Outtakes

Going through shots originally discarded can sometimes yield amazing results. Mindset can dictate that interesting shots are immediately discarded. For instance:

I shot with the beautiful Sarah Crawford back in May. While going through the files today and cleaning off my computer drive, I came across this:

This is an incredibly photogenic woman making a very evil face. Actually she was probably laughing at me, but whatever...Sarah is the kind of model that you light and just basically point the camera at. She photographs WELL. And she would probably not dig this shot - at least not use it in her portfolio (although, she was pretty punk rock). She might put it on a Christmas card or something...

Since I do think of myself as a portrait photographer first and foremost, I rescued it. It's a real shot of a real person. And a total accident.

Note to self for 2007 work: You can still be a dictatorial director, but remember to just let stuff happen, too.

Red Wine in a Dixie Cup is a Must Have

Sarah said that.

She's one of the foremost figure models in the US and an all around fantastic person. I worked all day long on the shots from our last two shoots - the first from May and the second from June (yes, I suck and am behind, but at least I own up to it every chance I get). Sarah is a great friend AND a great sport as she has never yelled at me about it. And that's cool. She knows she's gonna get them, and they are gonna be good and dammit, they're going out tomorrow...

It's funny. When I first started shooting, I was a little bit at a loss as to what to do with a figure model - a model that is more comfortable in no clothes than in clothes. That kinda went against my narrative scenario when I was shooting the ROOMS series, so I did what came naturally to me - I dressed them up! Sometimes in a Styrofoam Statue of Liberty head-thing, sometimes in actual clothes...

When Sarah and I first got in touch with each other (she with me, I think) I was a little intimidated. Her work was amazing and voluminous. Her confidence was at 11 and, I don't know, it seemed as though she was this sort of rock star of figure models.

We hit it off immediately during our first meeting and our first shoot yielded great results. And she was a rock star. Still is...

She's one of my favorites to shoot with, since at this point after working together three times, it's like old times. The last time we shot - in June - she asked me to get a Australian red for the shoot. I did, but the hotel only had Dixie cups. We made do. Nothing like red wine and wax...and she claims I turned her into a wine lover...

The photo is Sarah from May. I wanted to see how far I could push the Neopan 1600, so I blew out the white tile of the bathroom in this hotel room with all the light I had and nearly lost her in the exposure. But not quite...

It's a Process

Thanksgiving.

I think the best thing is the long, long weekend. I woke up this morning after seeing The Hold Steady @ Maxwell's last night thinking it was Sunday. Nope. Reprieve!

Took my girl to see BORAT tonight. Her first time. My second. Still holds up. In fact, not having to deal with the sheer frequency of slapstick/intellectual humor allowed me to focus on the sheer genius of it all. The pre-production must have been an absolute hoot.

I'm envious. But anyway, I take pictures...And so...

...since I described the way I shoot the Chair series in the second to last post, I thought it would be cool to actually show the steps toward making the final image.

I'm shooting Sheena tomorrow for both the Chair series and the Bunny series and that is cool. I've worked with her before and we get along famously. When I contacted her about shooting, she wrote back. "LOL...yea I kinda figured after lookin at your recent stuff that I would get caught up in the naked on a chair scene."

Ya gotta love that in a model...

Well, here's the Naked on a Chair Scene, dissected, exploded and semi-explained - the process, not the secrets:

EXHIBIT #1 - The Chair

The chair must be unique, that is to say, unlike any of the other chairs in the Chair series. The chair must have a strange, circular light under it. The chair must be able to support a full-grown model. The chair must not obscure the models boots, i.e. black chair bleeds into black boots. Chairs usually come with hotel rooms, although this particular fleabag in Midtown did not come with a chair. I requested one from the management and without a question, he gave me this one from the office, where he was watching some sort of Indian sports program. Stability was tested and it was determined that this chair would serve just fine. This is also the step where the entire room is art directed and production designed. There was a huge wooden shelf in the corner that had to be relocated (see EXHIBIT #2) and a bunch of corn chips (or something!) on the floor that had to be swept out of the frame. You can see the beginnings of that strange circular light in this shot. Also notice the phone that is screwed into the wall that the model will need to hide with her pose. The model's hair and makeup happens during this part of the process.

