The lovely Angela again, just because I like looking at this picture. Isn't she just cute? the picture's sorta warm as all of the film and digicam color ones were, but she's just soooo cute!

I finally finished that grotesque Italian merlot today. It wasn't spoiled and was marginally drinkable so I drank it. Then I opened a bottle of Yellowtail merlot from Australia. That stuff is showing up everywhere. The first bottle I bought was in a 7-11 store by my hotel in Changwon, South Korea, and I was happy to have it. I probably recall it being better than it actually was because it was simply available. In truth it's pretty sweet and without body. Still though, better than that Bolla merlot, which I will have to remember not to ever buy again.

On a similar subject, macadamia nuts are better than cashews, almonds or any other kind of tree nut.

Angela, photographed in my hotel room in St. John's, the day after the scene. I'll have to get hot and start scanning photographs of the scene so you know what I'm talking about.

Well, I have seven filmholders loaded with two 4x5 sheets each of Ilford HP5 Plus ASA400 B&W film, got the tripod out and the Toyo 45A camera and the only lens I've got, a Rodenstock Sironar-N 150mm f5.6 are packed in my camera bag and I'm going out to east county tomorrow afternoon with a nude model to see what we can so. This is a whole new thing for me and I'm very nervous. Nervous about my ability to make something good under the new rules and nervous because my old process is working so well I hate to let it go.

But I only shoot about once a month on average so I can't be doing both. I've picked the large format for now. Always wanted to own a view camera, but when I bought the first in recent history, a Horseman 6x9 VH-R, I found it wasn't interesting. The ground glass is tiny and it produces images not all that much bigger than the Pentax 6x7s. That one does have a rangefinder feature and uses rollfilm backs, so maybe I'll find an interesting application one day. Or maybe I'll sell it and buy another lens for the 4x5.

Anyway, I photographed this girl many years back in a hotel in Montana. Obviously it's grainier than all hell and very high contrast, so it was probably 35mm Tri-X pushed to ASA3200 or so. That was also when I printed full-frame all the time. It's an affectation, but I still like it when someone shoots well enough to do that.

She'd just flipped that little stirrup thing on her nipple piercing down. A detail I hadn't noticed as I was getting real close to this beautiful naked chick and missed that part. Fetish Queen Cynnamon, folks! Isn't she gorgeous?

I've been scanning some film but took time off to drink a bottle of Spanish red, followed by a not-so-good Italian red. After a bottle of Spanish red, most anything short of kerosene will still be drinkable though. And I'm reading that book about Tamerlane that I'd mentioned earlier. Fascinating book, with some hopscotching fore and aft to follow his movements through Uzbekistan and the surrounding areas. The author contrasts the pathetic state of the area now with the magnificence in his time. Once I finish the book I'll review it more formally, but so far it's a great read to settle in and drink a glass (or bottle) of wine with.

Cynn, smiling at me like she wants me, in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada a couple of weeks back.

Awhile back when I was corresponding with a model prior to photographing her, she said I sounded "frumpy." I probably did, as I was trying to be very clear about the photoshoot, about travel arrangements and so on. Well, the shoot went well and during that trip I bought a long-sleeved, oatmeal-colored, hemp shirt that I love to wear. I'm wearing it now, actually.

On my second trip to photograph her I bought another hemp shirt, that one blue. She said they made me look frumpy.

The thing is that overweight, middle-aged, white guys have very few choices. No matter what, we're going to be objects of ridicule by youngsters, so the only defense is to minimize the ridicule by seeking the most benign category available. For me, frumpy is about as good as it gets.

This is the age when most men wear bifocals and buy Corvettes (or flash green crotch-rockets) and think about tanning salons and hair plugs or toupees. We've generally got enough money and too little youth, and are trying to buy our way young. That doesn't work of course and makes us even more goofy.

In the end the only respect we're going to get is by being honest with ourselves and with everyone else and not pretending to be anything we're not. And that model got it right. That's who I am; I'm frumpy.

Fetish Queen Cynnamon paddling the ass of lovely Angela in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada three weeks ago. Angela thought I was frumpy, while Cynn didn't say anything.

"Take off your clothes." Being able to say that and have beautiful women comply has got to be one of the greater joys of a fulfilling life. While it is a foregone conclusion that the models that I work with will be modeling nude, there's an extra-special thrill in having an accompanying "escort" envy the fun and decide to strip down and join in. It's no secret that I'm a voyeur and a dirty old man, but I may not have mentioned how entertaining it is to use the mighty but passive power that one has by merely picking up a camera and appearing to know how to use it.

Chantel here had had a rough night before. She showed up late to bodyguard Ashley in that Winnipeg motel room and was wearing no makeup and was unprepared to model. She was tall and imposing, and really good-looking. Nevertheless I could see that she was watching us shoot and seemed a bit jealous. So..."take off your clothes," sez I.

And she did. Damn, I love it when that happens!

Chantel, photographed sorta playing with herself in my Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada motel room in November of 2005.

A model friend wants to get into film photo- graphy. This seems illustrate two growing trends: Models picking up cameras; and, a return to film by those already involved in photography. Anyway I am giving her a camera and dug it out of a bag this morning to ship. It's a Pentax ME Super with the 50mm f1.4 lens that was standard back when they were new.

