Post for the sake of posting

Have had a lot on my plate, and a lot on my mind lately, but did want to at least check in and post a couple images.

Anyone still out there?

P.S. Thanks to Iris for the nice mention on her Univers d'Artistes "self-interview" there. They're posting so much stuff, it's already buried down the page, but the link above should take you right to it so you can check out what Iris has been up to and what she's thinking about these days. (BTW, these shots are Zinn Star NOT Iris.)

Thanks Liso...

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to set up a photo shoot with Lisolette Gilcrest, an artist who is also one of the photographers in the MWSEP group. From seeing her self-portrait work and meeting her in person, I knew I wanted to do a shoot with her myself. :) Lucky for me, she took a chance and agreed. I'm very pleased with the results from a fairly impromptu session working in different spots around the RIC in Detroit, acting like we belonged there.

The other day, she decided to post a few of the photos on her Deviant Art page, along with a very sweet entry in her journal there. It was a much-needed pick-me-up in the midst of a dismal weekend. She's really a remarkable young woman and artist, and I'm honored that she decided to work with me, and for the kind words in her journal. With all that's going on in her life, that she took the time to do that means a lot to me. Love you too, Liso. <3

Torn

This goes back a few months, but fits my mood today. Props to Boyd for the rigging and the set-up (he's out in the hall shooting the opposite angle), and thanks to "Capricious Token" for her part, bound and broken on the floor...

Dinner is served

Just a little something from a while back that Raven wanted to try out... if I'd known in advance, I'd have brought some padlock meatballs and maybe some different razor blades, but I think it still plays pretty well. Seemed as good a day to post them as any.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Carving

Just a strange choice for a Thanksgiving post... Miss May will do the carving.

Rethinking "Buy Nothing Day"

In my earlier entry, I suggested people consider turning "Black Friday" into "Buy Nothing Day" and opt out of the wanton consumerism that will ensue in stores and malls across America. While people are already spending beyond their means on stuff they don't really need, it struck me that this weekend could be a "make or break" situation for our economy -- because of the media's obsession with "opening weekend" numbers. Just like a movie's success is now judged not by the reviews, the awards, or if it's any GOOD or not -- it's all about the opening weekend numbers. Nobody cares what it does its second week, or if it stays in theaters two months because of good word of mouth and eventually makes money. It all boils down to opening weekend now. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I remember when people had NO IDEA how much money a movie made -- it wasn't part of conversation. Now it's the entirety of the conversation when it comes to movies.

Take the movie "SiCKO" when it came out this summer. It had limited release, meaning not every multiplex in America had it, and maybe even some cities didn't have it. Whether this important film would "open wide" or even remain in theaters beyond the first week depended entirely on its opening weekend... so it was important that people went out and saw it immediately. I did my part, it was a hit, and went on to be very successful by documentary standards. It became a topic of national discussion and got people talking about the idea of universal health care, which may not have happened if it "only" made a few million its opening weekend.

What's this have to do with "Black Friday" you ask? Plenty. Pundits and news media are falling all over themselves to report whether sales this Friday are up to expectations, and their conclusion could very well effect the economy for the rest of the holiday season, and into next year. If reports are that consumer confidence is high and stores did well, people will believe the economy is OK and feel good about going out and spending, where as if stores don't do well, it will be reported as a harbinger of doom, causing people to stay home and start knitting their holiday gifts. This will lead to layoffs in retail and manufacturing and related industries, tighter credit, and so on and so forth -- based largely on how someone interprets the guestimates from the experts. The economy is on the brink, and this could definitely push things over the edge.

To a large part, the economy only does as well as people BELIEVE it is doing, so whatever the verdict, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just like the stock market... instead of looking at the huge gains most stocks have made over the past couple years, people have the jitters due to some sub-prime loans, so they're panic selling, which drives prices down and creates more panic selling. It's also prompting the US dollar to take a beating compared to world currencies, which could spell real trouble. Of course, it doesn't help that W. has borrowed almost a TRILLION dollars for this pointless quagmire that will only serve to destabilize world economies, or far worse. The world's respect for and confidence in the U.S. hasn't eroded over the past 7 years -- it's crumbled. All due to fear and stupidity...

So, buck up campers, make your list, check it twice, make sure you have headroom on your charge cards, and get out there and spend! If only to help create a placebo effect for our sick economy... or at least score some cool stuff before the shit comes down.

The photo is Mandy, doing an interpretive dance expressing the confusion and angst of Alan Greenspan's failed policies. Or maybe she's just posing beautifully as she does so effortlessly.

Angie in bloom

Angie is a model I first shot with about a year ago, when she still lived in northeast Ohio. She's since moved "home" and lives just a few minutes from me. She contacted me this spring to let me know that she's expecting, and wanted to know if I'd help her document the progress of her pregnancy, which I felt was a nice honor unto itself. We've been shooting every 3 or 4 weeks, and there was a bit of a backlog in the images, so I got a bunch to her last week. She posted several on her OMP, and I posted some on mine, and evidently the folks there like her "great with child" look as these four images were showcased (that's Danaid posing with her). We're due to go again soon, so stay tuned as the story (and the baby) develops. Thanks Angie!