EXHIBIT #2 - The Model

At this point, hair and makeup is complete and the model (or an assistant, but preferably the model) stands in to be lit. As any real photographer knows, lighting is about balance, reflection and intensity. Since I am replicating an existing lighting schematic (see EXHIBIT #3) I spend a lot of time here getting the model's face to read at one level (or f-stop), while the rest of her body is at another level and the surface of the chair and her boots is at another level. The background also has to be lit, and the strange, circular light under the chair has to be maintained relative to all the other light, it being the brightest. This is the fun part. This is also the part where I direct the model as to the pose for the shot. I also determine and lock into the camera placement vertically and horizontally, which often places me under a table or levitating about 2 1/2 feet off the ground upside-down.

EXHIBIT #3 - The Lighting Schematic

This is the actual lighting schematic for the Chair series. It was drawn on a bar napkin a couple of days ago while I was explaining all the complexities of these shots to my girl while we were having a few drinks. She put it into her back pocket and walked around with it for the rest of the evening. When I asked her for it, she produced something that vaguely looked like a cigarette that had been machine washed from her pocket and gave it to me. I think the texture just adds to the coolness of it. When I gave it back to her, I initialed it and dated it and told her to sell it immediately upon my death. That and $.75 will get her a cup of coffee here, as long as she goes to the cheap deli. Look closely - all the secrets are here! If this gets into the forums on Model Mayhem on OMP, I'll be ruined!

EXHIBIT #4 - The Final Product

I usually shoot about 20-30 shots of the set-up for the final. At 1600 asa. I pick the best one based on facial expression and posture, clean it up a little in Photoshop, run it through my "custom" Photoshop recipe and out pops another chick on a chair.

Like I said, 9 down, 4 or 5 more to go...

1925-2006

"What is a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority."

- Robert Altman

RIP

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...

Taschen's "The New Erotic Photography"

Taschen has finally gotten the release info for the book up on their site.

I'm very happy with the fact that it's hardback, 10.5" x 7.5" and is $50.00 - a perfectly respectable coffee-table book.

The talent represented in the book also blows me away - 82 photographers total. And names that pretty much own "erotic photography" today, plus a bunch of us up-and-comers. It's humbling and exhilarating to be included among such company.

February 2007 release.

Everybody Seems to Wonder What It's Like Down Here...

I am on edge. So what else is new?

I had a ticket to see Greg Dulli tonight (right now) with Mark Lanegan, but I elected not to go.

Three reasons, in least to most importance:

1 - It's raining like hell, and I'd have to walk 7 blocks to the Q train, then on the other end 12 blocks from Bedford to The Warsaw. Then back. Which at 1pm takes four times as long. Of course, I could call a Car Service, but then we're talking $20.00 each way. Fuck...

2 - I'm very, very tired. And, I might mention, unmotivated due to the rain and the cost of a car.

3 - I just don't want to see Mark without my girl. He's her favorite. "Do him without retribution" favorite. Plain and simple. But tonight, he's a back-up singer, guest-star shill for Greg's The Twilight Singers.

NOT The Afghan Whigs. Not bad, mind you, just not memorable. But NOT The Afghan Whigs. Which were great, but NOT American Music Club great, but that complicates things.

So $21.00 goes to Greg and Mark tonight, courtesy of me. I hope they use it well and make more music. $9.00 goes to Ticketmaster and they can blow me. A lot. All the time. Forever.

And more disposable income out the door -

I stopped by Virgin @ 14th Street today after my ALLERGY SHOT (what am I allergic to, you ask? TICKETMASTER, for starts...) to pick up the Neil Young thang and, of course, slippery slope, gateway drug, ended up with the following:

- Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horse Live at The Fillmore East, March 6 & 7, 1970, CD/DVD
- Frank Zappa, Thing-Fish, CD
- P J Harvey, The Peel Sessions, 191-2004, CD

Nuff said.

Been scanning negatives and working on digital shots all day long. Want to get the LA girls their shots as soon as possible and I have six rolls here from Sharmeen's wedding.

And a conference call with The Gap tomorrow at 1pm for a shitload of corporate work.

Photo is Ginger in Beverly Hills perching. Pretty.
Neil titled the blog entry. Godlike.

Anyone else reading "Shakey"? I got a copy in Woodstock and I'm 400 pages in...