It brings back memories. An ME Super was the first SLR I owned, bought at the Naval Exchange in Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines a long time ago. When I started photo school it was deemed appropriate because it was a manual camera. Actually it is capable of aperture priority auto-exposure, so I was on my honor not to use that feature as long as I was a student. When I started shooting commercially the ME Super was what I used. Several of them actually, as they'd wear out the film transport at some point and I'd go buy another used body and continue to shoot. I always had two in my bag.

It's a tiny SLR, and when mated with any of the Pentax SMC fixed-length lenses it is quite competent. The 50mm f1.4 SMC-M Pentax lens that back then was considered nothing special, has now been rated as one of the best normal lenses of all time made by anyone, anywhere. F1.4 used to be the expected speed of a normal lens, but these days when f2.8 is considered fast, that old normal is, by comparison, blisteringly fast. And it's a metal-barreled lens, making it smooth to operate and a joy to handle. I'll miss the lens as it's quite a bit smaller and handier than the 50mm f1.2 normals I usually mate up with the Pentax LXs that I eventually graduated to (and are still my only 35mm bodies).

She may not realize she's getting a piece of history with this little camera, but she doesn't have to. I hope she uses it well and falls in love with the process and the hardware like I did 20 years ago.

The Lovely Angela and Fetish Queen Cynnamon in one of the first of the pictures I've developed from the scene in Newfoundland.

I just got back from dinner with my next model and her S/O. She'll be the first with the 4x5 view camera and the only idea I have is to drive east on I-8 until something looks interesting. I think she was a little surprised to hear of this lack of detailed planning. I didn't sound too convincing. But that's what we'll do Sunday afternoon and you'll see any results worth showing when I get the film exposed, processed and scanned.

Got a bad cold. When you have a cold it's hard to think about anything very well. I'll go raid the medicine cabinet in a bit to see if anything there will knock me out sufficiently to sleep. Depending on how I feel tomorrow morning I may take a sick day to recover. Hard to be charming when your nose is running...

This is Uma on our first shoot in Arlington, Texas a couple of years back. I took her with to Chicago for a shoot there and it looks like I'll have the pleasure of photographing her once again this summer. Hope so...

I now have Business Class tickets to fly the lovely Angela down to San Diego in July then home again. I haven't ticketed Fetish Queen Cynnamon yet as her's is much easier to book from any of the Washington, D.C. airports.

It's been busy since I got home last Friday. Developing and scanning film, visitors, retrieving that loaner camera, dinner with a visiting model tonight then photographing her with the 4x5 sometime this weekend. Booking tickets and writing expense reports. I was looking forward to getting home and resting up. Instead I got a cold and my nose is running and I'm not getting enough sleep. And now I find that I've got a litle mechanical fixing to do on one of the bikes and they're all due for oil changes...

But my cat's cool - she's just happy to see me every day.

Angela, all tied up on my bed in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada last June. Everyone was happy then too!

On the play day preceding the scene in Newfoundland (if this confuses you, go back and catch up) I made some pictures, mostly lit a bit too softly by the window overlooking the harbor. Like this one of Cynnamon checking out a bound Angela. Cynn seems pretty happy with what she sees here. I was pretty happy with what I was seeing through the camera as well. Angela was happy to be tied up and examined. Everyone was happy.

The photography student that borrowed my 6x9 view camera for the last 5 weeks returned it tonight. That backpack had the headcloth that I'll need when I photograph an Ohio model this weekend who's visiting San Diego. Initially she was wary of working with me because of the explicit and sexual nature of most of my work. But I'll be using the 4x5 view camera and that nature will be changing, so we'll see what comes of it. I have no idea what we'll be doing yet, but a beautiful model wants to get naked and photographed and it seems to me it would be ungentlemanly for me not to make her happy. And me happy. Everyone's gonna be happy!

One of my favorite pictures ever. Masha, my onetime muse, being herself in our hotel room in Billings, Montana a long time ago. The optical print of this one in my old portfolio is far more yellow, but I don't remember altering the colors while making this scan, so it will just remain a mystery. I don't plan to go dig out the slide to see which is more correct.

Masha and I are emailing now. She wants me to photograph her again, all these years later. We tried this once since we had the falling out, but with bad results. There was an uneasiness that we couldn't overcome. She's suggesting we get another girl involved and I think that would help to make the shoot more relaxed and fun.

But sometimes you just can't go back to how things once were. I hope that this time we can at least relax and laugh a little.

I think it's raining out, but can't go look because a photographer friend is sleeping in the studio and I don't want to wake her - as if my repeated trips to the john due to too much beer haven't already done that. It's funny how "two" is too much beer these days. Getting old's a bitch.

Another of Cynnamon, here. In most of the photographs you've seen and will see, her hair is up and tightly pulled back. I think that's because her role in this is as the Domme and loose curly hair is softer than she wants to portray. I did catch her backlighted and asked her to loosen her hair and pose this way.

As I said, I haven't scratched the surface of the film from the shoot last week. I have no other photoshoots booked right now, so I will have the time to work on this one and on two others that are still in process. I also have no dayjob trips planned, but sometimes they fall out of the sky without warning.

