's work specifically? I posed for Don a few years back, during my art school phase. At the time, I was pushed into it by the boyfriend photographer. I thought he was encouraging me to model, but now I think he was just trying to push down my will even more, by making me do something I wasn't sure about. I'm glad I did it. Don made me feel incredibly comfortable, not just in the apartment we were shooting in, but in my own skin. He made me feel beautiful. It was a feeling I hadn't experienced in a very long time. Sometimes I worry that someone I know will come across the photos and not approve. Or worse, that it could effect mine or my husband's career at some point in the future. But when it comes down to it, I love those photos and I will never be ashamed of them. I look at them and I see me. The real me. Someone who was in hiding but was revealed in the film. By stripping away all the clothes and coverups we hide behind everyday, Don got to my true self. For the moment of those photos, I was unafraid of life and proud of myself, both inside and out.

I don't know if I would pose nude again. It was something I needed to do back then, although I didn't know it at the time. It started my return to conciousness and myself. My life is calmer these days and a real job, a wonderful husband and possible kids in the future occupy my time. Fashion still lies just below my conciousness and I sew a creation every now and then, but I no longer live and breathe it. I think anyone who needs to feel empowered should make a routine of stripping off their clothes and posing, whether it be in front of the mirror, their significant other or a camera. You'll be amazed how wonderful it feels to be free.
__________________

Molly and I shot in November 2001, in a condo right on the water in South Miami Beach, Florida. I'll be stopping by to visit her and her lucky husband sometime in September if things go as planned.

I love happy endings.

I'm not feeling well today. Last night a bunch of Korean colleagues and I visited a good restaurant and karaoke place. I'd been warned about those places, but didn't listen with as much care as I should have. The results are still with me. I'm pretty sure I brought a woman back to the hotel too (sorry - no pictures), but she left around 3AM or so.

So this morning around 6AM I jumped out of bed and checked my email before I fell back with a horrible headache and upset stomach. Of course. Two hours later I got up, got dressed and made it to the lobby to catch the shuttle to where I'm working and turned around when I felt the cold sweat that precedes commode-hugging. Lots of water, some aspirin and a few more hours sleeping and I eventually did go in to work. I still haven't eaten today and may not ever eat again. I'm not real sure what I ate yesterday, but I know I turned down some things that are not food in the U.S.

Soju. This is the deceitful 40-proof liquor I was shooting last night. I'll never touch that stuff again. At least until the next trip to Korea.

It was a good party and I'm still paying the price...

This is Cori, photographed in a motel room in Oceanside, California, last year.

It seems to be the Holy Grail of every guy that's picked up a camera and photographed more than his family, his dog and his car, to have his pictures published in a magazine. I sure know I wanted it. It's just not that hard to do. And here's why:

Uma just messaged me saying she missed me. (I like it when my models say things like that. It makes me feel all gooshy inside.) Anyway I went to my picture files and found I'd already shown the two best images of her, including the one that's printed and in my big art folio, and that I'd also shown the next ten or so best images. But her friendly message met me at the laptop here in Korea this morning and I wanted to use a picture of her. So I dug this one out - not in the top dozen of her, but an OK one - and used it. I was desperate for specific content.

Look around at that newsstand. Pictures in the magazines range from stuff by the usual famous guys that readers haven't tired of yet to really bad snapshots of Miss Tiller Disk, USA, in Farm Equipment and Hot Babes Quarterly. Art and photo editors desperately search for pictures to illustrate stories, for content appropriate to the magazine and even for features about photographers. And they're all deadline-driven. They are desperate for specific content.

So why aren't they knocking down the doors of every guy with a camera? Two reasons, mostly. Art buyers don't know they exist. And the pictures the photographers have aren't anything the editors specifically want.

Now an editor may want a photograph that includes a specific governor's wife eating lunch at a specific place, and we pretty girl shooters are just shit outta luck. Stock agencies send out requests for specific content all the time.

For us though, art buyers may be interested in our stuff if it is:

a) Unique - no one else does it that way;
b) Outstanding - no one else does it as well;
c) Flexible - anything anyone does we can do better;
d) Is specific enough to interest a specialty pub.

How do we get art buyers to know we exist?

a) Have a very popular website that will hit the top of search engines for unexpected searches;
b) Send them prints (no CDs or emails);
c) Have someone harass them about us;
d) Get lucky.

