Portraits

Some of my attempts to capture portraits during my most recent photo shoots.

Katz Pajamaz

Natural light under sometimes crazy conditions, indoors and out, in a beautiful room or the remains of an abandoned dwelling in the desert.

Iota Art & NevaehLleh

Taking a few moments to concentrate on portraiture has helped my focus, I feel it's added a dimension to what I see. 

Mila Ringo

 Edward Weston said: "...success in photography, portraits especially, is dependent on being able to grasp those supreme instants which pass with the ticking of a clock, never to be duplicated - so light, balance - expression must be seen - felt as it were - in a flash, the mechanics and technique being so perfected in one as to be absolutely automatic."

Sunshine In The Desert

Putting the nude in the landscape is emotive and beautiful, portraits however are more personal and so as opposed to the landscape where my subject is one with the surroundings, in portraiture we explore personality.

Conundra

Again I cannot say how fortunate I have been to work with people so unique and so giving to my work, my projects, my style and my learning, especially my learning.

Iota Art

Annie Leibovitz said, "A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people." This is a key I have learned and regardless of what you do, be it cooking, art, dance, photography or what have you, do it with love and the results will be there.

Shelby Katz

And shoot from the heart.

Pearl Pardo

Shelby Katz & Katz Pajamaz

"I hate cameras. They interfere, they’re always in the way. I wish: if I could just work with my eyes alone. To get a satisfactory print, one that contains all that you intended, is very often more difficult and dangerous than the sitting itself. When I’m photographing, I immediately know when I’ve got the image I really want. But to get the image out of the camera and into the open, is another matter." ~Richard Avedon

Back To The Sea

This past weekend I had the opportunity to again work with Katz Pajamaz & Shelby Katz, and also with Rusty Shackelford & Logan, we all met up and drove out to what's left of the pier at the end of Poe Road.

It was a warm sunny day, but quite windy, we made the best of the conditions and the space I think.

Broken

Working with this group was great fun, I thought it would be more of a challenge having 4 models on location but the ideas and inspiration flowed as we all collaborated on the places and poses. 

A Balance Of Will

And some poses are a result of found objects.

People At The Sea

It was great to have all 4 models on location together and everything worked together beautifully.

These two are just so much fun to shoot, you almost never know what might happen next!

The Salton Sea is pretty much a paradise for me, it can be dreadful out there in the heat and when the wind howls of which I've had to endure both, but it is sure hard to beat on a beautiful day, one thing for sure we all want to go back and shoot there again.

"Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. My concern is . . . the human predicament; only what I consider the human predicament may simply be my own." ~Richard Avedon

Just Give Me A Kiss

This past Saturday I had the great pleasure of working with two incredible artist models, Shelby Katz and Katz Pajamaz

From The Inside

This was my third time working with Katz Pajamaz and first time working with Shelby Katz, this was also quite outside my usual style and I felt somewhat out of my element. Plus I worked Saturday morning at my day job so after work it was about a 2 hour drive, a bit of a mad dash and a couple of traffic jams later... We were shooting.

Let Me

The atmosphere was amazing and everything seemed to fall into place once we began shooting, the three of us had been discussing this shoot for several weeks in advance so we were definitely all on the same page from the start. 

Two As One

I can't say enough about how great it feels to work with such amazing and talented people, this shoot was fantastic because of Katz & Shelby. I was admittedly a little apprehensive about it mainly because it was a space I'd never seen, and I'm still new to using available indoor light and shooting in close proximity. 

Summer Lovers

This photo shoot was a joy to do and I'm loving the results, I also know there are those who prefer my desert work and I appreciate that, so this isn't to say I'm coming in from the desert, not a chance, in fact the three of us plan to shoot in the desert this coming weekend, am I lucky or what?

Only A Kiss

"I believe a key to status and recognition as a free-lance photographer is flexibility of approach. Be able to perform more than one type of photography." ~Jerry Rosen

Franck Leclercq

From some of my latest work, Franck Leclercq, a friend in Paris has done more editing and manipulations...

Living Stone (Fairy - Sunshine In The Desert)

I had the great pleasure of working with beautiful people in the last month, Sunshine In The Desert, Katz Pajamaz, Rusty Shackelford, Pearl Pardo & Wyldcat.

Fallen Angel (Katz Pajamaz)

Amazing work... Franck & I are actually in the planning stages of doing a book together.

Cracked (Katz Pajamaz)

I got to spend most of the day with Katz & Rusty out in Lucerne Valley, at the famous Flying F Ranch and in the hills and lake bed, what a treat going to the ranch and working with such amazing artists.

Trouble (Katz Pajamaz and Dallas)

This is from one of my last photo shoots with Pearl, incredibly beautiful and talented, she was my Muse for several years.

Life Out There (Pearl Edit - Pearl Pardo)

Rusty & Katz give me so much to work with, when these two are together there is a seemingly never ending supply of posing ideas and concepts.