Buy Nothing Day

Just a little early reminder that Buy Nothing Day is coming up next Friday, Nov. 23. As I mentioned last year, the objective is to try to get Americans to stop defining ourselves as consumers, and a first step is not joining in on the frenzied spending on the most heavily promoted shopping day of the year. Granted, it's not a big sacrifice for me to stay out of over-crowded stores, but I do try to observe by not buying meals out or shopping online. And honestly, I'm not sure they could discount anything enough to make me want to fight the traffic and crowds on that particular day. Probably will let myself sleep late, then try to catch up on editing and stuff a bit.

With so much economic bad news in the wind, and US savings rates at Depression-era levels, this year it makes more sense than ever to not join the crowd, not go further into debt by charging a lot of purchases, and maybe make plans to minimize gift giving, or go with more personal items, like something home made. So, consider simplifying your life, and Buy Nothing on November 23.

Withdrawn

"Better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt..."

Was talking with another photographer who has a blog, and he said he was probably going to be backing away from the whole blog-forum-comment thing. Maybe he's right, and he's not the only one to express this view lately. Too much drama, so much potential for backlash and hard feelings, things so easily misinterpreted, and for what?

(Of course, does making a statement like this have additional drama inherent in it?)

"Never miss a good opportunity to shut up."

Maybe I should just let the pictures do the talking for a while. Like Mandy here, bending over backwards to please.

"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good... Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood." (The Animals)

_______ Beauty...

On edit: Since two of the three parties mentioned in this entry asked that it be reinstated, here it is, slightly edited to remove reference to the third person, and to render it politically correct.

Had the pleasure of working with the famed Mandy again yesterday, who was joined for part of the session by my new friend Malinda. Mandy has only been modeling for about a year and a half now, but caught fire immediately and in that short time she has worked with many of the top photographers in the midwest, as well as being a featured model at a number of photo workshops around the country. Her physique is truly remarkable, and it's no wonder that she's highly sought after for figure work, plus she's just adorable and is just delightful to spend time with. (That's her in front on the top photo, and in the middle photo.)
Malinda is just starting to get her feet wet with modeling. She'd contacted me to do a private session of pin-up, lingerie and nude photos to give to her husband, and once she got over her initial jitters, she really got into it and enjoyed the experience. We'd done a couple other shoots since, but yesterday was her first experience working with another model -- and we got some beautiful results. I think she's doing great, and she's enjoying it so much that she's planning to start exploring modeling further after the first of the year. As with Mandy, the enjoyment and enthusiasm Malinda brings to the shoot is wonderful. I'm looking forward to working with her more, and seeing how she does when she broadens her horizons a bit.

The Dark Side

As I sit here re-re-uploading images to a site where I'm hoping to order some prints, I'm just realizing how tired I sometimes get of being a Mac guy and being incompatible with simply everything. These people evidently don't want my files. I've tried three different browsers and two FTP clients, and finally got one of the FTP clients to work, but then *poof!* the files disappeared, along with the album that contained them, so I get to spend another 45 minutes or so uploading them AGAIN to see if they'll "take" this time. And the galling thing is they're not even MY pictures... doing someone a favor, and as the saying goes, "no good deed goes unpunished."

So, is it time to go over to the dark side and get a "Windows" machine of some sort? Seems some can be had ridiculously cheap, so maybe it would be worth getting one just for times like this when there's something I want to do, but a PC would make it much easier. Or the times when someone is asking ME questions about how to do someting on their PC, at least I'd have a way of looking at the same menus and shit they're looking at.

"Oh, but Gary, the NEW Intel Macs can run Windows, too!" -- I highly doubt it, honestly. I messed around with "Virtual PC" and those other emulation things back in the day, and they were virtual useless. I have a hard time believing it's going to be any better now, plus I'd have to buy the emulation software AND a copy of Windows (Not Vista), and for that I can practically get a cheap Dell with it's own monitor and everything.

My so-called state-of-the-art Mac's performance has been less than impressive over the past 11 months. Sometimes, the beach ball of doom just will NOT go away. Who knows? Maybe I'm unwittingly hosting dodgy websites which is using all my CPUs and DSL bandwidth, but Apple doesn't acknowledget that problems can occur, therefore there are no decent diagnostic tools to determine just WTF is going on under the hood. Read this week that someone has written one of the first "Trojan Horse" malware programs that will target Macs, too... maybe it's just the first one they've found.

And to top it off, Apple stock has dropped 10% or so in the past couple days, along with the rest of the collapsing market...

The dark can sometimes be good, though, as evidenced by Lynz and Penny, yet again.