This is by no means a full tutorial on getting into magazines. I've been in several, and a few books and some top end websites, but I am not a commercial photographer so I really suck at actively selling pictures. My lucky break is that I've been on the web for so long that my three websites have climbed search engine rankings by simply surviving, and art buyers regularly stumble across them.

Just keep in mind that as I scrambled looking for a picture of Uma to put up here, art buyers are scrambling to find content. And as this isn't anywhere near my best picture, it is good enough for the blog. Buyers make the same sorts of choices all the time because of the same sorts of pressures.

Uma von Diehl, photographed in my hotel room in Arlington, Texas, last year. I'd like to believe she was thinking of me when I took this picture, but I doubt it.

Deep thoughts? No, not today. This is Linda Tran, a few years back. One time I was having lunch or coffee with her and her S/O up in Hollywood and I think there was some spat or other going on. I told Linda that if she decided to dump him, she should let me know. Linda replied, "Oh, you'll be the first to know" (implying, of course, that I'd be the last to know). It was an outstanding comeback to that bit of lechery on my part. The hand belongs to Josielyn, who I only met that once. The rest of her can be seen on my Erotic Photographs site.

The weather's cooled down here in the Republic of Korea, but now my back is twinging a bit so no hard walking this morning. The job isn't going as smoothly as I'd expected, but we'll work through that, I suppose. In any case, I'll be back here in October.


BONUS PICTURE! Tomiko playing with herself in my studio. She was about the hottest 40-year-old I'd ever met. Since then I've met and photographed a few other seriously hot women that age. This is a really good thing, you know.

Angela here just messaged me to ask if I was mad at her. I'm not, but she's in Newfoundland, Canada, and I'm in Changwon, Korea, and our schedules are so out of synch that it's silly. And I've worked about 12 hours a day (counting business socializing) including Saturday, so I've been able to knock out the occasional post here, but haven't done much else.

This picture is out of focus - see how well you can do with a Pentax 6x7 manual camera one-handed in low light, shooting through a mirror. While trying to avoid looking too fat. And otherwise weird. Angela, of course, always looks perfect because she ... uh ... always looks perfect. Anyway, lost shadow detail, nothing in focus and motion blur, but sly old me feeling up a gorgeous babe. That makes this a trophy picture, something I often do, with better or worse results. And while my kids may be appalled by them, my grandkids will think old granddad was some kinda swinger back in the olden days.

Foto vérité. The women shown in this imperfect photograph were in an exclusive sexual relationship. The one on the bottom controlled the relationship and appeared feminine, while the follower and more masculine woman is shown here on top. When I made this series of pictures I was trying hard to remove construction from the work, and was using fewer models and more "real people." (I also thought that ultra-high contrast was good.) A different photograph of this couple is featured in Femmes: Masterpieces of Erotic Photography, an anthology book edited by Michelle Olley.

I will never be a street photographer. I don't want to offend people and am far too shy to just point a camera in someone's face and expose. And in a way I do think that the camera steals part of the soul. This case, for example. I have completely lost track of these women, but here, several years later, I am discussing what I could understand of their lives and showing a photograph that reveals their bodies. A photograph, fixed forever, makes them available for anyone to study and to judge. This was their choice - it was given, not taken.

And now for something completely different. Richard has accurately described male ennui at Lone Sloan Delirius. That blog doesn't get as much traffic as its creative writing deserves. Go read for male and female perspectives, fantasies and insights.

Mr. Song, last night we had a wide-ranging cultural conversation that included the observation that in Korea, cuteness was the most highly valued trait in women and girls. As we talked I mentioned that I prefer dangerous women and mentioned my two muses and another woman that I know and have photographed frequently. Beautiful is an adjective that must always apply in any case. Robin here is an example of a beautiful, dangerous woman. She was my muse for a period several years ago. She was ill-tempered, drank too much, kept bringing me beautiful girls in clubs who mostly wanted to go home with her, though it followed that they would also have to go home with me for that to happen. She missed paying photoshoots because she didn't want to get out of bed and sometimes used chemicals that made her even more intense. On a long road trip one time she and Masha (see below) kept kissing and playing with each other in the front seat simply to annoy me. It worked of course.

