DISSO PHOTO

Another set from this past weekend.   I found this pond in a remote location about three minutes from my house on a scouting excursion on my mountain bike a few weeks ago.  I managed to drive the Jeep down this overgrown trail (it barely fit) but it did make it.  We shot a few images of the girls in the Jeep, they changed into Pirates and we made our way down to the pond.   I was thinking of having them get into the pond and wade out like Swamp Thing used to do.  That show was always so creepy to me as a kid.  Like he was this swamp creature that did good, right?  He was a freak of nature, a monster you can”t tell me he wasn”t eating children, I know he was.  Anyway yeah, I decided not to have them wade out of the mire, maybe next time.

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I did a shoot t he other day and decided to get Amy and Brandy to help me cut up a tree that fell in my yard over the winter.  I had been meaning to cut it up into manageable pieces but time is short you know.

They were all excited about using the chainsaw but needed help to get it started. After nearly loosing my arm I  helped them out and managed to get it started. Once I did, they pretty much took off and did a  good job of cutting up the downed tree.

Video to come

I know I am terrible but what is a photog to do when there are really no good images of hot girls with chainsaws?  I do not understand this, I must resusitate the market for good chainsaw girl images!

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Amy In The Garage

Shot over the past weekend during a shoot where the Pirate theme was the main focus.   I ended up shooting inside using plywood as a table across two sawhorses.  I thought the grain would look interesting.  In this un-touched yet sized image, the lighting strikes Amy with a softness and warmth I did not anticipate.  The light issued from two 100 watt floods of varying color temp, one was white, the other yellow so prob 3200k & around 5500k color temp.

The lens used was the Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II USM Telephoto Lens.  I have had the lens for some time but rarely used it.  I have come to appreciate the depth of field it has and the ability to isolate the subject.

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Pirates On The Hill Re-Touched

I was so glad to finally get some new images.  I was so glad that I posted them all without touching them. I laboriously rotated the images, since I apparently cut that feature off in Vista.  It used to work but now it does not seem to co-operate.  My computer has started taking these cheap jabs at me over the past few weeks. Just the other day Wordpress started crashing every time I would attempt to upload an image. After un-installing the latest version of Firefox, re-installing the 2.0 version, I figured out via forums it was google gears plugin that was causing the crash. After deleting it from the list of plugins normal operation resumed other than all of my bookmarks were gone. I made them magically reappear through a re-installation of Firefox ver 3.0.whatever get to the Pirate girls already what about the pirate girls?

This is a retouch of my favorite image from the set. This was the image I had planned to be in this certain place atop the mound of a hill in the late evening as thunder-clouds grew in the background the sun peaked out from behind them illuminating both girls for a brief instant in which I grabbed a few shots. I was so pleased by how they came out, I started posting them right away for fear they would become like some of my other sets, buried and never shown. Not due to my lack as a photographer, nor to a lack of finesse, pose, or looks of the models. Simply the fact of not being able to decide which image was the best. Which way to edit, to change that which I had proposed to create and capture. Many images languish on my hard drive and eat at me when I pass them by.

The above is the reason I consider myself an artist than a photographer. Sure I use a camera, but it is the vision that drives the lens that makes the most difference. I do not work in a portrait studio and I do not create these images based on a deadline,  I have to create at my own pace. For me even though I shoot digital it is more about the process.

In this instance the vision was strong and I was able to see it in the base image but I am partial to the re-touched version.

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Pirates On The Hill

I always get nervous right before a shoot, mainly due to worrying that the model will not show after I have spent all the time and effort in preparing for the shoot.  So I have fallen into the habit of waiting till the last minute to get everything ready, once I have confirmed the model is en route.

This puts me in an awkward position as a photographer and increases the pressure I feel when preparing for a shoot.  Is everything ready?  Do I have everything I need? Will they be early?  I have set this shoot up, been planning it for weeks, and have done nothing to prepare other than pick out a few outfits or obtain all the props.  All of these thoughts race through my head as I charge batteries, format memory cards, and otherwise run around in an all out crisis-panic state.

Amy, Shastyne, and I shot The Pirates On The Hill set this past weekend.  Amy and I had been planning to  shoot for around two weeks.   I was inspired by watching the third installment of The Pirates Of The Caribbean, At Worlds End.  When I mentioned this to Amy she was down for it, so we agreed to collaborate on the piece.

Keira Knightley looked incredibly sexy as Miss Swan through out the film series and I wanted to pursue the pirate theme of sexy yet strong adventurers in this set.   Luckily Amy talked Shastyne into joining the shoot and by chance I had two outfits at the ready due to buying out Fat Mans Costume shop when it liquidated a few years back.

Upon reviewing the images, I was incredibly pleased with the way it turned out.  I shot some test video and was blown away by the color and pairing of the outfits in the vastness of green.  I plan to work more on this series in the future and have plans to expand it from photo to video with the 5D MK II.

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