Something in the water?

First a clarification... my entry from Monday regarding BT announcing that he was giving up erotic photography evidently presumed a bit too much. He's since clarified that, essentially, he'll continue to do photography, but is going to downshift from the NC-17 and R-rated stuff to more like a PG-rating, eliminating the nudity and more explicit aspects of his work, but continuing his satirical, surreal, and absurdist themes, along with other photographic pursuits. I guess I wasn't the only one to read too much into his initial announcement, but it's good to know that he'll still be keeping his hand in.

On the downside, Boyd has announced that once he's done with his obligations in December, he'll be putting down his camera for a while, maybe for good. His reasons seem to be more personal, so I'll let you read his explanation on his page. He says he'll continue to run the group shoots at Collingwood, so he won't disappear completely, but won't be shooting. Obviously, I wish him the best in his other pursuits, and hope that this move will help him find what he seeks. It's all a process of discovery.

Here's AngelD from one of my many productive days at the Collingwood.

Taking stock...

The things one finds on the web...

Now, I've heard of "fantasy football" leagues, and even "fantasy stock picking" where people buy and sell stocks using imaginary money... or is that the actual stock market? Could actually be good practice before deciding to invest real money in the Wall Street Casino. But the other day, I stumbled upon "Blogshares" where people pretend to invest in various blogs as if they were stocks and somehow they determine valuations and performance and such. The fact that this exists strikes me as doubly "fantastic" -- using imaginary money to buy and sell shares in things without actual prices. Maybe it's the speculation as to the value of the content in terms of potential ad appeal, and the number of links seems to have some bearing. Anyway, if you'd care to "invest" in this little blog o' mine, check out my Blogshares prospectus. Remember, buy low, sell high.

Almost forgot... my prospectus has this ominous warning: "Implications and Experience suffered a huge setback with several analysts urging their clients to ditch the stock as it suffered a public relations disaster." I have NO clue what that's referring too... fantasy PR disasters?

This is Dreamscapes, just because she rocks. ;)

Dance Revival

In more uplifting news from another friend of mine, Dave Levingston had a blog entry this weekend regarding his rediscovery of the joys of dance photography. While he is not entirely giving up nude figure work, it does sound like he is shifting his focus to modern dance. Dave retired from his day job not too long ago, so he's had time to travel in pursuit of his outdoor nude work, but with the colder weather settling in for a while, and the academic year in full swing, it sounds like a great opportunity for him to do some exciting work.

I've not quite explored dance photography proper in the Lois Greenfield mode, but it is something I've been interested in doing, and have toyed with on occasion when a particularly nimble model (like Miss Elisabeth here) wanders into my studio. I wish Dave continued success in this revived pursuit.

Another farewell...

Note: See the clarification above.

Just read today that my friend Bruce, aka BT Charles, is "turning the page" on his erotic photography and essentially closing up shop. He'll be doing photography as a hobby, concentrating on nature, landscapes, and architecture. I guess this has been in the wind for a while now, as he's dropped a few hints that "the thrill is gone" and has had a lot on his plate personally, so I'm not entirely surprised, but talking to him just last weekend it sounded like he was still going to stick with it for a while longer. While I support him in his decision to step away from a pursuit he found had become a burden, it won't be the same without him in the game. I do hope that he won't disappear completely from the art community.

BT's retirement has also is given me food for thought. He had gained quite a level of success and recognition within the local and national art community, even extending internationally, with work in more than a few prominent publications, numerous exhibits and inclusion in several permanent collections, strong sales of his work, and a variety of other achievements that seemed to be happening more and more frequently. And while I'm sure he found these to be rewarding and gratifying, evidently it still came down to whether or not he was enjoying the process of creating new work. Who knows? Maybe in six months or six years he'll get the urge again, but walking away from it when the inspiration is gone is probably preferable to feeling obliged to keep at it and hoping that lightning will strike a second time. I hope he won't mind me conjecturing on some of these points, but whenever I hear about someone reaching a decision like this, it makes me take stock, too.

I guess one lesson I can take away from this is that, while recognition and sales are good things, if the art isn't there for its own sake, does the rest really matter? One can have goals and objectives and dreams, but those generally aren't enough to actually lead to achievement. The key seems to be enjoying the process itself, regardless of outcome or reward. I'm sure BT could press on doing what he does and reaping the rewards, even if his heart wasn't in it, but life is short, so do what you love as long as you love it.

Take care Bruce...

Reminder: Boyd's new show opens Friday

Just a reminder to you folks near Toledo/Detroit that Boyd's newest exhibit of erotic and art photography will be opening Friday, November 2nd, with a reception from 7-10pm at the Colllingwood Arts Center Gerber House Gallery. I won't be able to attend, but I encourage anyone in the area to stop by the reception, enjoy a glass of wine, and check out some of Boyd's beautiful recent work.