The two other examples I used of the dangerous women I adore are somewhere below. They are Masha, the Russian girl who sometimes drew blood and often needed spanking, and BonBon who has a whole lot of history for one so young and innocent-looking.

(Only three laps of the lake today because of the early schedule.)

Robin, photographed in my studio four or five years ago, when she was my muse. We didn't part on good terms.

Notice the grain in the photograph of Myra from last year. I was using a Pentax 645 back then, and probably exposing the film at ASA 3200. The lights in that German hotel room were fluorescent bulb replacements that appear bright but meter about half the light that the tungsten bulbs they replace would. They also confuse B&W film in that they are missing much of the red part of the spectrum, making light skin appear darker than it is. Myra is a very white girl, but appears dusky in this series of photographs.

Now my practice is to go buy tungsten bulbs if the hotel only has fluorescent replacements. I like to use 100W soft white bulbs to minimize the necessary film speed and exposure time. Often I'll remove lamp shades to give more and harder light. I'm also using a 6x7 camera now, which gives something like 50% more film area, minimizing grain even further.

Myra, photographed in Kiel, Germany, early last year. I also photographed her a second time when I stayed a week in Hamburg. Her hair color always changes and her tattoos grow quickly. I'll shoot her again, next opportunity.

Bloody 'ell!

I'm posting because it's raining out and not suitable for what I now consider the daily "brisk walk" 'round the lake.

This 'ere's a colour photograph of fresh young Angela in a style I seldom do: syrupy sweet. The photograph is - Angela isn't. In person, she can be delightful. Over a distance, she can be irritating enough to make you want to spank her. And if you're inclined to spanking pretty girls anyway, she plays the brat well enough. The saucy wench. The vixen.

Angela is an archetype of the girls our mothers would warn us about if mothers had imagined their baby boys would ever survive high school girls and graduate to the real mistresses of nuance.

Damn but it was fun photographing this (almost) dangerous bad(ish) girl.

Angela, photographed last month in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. I haven't finished scanning that photoshoot yet - more when I return to The States.

This photograph is especially for Mr. Song and Richard. The model, Chantel, was photographed in my hotel room in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in November of 2005. She originally came to the shoot to sort of protect Ashley, who is also pictured frequently below. Chantel is Native American, very tall, very shapely and beautiful without makeup.

Despite what this looks like, Chantel was not sleeping. She had to leave first, so I did a few portraits and several pictures of the girls together. Later, I flew Ashley to San Diego to work with me and other photographers in the area. No doubt I'll photograph each of them another time, as the world is a very small place.

I'm eating more and more Korean food. The switch wasn't cold turkey, but gradual as I've found that radical changes in the diet often provoke radical reactions in the digestive tract. In addition I'm out walking laps around a lake across from the hotel, along with several dozen other geriatric ward escapees (who, for the most part, outwalk me).

The only way to escape the terrible, oppressive heat and humidity is to walk very early, so I've been out and about by 5:30 every morning. Evenings seem to be filled with too much food and drink, and I do think I'll have to cut back on that for my own health.

This is Uma and Uma's ass, photographed last year in my hotel in Arlington, Texas, USA. I don't think I've shown this one yet. Maybe I should create a database to keep better track.

Well, I'm in South Korea now. Didn't post yesterday as the internet connection in the Grand Hyatt in Seoul cost money and I think, in principle, that if I'm already paying $300 a night the connection should be included. Guess the Hyatt folks think differently.

Now I'm in the Avenue Hotel in the industrial city of Chang Wan, near Pusan, where both the rate is lower and the hook-up is free. Just got back from eating at Fridays (**blush**). I know, but I've been eating Korean and already needed a break. For lunch I'd had something realy hot over octopus (with rice) and breakfast was the universal (except America) breakfast of cheese, fruit and bread.

Last night in Seoul I walked around a bit, stopping for too much beer too often. A couple of times women of questionable virtue tried to drag me bodily into darkened doorways gesturing the unspeakable things they (apparently) wanted to do to me. I managed to maintain my virtue the entire evening despite the beer, due to a great fear of hygenic risks. This evening in Chang Won, a stroll through the streets surrounding the hotel mostly revealed younger folks out for a Saturday night of clean fun. As of now, I like Chang Wan better than Seoul.

Oh, we took a train from the extreme north of the country to the extreme south today. The KTX train hit about 186 mph on the way down, blasting through a zillion tunnels while providing the passengers with a quiet, comfortable ride. Why can't we do that in the States?