Well, it's morning and I'd best get off to work.

Lovely Angela with Fetish Queen Cynnamon bringing up the rear. This was play prior to the day we shot the scene. The water glass required Angela to concentrate and be still while being played with - I don't know if the idea is original with Cynn, but it's brilliant. Her hand outside the frame has a paddle you'll see later on. In some of the color Angela's butt is bright red, but I don't know exactly how it will render in the B&W. I guess we'll all have to wait and see as I'm done scanning for the weekend and won't get more done until tomorrow or Tuesday.

Back to the dayjob tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to being in the office for a bit before the next trip. I never know how long that will be, but for now there's no travel scheduled so I can get back to scanning and developing film. Speaking of which, a friend came over tonight to learn film development. He's been a digital shooter and is "exploring the roots" of photography. I don't know what he'll end up using, but the more one knows the more prepared he'll be, so I'm happy to teach him the rudiments of film. Any time, Bill.

OK, it's late for me and I've got a book on Tamerlane to make some progress on yet tonight and an open bottle of a Washington state merlot to assess, so that's it for now.

If you read this blog, every once in awhile you have to look at a motorcycle picture. It's a "naked bike" if that's any conso- lation. I went out and made a few snapshots this morning for a U.S. importer of Arrow exhaust systems to show what it looks like on this motorcycle model, the 2004 Kawasaki Z1000. Rode it downtown and found a place pretty much devoid of trash with a relatively non-competing background and opened the Leica digicam's lens up, set it at about 28mm effective length for the front-emphasizing distortion and clicked. Still was too yellow, so I added a bit of blue, reduced the size, punched the contrast a little and sent them off to Motostrano.

The bike is damned loud. Sounds like four Harleys with open pipes all running in unison. With the new exhaust it's about 30 pounds lighter and feels it. The pipes should also give me 5-10 horsepower, but I'll have to put it on a dynamometer to re-map the fuel injection to optimize that and have an actual dyno trace. I'll probably do that in a few weeks. It's not going to be run wide open in the near term, so I don't have to worry about running it too lean and holing a piston or anything. I will keep an eye on the temp gauge though.

The next step is to chop off the pillion seat and re-finish the remaining stub to integrate the license plate and its light and the turn signals/brake light in the back, then remove the passenger foot peg supports and put on rearsets and a tube muffler (the term "muffler" is used very loosely) support to visually lighten the bike even more. Ultimately I want something that looks like there's nothing left to take off. Really naked.

Naked seems to be one of the constants of my life...

I'm finally catching up with Jane's scanning. Just did this one and liked it. Nice tonality, maybe a little too centered for composition, but the subtle dark detail of the hotel room is quite nice. And of course, she's playing with herself and that's always a nice thing.

Finally got the first few B&W rolls from Newfoundland developed and they're drying right now. Might have some scans by tomorrow. And the folks that make the motorcycle exhaust (loud, beautiful, Italian, remember?) want some pix as well. I'll give them digital snapshots, but still have to clean up the bike first. OK, it's enough to keep me busy for awhile.

So....gotta go cut film and put it transparent archival sheets now...

Trouble sleeping. Maybe too much Merlot last night. So I loaded four reels with B&W film and scanned the rest of the color from the Newfoundland shoot real early today.

The color film was used after the major part of the photoshoot - sort of an afterthought. I don't use it much as it's too easy. The one here is extremely warm (orange) as it's daylight film exposed with tungsten light. There are lots of ways to correct it including using tungsten film, filters or even some correction in PhotoShop, but that color is actually close to what the eye sees under low-watt tungsten light before the brain twists it to our expectations. Leaving it uncorrected seems to tickle something primitive for me, so I usually leave at least some of the warmth in. Here, it's pretty radical.

This is Fetish Queen Cynnamon again, buck naked as I like her. By the time we got to the color film she was pretty much spent, so I only have a few of her. Lovely Angela got more. As I said, I've spooled up some B&W, so after I get down to the camera shop and get some film sleeves and more canned air today we'll have some of that to look at. I'm going to try to get back to sleep now.

While reading Claude Levi-Strauss' book Myth and Meaning on the airplane home, it occurred to me that in order to understand this book I have to know what "meaning" means. I wasn't the only one thinking that as the author himself gets into difficulty with the meaning of "meaning," and never quite comes up with an answer that satisfies. His had something to so with that which could be translated or mapped into another language system, if my memory is right. If that wasn't quite it, I simply got lost and jumped to the next paragraph.

But the whole question of meaning is important. The question of "importance" is also important. I wish I knew the meaning of "important." Both of those terms apply to photography. I think they do. I hope they apply. The worst possible thing to lose now would be the belief that my photography has some level of meaning or importance. If it doesn't, I've just wasted a whole lot of time and effort for nothing. I don't know what level would satisfy me either, but right now even the tiniest amount or meaning or importance would suffice.

Cori, just sitting there naked. Does the photograph have meaning or importance? I think so, but cannot say why I think that.

I am such a drama queen. I've taken a nap and am better now. And that's out of my system.

