Today's Lesson

On Friday, I participated in the closest thing I've ever done to a group shoot in a long, long time.

But this one was special.

My Brother From Another Mother, Chip Willis (see link to the right) was in town and had a wonderful hotel room and invited me to shoot there inbetween shoots that he was doing.

When I showed up, the people he had assembled were astounding in talent. Aeric (see link to the right), Tito (see link to the right), and my old pal the "cat killer", Tanya. And Lauren came in from Raleigh, also a very talented photographer...

...and all of them great friends.

I was shooting Scar, who I worked with three and a half years ago (and a favorite of mine) and my MUA was Anna, who is one of my new favorites. We do good work together. We've killed shoots together with Mosh and Angela Ryan and this was to be our hat-trick. It was.

It was odd shooting with four amazing photographers in the room, although I've done it before with Chip, Lauren and Tito individually. And Aeric got about three months worth of daily shots for his blog (check out his one of Scar and Chip posted today).

But as focused as I was, I also watched each of them shoot. We all have completely different styles and approaches, from lighting to angles to direction.

I feel blessed.

Experience.

Scar from Friday. My little Buddha:



Nick Cave from today.

Listen.

"Well, little Janie, she wakes up from a dream
A gun like a jawbone down the waistband of her jeans, oh yeah
Mr Sandman can recite today's lesson in his sleep
He says
There oughta be a law against me going down the street

Little Janie pipes up and she says, she says
We're gonna have a real cool time - tonight

All right

Down the back of Janie's jeans she had the jawbone of an ass
Mr Sandman runs around the corner
Trying to head her off at the pass
He sticks his head over the fence and yells
Something way to fast
It's a, it's today lesson
Something about the corruption of the working class

And little Janie wakes up on the floor and she says
We're gonna have a real cool time - tonight

Come on

Janie says we are all such a crush of want
Half-mad with loss
We are violated in our sleep and we weep
And we toss
And we turn
And we burn
We are hypnotised
We are cross-eyed
We are pimped
We are bitched
We are told such monstrous lies

Janie wakes up and she says, she says
We're gonna have a real cool time - tonight

Real cool time

Mr Sandman has a certain appetite for Janie in repose
He digs her pretty kness and that she is completely naked underneath all her clothes
He likes to congregate around the intersection of Janie's jeans
Mr Sandman the inseminator, he opens her up like a love-letter and enters her dreams

Little Janie wakes up and she says, she says
We're gonna have a real good time tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
We're gonna have a real good cool time - tonight
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon
We're gonna have a real cool time"