Saddened and Amazed at the Fact Time can Travel so Damned Quickly...

Music | Mad World by Alex Parks

There are some people who are always kids, children in the minds eye. Kids of friends, friends of your kids... Suddenly a decade goes by and in a matter of seconds, you realize you've just gone thru a time warp.

Cole is a prime example of how time travel is possible. I can only remember vague recollections of her playing violin and seeing a 10 year old stopping by her Mom's café with her older brother.

Fast Forward...

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

Music | Triumphant by Royksopp

North Light Studio has been in full swing since Thursday and will be for the next week. In the last 3 days, I've managed 3 shoots, one commissioned and the plates are looking good. Repetition is a great way to fine tune and learn the process. I can learn from my mistakes and hopefully not make them again in the future.


Nej


Tony


Dara

Don't Be Afraid of Light...

Music | Hear Me Out by Frou Frou

... or the lack of it. It was awhile since I shot in a nice hotel. We were at the Governor's in a gorgeous and large room. The building has to be over 100 years old, but kept up very nicely. Light thru the window was a bit sparse as the view out of it was other windows of other rooms. Between my lights and the room lights, there is no way to get a feel as to how the room looks in its natural state. As we finished up our last shot, I started to turn the lights off and noticed the fabulous light coming thru the window taking over the space. The lone chair sat where it is in the photo and I just kept telling myself not to be afraid of the lack of light. Shadows are a good thing. My client had the perfect garb for the shot and naturally lounged on the chair...

Studio, aka One Car Garage...

Music | All at Sea by Jamie Cullum

It has been almost a month since I did my last shoot. It's nice to get back into the saddle and make a nice piece of work. G.G. has been a muse for me for years and there hasn't been a time where we didn't come out with something nice.

Today I set up the garage as a studio, background, strobe, reflector and camera. There was plenty of room to work and actually, the surroundings of hanging bicycles, lawn mower, rakes and such sort of disappeared with only the model light illuminating the set. I'm realizing I really don't need a lot of space to work my portraits and still life.

Today was more of a test to make sure all my chemicals were in order. I knew my existing collodion was going to be slow because of age. It was nice to make a comparison with the old and new... about a stop and a 1/2 difference! Having this reference point is comforting and brings on confidence. I hope to shoot a lot in the next few weeks.

I had the results I needed from 3 plates, but we pushed forward and shot a few more. I'm glad we did because this is what came out with the last one...

Technology in Modern Times for an Old Process...

Music | This World by Zero 7

Along with change comes new ethical questions that like everything I've been working on lately is a challenge. I imagine over time, when I have become acquainted with the Wet Plate process, I won't have to deal with the purest attitude I have regarding this medium. Because of my lacking ability, I am using digital technology to correct some of the issues I've been having. My thrust in moving backwards was to get away from digital, but as time moves forward, I'm realizing that sometimes technology really is a good thing.

If I have the purest attitude I think I have, I'm gonna have issues.






I'm gonna have to draw the line...

More Photos, HERE

A Beautiful Print

Music | Polaris by Zero 7



A recent purchase from Ray Bidegain. It is a beautiful Platinum Palladium print rendering light, shadows, textures and transitions that only a print of this quality can relinquish. What I have in front of me is an example of what photography really is... The simple subject standing in front of a wall, directional light flowing in from the right. There is no mysticism here... This is just pure beauty captured by an artist that has honed his skills over years of learning, years of knowing.

Beautiful Women

Music | Or Truth? by Uri Caine

I'm blown away at the time since my last post. Besides the really shitty news I recently received, which I will try and delve into later, I'm finding it hard to believe it has been over a month since I last posted.

Over the weekend my very good friend GG aka Sherry had her 40th birthday. I brought my camera along for the hell of it, not really intending to shoot, but did so anyway. During the early evening as everyone had settled, after the merriment of eating and drinking and eating cake, calmness took over and I was able to photograph each and everyone there. As I quickly pulled off a few frames of each, I knew that within a few I had shot, I was presented with a few master pieces. One never knows when these images will appear, but within a matter of a minute, I was given several!

Music | Golden Rust by Robert Miles & Trilok Gurtu

Moving back in time, here is a shot I did earlier this year. I think the shoot itself is a treasure trove of great images. It is a matter of cropping and playing with the contrast of the lighting. There wasn't a lot to crop here, but I did enhance the contrast.

Sherry, by 4x5

Music | Agua by Jose Padilla

So I'm really happy with the image of Sherry here... I'm just figuring I need to be much more selective and have more of a keen sense as to when to press the shutter to release. Other issues I was having was in the scanning process and I'm finding there really isn't this 4x5 monster I thought I was having a battle with. Frankly, with 4x5, I'm shooting much less that I would with the digital slr and I need to slow not only my physical pace, but my mental one as well.

