The uranic charachter of Diana is well reflected in her connexion to light, inaccessibility, virginity, dwelling on high mountains and in sacred woods. Diana is thus the representation of the heavenly world (dium) in its character of sovereignity, supremacy, impassibility, indifference towards secular matters as the fate of men and states, while at the same time ensuring the succession of kings and the preservation of mankind through the protection of childbirth.

Diana was the goddess of the hunt in Roman mythology.  She is often depicted in statue with a deer which is a reference to another myth, that of Actaeon.  He saw Diana bathing naked in the forest and she turned him into a stag and set his own hunting dogs upon him. Yeah, Diana had a bit of a temper.

How does this relate to photography?

After a short break, I pick up the camera and start shooting regularly again (I hope).  Throughout all the assignments from the Bee ( I love those guys!) and opportunities to shoot for new and existing customers, I will still be hunting for that singular thing that I am still seeking in my photography – art.

Yes, you can shoot that hot dog stand, and it can be very factual and informative, but can you make it ‘pop’? Can you make it the most compelling shot of a hot dog stand that the reader can remember?  Can you deliver a ‘gourmet’ shot of a ‘fast food’ situation?

So frame after frame in 2010, I hope to ask myself the same question.  No, not ‘Is that lady over there in the woods naked?’ but ‘Is there something that I am missing that will turn this shot into something worthy of a second, or even a third look?’.

Editors can be tough, comments on the blog can be tougher, but getting the elusive and reclusive Diana to raise her head and take notice of my work is the prize for 2010.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but I do hope to take that extra second, that extra breath at every shot to ask myself if I am doing everything I can to make this frame THE frame of 2010.

If I get the shot, I will post it faster than Mercury can run but I will be relying on my family and friends to pull the doggie teeth out of my backside.

And since we’re talking ancient history…

A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man

Here’s to Chasing Diana in 2010!

Sometimes you bump into a model who has so many looks that you swear that you’re not shooting the same girl anymore. Meet Kaulin. From sweet to sexy to fine art, this girl can do it all.

Natural beauty, natural grace and a significant intelligence to make the whole package easy to work with and easier to shoot.

My buddy Rick was at the shoot, and his comment was shooting Kaulin was like ’shooting models in a barrel’.  I interpret that to mean Kaulin’s grace makes direction a second thought.

I confess that here in the Central part of California, I see a lot of wannabe models, lots of girls that buy the magazines but don’t know much beyond that.  Kaulin was natural, relaxed and graceful from the first frame to the very last (and there were LOTS of frames).

From cure to coquette, Kaulin impressed me.

We’ll be shooting again, if she’s not a Cover Girl by then! Thanks Miss K, let’s play in the studio real soon.

And tell Katie I said hi!

This shot was taken by Rick at SoShootMe.com. And don’t you know he wishes that we could have traded places! Sorry, buddy! Someone has to run the light meter! Hehehehe!

Lin over at Fluffytek has done it again. This bright woman, whom I have never met, has the gift of getting me angry. Not at her mind you, she’s much too sweet for that, but at the topics and situations that she raises.

I know, you’re asking yourself, ‘when will this guy stop complaining and post more boobies?’. Well, thanks for asking because that’s what at the heart of the matter, boobies. To be perfectly accurate, it’s not the boobies but another ‘area of interest’ that has caught the ‘interest’ of the United States government. Yup, the Feds. And since I’m mentioning the Feds its in my best interest to mention that I am not a lawyer, I love my country and pay my taxes. Oh, and I am not a lawyer and my lawyer told me to tell you that.  Seriously.

Kristin - One of God's Better Creations...But Is She A Felon?

Let me see, according to Genesis, the same Lord God who created the heavens and the earth is now a felon for creating man and woman in their completeness.  Obviously, he made a misteak mistake.

Thank God for the Feds to clear this up, right?

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I live and work in a very conservative section of California. Think of it as a ‘red’ state surrounded by an ocean of ‘blue’ states. It’s a literal island of thought, often stubbornly defended.

I am sad to report that I have had to occasionally defend myself and my shots from some who only see glamour and fashion photography as young women being taken advantage of.  Of course, this is offensive to me but its even more offensive to the many intelligent, secure and oh yeah, beautiful, models I have worked with.

Yes, glam and fashion typically shows more skin than you would see at your neighborhood supermarket (unless you live in JimmyD’s neighborhood!) but the knee jerk association of skin = stupid is just not fair or close to the truth.  Listen, I would be honest with you if it were not the case but the number of ‘dumb’ models I have shot can be counted on one hand (and yes, I can count up to five fingers).

I don’t shoot porn and my definition of beauty is evidently very different from some of my neighbors (and some clients). When I look through the lens I want to see a beautiful face (of course) and a beautiful figure (of course) but what captures my eye is a remarkable combination of beauty and intelligence looking back at me.

What catches my eye is the confidence of a Woman.

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Michaelangelo was reputed to have said that he did not ‘create’ his sculptures as much as he ‘freed’ them from the blocks of raw marble.  He saw the completed work in his mind while everyone else just saw rocks.

This shot was taken in my studio. I was standing there when the shutter was fired and the lights flashed but at no time did I see the finished product like my friend Michael did. No disrespect to the model, but all I saw that day were the rocks…

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I have now had the honor of shooting Miss Vanity a handful of times.

She is a very strong, creative, intelligent young woman. And she was a Suicide Girl.

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Maternal Stillness

We could start this discussion about how the arts are necessary to life. We could opine on the arts are Mankind’s great achievements in spite of Mankind’s great flaws. We could glow about the double fugue ‘Kyrie’ in the Mozart Requiem or the clarity of vision of a Henri Cartier-Bresson. Name a genre and a quick ‘shopping’ list of genuine masterpieces can be compiled, discussed, dissected and ranked.

But when we build this list, and check it twice, we ‘purify’ the art. We extract the times and culture of the artist from the work and view the final product in a sterile lab environment. A college music prof of mine used to say that music was not written in a vacuum. The fact is that few artists enjoyed the fame and fortune in their lives that allowed them to become ‘comfortable’. The word ‘complacent’ is seldom associated with great works.

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