The Lovers (Katz Pajamaz & Rusty Shackelford)

I also had the opportunity to work for the first time with Wyldcat, all I can say is wow, fantastic talent and take it from me, she cannot be tamed.

Wyldcat and Yours Truly

"You have to follow your instinct all the time. Otherwise you don't make it." ~Ruth Bernhard

Wyldcat

A few weeks ago I did a somewhat random search and 'tagged' (left a message) for 4 model's on Model Mayhem that I felt were exceptional and fit my photographic style, I simply said that I would love to work with them sometime. 

The Workshop

Only one of the models responded, Wyldcat, by leaving a message saying simply that she would also love to work with me. So, we began communicating via private messages, we set a date and traded contact info, we chatted back & forth about photography, modeling, music and locations.

The Microcosm Of Life

Last Saturday we headed for the high desert, I picked her up around noon and the plan was to shoot until sunset, the concept was to shoot for my 'decay' series in and around abandoned buildings, shoot for my flower series and also do some art nude in the desert. I'm not sure if it was from the brief conversations we had in e-mail or text, but practically from the moment we met I felt I had known her a long time already.

Nature's Overture

 

Conditioned

The first place we stopped was an abandoned farm house, I don't think we were there all of 5 minutes when 4 people drove up in a van, stopping there to shoot fashion, so down the road we went to a smaller abandoned house only a mile or so away, again 15 minutes after arriving a guy drove up who had come to sit on the porch and eat his lunch. Undeterred we went to yet another place I knew out there and this time we were able to work uninterrupted and the shoot began coming together. 

The Natural World

It was a beautiful day and Wyldcat is an exceptional talent as well as great company, we cruised the valley stopping at several abandoned places and then as the light improved in the later afternoon we moved on to desert nudes, in the rocks and on the lake bed. She was simply amazing and I am very much looking forward to our next adventure!

Corner Of My Eye

"No, I don't think you're ever an objective observer. By making a frame you're being selective, then you edit the pictures you want published and you're being selective again. You develop a point of view that you want to express. You try to go into a situation with an open mind, but then you form an opinion, and you express it in your photographs." ~Mary Ellen Mark

Back to the Ranch

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to pay another visit to the Flying F Ranch, this time with a trio of amazing models.

Add caption

Holly Loveday, Katz Pajamaz & Rusty Shackleford met up with me in the morning for what turned out to be a very fun and perfectly beautiful day in the Lucerne Valley.

Trouble

It was great to see everyone again, John and his crew and their beautiful Arabian horses, Holly is riding Sampson in the first photo, Katz with Dallas in the next two, Holly riding Dallas and all three with Samir in the last image.

Hear The Whisper

The ranch is a very special place, you can't help but notice it when you spend time there, it is always a source of great inspiration and great memories.

Promise Of The West

I'm gladly planning more trips out there this summer.

A Matter Of Will

"When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk. He trots the air, the earth sings when he touches it." ~William Shakespeare

More Thoughts on the Muse

Having a text conversation yesterday with a fellow photographer talking about models, Muses and relationships I got to thinking about how things have changed but also remain the same.

Projects

The Internet, the digital camera and a bazillion images online have had quite an impact on modeling and photography no question, places like PureStorm, Model Mayhem and Model Insider have made shopping for a model or photographer as simple as clicking a 'search' button. And if you're just starting out, looking for something different, or just bored, there are quite literally dozens of people representing every genre of art & culture looking to collaborate. 

Literal Dream

This is a good thing in many ways, it makes it easier for people to meet, get together and explore their creativity, find someone you'd like to work with, send a message, set a date, it's happening all the time every day, everywhere. 

The Bridge

I'm really not surprised however to often see the same models and same photographers in gallery shows, it seems, as far as my experience goes that there is a smaller circle inside the huge ring of people working that are making the current iconic images. It's my feeling, in the art nude genre at least, the more well known photographers submit work they create with a small number of models. The reasons can vary widely but what is interesting is it seems apparent there is some kind of connection, either in style, in aesthetics or possibly in their working relationship.

Life In The Day

Going back in time a bit and I find some of the most famous combinations came from discovery rather then search engine, Mario Testino and Kate Moss, Paolo Roversi and Guinevere Van Seenus, Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton to name a few. These combinations launched careers and created some of the most iconic images of thier time, what brought them together and what did they see in each other?

Step Lightly

Going back even further to names such as Man Ray, Edward Weston, William Mortenson, Alfred Stieglitz or Harry Callahan and they didn't search for models, they found a woman who became their vision. By chance, by luck or simply by will they created their images in collaboration with their Muse, who in most cases never aspired to be a model and in some, never thought of themselves as such. These could not have been the only ones, I would think they likely represent the inner circle of a larger group, so what was the magic these people found, was it in their skill or their passion, or was it the collaboration and vision? For whatever reason these people believed in each other and they truly left us with amazing images. 

Timeless

 "...the goal of art was the vital expression of self." ~Alfred Stieglitz