Same as it ever was…

Or so it seems; I’ve been afflicted with a bad case of not-enough-hours-in-the-day syndrome. Basically, I’ve been busy.

The busy has been good though, as a large portion of it came from spending significant time in a villa on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina with life-long friends. We’re scattered far and wide over the country now and it had been 30 years since I had last laid eyes on some of them. Those few days spent together were quite wonderful. Work of course, has made up the rest of being busy.

While on Hilton Head, I had the pleasure of photographing one of my friend’s daughters and her friend that joined the family for the trip. These young ladies are both dancers of ballet; they’re both 13; and they’re both tall, graceful and drop dead gorgeous. My make-up artist and stylist came to the villa and together, we spent an afternoon with these talented girls shooting fashion and artistic portraits, as well as some ballet on the beach. I’ll not likely post any of the images here. The two primary reasons for doing this session were for the girls to have fun, and for them to create something unique as a gift for themselves and their families. It was a great time and quite exhausting for all involved. I honestly don’t recall the last time I intentionally spent an afternoon with two 13 year olds. I'd guess it was when I was 13.

Now it’s back to the work at hand. I’ve got two figure sessions scheduled for this week; one is for the evening on the 12th and the other, the evening of the 13th. Both are models I’ve photographed before. After looking through my available inventory of images, I decided to go ahead with these two sessions and cross my fingers they will complete what I need for my November show and opening. Time is quickly running out.

I’m also behind in my film developing, with several rolls from a recent outing with the Holga, plus commissions to develop for friends. I’ll also be getting out and shooting more documentary and editorial work for my general gallery inventories and I’ve got a figure session planned for an outdoor location once the heat and bugs become more manageable. Lastly, and perhaps most critically with a show deadline hanging over me, I’ve got a printing dilemma to resolve. There'll be more on that in future posts, I'm sure.

The figure session shot week before last with Michelle Phillips and Kathy Thomas at Kathy’s home went well. In my initial edits of the images, it’s becoming apparent that this project may work better as color than monotone, something that has surprised me. The lighting was a challenge as the sun darted in and out of the clouds, sometimes with exceptional speed, and because of the location, we were restricted in our usage of certain rooms. Plus, the colors of the rooms are quite neutral and with the mix of soft and hard light, the contrast is all over the place. There are good images in the mix, but another session is in order.

The images accompanying this post are from a July figure session; I couldn’t stand the thought of posting without including at least some photography. I’ll have new images to show when the two upcoming sessions are completed and I promise the next update will include some of the new work.