Off Broadway

This is another "back catalog" photo that I scanned recently for my book submission.

Bryan was a New York model I shot at the tail end of a business trip several years ago. A photographer friend in New York found a studio a few blocks west of Broadway for me to rent for the shoot.

The owner probably never intended the make-up area of his studio to be used in a shoot, but the setting drew my attention and we shot several frames with Bryan sitting in front of the mirror and on top of the make-up table.

This was also very early in my experience with lights, so although I didn't really intend it, the lights created a spot light effect instead of broad, open lighting. However it gave the scene a night-time effect that seems appropriate in some cases.

The second shot shows off Bryan's amazing chest.

Andrei

Today I began work compiling photographs for a book proposal. I am starting with images from some of my oldest shoots and culling ones that I haven't shown before.

Sometimes it's because the image didn't grab me years ago. Sometimes it's because I just didn't spend enough time constructing a decent image from the negative.

One improves one's technique over the years. I look at raw images I photographed years ago and have a better idea now of what I need to do to create a pleasing image.

This image of Andrei is a case in point.

Andrei was a bodybuilder from the island of Malta that I photographed before I started a lot of studio work. Most of the images are shot in my backyard.

Andrei had pale, smooth skin, good muscle definition and well balanced muscle with full muscle bellies.

I like this image because the tilt of Andrei's body and the wide angle lense creates an arc from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. I also like the tight crop.
This next image is a different kind of lesson. I shot a roll of color negative film on the same shoot and the lab mistakenly cross processed it. (Meaning they processed in chemicals meant for slide film.)
Cross processing can be an interesting effect when you plan to do it, but usually one over exposes the film a stop or two, because, as you can see from this example, cross processing can make the image a lot darker.
Using Photoshop, I could probably correct most of the problems with the color image today, but I have left it pretty much as scanned to show how the processing distorted it. The only thing I did was lighten it up a little.
The black and white version of the image eliminates the odd colors, but it would still be a dark image if I hadn't used the Photoshop Channel Mixer dialog and chosen the "black and white with red filter" option to lighten it up and smooth out the middle grays.

Out With the Old

This week several of my favorite images that were photographed during 2007 are not only here in my final blog for 2007, they are available for sale on eBay.

Both are open edition black and white silver gelatin prints on fiber paper printed by me to archival specifications. The images are 8 by 12 inches on 11 by 14 inch matte paper. The starting bid for both is $10.00, which is considerably less than the amount charged for gallery prints on my website.

The first image displayed in this blog is of model Dwain Leland. The shot comes from one of my favorite shoots of the year.

The second image is of Alan Demond, an amazingly gifted bodybuilder.

I enjoyed working with both of these models so much that I shot them twice and each time the results of our creative collaboration were amazing.

The image of Dwain is available at this URL http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150200901027&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

The image of Alan is available at this URL http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150200906048&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Since the image of Alan is a full frontal, you will need to have your eBay filters set to allow access to items for Mature Audiences before you can see it.

I have two other photographs listed at the same time. One more of Dwain and one of Olivier Herranz.

Sean IR

This week the images are infrared photos of Sean from my recent photo shoot with him.

After you finish enjoying the images in my blog, take a look at my website, which has been refreshed with all photo galleries and images.

The galleries are built with a freeware tool called jalbum. Not only does it make it easier for me to create new galleries, which means I will be able to update my website more frequently, it also provides a link from each image to purchase gallery prints.

Until now I have only refreshed my web site about once a year because of the effort involved in formatting the images for the web and constucting the galleries in html.

Tree Trunks

The tree trunks to the left belong to Sean and are the photo shoot last week.

This image was shot digitally and composited to darken the background.