Catching an early plane back home tomorrow. Tuesday the beautiful, loud, expensive exhaust system arrived for the flash green bike, so I spent the evening installing it. It's really loud and really beautiful. All the segments are held together with springs stretched from welded-on loops and unlike most Italian machinery I'm acquainted with, everything fits nicely. Did I mention that it's really loud? I'll have to slowly work up to actually letting the noise out as I don't want to annoy people. Can't wait to ride it to work on Monday to show my riding friends. They're gonna be sooo jealous.

And now I can get to work on sculpting and chopping the tail off. That's going to be a community project as I sold my welder and wasn't any good with it anyway. Just some tube welding. But I'll also have to learn about composites as I've got to make a replacement tail piece once the back seat's gone and the sub-frame shortened.

Fetish Queen Cynnamon on the left and the lovely Angela/Vanity on the right. "Vanity" is a screen name Angela uses and I'm a little confused about which she prefers me using for what right now. I'll ask her. The photo was made with Cynn's digital camera at some point during the shoot in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada last week.

OK, I'm pissed. That
high key picture of Angela two posts down has gotten rave reviews. And it shouldn't. It's easy to make a picture of a pretty girl look, well, pretty. Take Angela or another pretty girl to the mall to GlammerShotz and they'll give you roughly the same damned thing. It's formula and meaningless.

The history here is that Angela asked what would happen if she stood in the window with the bright light behind her. She wanted to, so I incident metered and that's the result. My mother could have made that picture, provided a gorgeous woman like Angela were available to her.

Sitting at a Tex-Mex restaurant a half hour ago, I decided to preach once again the topic I seem to preach every year or so to some audience or other. Topic: A Photograph of a Beautiful Girl is Not the Same as a Beautiful Photograph of a Girl. Notice what the adjective "beautiful" modifies in each case.

Angela is a beautiful girl, and almost any picture made of her will show that and will elicit praise. Big fucking deal. That has nothing to do with the quality of the photograph at all.

On the other hand, using any subject at all, a beautiful photograph is possible. The beauty of the photograph does not depend on the beauty of the girl. If it does, then it's a pretty sucky photograph, folks!

Is this important? Only if you think about photography. Otherwise, no it's not. Is it important to me? Yes. If anything can be important about photography, it's that the photograph itself be differentiated from the subject and be an object in its own right. I'm responsible for the photographs - if after posting that picture and having it get the praise it has, I don't know if I want to keep preaching here anymore.

Jackie, photographed in Minneapolis, blah, blah, blah...

Fetish Queen Cynnamon, a short intro- duction. Around 5AM that morning when Cynn arrived at the St. John's airport, I recognized her all the way across the lobby and baggage claim area. She had her curly red hair pulled tightly back and was wearing a long black wool coat. She looked very uptown. She was on the ragged edge as it was horribly early, she wanted a cigaret and she was starting to wonder what she'd gotten herself in for (particularly once she saw me).

I didn't have the hotel room for that first night, so we all went to Angela's where we talked and smoked and I ended up sleeping on the couch. When we did begin shooting the next afternoon, Cynn started loosening up and having fun.

It was a long week and I could talk about all the strange dynamics and miscommunications and everything that made the week very interesting, and probably made it all work, but the single thing I should relate is that when we were about to do a scene and Angela, in a very un-sub-like manner insisted on being seduced, rather than just dropped abruptly into it, Cynn, despite being pissed, pulled herself together and conducted the smoothest seduction of a woman I've ever seen, read about, imagined or anything else. She was bloody amazing, playing Angela like a concert violin, each string vibrating at just the right pitch. I've never seen anything like that before and don't expect to again. It was a privilege to watch. And it's all on film yet to be developed. God, I hope it's on the film...

Fetish Queen Cynnamon, photographed last week in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada in my hotel room. (That "Fetish Queen" title is an experiment on my part to see if we can pump the search engines to output her with that search term.)

Well, the airlines found my bag and are delivering it late tonight. Better than never, I guess. And I'm leaving tomorrow for Texas on dayjob business, so I can use some of that stuff. Like my deodorant for example.

This is the first scan of the first strip of the first roll of 120-format color film from St. John's. The lovely Angela. Isn't she simply gorgeous? Sigh...

Right now I'm scanning other models' film, as I owe them the pictures first. But when I return from Texas, I'll catch up quickly and develop the B&W from this shoot as well. (Note to self - buy distilled water.) Then whoever I photograph next will have to put up with me as view camera novice. I hope I can actually do that, as the medium format work has once again got me all excited. Buck up, Nelson! Show a little backbone!

By the way, google "lovely Angela." It'll bring you right back here. This search engine stuff is fascinating...

The lovely Angela, photographed in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland sometime last week. Tons more coming, including much of Fetish Queen Cynnamon, and the two of them together. Really, really together. Without the clothes.

P.S. Got the bag and am calling it a night.

A reader asked how I get the girls to do this stuff. This is a good topic for a post.

There are at least three things to think about here, so here are three paragraphs:

There's no "getting them to do stuff" involved. The models/girls are always doing what they specifically want to do. I may pose them a little, but my models want to be photographed playing with themselves or with other girls or tied up or whatever the pictures show. No persuasion is ever required.

