A Few Points to Hit On

(This has nothing to do with photos. I just thought it was funny!)




"I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers."

 - Mahatma Ghandi

I don't know what all this funky weather is about. My family in Texas and Tennessee are seeing more snow than they have in ages. My sister sent me some pics of my folks house in Texas and I've just never seen that much snow there. I didn't see that much snow til I did my first tour of duty in Germany. I went from having a vague knowledge of what snow was to being knee deep in it. I tease at times about the contrasting weather they have compared to here in Nevada. Today I was in shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops. It was a reasonable 70 degrees here. Oddly enough, we've gotten our share of the oddity in weather too. We've had more rain here in the last few weeks than I've seen during the monsoon seasons of all 3 years that I've been here put together. El Nino? What the hell?


Now I thought it was pretty dog-gone cool when Unbearable Lightness was featured on The Sensual 7 Seconds Blog (a week ago). You can't imagine my elation when Karl contacted me and asked me to participate in his questionnaire feature as well. That made my day. But now that he's published it on his blog and I got to read the things that he said about me...well, let me just say its good to feel appreciated. I feel so good right now, I'm going to go spend some money. Drop by to see his interview with me. 

Regardless if friends go with me or not, I'm heading to Death Valley in the next month or so and staying out overnight to catch some nice sunrises and sunsets, hopefully with a valley of wild flowers aplenty. If I can get a model to tag along, then that'll be great too. But I haven't had one model yet give me even any inkling of an idea that she'd be willing to camp out. Day-trip? Sure. Staying outdoors overnight? Kiss my boo-tay, okay...! 

*City girls....*

As one who is a patron and proponent of the nude arts, you may find it ironic that I am also oddly drawn to freelance men's wear journalist, Simon Crompton's "Permanent Style" Blog. I am not a true fashion person. I don't even pretend to work in much fashion photography. I'd rather not even give consideration to succumbing to the latest trends of the day. If everybody's wearing it, chances are, I am not. As a kid, I wanted to be like the popular kids. When Michael Jackson sported the red jacket with zippers all over the place, I wanted one. People were putting zippers in their collars! I couldn't even get the popular Member's Only jacket. If it didn't come from Wal-Mart, Payless, or the local thrift store, chances are, I wouldn't be wearing it. 

Even as a kid, it wasn't so much that I was into fashion as it was that I wanted to belong or at least not get picked on for what I wore. Actually, I think it was maybe my 7th grade year when I realized that I didn't give a damn about fashion trends. I found a pair of bell-bottom pants that I pleaded with my mom to buy. Bell-Bottoms were NOT in style anymore. I got teased and since my mom spent money on them, she made me keep them and wear them. After that, I could give a flip-flam about fashion and swore, I would wear what I like regardless of the trend of the day. What I like about Permanent Style is that it covers clothing of a more refined taste. To me, its fashion that's above trend. Simon presents clothes, clothiers, and materials that have a focus on the quality and classical wear. Class doesn't go out of style. In particular for me, I pay special attention to his shoes. I've been so intrigued about what goes into the custom hand-made shoes. They have a look of elegance that cannot be denied. These are shoes that you can actually see the worth of $200 plus going into them. They don't cost that much just because of the name or because they are in demand right now (and then be half that price or no longer made the next year). Simon presents us shoes that hold up 15 years later and are still considered fashionable. Its the same thing with suits and shirts. The man teaches you the art of wearing clothes. I like that. 

I revisited images I did with a model two years ago. I went back over her shots and edited some that I hadn't touched before and then some that I re-edited again. She goes by Tyler Aria now and has a OMP profile as well as one on Model Mayhem. She was one of the first models I worked with in my workshops and she's definitely a performer. That's right. Her modeling can be viewed as a performance. The girl simply has a talent for the camera and giving up what you want. She's an adrenaline junkie so I hope you don't try to take advantage of that. In my outdoor workshop, I left for a few minutes to scout the location we were getting ready to move to. I came back to find that the guys had her hanging upside down in a tree. Treat her right and chances are you'll get what you want. Its probably your own fault if you don't. That's how good she is. 