The girls in this picture are Ashley and Chantel, photographed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in November of 2005. There are numerous pictures that show the rest of their wonderful young bodies in earlier posts. This picture might also be in an earlier post, but it's become impractical to scan all 160 posts each time to make sure I'm not duplicating any.

Edit: I just changed the picture, as the one that I'd posted had been used and only a few weeks back. I don't think I've shown this before...but I could be wrong.

Marriah and Trish in a West Hollywood motel room not too long ago. OK, maybe too long ago. I know because Trish keeps asking me where the pictures are. Well, I got over my head and am behind and I'm leaving for a couple of weeks and won't be able to catch up. Sorry Lapis, Uma, Trish, Marriah and Angela. Real close on Lapis and Uma. Quite a bit to do on Trish, Marriah and on Angela.

I didn't think I could save this one. It was out of focus and as I've run out of canned air the neg is full of dust. Spotted as best I could and then drove contrast up to lose hair detail and such and left the image more sketchy and 35mm-feeling than most I do. There is no real detail anywhere in this picture so it relies on "feeling." It sorta works. As I typed this I scanned another that works better, but I'll save it for later.

It may be awhile before I post again. If you're dropping by and get bored, drill down to the archives. I used to be pretty raunchy by more recent standards, if you like that sort of thing. And there was a much broader range of stuff to talk about when I hadn't talked about anything yet.

Or, just hang on...I'll be back online once I get to the hotel room in Changwon, South Korea.

The negative here was almost perfect. There was detail in the sheets, but in order for the skin to work I bumped the contrast by one grade and decided to leave the resulting blown out sheets alone. I may go back and burn in the very bottom at some point, but I'll have to think about that first. It really depends on where it will be shown. Here on the blog with the black background it's very important to make sure there's some true black in the picture or the darkest places will look grey and washed out. But there's no need to burn corners to frame it. Against a white background as you'd see if you're using an RSS feed to view this blog, it may look horrible.

Back in the olden days commercial work was shown mounted on black board and art on white board. Commercial was mostly color and art was mostly B&W. When you think about it, those backgrounds make sense. Black, setting off the vibrant color and white, not distracting from what were mostly exquisite zone system greys.

Now with computer backgrounds set and defaulted to, it's important to know what the image will be shown against. On my old site I used medium grey, which masked all sorts of density errors in both color and B&W. Sometimes when finding an image to show here I'll put it up and realize just how horrible it is. Like that big lens picture down a few posts. Usually I'll either rescan the image or just adjust the histogram on the jpeg (compounding detail compression) and put it up.

Live and learn. And never throw out negs or raw scans (or RAW files), 'cause you'll always have to go back and use the images in the future.

Edit: Whoops! This is Lapis, photographed in my hotel room in Chicago five or six weeks back.

Angela, shown here about a month back in St. John's, Newfoundland, should be arriving in the Bahamas today. Have a great trip, kid!

I rode the dirt bike ('02 KLR650 Kawasaki w/40K miles) to work today. The brown leather Corbin saddle cradled my butt and the controls were intuitive as I dived between cages on the 11 mile ride. I've ridden this bike all over West of the Mississippi and did my first Iron Butt Saddlesore 1000 on it.

It's not fast, but will still beat any car in the stoplight sprints...up to maybe 50 yards. All this at 45 miles per gallon of regular gasoline. I've got two bikes that are faster and one that's a little more comfy, and the Ranger pickup now, but this big nimble thing is still my favorite. It's got the miles on it, but it's paid for, costs me $70 a year for insurance and will still take me anywhere in the country I may want to ride.

OK, enough sentimentality. Heading to Korea in a couple of days. Haven't decided whether to take a camera yet. I'm told that finding models there would be easy. I'll have to think about it.

When I was a kid and too young to simply take a girl home (to the folks' place) to make out we'd head for one of those parking places everyone knows about. That was a small town and we'd find some road overlooking the lake or the town itself, but it would always be out of town. It hadn't occurred to me until last night that urban kids have the same practice, but out of town isn't an option.

