Sunset at the Grand Canyon

bill Leave a comment

I’d had seeing the Grand Canyon on my todo list for a long time and I really made it the center of my trip out west back in June.  I took a number of photos, but found myself oddly having a lot of trouble editing them.  Right after coming back I simply felt none of the photos really captured what I’d seen.  In some ways I think part of the grandness here is something you only see in person.  The sheer scale doesn’t come across in a photo or anything other than reality.  Still with a little time I got better at working some of the images.

This photo is probably my favorite.  It’s a panorama shot taken right at sunset from the North Rim looking back south to the South Rim and beyond.  I believe the mountains visible in the distance beyond the other rim are the San Francisco Peaks toward Flagstaff, Arizona.  For those who wonder why so many Americans are bad at geography consider the San Francisco Peaks are in Arizona while the city is in California.  The photo were taken from Bright Angel Point about the same time as the sunset photo I posted while flying home.  A better edit of that photo will be coming soon.

The colors of the night sky were just amazing as and after sunset.  The peace, even with probably another dozen people enjoying the views, also stands out.  What I remember most though was the wind.  Here and later at the lodge while waiting for dinner the wind gusted over 40mph quite often.  I was standing on a point out into the canyon for these photos and the wind coming up out of the canyon was an interesting experience.  It cooled so much after dark that I actually went back and changed from my shorts into jeans between taking these photos and dinner at the lodge.  In my little cabin that night though it felt rather cozy and relaxing lying there listening to the wind gusting outside while warm under a couple blankets.  At the same time I knew that I would be in Las Vegas in less than twenty-four hours with a temperature over 100 degrees.

North-Rim-1

Melissa in the Waterfall

bill Leave a comment

The trip out west left me re-energized for photograph like I’d not been in a while.  I’d taken a break from shooting for several weeks including all of May as I’d mentioned in an earlier post.  When I started back with the shoot with Ginger I just felt more into the shoots, more engaged with the models I collaborated with, and clearer on what I wanted to accomplish at each shoot.  One part of this was a willingness to try some things and work without a plan as much.  Generally before an outdoor shoot I’ll scout the location several times to establish locations and spots.  I found myself more open now to just going out and seeing what we came across in the process.  It’s not something I would do with any model, but there are ones that I know it would work.

That’s how Melissa Troutt and I found ourselves exploring a new location on a hot day in late June.  These were the worst days of a heat wave in the south with temperatures setting daily record highs.  This day would be one of the hottest reaching around 105 degrees at my home.  Even in the western North Carolina mountains around 3,000 feet temperatures climbed well into the 80s.  That elevation and the wood cover probably cooled it at least ten degrees over Asheville.

Our first spot was a nice wooden bridge where I got a wonderful headshot of Melissa.

IMG_5137-Edit

Our first exploration from here came to a bit of a dead end, but still found photo I liked in a bit of a dreamy style.

IMG_5156

And then we found one of the best waterfalls that I’ve come across in the area.  It’s a wonderful private location and surprisingly easy to get to once you know it’s there.  We did a few photos around the falls

IMG_5268IMG_5174

Then Melissa braved the cold water for some simply amazing shots in the flow itself.  Her willingness to endure the cold water to get shots like these is part of what makes her such a joy to work with.

IMG_5294IMG_5300

Xlcr Moon – The Butterfly Whisperer

bill 1 Comment

An obvious shoot idea for someone that often photographs models outdoors is for various parts of nature on the model.  I’ve done a few of these such as fall leaves covering an otherwise nude model to insects on a model.  One that had never quite worked out was having a butterfly land on a model for a few photos.  There have been encounters with butterflies in the past at shoots, but they just don’t seem to want to cooperate.  They seem quite camera shy in fact.  For some reasons the butterflies would much rather land on me than the young, pretty model that I’m photographing.  I’ve even had them land on the camera, though not the lens which would at least end up with an interesting angle.  Fact is that butterflies just don’t cooperate for me.

So when Xlcr Moon and I went for an outdoor shoot I had no thought of them.  In late June where we are going I knew they would be common.  In my planning though I had given much more thought to the last rhodedendrum flowers as background.  We met up for an early shoot, which was a good thing given the worst of a heat wave coincided with our shoot set up weeks before.  Luckily we’d planned to start early and a bit up into the mountains which let us avoid the worst of the heat of a day that neared 100 degrees.  That special southern blend of temperatures and humidity always makes outdoors shoot draining as the summer turns into July.

As we arrive at the first location, Moon posing in a stream, the butterflies were a constant swarm around us.  Teasing, but never quite landing until…

IMG_4926

IMG_4924

Which is why Moon is now known as the butterfly whisperer.

Borrow my Book

bill Leave a comment

I published my book back last December  and the sales generally met my expectations.  I’d planned an updated edition for this summer, but that now appear to more likely be coming sometime in September.  Life just got too busy from May through now and some things had to be pushed back.  There are some updates to layout and organization to better explain some topics, error corrections, and perhaps most significantly larger photos.  I’ll post an update here when the second edition is ready and it will be freely available to anyone who purchased the book either from Amazon or directly from me.