With Respect to .MOSA

"I believe all artists, if they are not lying to themselves, must believe that the best part of their work, or even their life, is in front of them. To look only to the past and to say ‘those were the best years, when I was young’ is to say that in the future there is nothing."  - Jan Saudek

I know I want to make some changes to this blog, but I'm not exactly sure just what that will be. Not so much in content, but rather in its overall look, feel, and appearance. Its been this same format since it began, pretty much and I'll soon be on my 3rd year of trying regale you with my musings. I think it is indeed time for a change. Part of it will be looking at some new Blogger formats, but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I go altering HTML code too much. I've done a subtle code adjustments on this blog, but nothing that really gets your attention, analogous to getting a hair cut and telling the barber, "Just a little off the top, please." Its also good that people have found my blog again. My numbers dropped off significantly after I changed the URL for Photo Anthems. Visitors dropped off below that of my website around this past October, but now, my blog has twice the viewership of my website again. That's about what it was before I made the change. 

I bought a small Wacom4 Intuos graphic tablet a few months back and I gotta say, its pretty good. Its still taking some getting used to however, but its changing the way I do my edits. I waffled back and forth on the small 4x6 vs. medium 6x9 and finally settled on the small. For one, there was a huge price difference between the two, something like $140. To me the added features just didn't justify. At the most, I could see an additional $50 - $75...maybe. But not $140. I also think I like the size. Had the medium been cheaper, I think I may have jumped on it, but the small is okay. The smaller version takes up less room in my work space and its much more portable. The total dimensions is 8x12, so when I say 4x6, I am referring to the actual area available for pen use for editing. Its still way different from using the mouse and you still have to keep the keyboard handy for adding text in your edits. It has a nice sleek black design and very ergonomic, built for both the right-handed and lefties. The biggest advantage the medium has over the small is the illuminated ExpressKeys and wheel. I still have to play with it at times, to recall what ExpressKeys my alt or control functions are on. Any of these tabs can be programmed to any function you wish which is cool for customizations. I like that. So if you get the small, be prepared to have a label-maker handy for a while. It also took me a while to remember I had it. When not in use, I store it behind the monitor. Several times I'd start on on edit and get 5 layers deep before I remembered I should be using my stylus rather than the mouse. So like I said, it takes some getting used to. 

Elizabeth, Darkroom manip

The Sensual 7 Seconds blog, run by Karl from somewhere near San Fran details some of his escapades while he's away in Rome. I first saw U.L. post about his trip and when you visit his blog, you get greeted with some excellent travel photos that leave me in envy. One shot in particular that I was most inclined to had nothing to do with the art deco, architecture, or Italian landscape. Rather it was of an Italian couple walking hand in hand in the rain as seen from behind. I like that shot. I need to get back on the road myself. Since my visit to NY last August, I had made several plans to visit spots of interest around the US, but.....that was when I was gainfully employed. So well done, Karl. 

Another blog of interest is one that I've been following and REALLY appreciate is One Pix Art headed by the famous .mosa out of Cali. (His Blog & deviantArt profile). I had been following his work every since I saw a shot of his done with the venerable Goovacious K. My jaw dropped and all I could do was star at it. For me, he has a style that fascinates me in the way of Jan Saudek, the Czeck photog. When I first switched over to digital only a few years ago, I was hesitant to do so because I respected the artistic craftsmanship that came with film. At the time, unless you were a graphic designer, using a computer to manipulate shots just usurped the craft from the trade. One of my influences was .mosa who demonstrated that craftsmanship did not have to be a trade-off in the digital art. I made a recent comment on his blog that I had been following his work but had yet to at least say hello and give the man his props. I've even taught my own kids to give credit to those who have some impact or influence on them. So let me take some of my own medicine. Here's to .mosa! Much props, my brotha... And you know he's a good man because he likes Miles Davis.