A long time back I wrote on the necessity of "access" in order to make good photographs. Access to interesting places or situations or to great models. I have access to models. I'm fairly well-known and at least as many models contact me first as I contact models first. They are open, mostly kinky, almost always exhibitionists, and often enough, suitable for my photography. The situations I photograph simply follow.

One of the reasons I have that access is that I'm completely obvious and aboveboard. I'm a dirty old man and very open about it. I'm also a decent human being, safe, a pretty good photographer and I like people (especially girls). Often as not by the end of a shoot I've got a new friend (or two) and will keep in touch with her forever. I'm trustworthy, and word gets around. (But sometimes I'm late in delivering photographs. Sorry ladies - I'll get right on it.)

-----

That said, the reason that other photographers don't have the kind of access I do may be:

They aren't as focused and haven't decided what they want to do photographically. Remember, this is all I do. If this is what you want to do, don't do anything else. It will happen, but it takes time.

They haven't developed a reputation for either the quality photography or the trust required. Maybe they just haven't been around long enough or maybe they're too young to be taken seriously. That reputation is the most important thing you can have on the web, and it should be guarded carefully.

They are perceived by models as having some secret agenda. I have no secret agenda - I really like hanging around with beautiful naked chix, playing, photographing, whatever.

Or maybe there's some other attitude problem. The thing is that women are so incredibly perceptive about men that it's scary. Men think they can hustle women, and we simply can't. Not unless the woman agrees to be hustled. They see through us like we're gummi bears. If photography isn't the shooter's main concern, he needs to acknowledge that. Or change. If he's feeling guilty, women can read that on his forehead. If he whines and begs, women and girls will avoid him.

-----

Listen, there are quite a few photographers that do work as intimate as mine. I'm not the only one. The reason the photographs are intimate is because we are capable of that kind of intimacy. We work on it. It's important. Tons of shooters can photograph girlie bits or sex or whatever, but lack the ability to simply be with people. Open up and let people in and they'll let you in too.

Candy, linked on the right, in a motel room in West Hollywood about six weeks ago. A beautiful girl, an excellent model, and an interesting blogger. Go read.

Canceled and delayed flights, additional nights at the hotel, more time for my car in airport parking, and finally, a lost bag. Not the camera bag with the film, thank goodness. I dropped five rolls of color film off on the way home from the airport and will pick them up tomorrow, though I probably won't scan it right away. Leaving Wednesday for Texas.

This is another digital snapshot from the shoot. Fetish Queen Cynnamon is on top (duh) and Vanity on the bottom. Cynn's ears have been desaturated from bright red, as she flushes gorgeously (in all the appropriate places) when excited, but I thought that would be distracting. The cropping doesn't really work, but I didn't want to spend too much time with it either. I can't wait to see how the film looks. Shot with a familiar camera with the right diopter adjusted eyepiece and a bright pentaprism and screen, I expect it to be good. The B&W will have to wait until next weekend.

My cat missed me and won't get off my lap.

Cynnamon and Vanity photographed in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada four or five days ago. I already miss those delightful girls immensely.

Oh, I'm musing on retirement again. Two things triggered it. Zee's blog over on the right paints (half the time) an idyllic picture of what appears to be a small community somewhere in NY state. I haven't pulled up maps or anything, preferring to think of it as some Elysium and not a real place. And secondly, I'm stranded in Newfoundland. Of the places I've been involuntarily delayed, this is clearly the best.

There are a couple of conditions I've set on where I will retire to. First, it will be the American Midwest (up here if I don't use that preface, entire new areas qualify), and second it will be a place with abundant water and a real winter.

But I'm undecided about whether I really want to live in a city, downtown, or in a smaller town or rural area. Cities have much to offer, but also restrict one's choices for how to live. Smaller towns are often pretty intolerant of ideas. Rural areas require a lot of owner maintenance of utilities, etc., and do not offer even the minimal social contact that I do want sometimes.

So there is still a lot for me to think about - and a lot of time to do the thinking.

This old photograph of an anonymous friend does not really illustrate the post. I just put it up to remind everyone that despite the apparent sensitivity of the last few postings, I still really like pussy.

Another digital snapshot from a few days ago. We're starting to get some flushing and intensity from Angela here. I borrowed Fetish Queen Cynnamon's DSLR during the shoot and made a few captures in the midst of shooting B&W film with the big Pentax. That will take a few days after I get home to process, and I've got scanning yet to do of Jane prior to this stuff.

What you are seeing here is the documentation of a seduction. Not everything coming from the Newfoundland sessions will be this journalistic. Some will be posed, some will be deliberate fetish. But this is real.

We just took Cynn to the airport only to find her flight is delayed. Now Cynn is walking Angela to work and will be coming back here to the hotel room to wait for the rescheduled flight. With any luck she'll be on her way back home this evening, I'll be able to go to bed early, and Angela will be back to hang out and study here tomorrow. I don't think there will be any more photographs made.

Fetish Queen Cynnamon and Angela, photographed in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada two days ago.

P.S. After another delay, Cynn is now on the way to Toronto to connect to a flight home.

First teaser from the week in New- foundland. On your left is Fetish Queen Cynnamon and on your right, Vanity. Sorry about the clothes - they'll be gone later. This was taken using Cynn's digital camera. It will be awhile before my film is processed and scans made. But there are a few more digital captures on hand that I'll sprinkle into the blog in the meantime.