Now maybe I don't stay up that late often enough, but around midnight the industrial street outside the studio started filling up with parked cars. Mostly imports, but a flash Cadillac and a few Mustangs too. For the most part, young cars. They'd park, the lights would go off, at some point the driver and passenger would exchange seats with some slamming of doors and giggling. Three times yelling matches broke out, all three because some drunk guy got locked out of his own (presumably) car by the girlfriend who'd had enough.

Around 1AM a police cruiser started making passes down the street, not spotlighting or anything, just letting the kids know (s)he was there. Like the sheriffs would do at the popular places back home. And by 2AM the street was empty again.

Ah, to be young and making out with a new date in a parked car. It does make you wonder what they were thinking when they bought these cars without serious back seats though.

Except the Cadillac guy. He knew what he was doing.

This is Emalie, photographed in a fine old hotel in Boulder City, Nevada, several years ago. She contacts me every once in awhile wanting to shoot again. Then disappears again.

Some in-yer-face Lindsay Lee attitude for a Saturday night. Me, I'm gonna go read and drink beer. 'Course if I drink beer, there's a pretty good chance I'll post something outrageous later. Or maybe I'll just fall asleep.

Tomorrow is laundry day. Even us semi-famous blogging erotic photographers gotta wash clothes sometime.

How mundane...

Looks like I will finish Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before sometime tonight. It's been a tough, but very rewarding, read. Eco has a way of taking medieval history, philosophy, religion, science (natural philosophy) and atmosphere and tying them together in deep, intricate, multi-layered novels. As he himself has pointed out before (and in this book), novels are more real than history because in a novel, there's no question about what happened. Romeo and Juliet died. Period. Who can be that confident about facts of the sixteenth century?

Want to try some Eco? First read Name of the Rose. Or Foucault's Pendulum. Read for the reading, as you would travel for the journey and not for the destination.

Enjoy!

This is, of course, the beautiful elfin Angela, photographed in a hotel in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, three or so weeks ago.

Talked a little about a specific long lens below a couple of posts. Now let's talk about really short lenses. This photograph was made of Trish and Marriah using a 45mm f4 lens on the Pentax 6x7. In that format it qualifies as a super-wide or ultra-wide and is the equivalent of about a 20mm lens in 35mm format. The difference between an ultra-wide and a fisheye lens is that a fisheye is not corrected for distortion (and fisheyes generally are shorter yet). A fisheye will not render straight lines as straight (unless they pass through the lens axis) or parallel lines as parallel.

Of course the parallel vertical lines in this picture aren't parallel either, but they would have been if I'd kept the camera level instead of tilting it down like I did.

I've been using the short lens a lot lately. Someone said once that as you get older you start preferring wide angle lenses. I don't know that's true as I still use a normal about half the time, but I do appreciate the ability to put more story into the photographs. This is a change from the tight simple work I was doing only a few years back using moderate long lenses.

Tilting a wide-angle on the lens axis will give strange results and the images will get all goobery. Some folks like that, but I don't. Maybe later. Tilt the lens axis itself and you get wildly diverging parallels. I do like that almost cartoonish effect. The main thing for me though is that I can include interesting context with a wide that I'd have to work harder to show with a normal or long lens. This picture is obviously set in a hotel room, and the actions of the players are also obvious.

One of the downsides of wides is that they generaly are slower than normals. Of course money buys speed if the camera maker offers speed, but I'll most often make up for slower glass with faster film. In medium format, it's a good option.

Had a fisheye for a 6x7 a long time back. Paid a whole lot of money for it and never used it beyond the initial novelty pictures. It seems that the lesson of the 800mm below and the fisheye is that most photography can be done with a small number of conventional lenses, and novelty lenses are only a good investment if one values them for something other than their utility. As in the pic below - Oh, what a big lens you have, Mr. Nelson...

Just decided to post this image of Uma tied up in our Chicago hotel room last month so any surfers coming to the blog won't first see that lens pic below and click away too quickly.

I stumbled across a goofy old color burlesque photograph I shot for SignOnSanDiego, the San Diego Union-Tribune website a few years ago. Gotta post it sometime. It'll be another one of those I'll have to quickly post above.

Oh, hell...






The club was called "Heaven and Hell." Fun place.

By the way, my trip to Korea has been postponed for a week. Nothing to do with missles. More to do with O-rings, really.

