OK, I haven't finished scanning the pictures of Cynn and Angela from two weeks back, haven't developed the film of Erin from last weekend, will be doing a short shoot with London Andrews this evening and have shoots on Saturday (Desiree) in Long Beach and Sunday (Rebecca) in my studio. I'm over my head again, shooting faster than I can keep up.

That's the way it seems to go though, with nothing for months, then a flurry of shooting that seems to bury me. I expect to be apologizing a lot for late delivery for the next two months or so.

Cynnamon, playing with Angela in Newfoundland last March. This wasn't exactly what Angela wanted, but I really liked it.

Tonight I ignored the bunch of scanning and developing I've got to do in order to change out the chain and sprockets of the nasty go-fast green motorcycle. But I couldn't get the front sprocket off. And I had to go buy a deep socket to try even. And the plug on my hand grinder (to bust the existing chain) was broken so I bummed a plug next door and fixed the grinder. But I got the brand new D.I.D. X-Ring chain and the back sprocket installed. And some crash bungs, being as it seems likely I'll need them eventually. The smaller-than-stock front sprocket I'll have the shop install another time. Or I'll hit it with a torch to see if that breaks it free.

Anyway, it's been a nice sweaty evening and I feel like I got something done. At some point I'll have to either do the valve check on the red bike or decide to pay the shop ridiculous amounts to do it for me. That's a pain-in-the-ass, but it's a good bike and I don't want to risk burning a valve.

This is Cynn from the same shoot as below. The girl just has presence.

P.S. The woman whose car I dinged yesterday just called with a bill for $150 to fix her tail light. Gonna send her a money order tomorrow and I'm happy to get off so cheaply.

Cynnamon, next to "Soul in the Machine" next door. Ilford Delta 3200 in 120, exposed at ASA 1600, developed for 9 minutes at 24C in XTol. Lit with a single hot light with barndoors to prevent spill onto the polished stainless in the background. Nice detail throughout and no noticeable grain, even enlarged.

I've finally gotten to the medium format, with Cynn coming first, as I'd shown more color of Angela. Quite a bit of both left to scan, though I won't be done before tomorrow's shoot in West Hollywood.

Got the Honda VFR800 Interceptor off the trickle-charger and ready for the trip up. Should be a lot faster than the pickup I drove up in last week. Erin tells me she loves bikes and wants to see some of the tourist sites, so we'll ride a bit before we shoot. Gotta remember the helmet, jacket and gloves for her...

Back to scanning.

Ja, ja, we'll get to the naked pictures of Cynnamon pretty soon. Keep your pants on, will you? Most of my photographs of her were done in B&W and I haven't even spooled that film yet. This is another of the 35mm candid pictures, probably done during the Russian jazz party next door. If I could remember with any certainty, I would state that with certainty, but I had a few of those glasses of wine myself and don't remember much except beautiful music and Cynn dancing in a mechano-smurf-kicking sort of way that displayed her lovely neck to best advantage.

Fetish Queen Cynnamon, photographed sometime last week in San Diego.

The first result of last week. Cynnamon, unfortunately clothed (naked comes a bit later), in an almost candid photograph outside the studio.

This photograph is similar to work I did years ago. Color, long exposure pictures done under whatever lighting was available. Ektachrome 320T pushed to ASA 1250. You can see the motion blur. But so far it's the best of the work from last week. Depending on who you ask, of course.

Yep - short post. I'm scanning and spooling and stuff like that. I have a shoot in LA next Saturday and would like to get almost caught up beforehand.

The story I tell is the story I've seen, nothing more - but far less than the whole story.

The relationship burst like a firestorm from embers fanned in March. Four months later all that remains are smoking ruins. They'd been together in the flesh for all of three weeks. And your correspondent was present for two of those weeks.

'Twas a chill and blustery night in St. John's...

A visit for a week in May (that I did not attend)...

Last week, it ended sadly. They're young and beautiful and will recover and have other lovers.

Pictures of them, each alone, beginning perhaps tomorrow.

Cynnamon and Angela in the beginning.

