Is This an Addiction?

NOT photographing the nude has NOT been successful. At all. I'm still shooting nudes despite the fact that I was going to suspend my nude work and only work on projects that were already in play. In some respects, this is a good problem to have. I mean, what photog can really complain, "Woe is me. All these ladies want to take their clothes off for me." That will never be a complaint of mine. However, I did have a desire to shoot more things, subjects, and explore my artwork in new directions. I know some of this has to do with the all the things occurring in January, namely my daughter getting married and then becoming ill for so long soon after my return. I know I got behind on edits and am still behind. I'm about 4 models deep on edits right now. Catching up amid outside circumstances can be a pain. But still, I am certain I could have controlled all of these elements much better, had I really wanted to. The fact is that its an easy thing to just say no. No more nudes for a while. The reality is that so far that hasn't been possible.

I can't really keep deluding myself with one excuse after another. A model just left my house. We interviewed for a bit and got familiar with each other. I am so excited about this girl. Marley is an art model who is simply exciting to shoot. I can't wait. There is much anticipation involved in this one, that I have to be careful not to spoil it. She'll be a great addition to my portfolio and I simply think we can serve each other's interests well. I don't have many black women in my arsenal of imagery. Oh she's gonna do well. I wish I could go into all the coincidences and little subtleties on how we actually hooked up. Suffice to say its been very extraordinary.

Over the weekend, I met another model, Gabriella, who had contacted me about my workshops. This girl is the drop dead gorgeous type that you'll find on Sports Illustrated at some point real soon. Again, the circumstances on our meeting were peculiar to say the least. So much so that I had to play this one through just to see how it would unfold. The thing turned out AB-sol-UTE-ly GREAT! Talk about a fascinating young lady! We are going to continue our endeavors again tomorrow evening, I believe. It was so much fun and I've got so many new ideas I want to try with her. She likes what I do and has given me liberties to explore to my hearts content. Which is quite an extensive concept, let me just tell you.

Before this, I got to work with a few other new models that assisted with my workshop. Three in particular, and they were all great. Two Brittany's (one spelled with an "i"), and Lieara. BrittanY and Lieara were in my workshop. BrittanI didn't make it because she was from out of town and my workshop was postponed for a few weeks. I still shot her on my own anyway and she was a real trooper. It got cold and she never once complained. The girl just worked with me to help me get the shot. It was I who called it off once the temp continued to drop. She was willing to keep going, but I don't want to jeopardize a model's health. I've been in some risky and even compromising positions, but there was no benefit to keeping her out there. I've had a model in frigid waters, hanging off a cliff, and other things but her being cold at that time didn't lend itself to the project. Now had the project been nudes in the snow, now that would be different.

Lieara, was just as fascinating. She's a fiery spitball. I had a problem in stopping shooting her. When she came over for some preliminary work, accompanied by her boyfriend/fiance', I had to actually push my camera away in order to stop. I noticed the fact that he was tired and was asleep on the floor. I told them it wouldn't take even an hour to get the shots to promote the workshop. Three hours later, I am still shooting this girl. Now in my defense, I mentioned a few times that I had to put the onus on her to stop me. The girl kept assuming new poses! What was I to do? She and BrittanY did my workshop. Brittany worked under strobes all afternoon. With such a voluptuous figure, she garnered alot of attention. I hate bringing it up in one sense, but she's got one of the most perfect ...ah never mind. Somebody's gonna think I'm sexist. Well, you see the photo. That was part of a preliminary series. As for the workshop, I never got to even take out my camera! This just in: As I write this, I got a text from Brittany. [Freaky, huh?] We are now planning a new body of work since I didn't get to shoot her in the workshop. Am I sick or what?

But even before those 3, I got back with Melissa to do some more work. Oh...it was so good. I took over the wide-angle lens and repeated some of the bodyscape images I did with her before. Talk about amazing. We got some amazing light that kept changing at a moments notice. It took several attempts to capture these lines that contour her body because of the clouds. The light would be there for a sec and as soon as you get a focus, it was gone. Melissa is so great to work with.

But I guess all this begs me to question whether or not I have the ability to stop working with nude models, because if I don't then its a compulsion and an addiction. Am I addicted to shooting the nude? I don't know, but I don't think so. However so says the smoker who can't seem to quite when he wants to. Its a good question. I wish I had a good answer. I think I am justifying it because of all the great models I've met just in the month of February. I don't want to call this an addiction. I'd just like to think that I'm having fun doing something I love. At any rate, I'll have all these images edited soon and will post more on each of them. Comments?