So it isn't because I haven't been shooting a lot of large format that I haven't been posting. It is just that what I have been shooting with the 4x5 is very disappointing. I can't figure out why

Following the Crow and Moving Forward

Music | Impressions by John Coltrane

I'm lucky to be able to have some commissions where both subject and I want to move beyond more traditional means of the photographer, subject relationship. Though we did run thru a series of situations where the end result was going to be a beauty shot, we also were led towards a more dark series. I love the idea of capturing just line and form created with only shadows and small amounts of light - No detail... As if out of a dream sequence only the vague ultimate message becomes apparent and leaves with you the responsibility to decipher it if you so choose.





I'm also happy to present these images as this day, the New Year, brings about new work. I'd like to follow this path and see where it takes me. I was fortunate to have received a note from a fellow artist to tell me that she is seeing a progression of work that has grown in the past year. I feel somewhat validated that one of my peers has noticed this as it was a year ago that I decided to go down this road to be more expressive and not be so afraid to create for the sake of creating. Though I feel that I haven't molded a style that is of my own soul, I know I'm moving, slowly as it may be, towards that as one of my ultimate goals... There is still plenty of fear to fight thru, but I've got a year under my belt and I've at least have some knowledge how to sometimes conteract that fear.

Hope you all have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year...

Back and Forth

Music | The Reason Why by Rachael Yamagata

A recent series that consciously started a few months ago... Faded and now re-inspired...





I hate when I read blogs and such that are vague on details. I'm sorry but this is one of those blogs. More on this at a later date...

Will

Music | First Love by Adele



Is there anything to say?

Baby it's Cold Outside!

Music | Reactive Switching Strategies by DJ Spooky

Though we've been talking about doing some nudes outside, Seré and I kept waiting for the weather and our time to coincide, but it never came to be... Though I knew conditions were not optimum for doing some photography outside, it was in fact chilly, a little rainy and very overcast. I decided to try and just go for it. Seré wasn't quite as up to the challenge as I was, but she was a trouper. Our first location was a bust as heavy construction was going on right at the base of where we wanted to go. As I started getting car sick, trying to sleep as we drove thru the gorge up and down winding roads, I almost decided to call it quits. Just where we decided to pull a U turn, it turns out it was an entrance to a very secluded public park. Just as we got out of the car, light rain drops started falling again as we quickly made a plan of attack to make the most of the moment. In all, we found 4 different views in just about 45 minutes and a 1/2 mile of walking and being out in the wet and cold. As much as we both complained, we felt fantastic getting back to the warmth of the heated car and cups of hot chocolate that awaited us.



Though there are the obvious challenges of trying to find locations to shoot nudes, I'm hoping I get the opportunity to do it again very soon.

A Sinuous Dance...

Music | The Key by Matthew Shipp

Clarity

Music | Dawn by The Cinematic Orchestra

With the banter in my brain going from Large Format 4x5 and my 35mm digital SLR, I'm finding it surprising that these last 2 shoots came so easy for me with the resulting photographs very close to what I envisioned in my head. I've been working on shooting solo with Cain for over a year. As elusive as she has been, times where I just decided to give up and move on, somewhere in the back of my head I knew that whenever we got together, we'd come up with strong images in our eventual collaboration. I wouldn't call this shoot a commission, as I wanted to just as strongly want to photograph her as she wanted to be photographed by me. In any case, we got some very strong images in this loosely put together shoot...

Sherry

Music | Chasing Pavements by Adelle

My quest to get comfortable with 4x5 has taken a step in the right direction. I shot 6 sheets of Sherry today, 4 at one location and 2 here... I'm feeling a bit more confident with loading the film onto the reels and processing, though I'm still experimenting with dilutions of the developer and such... I managed to nail this neg and the other I shot at the same spot, but the other 4 sheets were like my first try and a bit thin. It is a process and learning curve I hope to have mastered by the time my other camera arrives in January. I'm also getting more comfortable with this camera, but the mechanical movements of my body are still strong and sometime dominate my head - another aspect of this transition I hope to have overcome.

Sherry is a regular, often sitting for me in times of inspiration, and times of desperation as well. My exercise of just getting out there and shoot brought us to a park on the other side of town, using the fall colours and textures as our source of creating. We walked until I felt something and here, I loved how the triangular shape of the branches framed her, off center within the camera frame. It also doesn't take much for Sherry to strike an elegant pose...

Beauty is a Rare Thing...

Music | A Ballad for Rita by Fred Anderson

Confused... and Dazed too!

Music | All Coming Back by Sarah Blasco

I don't often have conflicts selecting when a photo should be colour or Black and White when I make that initial decision. However, I think everything about this shot worked, including the colours in this photo...

A Very Sophisticated Shot...

Music | Blood Count by Jon Raskin

I've always had a mantra of keeping things as simple as possible. Well, maybe that isn't true... I don't have enough sophistication to think of complex ways of doing things... Anyway, I ran into a problem with this shot as I needed to have a boom for a light to be hung from above. Because of my unsophisticated ways, I carry a minimal amount of gear. I didn't have what I needed, but came upon this...



Yes?... No?...

of course yes...