The girls are back in San Diego now. They've been photo- graphed by several fine photo- graphers since they arrived, including Lucky Bastard. This picture by Lucky is of me undoing Cynn's barbell to remove a stirrup. I think Cynn wanted it out of the picture. It was my pleasure of course. This was prior to Lucky's shoot.

You know, this is sort of what it was like when my kids were home. There was occasional bickering and competing and more drama than I have around me now. It's wearing. Like having two kids at home, except they're hot babes that I can sorta lust after too. It's a bizarre headspace, to be sure.

Just exposed 20 frames of Cynnamon in the warehouse next door using a variety of lights. Shot it all in B&W, though it probably should have been color. Later this evening we plan to go do some work on the streets under ambient lights in 35mm color. I haven't done that in years, but today it feels like a good idea. It's fucking hot here and has been a lazy day until just now.

Also, my Leica Digilux II, a $1700 digital camera, failed to function with a blue screen at the beach today. I hate digital crap! But I'll see what it will cost to fix it, then dump it to the first sucker that meets my low-ball price.

More later.

Cynnamon being operated upon with Angela looking on.

With the girls gone, I spent last night resizing scans from their last two shoots to 300 dpi for 8x10 printing, then burning those onto CDs. I'm about half done. The printable scans I deliver (as well as the ones you see here) are resized from the original maximum-sized TIFFs that I consider the digital masters. Those have been spotted and adjusted for brightness and contrast, but nothing else. For the small ones like this, they get sharpened a bit and might get a little burning or dodging to look good at this size. Files for printing are sharpened less or not at all and are usually saved as best-quality JPGs so they're compressed enough to fit on CDs or upload easily.

So when the girls get back, they'll have CDs of their shoot in March and Angela will finally get her printable files from the shoot in June of last year.

I've also finished scanning the shoot with Pamela, but haven't made up the printable files yet.

This is Cynnamon, as regular readers certainly know by now, what with me obsessing on her and Angela for weeks now. This one was made in St. John's, Newfoundland in March.

The girls got on the noon train to Los Angeles where they'll be met by Renee Jacobs, an excellent photo- grapher and a friend. On Friday I'll go up to dinner with them and others and carry the girls back down to San Diego. The visit so far has had some drama, and because drama is a normal social condition it may be one of the reasons I'm a natural hermit. So they're on their way and already I miss them.

On Saturday I will photograph them using the view camera. On Saturday evening I will photograph them in color on the street (35mm, even). On Saturday evening I'd like to take them to Rebecca Beard's show opening on Adams Avenue. Sometime in there we might squeeze the beach or zoo or other stuff. And as the dayjob is pretty busy too these days, it may even be interrupted by work.

This is Pamela, photographed in Boulder City, Nevada a month back. Read more about that shoot below.

The girls got in last night. Today they've modeled for two of my favorite photographers and are expected back to this cave any time now. Then there's a party next door with a Russian band. Then tomorrow the train to L.A. and three days up there with other photographers. Then I drive up, have dinner with friends and bring them back to SD. Then on Saturday we shoot or go to Tijuana or the Zoo or something. Shoot I think. Haven't done that yet and it would be a shame to have them here and make no photographs at all. But that still leaves some time for touristy stuff.

OK, time for another beer...

Cynnamon and Angela back in March in Newfoundland.

Yeah, I know I'm bad. but they'll be here tomorrow!

I just told Angela on the phone that she'd have to wear clothes around my studio when we weren't shooting, and she quickly dissuaded me of the thought. She says no clothes unless legally necessary. I didn't argue very much.

Still haven't picked up my Harry Potter book, because when I dropped by the bookstore the line was too long. It'll wait for me. Little, Big, the book I'm reading now, still has my attention anyway.

That's all the news that's current. And I have no deep thoughts right now.

Cynnamon doin' Angela in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland last March. I expect they'll be doin' it in my studio very soon. They're like minks I tell you...

I'd probably smile too, if Cynn were going down on me. But alas, that's not the nature of our relationship. Sigh...