For now though I am trying an experiment.  I’ve enrolled the book with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Select program which makes it currently available only through Amazon’s store for the Kindle.  I’ve sold more books through Amazon than all other sources combined, and significantly so since about February so this seems the best place for this experiment.  This means two things.  First if you are a member of Amazon Prime you can borrow the book as part of the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library program for no charge.  This give you full access to the book similar to borrowing a library book.

In addition I’ll be making the book available for free at least one time later this month to see the effect.  I’ll announce those on the blog and Twitter on the day they are available so follow this blog or follow me on Twitter to be notified.

Jaylynn aka JEM

bill Leave a comment

The only problem with traveling to the west coast is the trip back.  The direct flights from my nearest airport to Last Vegas had stopped a few months before my trip so I had to connect in Charlotte.  The flight from Last Vegas to Charlotte was over four and a half hours and I moved from Pacific to Eastern time for a three hour time change.  In effect it was almost eight hours later locally when I landed than when I departed Last Vegas.  With a mechanical problem that had me with visions of sleeping in an airport for a while delaying our departure from Charlotte, it was into the wee hours of the morning when I arrived at home.

The next morning when I had a shoot scheduled with Jaylynn.  I’d worked with Jaylynn outdoors earlier in the year taking advantage of the early warm weather.  For this shoot we stayed indoors, probably a good thing as I was about half asleep from jet lag.  Here I went for a nice white background and high key lighting to work with her skin tone for the first sets.  Also a little art nude styled lighting we ended working with a mirror.  A few photos below with more from the shoot available on Uncovered Visions.

Jaylynn-24

Jaylynn-30

Jaylynn-34

Jaylynn-44

More with Jolene Hexx

bill Leave a comment

More from the shoot with Jolene Hexx.  About the only thing we didn’t do that evening was traditional nudes.  After the erotic set, we had just enough time to play with one more set.  Here the idea was unusual angles and positions.  Some interesting results below.

  JoleneHexx-19

JoleneHexx-18

JoleneHexx-16

JoleneHexx-14

Something Completely Different with Jolene Hexx

bill 1 Comment

My first planned shoot in Las Vegas had been for midday on the June 10, but she asked to postpone to Monday.  That left me the chance to enjoy a leisurely trip in from the Grand Canyon.  The best benefit is that I had the time to take a brief trip into southern Utah on my way and see some of the scenery.  With the new slower approach I didn’t get into Las Vegas until about 5 PM with my shoot scheduled for 7 PM.  That gave me just enough time to make a quick stop to pick up a tripod since I’d forgotten mine at home.  This was actually the only shoot I’d scheduled before leaving that was hotel based.  I ended up shooting in a hotel a few other times on the trip, but this was the only one that I’d planned that way.

I had a couple initial ideas I wanted to explore.  The first was around the idea of emotion and expression and combining them.  Interestingly a few days after I got back from my trip I saw a book with something similar to what I had in mind as the cover photo.  The second was around the idea of Las Vegas itself.  I’m still working on those two sets, much more Photoshop work required, so expect them later on.

Jolene and I worked well together and we were able to work through those initial sets quickly.  In spite of the limited time we had to work, this gave us the chance to look at a couple more concepts.  One set we did focused on an erotic concept.  Nothing subtle in these, just playing with eroticism and sensuality.  I had the idea for a POV positioning for these shots.  That pushed me out my comfort zone a bit since taking these shots required me and the model to get into some “friendly” positioning.  During the shot I added in the idea of adding some interaction between her and myself in the photos.  I think these may be the first photos I’ve ever posted where any part of me is included in the shot.  Definitely the first time it was intentional.

A few photos from that set with more with Jolene to come.

JoleneHexx-3

JoleneHexx-11

JoleneHexx-13

JoleneHexx-9

JoleneHexx-20

Site Updated

admin Leave a comment

The design remains the same, but just about everything else on the web site has been updated, mostly in the internals that no one (hopefully) ever sees. It should make it easier for me to keep things running smoothly in the future and let me keep posts and content up to date and better organized.

I’ve also taken the chance to update my gallery with newer images. This means most of the old gallery links no longer work, but they should redirect to the new gallery. If you find anything broken, let me know.

Shoot with Plush

bill 1 Comment

Another of the wonderful models from Phoenix I had the chance to work with in June.  Plush contacted me about shooting while I was in Phoenix from the travel notice that I’d posted.  We were able to work out a time my last day in the city, actually the day I left Phoenix heading for the Grand Canyon, and met up about mid-morning after a little confusion over the meeting spot.  Fortunately we were able to get to a good location and get some nice work before the heat of the day and the glare of the sun became too much to work with.  This is not too far from where Jen and I worked during this same visit, but different terrain and different weather.  By the end of the shoot the sun was getting very harsh, but took on the wonderful blue color you can see in one of the photos below.  Enjoy a few photos from the shoot.

Plush-36

Plush-34

Plush-25

Plush-17

Plush-12