Found out yesterday that my flight from Halifax to D.C. has been cancelled, but United Airlines phone lines are tied up, so I don't know if they've re-routed me or not. I'll fly from St. John's to Halifax tomorrow early and see what comes next I guess.

Later, folks...

Woops! Two more days on site because of the airline rebooking. Cynn will be gone and Vanity will be working, so it's tourist time I guess. Maybe I'll photograph something entirely different for a bit.

I'm in the process of shooting Angela (shown here) and Cynn (who you will see later). Angela's being fitted with a short black wig by Cynn in the bathroom. We've been shooting now for three days and there's good film to develop and see when I get home. This will be a little different for me as it's pretty much a documentation of a girl-girl BDSM scene. Shot medium format in almost dark. Keep the fingers crossed...

They're both naked and calling me now, so I'd better go.

From Newfoundland...signing off for now.

UPDATE: Cynn's gone to pick up a memory card for her digital camera, so there might be a picture uploaded later tonight! All the news as it happens...

There seem to be some differences between East and West Coast photo- graphers. For now I'll ignore the folks in the Middle (maybe later). The differences are subtle and kind of hard to pin down and describe, as if they are identical twins raised in different foster homes. One that I can describe is that when an East Coast (EC) guy mentions another photographer, the odds are pretty good I've never heard of him unless he's one of the legends. Similarly when I name a WC shooter, folks from the other coast don't immediately recognize his work or style. This also goes for models.

It's not really a clique, just a general recognition of who else is operating in the area and often an appreciation, maybe even an acute recognition of their standing on the invisible web-photographer ladder.

There also seem to be different "schools" of photography recognized in the different places. Not as in fashion vs. beauty vs. fetish vs. glamour, as each of these is done everywhere. Maybe a different feeling to the pictures. Los Angeles vs. NYC might help one visualize these very nuanced differences. Not that by seeing one photograph anyone could point to where it was made necessarily. But I think that if the portfolios of each coast were stacked on opposite sides of a room, then one probably could assign the correct origin.

Right now I'm photographing an East Coast model who is also a photography student/photographer, and we've been talking. There are gaps in my knowledge of some people and things that she regards as universal and vice versa. It's interesting.

Middle America makes up a third such group, as may other clusters of the country. And I think the same general differences apply. I'd like to hear what people think about this. Am I imagining it? Can other differences be pointed out?

This is Monica, a painter that I photographed a few years back. She's laying on a eucalyptus pallet in my studio and lit by tungsten lights of some sort. Film used was tungsten film, but the light source was obviously warmer than that.

A tear sheet from Secret magazine's Fetish Anthology, Volume IV.

A thread on a forum asked folks to post published print work and I dug out a bunch of old magazines and books and scanned them so I could post stuff. No one's ever asked to see my published work before, so I really got into it. It turns out that I have quite a bit of stuff shoved in drawers and on shelves. Some of it on cheap paper (Readers Digest, Union-Tribune) didn't scan well, and some of it wasn't interpreted well by the photo editor (Black+White), but it's still mine and was in print and I'm proud of all of it.

When I worked in commercial photography, very little of my work was credited. Ads aren't unless done in exchange for the credit, and that's no way to make a living. The bulk of my credited work way, way back were pictures for stories in the business weekly about storefront openings and ribbon-cuttings. I didn't keep any of those.

The credited work came after I left commercial photography and started shooting what I wanted. With the freedom to do what I want, I think I became a better photographer, and with that got more recognition in the form of features and sales of "stock" photographs.

Anyway, here's one. The model was Little Robin and it was shot in my tiny studio quite awhile back. She wouldn't let me take the clothespins off and I was squirming way before she gave in. Notice, they got my name wrong. Everyone gets it wrong. Sigh...

Posted from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, while waiting for the two models to appear.

Last post before I get on the big silver bird for a long, long day of flying tomorrow. Nothing much to say, except that Angela has recruited yet another beautiful girl for our cluster photoshoot. Three beautiful girls and one decrepit old photographer. Why Lord did I not discover photography in my twenties? But we'll make the best of it and I'll bring home photographs that will make the hearts of readers, male and female, pound and threaten cardiac arrest. The things I risk to entertain you readers - if you only knew the hardship.

But as a dedicated photojournalist I must bring you the story regardless of personal hardship and trepidation. (I don't really know what "trepidation" means, do you?) So off I go to an uncertain fate, with sub-zero weather and three beautiful naked women awaiting me. All for you and in pursuit of truth.

This is me - possibly the last you'll see of me - photographed between the legs of the divine Angela last summer in Newfoundland.

Edit: OK, I'm scared shitless. Three girls are expecting masterpieces. Well, I guess it's all on my nickel...

Reading a novel, Vellum, by Hal Duncan. It's troubling and confusing. The take is deconstructivist I think. Several time lines parallel as Good (not really good) fights Evil (not all that evil) on an infinite plane of which the Earth is only a small, probably physical, part. It's gotten generally good reviews, but I'm beginning to find it tedious. Great cover though. Duncan's got a follow-on book called "Ink" which I will only buy if this one picks up pretty soon.

