I had said I wasn’t planning to shoot over the summer of 2010 unless I was struck with staggering inspiration. Well struck I was, literally, by some of the most stunning natural light I’ve seen in recent memory.

These are four brand new images from a session with Michelle R, shot in another old Savannah home, with some of that stunning natural light. Enjoy.

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I’ve decided on something of a different approach to this blog.

When I first started the blog in June, 2009, I wrote that this would be a journal to show not only my figure photography but my documentary, travel, and other work genres as well. I also identified it as a place to discuss art and photography and expressed the hope that it would encourage and foster such actual discussions among artists, models, collectors, and so on.

Of course, showing my photography was the easy part. Has it fostered any discussions among artists? I don’t know. Or more accurately; not that I’ve heard.

Having said that, I always wanted the blog to be centered on and about photography; particularly artistic photography of the nude human form. To my own credit, I achieved exactly that; however, during my short lived but rejuvenating break I came to realize that I was writing more and posting fewer and fewer photographs. Certainly I was writing about photographic topics, and rarely strayed from that. But with the numbers of images being posted dwindling to one per post, and on more than a few occasions, none per post, I felt the blog was heading astray.

With this entry, expect the face of the blog to change somewhat. I’m still going to write about things I believe are of interest to the artistic and photographic communities. Treatises on the difficulties of finding models, the travails of my studio sessions, or the state of the art collector markets will only occasionally find their way inside. And when they do, I’ll keep them concise and to the point. I’ll try my best, anyway.

Well that didn't last long...

Yeah, I know. Just call me Brett Farve.

I've no image to put with today's post; sorry for that. However, the real purpose of this little note is to say that the break I mentioned in my prior post is now suspended. indefinitely. Inspiration, I'm pleased to say, has struck!

In short, I am seeing once again.

Stay tuned for details...

Until Further Notice...

Deaf Man

It’s sounding more and more like the refrain of a bad song; nonetheless, my time has not been my own of late.

To say the past few weeks have been stressful would be an understatement. I won’t bore you with the sordid details, but a minor medical scare, the loss of a long lived and much loved pet, and the strains of being a self employed person married to a self employed person are taking their toll, which amounts to much more than their due share.

Couple that with the simple fact I’m not very happy with recent work. I’m making decent images; even a few good ones here and there, but overall it could be better. I had been hopeful a shift in direction, a move out of studio to shoot with natural, available light would bring about a surge of inspiration. It hasn’t. The honest truth is I can sense the tingle fading.

I think any artist, regardless of the medium in which they work, will say art and all it involves is no different than life itself. For the artist, art is cyclical. It’s like riding a roller coaster, or a being a surfer catching a wave. Inspiration rises and falls, projects begin and end, and some things simply get stuck and go nowhere. The ideas and creativity spin in space, and it’s easy to feel as if all is aimless and without direction or purpose. And like the rider on a roller coaster or a surfer looking for a wave, it’s impossible to not question the structure of your support; what’s really holding this speeding car on the rails or waiting to swallow you in one watery, salty gulp. Thought processes like these make one, for lack of a better word, think.

I’ve decided I’m going to stop, at least for a while. I’ll get off the roller coaster and sit on the beach. For a change, I’m going to spend my summer watching others.

Of course, this decision directly affects what I do here, perhaps for the entire summer. Unless I’m struck with staggering inspiration, which is of course one hopeful outcome of this little vacation, there will be no new updates until the fall.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I’ll see you soon.

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And Since You Asked...

Nude With Flower, Cropped Version

Some of you suggested this crop for the image posted with the previous entry. You can see that entry here. The image is from a studio session with Megan.

I have to say I like it, as it shifts the focal point of the flowers away from center frame. However, I’m fond of the other too. I feel they both work well.

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And Since I Asked...

When I wrote the post prior to this one, I suggested an adjustment to my follower base as I was at 13 followers.

Well, someone responded. They left.

I’m now at 12 followers. Not exactly what I had in mind, but at least I’m off of 13. Of course, there can be a thousand reasons of why one follower dropped away. I'm not taking it personally.

I expect this blog will benefit from something of a rest as well. Still, even though the blog is going to be in hibernation for some time, please feel free to tell others about it.

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Deaf Man pose, from an '08 session with beautiful Anna.

A Continuance...

 Nude With Flower

Not too much has changed since my last post.

The day-job workload is slacking and I’m getting better at managing the hours of my days, or so it would seem. I’m finding stretches of time in which to do some editing on past sessions. I’ve come to realize there are bad habits I could cut out of my day in favor of doing things more productive, which I’ll touch on a bit later; certainly, this has been a big help. Regardless, I’m still far behind from where I’d hoped to be by this time of 2010, particularly where photography is concerned.

There’s a bit more to discuss, but I’ll save that for my next post.

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Events at Horizon

The opening parties at Horizon Gallery went very well, and were wildly successful for a few of the 37 artists represented. No photography sold. Still, the gallery and work was seen by many. Gallery director Luc Ebner holds high-hopes for the gallerie's expansion into other markets. As always, I remain optimistic.

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And On That Note...

Please feel free to spread the word about this blog and my photography. If you’re a reader, but not a formal “follower”, please become one so I know you’re here. I love meeting people at my show openings and it’s always nice to know who the audience is. Having said that, I will confess to ulterior motives here: I’m not superstitious; however, it would be nice to see the follower count rise above 13…

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Another from my session with Megan.