Me, circa 1986, proudly showing off my pre-WWII German 800mm f5 pre-set lens. Man, I thought that was hot stuff. First I bought it then tried to make a business plan to rationalize the decision. I figured I'd go shoot surfers and sell prints. Those old long board guys at Tourmaline Beach should be able to ante up ten or twenty bucks.

Well here's the deal. It's a pre-set. That means the aperture doesn't stop down automatically. That means wide open at 800mm it has a tissue thin depth of focus. Which means no moving targets. (That steering wheel thing is for focusing and really needed two hands.) If it was stopped down to where it had a foot or so of focus (say f22 or so) then it was hard to see through and shutter speed was up to 1/60th with ASA100 film. I finally got a technique down to focus in front of the surfer, then shoot when he passed through the focal plane. So I did make some acceptable pictures.

Trouble was, those old long board guys were cheap as hell and I sold one fucking print.

I did get some decent photographs of the moon.

Trivia quiz: What's the right exposure for photographing the moon? Got the answer? Post it as a comment.

(Sorry about the crappy picture. It was scanned from a flyer I used back then and isn't worth trying to clean up on PhotoShop.)

When the gangbangers got too thick driving by checking out the fashion action, I had to bring the model and lights back inside the studio. She was in looking out and I was taking down the hotlights when one lit the door with her behind it and I liked it so I asked Cami to undress and look out for one quick pic before the lowriders dragged by again.

That's my studio's security door. Gotta have one here. In any case, this is the result.

This is another example of the old work, and I think this one will be in "Photo" of Hong Kong too. I can't remember what I sent them and haven't seen my copies yet. Hope they get here pretty soon so I can mail them out to the models I can still locate. Every girl wants a tear sheet...

Art buyers always want the old stuff. Right now a bunch of my old stuff (and a few new ones) are featured in Photo magazine of Hong Kong. The photographs are mostly similar to this one of Laura - done with push-processed 35mm Kodak Ektachrome 320T under ambient lights at night on the street. (Hmmm, that link is to next month's contents page ... I've moved on into history it seems. Fame is so ephemeral.)

Pushing slide film is the same as pushing B&W in that the contrast goes up and detail will be lost in shadow and/or highlights. And grain starts getting big. Metering becomes very important in order to select which detail to lose and which to keep. I usually choose to meter the light falling on the face into the light source rather than into the lens. That assures I'll get deep shadows but good detail on the brightest part of the face. The way incident metering is taught is that one points the meter toward the lens, and that does apply when the film is expected to cover all detail, but it doesn't work as well when contrast will inevitably drive shadows or highlights beyond the film's capabilities.

Another similar photo of Laura was posted back in April. I think she took a smoke break and I kept shooting. There's some motion in her arm and you can see she's drawing on the cigarette. I'm not real sure when this shoot happened. Maybe 2000 or 2001. I'd first met her when she flew up to Billings, Montana, for a shindig a bunch of fashion shooters had there every year, then later flew to San Diego from Missouri to shoot with me. She is one of those models who shows up as kind of a gangly ditzy geek girl and transforms into the classic fashion model as required. Watching the transformation is always huge fun.

Laura, photographed on some street in San Diego back at the turn of the century. Probably with Ektachrome 320T pushed to ASA3000.

When Baron Klaus von Himmelkopf finally got the portraits of his daughters that he'd commissioned from Flemmish painter Jan van Bahnz he decided that his daughters were beautiful, something he hadn't noticed before. Knowing now just how marriageable his daughters were he decided to cement that concept in the heads of all by commisioning photographic portraits. After the interminable sitting (of which he was not a part) and the new scientific process was completed, the portraits were delivered, but alas, his two beautiful daughters now had warts and no chins to speak of and were rendered wretched.

The problem with photography is that it sometimes tells the truth. Immediately after the very first photographic portrait was completed, photographers were endeavoring to change lighting, focus and perspectives to flatter their subjects so they might have repeat customers. As such, photography seldom tells the truth. Some postmodernists have made random photographs in such a way that there is little human input to the process in an effort to make photographs that show truth, no matter how trivial. Others have, by selecting perspective (where you stand) and making other choices, chosen to exaggerate selected truth and separate it from other less important truths.

Photographers should read Sontag's On Photography. Every photographer I know hates it. But the hate is driven by some truths we don't really want to hear. It is the best book on the impact of photography on our culture ever written.

This is Angela on the top of my wardrobe. She wanted to go up there. I think she looks quite catlike.