Despite having a couple dozen half-read books stacked around, this is the one I'm picking up the most (aside from Heinlein's "Job") so I guess that's something. Read it if you're comfortable with chaos. The writing is often poetry, and there's a bit of enjoyment that comes from that.

This is Jackie all trussed up in my hotel room in Minneapolis last summer. Stunning girl.

IT'S BELOW ZERO FAHRENHEIT IN ST. JOHN'S! Sheeeet! She said it was "cold." Hell, that's the kind of weather I left North Dakota to avoid. But on Monday I get on an airplane, make three connections in Phoenix, Philly and Montreal and eventually end up there in the middle of Frigid Hell, Newfoundland.

An, but there's the lovely Angela...ahhh. It won't be so bad. I don't have to actually be outside too much. I'll take the thermal longjohns and my goofy poly skullcap and some gloves and a wool sweater. And maybe my surplus German Army wool trousers. And the sodabottlefleece pullover. And wool socks. Shit that's cold. I can't believe I'm gonna retire to Duluth. Maybe I should rethink that a little.

Angela being fondled by yours truly during a photoshoot in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada back in the balmy summertime last year. (It's hard to focus shooting a big Pentax one-handed.) In two days and several hours, she's meeting me at the airport and we'll drink very hot coffee until Cynn arrives from D.C. a couple hours later.

On Monday I fly to St. John's, Newfoundland to photograph Angela again with another model, Cynnamon. Angela told me to bring rope. I'll probably do that, as the rope I bought there last time was a little thinner than optimum for photography. It should show texture and be a significant part of the picture, and should be of a tone that neither blows out the highlights nor gets lost in the shadows. You laugh, but it took me quite a while to decide that 3/8ths manila line is the right thing for me to use for pictures. What rope for real bondage play? I have no idea.

Some other lessons learned that apply to my bondage photography. Knots are important. Former Boy and maybe Girl Scouts can spot a granny knot across the room. It's not really a knot as it pulls out. Backsplice, tape or whip the ends so the cords don't unwind and look messy. Tuck the bitter ends out of sight on the far side from the camera. Knots too if possible. I splice loops on one end of the lengths used so I can slip and tighten loops on the wrists and ankles, etc. If the rope's not taught, it's not bondage. Make it look real - the idea is that the person bound cannot get up, away, or avoid her (tasty) just desserts.

It seems to me that as bondage is a sexual thing, it should allow access for sex, while allowing the sub to dodge any guilt about enjoying it and to relish her humiliation and helplessness. Thus the use of spread-eagled positions and pillows under the hips and upturned butts and such.

Anyway, those are the guidelines I use to shoot these pictures. But what do I know? I'm vanilla.

This is Candy, linked on the right, tied up in a motel room in West Hollywood awhile back. I think she enjoyed it. I did - there's nothing quite like having to handle girlflesh in order to make the photographs.

Today's guest blogger is nude figure model Iona Lynn. She writes regarding our hotel room photoshoot:

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Inside the Hotel:

D. Brian Nelson has a pornographic art project running called “hotel room nudes”.
He has amassed a collection of women who are masturbating. These women are not masturbating in any sense that I have ever seen in any of the hundreds of porn videos I have watched, these women were not splayed out spread eagle with all glory exposed as if waiting for their annual pelvic exam.

This was different, these women were turned onto their bellies, their faces buried in pillows, their hands tucked in between their legs. In a world where even something as intuitive and personal as sex has been so glamorized and glossed that much nothing real remains, I was shocked to see what looked like real women actually masturbating. These women were not doing it for any camera, or video crew, or lover to watch, they were doing it for themselves and no one else. Suddenly I didn’t feel strange, as I saw one image depicting the exact way I play with myself. I sent off a note thanking Don for the experience of just looking at such fine imagery and helping me to realize that I am not alone in the way I choose to masturbate.

After revisiting his project several times and never losing interest in what he is able to capture and how his work helps the rest of the porn-tainted world to realize that women each have a special way they please themselves, I sent him an email and said I would like to be able to join his project. I was accepted ... wait back up, rewind ... what did I just agree to do? Right, I just agreed to masturbate for a virtual stranger in a hotel room for the sake of art & sex education of the ignorant masses that actually believe what they see in porn is real. Sure why not?

The day before my big adventure with Don was spent with my best friend buying a few new sex toys; what better excuse could I have? My friend and I got a cheap hotel room and made sure it had “character.” If the TV is resting on a cardboard-covered particle board stand, the room not square but a strange trapezoid shape, and the walls decorated with random wires that plug into nothing show “character,” then we had succeeded in our mission. Don rode in around 8:00 am with nothing more than a small saddle bag containing a few rolls of film and an old school film camera with an actual carved wooden hand grip.

After me ogling his camera for a while it was time to get to “work.” I failed to realize that not all vibrators are user friendly. There was no on and off switch - it had buttons and levels and settings - this thing was more complicated than reprogramming the clock on my VCR in the 80’s [Editor's note: Not the one illustrated above.]. I had to enlist the help of my friend who patiently stood over me and helped figure out this new fangled toy. I finally was able to get my self into position and Don just snapped away quietly and took images when ever he felt it necessary.

