Summer to Remember

Silly me, I was looking forward to a few random adventures with some of the awesome people I've worked with, just the usual run out to the desert in the early morning with the usual suspects and possibly one or two new models.

Money For Nothing

I'm chatting with Pearl on Yahoo and she tells me I'm in a show, in Pomona, in a week, and there's a meeting there TONIGHT. Pearl being the incredibly awesome person she is got half the prints made and framed, then shows up at the show with flowers! She is so amazing.

Boxing Nevaeh

I get the chance to shoot 3 gorgeous ladies at the same time, Pearl, Conundra and NevaehLleh in Lucerne Valley a day before Pearl leaves for a week in Colorado, we all end up with minor injuries on this shoot after I start it off by stepping on a nail. But we did capture some wonderful images, one of which was chosen for the 3rd NUDE exhibit at Manifest gallery in Ohio!

Hymm To A Feral Heart

Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet and work with Rebelflowers for the first time, I'd been watching her work on the DevientArt web site for a long time, she takes trips out to some of the same exact places I go in the desert and posts amazing photos. I met her at the D. M. Gremlin studios open house and then Sunday we did a desert photo shoot. What a wonderful and talented lady, we had just the most amazing day! The image below was literally the first click of the shutter that morning.

Living This Day

In between working, shooting and editing I've managed to do an upgrade to my web site, it's been way overdue. It's still a work in progress...

"You become things, you become an atmosphere, and if you become it, which means you incorporate it within you, you can also give it back. You can put this feeling into a picture. A painter can do it. And a musician can do it and I think a photographer can do that too and that I would call the dreaming with open eyes." ~Ernst Haas

Real Life

Shooting out in the desert sometimes feels like shooting in Neverland.

Nobody's Home

Invariably there is a point on the road back home, when you leave the inspiration and fantasy behind for the familiar sights and smells, of the populated world.

My World View

Sometimes I feel sad about making that trip back and sometimes I feel good about it, doesn't seem to matter who I'm with or how the photo shoot went, doesn't matter where we went or what we saw.

Natural Formations

Waking up from a dream, precious moments where I held the world in my hands and witnessed the most beautiful scenes, moments in time that I cherish so much to be shared with love. But in the meantime it's back to reality, and back to the traffic the din and the lines at Starbucks, back to the noise, the chores and the demands. 

Home In The Sky

Back to planning my next escape.

Critics

Often I find that the images I seem to like best, are some of the same images that get the fewest views on the web.

Peaceful Gardens

From my completely unscientific and seat of the pants observation, even though the image above is one of my all time favorite photos of Pearl, it is also one of the lessor viewed in my gallery. Strictly based on number of views overall, no other criteria, sometimes it amazes me.

Today, Asylum Photo shared a story by Michael Zhang · Jul 13, 2011 (the photo is linked to the original post) posted on PetaPixel...

Why You Shouldn’t Give Too Much Weight to Anonymous Online Critics

Basically proving how very personal taste really is.

Ironically, I was just discussing something similar last night with a fellow photographer, awhile ago I received this comment on one of my galleries: "A woman with this body deserves a session in the red chair, instead of being lost in a desert landscape." This comment has been quite inspiring for me, which is certainly not what I assume the poster intended. But the truth is I shoot for me and besides, I don't even own a red chair. And so much for being lost, there is a desert nude in the same gallery that will soon be hanging in a real gallery, and I feel like sending an engraved invitation.

"There is no such a thing as artistic photography. In photography, like in all things, there are people who can see and others who cannot even look." ~Nadar

Manifest

I am thrilled to share amazing news, one of my images was chosen to be included in...

3rd Annual
N U D E

An International Competitive Exhibit Exploring
the Uncovered Human Form in Current Art
Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio -  August 12, to September 9, 2011

Here are some images I've done with the phenomenal NevaehLleh most recently.

Miss You

She is a wonderful being, beautiful person and incredible model.

In Motion

And we do love the desert, to see more of her work her blog is located here.

Change

"Art helps us see with new eyes what we knew was there but never really recognized. I photograph not to record or document—but rather, to capture and hold, just for a moment, the essence of what exists beyond the scene." ~Robert Hall

Nekkid

I attended a show last night in Pomona where I got to show several prints of my work.

Force

During the course of the evening I had several interesting conversations with both fellow artists and several of the people who had come out for the evening, it's a pleasure to hear their impressions of my work, and their thoughts on it's place in art.

Lost Shadows

It's so encouraging to have people comment that I should be bringing my work to the more common art gatherings in town, the art walk, or art days, in Pomona they have a gathering of artists they refer to as "Second Saturday". I would love to be able to show my work to the public at such an event, it sounds like fun, but I ask, what about the nudity? Generally photographic nudes are not very welcome outside with people of all ages mingling around, even if it is an art themed event. Well, they asked, you do have other work... or are nudes all that you do? My reply, I do nudes.

I Belong To The Hurricane

So the question I know many must deal with, do you adjust your work in order to comply with prevailing attitudes? Do you shoot landscapes or kittens or daises so you can secure a spot in the venue, then slip the nudes in under the tent so you can show them to people inconspicuously? Seems like making illicit drug deals or something, although, I have been known to photograph a kitten...

Instant Friends

No, society may change or maybe it won't but I love my work, I shoot nudes.

Bright Lights Big City

"We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins." ~George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Group Shoot

Then there is any given Saturday morning in the high desert.

Nude Photography

And there are times nude photography just happens.

Dance

I'm so very blessed to have the opportunity to work with incredible people.

Tres Amiga

I worked with Pearl & Conundra one weekend, Conundra & NevaehLleh the next weekend, then we decided to all go out together, it was an amazing day.

Stages

A beautiful day, beautiful people, beautiful setting and this is a little bit of heaven!

Untitled

"The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express." ~Francis Bacon 

*****  Come see me in Pomona on Thursday evening beginning at 8:00pm  *****

Pomona Valley Mining Co.
1777 Gillette Road
Pomona, CA