Among my family, I'm known for my distain of holidays and birthdays and anniversaries and such. But the 4th of July is the rare commemoration of a real event of overreaching importance and human courage. This isn't a blanket appreciation of veterans or those who died or mothers in general. It is a commemoration of the specific actions of a small number courageous men of The Enlightenment.

The creation of a nation isn't something everyone gets to do, and the creation of one based on entirely new, untested ideals even less so. This was an age of kings and their divine rights and such. But it was an age of thought as well and philosophers were speculating about how things "should be" versus how they actually were. Thought about the nature of nature was mixing with thought on the nature of God and while the Founders of The United States of America gave a nod to Divinity, most were clearly sceptical of Divinity as fact. They were also careful to assure that Divinity have nothing at all to do with the functions of the secular nation. (We're slipping now.)

There have been ups and downs. Downs have included our Civil War where we almost lost the whole thing. Ups included the decisions to assist Free Europe in both World Wars, despite those who wanted us to maintain our borders and not interfere. There have been a large number of both ups and downs over the centuries. The United States is far from perfect, being, after all, governed by the imperfect.

From my own point of view the next three experiments in the supremacy of human freedom will be The European Union, China and India. One or all of these will likely replace the United States as the major superpower.

The EU has a legacy of Humanist thought to build on. It has old infrastructure. And it's struggling trying to make everyone happy, but in the process no one really is yet. I hope it works, but unless clear thinking replaces stratified bureaucracy, it won't. As we can see here a nation of lawyers and a nation of law are not the same thing.

China and India really have no choice but to roll over as their people will decide their fates. As a fan of Capitalism, it's interesting to watch how it grows in both countries. But I also think we may be living in the age when Capitalism is replaced by something else. Capitalism requires scarcity to drive markets and material scarcity is more and more becoming a thing of the past. Will something else, i.e., information or experiential scarcity, change the nature of Capitalism?

I don't know, but it will be interesting to watch as it happens.

In the mean time I will enjoy the only holiday that really makes sense to me. I may even bust a few caps into the sky tonight.

(This is Lindsay Lee at her defining moment. Let's imagine it involves fireworks.)

Edit: Because of a comment by Lone Sloan Delirius I would like to add a few other things to the "downs:" Slavery, which was abolished in the US quite awhile after it was in the UK and other places and only after it was no longer economically sound. The incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII. The geocide against Native Americans in the 19th Century. To the upside I will add that we have the resilience AND the social structure to acknowledge those horrible things we as a country have done, see that they do not happen again, and get back to life. Read his comment.

Guest photographer Marek Mezyk from New Jersey. I've known him for years and enjoy watching his work improve and his universe expand. I'll be meeting up with Marek in Toronto over New Years:

On occasion I go though my old photo- graphs. I don't have all that much but I definitely have some that carry some sort of a story. I took a break for two years away from photography. The reason for the break is not important but the effect of the break had a profound influence on understanding myself both prior and after and thus making me look back at the photographs with much different appreciation I looked at some today. I must have shot these some 4 years ago at least. There were of 2 particular models. I no longer know what happened to neither of the two. I don't even remember one of their names. I remember them very well because the shoots were so much fun and so many good images came out of so little effort. We just clicked (individually with both).

Meeting new models is something I appreciate about photography. Who wouldn't like to meet pretty girls and get to know them with the shield of a camera? I do need to say however that non-commercial shooting carries different freedoms that allow getting to know the models. But then there are the models which after I shoot I care little to keep in touch once the CD or prints are exchanged.

There is something to be said for the models that re-appear in my work over time. It is going though those images that I learn and see where my work has been going. For me my photographs have something to them like a journal to a writer. I can read my old photographs and see what I chose to emphasize (her lips, hips, hands, breasts,.) and none of that has changed now but I just do it better (or different) until one day I will sit back at it again and say I was all wrong back then and I need to do it yet another way.

The image is of Nel. She is a great model for the way she enjoys being photographed. Her personality comes though the photographs no matter what settings I put her into. Nel is a truly versatile and great model to work with. One that with time will make me see more of myself in the images then I do today.

-Marek Mezyk

There are something like 150 of you that come back every other day or so (or seventy-five that visit every day, or 300 every fourth day - the counter isn't all that specific). Thanks. Let me know if you'd like me to type about anything in particular. I have strong opinions on things of which I'm totally ignorant and am always happy to share them.