Things are getting busy. I'll have to work some next week to meet a foreign customer deadline. Tonight's the Harry Potter release party at the bookstore and I'll have my copy by 00:01 AM then go home. Breakfast tomorrow with a photographer I haven't seen for a few years. Another party tomorrow afternoon that a model's having to introduce a friend of hers - another model. That may last well into the night, unless I have to come to the dayjob to check some progress here. Then Angela and Cynn arrive on Sunday. I'll be shuttling them to LA and back and apparently meeting them up there one night for dinner with mutual friends as well. Busy, busy.

But it will all be fun. Except maybe the work part.

Four days and these girls will be flying in to San Diego. They've got some shoots booked here and in LA, and of course I will photograph them again. Fetish Queen Cynnamon and the lovely Angela, a tag team from heaven.

I have only a few ideas of what we'll do. I expect to photograph each of them and both of them in the studio against a black backdrop, probably with the view camera. Maybe, if they're up for it, do some bondage involving both of them. I will show them around San Diego a little, including making sure I'm seen with them at my usual haunts. And the Zoo and some museums. We really won't have all that much free time with their shooting schedule, but it will be fun. If it's not obvious, I really adore both of these girls.

On the literature side, I'm deeply engaged in Per Peterson's Out Stealing Horses. This book won the 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Books win prizes for various reasons, but usually because they are good. Usually because they are deep and broad and written in a way that engages other writers and critical readers. (I just noticed that the UK and US covers of the book are completely different. Interesting, indeed. The cover designs are obviosly intended to attract readers from these two places based on what the publisher believes we want to see.) Buy it online and save a few bucks or pounds.

I'll mail this book to my mother when I'm done with it, it's that compelling.

Cynnamon and Angela, buck naked in my hotel room in Newfoundland earlier this year.

Because the folks next door have to pass through my space to get to theirs (until their door is fixed in the next few days) I've been reminded again how much I value my solitude. When I am alone, I want to be alone, and not subject to random intrusions. It's part of being a good neighbor, and they do invite me to their outrageous parties, so I will put up with it this time.

That link on "solitude" refers you to my other blog - the one on retirement planning, the non-financial aspects. I'd talked too much about it here, so I broke it out as a separate topic. Feel free to ignore it as well. I guess the next topic I should consider breaking out is "books." I'm currently making a list of stinkers. (Love that archaic word. Someone used it in an otherwise bad novel and I've picked it up.)

Trouble is, if I move major topics out of here and only talk about naked chix and erotic photography, then I'll find I don't have all that much to say anymore.

This is Cynnamon inspecting a bound Angela. That was a hot photoshoot. Jeez, I can't believe they allowed me in the same room with them. Those girls will be coming down to San Diego in late July for more photography with me and others in the area. You can not believe how much fun I've had photographing and playing with these girls.

The New York Times just published a list of books that writers are reading this summer. I think writers read for the same reasons other people do and in fact started writing because they enjoyed reading. Anyway I've printed the list out and will be stocking up on yet more books in the near future. Reading is one of my greatest pleasures.

I can see myself retired, appearing daily at a local cafe and settling into a comfortable chair with good light, paying the chair's rent by buying coffee once in awhile, and spending every day there with my short stack of current reading. It would have to be the sort of place that accepts eccentrics, which means it will not be a chain retail coffee store. And it will have to have been designed by someone who didn't pick the furniture to encourage quick customer turn-around.

I know this conflicts completely with the Airstream Trailer version of retirement that was yesterday's daydream, but I don't have to actually pick one thing yet. Or ever.

These girls are, of course, Cynn (on top) and Angela. A digital snapshot with Cynn's camera. In Newfoundland last March.

Feast and famine. My schedule is getting booked up again. I think it's a seasonal thing. I've had to start a google calendar to keep track of scheduled photoshoots now. This is good as it means new pictures. And it's got a downside as well - it's a lot of work. Keeping up with film limits other free time activities. In all it's certainly worth it.

The next shoot should be on June 9th, with a tall, skinny, gorgeous fashion model in Los Angeles. I will use medium and large format cameras, all in B&W. And this will be a whole new genre for her of course. There are the models I'm flying in over the summer, and a girl who has cancelled a few times (local) is now saying she's serious. We'll see; because she's local and it will be a studio shoot there's no risk of losing any money anyway. And there are others who have contacted me, and we just haven't set up a time and date yet.I figure it's all about karma.

