Shoot Memories # 003 January 11 - 2005

More Sarah today.  I think I only got to shoot with her twice as I caught her right at the end of her career.  I'm pretty sure she's a mom now still living somewhere in the Bay Area.  At this point, her kids might even be in middle school.  For this shoot, I decided to try renting a place for an afternoon.  This was a small B&B out in Stinson Beach.  The place was small, the light was OK, and I still really wasn't sure what I was doing and I think it shows in the images.  Both in the edits (where I was doing things like adding glamour glow etc), but also just in how I was framing things and such.  Sarah was again great to work with however and it was an enjoyable afternoon.  I wish I had had more shoots with her.  This shoot took place in January 2005.  

At this point, I hadn't told my ex-wife what I had been up to.  Mostly because I was worried about her reaction, which later turned out to be exactly what I expected.  However, I did want to tell her and had plans to...but that didn't come till after one more shoot, which will hopefully be tomorrow's blog.  

Shoot Memories # 002 December 29 - 2004

My second nude shoot (first solo) was with a model named Sarah.  I can't remember if I met her on deviantArt or somewhere else.  But she definitely was on deviantArt.  Anyhow, she was one of a few bay area models that were around back in December 2004 and I really wanted to work with her as she seemed chill and I figured I'd be able to learn a lot shooting with her.  I rented a Studio in the SOMA district of San Francisco.  I had never used studio lights on my own and showed up early to get a quick demo of how they worked.  This is where I learned about shutter speed and strobes.  For those that don't know, there is a certain speed above which, the shutter on your camera closes before the flash is finished flashing, so really the right thing to do is to set your shutter speed just below that maximum sync speed and adjust either the light or your f-stop to set your exposure.  Anyway, we shot for I think two hours and got a reasonable amount of good work (for a first solo shoot with no instruction whatsoever).  

I was tempted to go back and edit some of these but I decided that I really wanted the photos to be seen just as I had edited them at the time.  The whole point of this exercise is for both me (and the reader if there are any) to see how my work progressed (if at all) over time.  So, without further ado, have a look.  

Also, if you haven't signed up for my email list, please do.  I will send you a password to access the rest of the site, and I won't spam you.  Cheers, Dan 

Passwords...

I've added passwords to shoots to create incentive for folks to sign up for my newsletter.  Don't worry, I won't sell your info, but I also don't just give stuff away for free any more.  If you want to see my work, sign up.  I promise, I won't spam you.  I'll send the password along with every newsletter I send out.  

Cheers, Dan

Shoot Memories #001 December 4 - 2004

My first shoot that involved a nude model took place at a workshop I had found I think through craigslist.  This was back in December of 2004.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long!  Although, when I look at the photos, I really can see how far I’ve come since then. 

The workshop was fine.  The guy who set it up (John Brennan ) ran a decent workshop.  He had several sets, and a model who was willing to put up with a bunch of bumbling mostly first timers in a studio.  He set up all the lights and we all sort of took turns taking shots.  Only one person was in control of the strobes at a time, so the rest of us would use the modeling lights to get shots in between our turn.  It was sort of mayhem, but also worked out OK.  The model was oiled up which gave the whole thing a sort of perhaps more glamour feel than I might have liked, but at that time, I didn’t really know what I was doing so it was fine. 

The one standout thing I think he did (which is pretty standard in lots of photo workshops) is he had us put tape on our focus ring at about 2 feet to force us to move in and be comfortable with working closely with a model.  He also taught us the basic things like don’t touch the model for manipulate them in anyway without first asking permission.  Overall, it was a fine introduction to nude modeling.

Because it was my first shoot, I really only got 4 photos I’m willing to share with the world…enjoy.

A new series of Blogs - Shoot Memories

As often happens I get an idea in the shower first thing in the morning.  My guess is that it is because my subconscious mind has been thinking about something overnight and upon waking presents me with a “solution” to something I’ve either been working on in my day job or bothered about at home or whatever.  These aren’t epiphanies (although I’ll sometimes call them that much to the chagrin of my loved ones who just roll their eyes at me), but they are mini break throughs…

I recently had my Instagram account banned for breaking the community guidelines:

“Your account has been disabled for not following the Instagram Community Guidelines, and we won't be able to reactivate it. We disable accounts that post content that is sexually suggestive or contains nudity.

We understand that people have different ideas about what’s okay to share on Instagram, but to keep Instagram safe, we require everyone to follow our guidelines.

Read the Instagram Community Guidelines to learn more:

https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/

Thanks,


The Instagram Team”

Which needless to say, pissed me off a bit.  Not that I’m some famous instagrammer, but I had blurred everything to standards etc, but I guess not enough for their prudish tastes.  So, bleh, fuck Instagram.  I have a website and if people want to follow me, I’ll give them something to follow me for instead of some bullshit censored post of my art with Instagram and facebook making money off my posts.  So, what I’ve decided to do is to go through every one of my (to date) 212+/- nude shoots and document a bit of what went on, why the shoot occurred and any other memories I had of the shoot.  Maybe budding nude photographers will get some insights, probably I’ll share too much about myself, but maybe someday, I’ll be famous and this shit will matter.  If not, lol, at least I’ll have killed some time doing something I enjoy.  So…stay tuned!

Just for kicks and because I know probably everyone is mostly here for the photos, I'll add  a photo. This just happens to be my all time favorite photo.  You'll have to wait through a few blogs to see more shots from this shoot. 

Salon November 2016

On my old site, I used to post images from my Salon night (the night where I get together with fellow photographers and share our work).  I'm going to continue to do that on my new site.  So, here they are:

First Blog...

Nothing here yet.  Just rebuilding my website in a new home