Tappy Hanksgiving !

Finished four sets of photos this week - amazing what you can get done if you:

a) do not leave the house all day long
b) are unemployed at the moment

Sent them off in the maily mail today, which always manufactures a strange sense of accomplishment. Always seems like magic of some governmental sort. Always leaves me with much less to do. And less people to bug my draggin' ass ass.

Hey, I'm a TYPE A, I overextend, I take on too much. After all, death is just around the corner ("Hi, Death..."), and even though I WANT to believe in reincarnation and that I WILL come back as a HOT CHICK, I'm not convinced. That leaves a lot to do NOW.

I took some photos of the Baby Kitty playing with her menagerie of toys last night and just amused myself. Used the flash, in the living room, while chasing a moving target. The pictures looked like shit, in fact, the email I sent them out with was entitled, "See, I can take crappy pictures too..."

Monday, I shot another model for my chair series (#8). Since the lighting and angle are consistent throughout - meaning I have to replicate them every single time to the finest detail (color temp, wattage, exposure, focal length - really) - it takes me about an hour to set up. This mostly involves me lighting an empty space with a chair while hair and makeup is happening for the model. Then the model stands in, usually wearing her casual clothes while I fine-tune the lighting to her. Then she disrobes, sans anything but boots and accessories and we attempt the shot. Monday's shoot was easy as the chair was rock solid. The last chair shoot I did - with Kyra - the chair cushion was poofy and her boots were spiky and she had to hold onto the wall until I said "go." I'd shoot a frame and she'd wobble and grab the wall again. But we got the shot (posted back a couple of entries ago - she with the pink hair).

Taking snapshots of the cat and shooting portraits of the chair series are opposite ends of the spectrum for me. Except that it's all about trying to get...

Gonna spend the next 5 weeks wrapping up two distinct projects - The Pissed-Off Bunny Project and The Chair Series. I need 12 strong bunnies, and I've got 10. I need 13 strong chairs and I've got 9. Then, with those done I'll concentrate on the gallery show and the self-published "Chairs" monograph. 2007 is wide open for me.

Creatively, as of this writing, I have no new ideas. I know I've done the "Hotel Room" thing (which doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t shoot in a hotel room, just not AS a hotel room), the bunnies, the chairs...

I need the next big idea. And some real work. Thinking cap on...

I'd like to meet my friend D. Brian Nelson (see link to right) up in St. John's in March and shoot Angela again. I'd also like to go to Toronto for a few days and work with some of the models there that never seem to get down to NYC, like Kim. And there's always plenty of talent here in the city.

But what to do? Harder-core? Motion blurs? Double exposures?

We'll see...

But first, turkey, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts and tons of wine...

Photo is of the Baby Kitty and The Duck. The Duck used to contain catnip, but I think it either got eaten out of the Duck's back (no anesthesia!) or just went lame. The Duck mocks the Baby Kitty. The Baby Kitty does not take to the mocking kindly...