Cynnamon and Angela, photographed in my hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada a couple of months ago. They'll be here in July.

Moving holidays around to assure three-day weekends makes me wonder what's more important, the purpose of the remembrance, or the time off. Memorial Day is now mostly about gas prices and hotel occupancy rates, it seems. I know there are people who do celebrate the lives and sacrifices of our war dead, but most of the people I know are more concerned with their RVs and the holiday marking the change to summer fashion. Pisses me off. I'd like to see the holidays fixed to their original dates. But I'm a curmudgeon and don't much like change in general anyway.

And don't even get me going on Arbor Day...

This photo is from one of the last three rolls exposed in Newfoundland in March. You can see how I spend my vacation time. Cynnamon and Angela, once again.

Memorial Day weekend is upon us. Hoardes of folks will descend on San Diego and there will be traffic accidents and drunks on the beaches. Sounds reasonable to me. How many will remember the guys that died for our country?

Anyway, that's not the point. Holidays are excuses to party, and I'm just glad that I'm not spending the weekend in Delhi fixing airplanes, as was the original plan.

This is another picture of Cynnamon and Angela from the film scanned last night. Now there are only three rolls (30 frames) left to develop and look at. After only two months, it's coming down to the wire. The last three rolls are spooled and in the can waiting for me to develop them tonight. By Saturday I should be finished scanning. Then comes the job of deleting duplicates and inferior pictures, resizing the existing huge scans to printable size, burning some CDs and mailing them to the models. Then I shoot again on Monday. That will be a mix of digital and 4x5 I think. Sort of depends on the mood of the shoot, I guess.

Another weekend down. Finished a couple of books, spent some time at a cafe talking to a guy who rode in on a bobber he'd built. I'd like to build a bobber.

For those who aren't motorcycle folks, a "bobber" is a short motorcycle with no rear suspension generally powered by a Harley Davidson or vintage English motor. The word itself comes from the "bobbing" of the rear fender, which for many vintage bikes was a heavy hinged affair. Where legal there is usually no front fender. This particular bobber had a foot clutch and hand shifter, a style I've ridden and consider suicidal.

My ideal bobber would probably have a 45 cubic inch WWII-vintage flathead H-D engine in the stock frame, with most everything else removed. That engine is good for something like 20 HP so it wouldn't be a highway machine, but just for cruising around town. I think I'd keep the stock military tank, too. Trouble is these old bikes which sold for nothing twenty years back are now collectors' items. Oh well, another project I probably will never do. I tend to leave projects half-completed anyway.

Angela and Cynnamon in Newfoundland in March. Angela just returned home yesterday from visiting Cynn in Virginia. I think they had a good visit. Both will be out this way in late July.

Ever since the local Mervyns closed I've had trouble finding boxer shorts I like. What I like is solid color, flat cotton, no button, no frills skivvies. You'd think that would be easy, but I now have several pairs with skull or motorcycle patterns because I couldn't fine solid colors at any stores downtown.

But there are only so many pairs of goofy-patterned shorts one may own before someone eventually comments on it, so I went out looking on the web yesterday and found City Boxers. They have a bewildering array of materials, cuts, features and aren't cheap, but I ordered four pairs in the size that I thought would be correct. Actually I ordered the last pair one size larger just so I'd have a way of comparing for possible later purchases.

I got an email from them shortly after the order suggesting they deliver one pair first to let me see if I'd like to change sizes or features, and they're sending swatches so I can see other materials as well. Wow! They will make them any way I want, button or not, covered elastic or not, whatever material, whatever length, inside key pocket, anything! Maybe I'll have them monogramed so eventually they'll have collector value for any model that gets that far.

Right.

Anyway, this is the long tail of the web. Exactly what I want is now available, though I will have to pay for them. And I am happy to pay for something that close to my ... uh ... heart.

Cynn photographing Angela. Neither is wearing skivvies. Cool, huh?