A Coping Mechanism...

Life remains and moves fast.

The day job is keeping me busy, and the need to earn cash and then immediately redistribute it is overwhelming. There has been little time for other pursuits, photography among them. I’m two sessions behind in editing, and I’m shuffling my planned shooting schedule around, pushing dates back on the calendar closer and closer to spring and the start of ‘tan-line’ season. Not that I’m complaining; far from it. I’m grateful to be busy; and as strange as it sounds, grateful to have an income to redistribute.

My primary concern is I’m not devoting the time to my photography work that it both demands and deserves; this is especially true for the figurative work . I’ll get there; I’ll get the edits done and images in gallery inventories for sale, and images on this blog for all to see. Still, it bugs me. I feel almost guilty.

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Come One, Come All....

...and tell a friend or two. Horizon Gallery, my current sole representation, is having an artist’s reception on Friday, April 16th from 5pm-8pm and on Sunday, an open house, from 3pm-7pm. All are invited; feel free to spread the word. The gallery is located at 206 East Bay Street, Savannah, Ga.

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One from Megan’s first studio session.

Timing is Everything...

If “timing is everything” then so far this year I’ve been blessed. I ended my partnership with Savannah’s The Gallery earlier in the year, with the anticipation of pushing my work into other markets more receptive to the nude figure. I sold my share of the partnership to another photographer and at the close of business January 31st, removed the last of my unsold inventory from the building.

This past Tuesday, I received a call from a friend asking if I knew what had happened with The Gallery. When I told her I wasn’t aware of anything happening, she said during the latter part of the preceding week, there had been a fire in the building. Now, the space was completely empty.

Huh?!?

I called one of the current owning partners, painter Bobby Bagley to find out what in hell had happened.

The Gallery is located in an old Savannah building built sometime in the late 1800's, and occupies the ground floor and basement of the structure. On the second and third floors are apartments which rent mostly to college students. Bobby explained that in the early evening hours on a Thursday of the preceding week, a tenant in one of the apartments was smoking a cigarette and left the room to take a shower. The cigarette was not fully extinguished and somehow found its way onto combustible material, and the fire erupted. The fire supposedly did a number on the apartment where it started, and the automatic sprinkler system in the building activated. Fortunately, no one was injured or worse.

According to Bobby and much to my amazement, little work in The Gallery was damaged. The floors, walls, and ceilings however, are another matter. I’ve since spoken with another of the owning partners and she confirmed the water damage is significant. The space is now completely empty and undergoing repairs.

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The past two and a half weeks have been quite busy. In addition to some minor continuances of the hard drive crash, the necessities of the day job have kept me hopping. The foreseeable future offers little relief, and time for camera and subject will be sparse. If it sounds like I’m complaining, well, I suppose in a way I am. But make no mistake, I’m grateful to be busy and have paying work to do.

I’m hopeful to get some edits done from my two weeks ago shoot with Megan K once an early business trip, which begins tomorrow, is concluded.

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One from an early natural light session with Anna S.

Tripping the Light Confusion...

 Saturday’s session with new model Megan K was the first time I’d been in studio in several months and I must admit; I was surprised at how rusty I was. Nonetheless, it was a good session and several good images will come from it. I’ve managed a cursory first edit, but with the work-week starting, the day job is rearing its ugly yet reasonably well-paying head. Please be patient for a few days.

In the post preceding this one, I mentioned that when working in studio I feel I have more control over the environment. Perhaps I jinxed myself by writing about it beforehand, but rusty or not, this shoot started with more confusion than anything else. It wasn’t an issue of the environment not being under control, but one of me not being in control of the environment. In reality, the difficulties were minor and easily resolved; for example, there was the overhead and somewhat hard to access monolight that wouldn’t power-up, which turned out to be unplugged. Most frustrating though, was in the first few images light was coming in from an unknown source and knocking down shadows on the model. It wasn’t an overpowering light; in fact, I would have been hard-pressed to create a more precise fill.

My assistant and I tried all sorts of remedies to no avail; among them turning off all lights in the building, even those in rooms isolated and away from the shooting space. I began to question the accuracy of my light meter and camera settings. Finally, my assistant realized a monolight head tucked away in a corner behind my shooting position had been left on, but with the modeling light turned off. It was close enough and in proper orientation to slave off of my main light, and fired each time I pressed the shutter.

Once these little things were behind us, we pressed ahead and did good work.

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A Systems Crash Update…

Things seem to be going well. No new quirks have surfaced and I’m getting caught up. I’ve switched from IE to Mozilla’s FireFox, which I like tremendously, though it’s taking a bit of getting used to.

My office and ‘darkroom’ upgrade will happen this fall. Generally, my idea is to use an inexpensive laptop or ‘Netbook’ style system for the day job stuff and assemble the best, most powerful desktop system for my photographic work. I was hopeful to switch to a Mac; however, many of the day job clients require me to use proprietary software, which is of course, Windows based. For that reason, I’m afraid I’m stuck with Windows. The upside is Windows 7 seems to be a stable platform. Still, it’s a new platform. That’s the main reason I’m delaying until late fall to make a move.

My research for the upgrade will begin soon. I’ll write about it aplenty, I’m sure.

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Here’s another from Michelle R’s shoot for The Bolton Street Sessions, silvery and soft.