At some point he turned to my friend and told her to strip. Lo and behold, she did! After a bit I was left alone to my own devices while they chatted in the adjoining room, as Don had captured my methods of masturbation. I finished up and my friend joined me on the bed for some more photos. Now we finally have photos of us we love after over 15 years of friendship, and we are both stark naked and can’t show our mothers. In the end Don swatted me on the rear as a thank you. I am now able to proudly wear an “I got off for Don” t-shirt.

Would I do it again for him? Hell yes.

Iona Lynn

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Thanks Iona. I haven't actually gotten those t-shirts made up yet, but if I do, you'll get one.

One guy commented once that he'd rather see the photo- graphs of women mastur- bating be "rawer" and more explicit. I think he was comparing these photographs to commercial pornography that emphasizes camera angles and bright lighting of the naughty bits. I have yet to meet or photograph a woman that actually does herself that way, legs akimbo, vulva exposed to the light. Masturbation is in reality a private thing; only in pornography is it as the commentor wanted. I'm more interested in the reality and less in the show staged for male observation. (Still and all, I am a male and am observing and even have a camera to record it all...)

One thing that I probably should point out is that many of my models require the use of toys of some sort in order to orgasm, but were photographed using hands only. Whenever possible I do want the real thing, but because of forgetfulness, modesty or other reasons, they don't bring the toys to the photoshoot. Once toys are used, orgasm without them becomes a problem. When in front of the camera, the models do behave as they do at home, though sometimes without the requisite aide. In that, the pictures are sometimes not authentic. But this isn't an easy subject, so I take what I can get. About half, as I've said before, are completely real. And in no case do the models purposely contort their faces in that porn grimace that those such as the commentor have come to expect through the good graces of commercial pornography.

This is Jane, playing with herself in Riverside, California not too far back. I'm still scanning more negatives of her. Photographed in 6x7 cm using the big Pentax manual camera with the 45mm lens, and Ilford Delta 3200 film exposed at ASA 1600, developed in Kodak XTol for about eight minutes.

On a forum where I hang out another photo- grapher and I are talking about this model, Emalie. He saw her as this rosy Irish maiden and dressed her in white linens with eyelet embroidery, with a blush on her cheeks and a quiet dignity. I, of course, saw her as this healthy and robust, pillowy creature of almost unlimited sexual potential. The shoot was done for Nerve.Com in response to a troll there that criticized all the featured models as being too skinny. Ta-da! Not too skinny, Emalie!

Shot in a dark little historical hotel in Boulder City, Nevada, with Tri-X, probably at ASA1600 in 35mm format, it's grainy. I hear from her every year, respond to her every year and she doesn't answer for another year. I cannot describe how much fun I had photographing her. And I also should not.

All this angsting about what subject to shoot with the new large format 4x5 view camera - it's over. I will continue to photograph women and girls (Morgan has defined the line that divides them, but I have not), unclothed and possibly clothed. I saw a series of beautiful portraits done on Polaroid 55 film at Large Format Photography Forum this morning and have decided to go somewhat in that direction until my own style defines itself. But I will photograph mostly women as models aren't hard to find. While I've always enjoyed making portraits, I haven't shown too many here that would be recognized as such. I think this one of Angela is a portrait, BTW.

View cameras need a deliberate process however, so the nature of the photographs will change to allow that. No more pictures of opportunity. With that process will come deliberate lighting too. I've thought about getting a single monolight strobe that I can carry along, but will probably get one or two of those Lowel Tota-Lights that fold up so nicely into their own barndoors and weigh nothing.

Whew! I'm glad that's settled. OK, models - anyone wanting to work with me that will be in the San Diego area after March 18th, drop me a line (or comment with your email address - I won't post anything with an email in it).

Angela, photographed in Newfoundland last summer. I'm going up there next Monday to work with her again. Isn't she darling?

Nude celebrity photographs and strange search results. These may not seem to be related, but I'll try to explain. I use a free service called StatCounter to see the traffic to this blog. One of the things I can see are what search terms brought folks here. And I get some doozies. Searches for "Newfoundland hotels," for example or "Nelson Square."

On the other hand I've done little or no nude celebrity photographs. A couple of actresses that picked up soap roles and one daughter of a celebrity once, but none of Jessica Alba nude, for example.

Notice how I slipped in the phrases "nude celebrity photographs" and "Jessica Alba nude?" It is almost certain now that some wanker will be searching for one of those terms and come across this blog and click in. In that way it's spamming the search engine, but not really. The phrases are part of a legitimate post and not simply meta tags intended to fool search engines. I mean, in this case they are intended to fool search engines, but not in a strong arm way. They are both necessary to illustrate this topic, AND they may bring me a few more visitors who may just decide to skip Jessica Alba this time and see what I'm showing instead.

This is Melissa, a girl that was hanging with and considering representation by a San Francisco agency several years back. A bunch of the girls and the booker (a tranny) and his boyfriend and a fellow photographer, Marko, and I shared a hotel room in Hollywood and did some shooting. Melissa was the only girl that didn't go clubbing every night, so she was available to model a little in the room. This one was made back when I thought really high contrast was cool - I'd probably print that negative differently these days. What happened with that gypsy troupe o