This is Angela. I had breakfast with her on a Sunday morning in St. John's, Newfoundland. The waitress asked what we wanted and I defered to Angela. The waitress said I could order first because it was Fathers' Day. I said, "I'm not her father," and the waitress blushed nicely and scurried away. She came back later and made some interesting asides, but I wasn't gonna try to explain anything at that point.

I've stocked up on books for the Korea trip. Picked up a map of Korea, Prime by Poppy Z. Brite, Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins and Days of Obligation by Richard Rodriguez.

I may have some of Eco's The Island of the Day Before left to keep me entertained on the airplane. I will be spending one weekend on the island of Jeju, which I'm told is a resort. I'm not good at resorting, but I guess finding a comfy chair in a shady saloon somewhere shouldn't be too difficult.

I was planning to write something about the relative acceptability of photographic nudity, sexual or not, in various parts of the U.S., but it's like beating a dead horse. I guess we'll see how it works in resort areas in Korea pretty soon. Couldn't find a model there, so I may just take the digital camera along for something to hang around my touristy neck.

Inventing ideas isn't easy. Mostly ideas aren't new; mostly they're borrowed from someone who borrowed them from someone else. The best we can do is modify them with new twists that someone else will borrow later and hope that our twists will then be incorportated into the litany of photography, most likely uncredited.

Here is an example of a failed idea. I had the opportunity to often see a dear friend of mine when she woke up in the morning, and as I knew she was beautiful I thought it would be marvelous to photograph her first thing. She agreed. This is the best of the lot.

Leslie, far too early, several years back.

Trish wanted something she could show at MySpace. That meant I had to crop out the good parts. This is the result. Still and all it's kind of a neat picture. I focused through the mirror and left all the foreground out of focus. That's Marriah all out of focus, being sat upon by Trish. She might have been tied spread-eagled, but I can't remember.

Unfortunately not too many of the pictures showed none of the naughty bits. I guess I just like naughty bits and want them in the frame.

Chatting with Angela right now about the last post. She's fine with it. Damn, she's cool for a Canadian.

"To survive, you must tell stories." From page 207 of Umberto Eco's marvelous The Island of the Day Before. This short sentence caught me by surprise. This time I'd been drinking a bunch of Coors, sort of celebrating the new pickup and having walked continuously for three hours while the Rhino Lining was sprayed in the bed. Lots of exercise, lots of celebrating. It all evens out in the end.

I tell stories and for me it's important. Photographing Angela, shown here, I pretty much told stories the whole time and well into the next morning. She's young - in 17 years she'll be half my age - and I'm old and have lots of stories. And I think in the end all one has are stories - the history of one's life. Best to make that life interesting enough that folks are going to want to listen. I'm afraid that most people put their noses to the grindstone, their shoulders to the wheel and never go off and collect stories, and that's a shame. These days even my kids are coming to me asking about the time I chased spies in Asia or ran off the road in the blizzard of '69 or whatever. It's a wonderful thing when kids validate one's life by asking. I'd always figured I've have to save the stories for the grandkids who would be a captive audience.

For those who are beginning their lives, let me offer some advice: Go do interesting shit. Do not settle for the mundane. Do not do what your parents expect. Go risk your security, sanity, safety and health and do interesting shit. These days all the various governments are trying so hard to prevent anything interesting from happening to anyone you have to go seek it out. Join the military and kill or rescue someone. Get a one way ticket to Australia. Write a book and beat your head against the publishers until you're bloody, then write another one. Do something that will make good stories. And in the process have an interesting life.

"Have an interesting life" is said to be an old Chinese curse. Oscar Wilde said that in the end, the only thing one doesn't regret are one's mistakes. Oscar Wilde liked saying cool things, whether true or not, but at least for me that one rings true. Risk it and make some mistakes. Get a few convictions under the belt. Spend a few nights in holding cells. Offend people. It's particularly important to offend stuffy people of course.

I spent some time smacking Angela's ass. Maybe that was a mistake as now she may think that it's routine for photographers to smack models' asses. If it's a mistake, it's one I do not regret (the opposite) and it's another opportunity for stories, both mine and her's.

Angela, all tied up in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, about three or four weeks ago. (Chronology is fuzzy when one drinks.)