A Nod to the Past

Since I started taking photos in 2003 I've made lots of mistakes. I had to learn the hard way to back up my files twice. So I've lost countless thousands of images that I can never look at again; piles and piles of photos that I won't be able to edit from their original image, like the one you see above. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me again some more. Fool me three times and I probably ought not even have a camera. I know now to back everything up, and not just to one location.

I've recently uncovered a gigantic cache of all my journals from age twelve to age twenty. I read them all in a night. I also found a good amount of forgotten photos that I'll probably never share because they're not any good, but they certainly jogged my memory. There was also a box of letters from my several years that I valued the art of written correspondence. It's a good thing I have artifacts; there's so much I wouldn't remember on my own, without something to look at.

Getting to the point now, I'm sorting through all my photos from deviantart, which are the only scraps of the four or five years of digital photography that weren't completely lost due to stupid hard drive crashes. They're not good but they're all I have to look at of my beginning years playing with a camera. I'm tired of people finding me via deviantart and judging my work based on what they see there. So I'm saving all those tiny shoddy files to my external and demolishing the whole portfolio. Then I'll pick out all the images that are important to me and put them on flickr, all with their own explanation of their signifigance.

Then I think I'll be ready to get back to actually comitting myself to improving.

Here, for expample, is a portrait from April 18th, 2005. It's out of focus, small, dusty, and poorly framed. It's a photo of my friend, Marcelo, who lives in Chile. This is the kind of portrait which takes one to the presice moment it was shot as opposed to being a more basic image which reminds you of the subject in general. We all have photos like that. I think they're usually crap photos that do that to us; make us relive the time before and after the shutter opened.



A friend of mine told me about the time he was twenty-five and burned every recorded memory of himself, in order to start completely over. I don't particulary want to do that. I would, however, like to scrutinize all of it one last time, put it all back in a box, and press on.

Keep an eye out on flickr.

Watch out for Bombshells

This isn't the first time I shot with Leah or Mallory. I'm mega happy to be their photographer again. Here's why!



Two of my goofiest, loveliest models to work with, and now they're part of the Bridge City Bombshells. So I'll be shooting them some more, and the rest of their comrades.

Go here now to see the rest!

Hello, Stranger

First, I must say, it's hard to shoot with a hand like this.


A quick post to let you know that things have still been slow, but there will soon be new images to ogle. Today I'll be shooting some of the ladies from The Bridge City Bombshells; the new Pittsburgh burlesque troupe. So those should be fun.

In bigger news, I'm finally taking on the project of reviewing the hundreds and hundreds of documentary photos that I shot in 2007 for Mechanimal when they were building a penguin robot. They all need to be re-edited and now that I'm looking at them again, I wish they could be reshot. I really wasn't thinking about aperture at all because I spent the whole time struggling with the ever-changing light of the Mechanimal headquarters. I've since gotten a grip on the place and I've grown to love the light there, but at the time I was clueless. Nonetheless, I've been eager to share the robot-building process from start to finish with everyone for a few years now. It's slow going but I'll be putting them up on flickr in small installments. Here's one now!



I've been severely lacking in the shooting for funsies department, but here's a shot of some overgrown Pittsburgh scenery to tide yinz over til I get more finished.



I suppose that's it for now. Brace yourself for upcoming scantily clad ladies, robot penguins, and a thrown-together motley mix of summer shots. Cheers to you!

Portraits, Parties, Punch Bowls and Playboys

This past week I've been getting back to doing things other than just making coffee and playing with photos from old shoots. But before I tell you about it, here's a re-edited photo from an old shoot!


I've been going back through this set of photos from last summer because the pup there, Dino, is no longer around and I'd like to try my hand at some printing. So I've been returning the photos to RAW files to edit them from scratch. Next I'll finally be teaching myself how to make quality prints of digital photos. That's something I ought to know. Now you must go to Flickr to see the rest.

Onto new business, the famous Mel Practice hired me to shoot some family portraits of herself and her daughter, Lydia. It was the warmest day this week and we had a great shoot. Lydia was a real champ at authentic smiles for the camera. I know I can't pretend to like to have my photo taken and not look like I'm grimacing. I haven't asked yet if I can post this lovely shoot on Flickr yet, but I will allow my favorite shot to sneak into the public eye for now.



Darling, no? I had a great time. At one point the puppy had goggles on! Anytime I'm doing work that involves goggles and puppies, I know my career is heading in the right direction. I really look forward to sharing the rest of these photos, but I will need to clear that with Mel and Lydia first. One photo I'm sure the world needs to see is a merchandise shot for Josh, a local seamster who is going to make it big in the world of wicked apparel.




Moving on to an entirely different photo gig, I was given the opportunity to do a catalog-style shoot for A Party Place Rentals. The proprietors of the business made my afternoon a breeze. Not only was everyone pleasant to work with, but a perfect black backdrop was prepared for me. All I needed was a clamp lamp, an umbrella light, my trusty tripod, and my D200. All of the finished photos (the color versions, b&w soon to come) can be seen when you click right here.
Certainly not as fun to look at as puppies or portraits, but check out this platter!



On another of our recent perfect-weather days in Pittsburgh (rare and beautiful), I did a snappy speed-shoot of my muse, Megan. These may never grace the photosets of my flickr page, but I may share this single morsel of the sunny, springtime Sossi.



With that, I leave you to wander over to Flickr to get a closer look at how I spent my week. Other new photos to look forward to include; "Lewis Lake '08", "Mt. Washington Demolition", and a new shoot from my other muse with a name that starts with m, "Monika and Elegy".

Undergroundies Unite!

It's been slow going on the photo front since my Mechanimal shoot. Duquesne University bought that batch of photos and put a few on their website. Scroll about halfway down the page and you'll see it. Notice the photo credit they gave me, how exciting! Last week Stephen Douglas, a local metalworker, hired me to shoot a couple of his pieces to determine if he'd like me to shoot all his work. He and I met last year when we both had work displayed in a Liquid Sunday gallery. I traded him a black and white portrait of my muse, megan, for a big metal bunny. I told him I'd love to light-paint his work. The deed is done!



The light-painting was actually just an afterthought. All the major shooting was done at the terminal building. To see the rest of his amazing work you'll have to jump over to my flickr account. It was a delight to work with Stephen for a few reasons. Firstly, he bought me a hot dog on the way to the shoot site. Second, he's a local self-taught artisan who's clearly bound for greatness. I can't wait to shoot the rest of his work! It wasn't quite the challenge that I've faced shooting portfolios of client's oil paintings (what a nightmare), but the two pieces that I shot were shiny, intricate, and loved to take all the light and suck it into some hidden black hole of no return. I thought light painting would be the way to go, but there were still spots of glare. Shooting in the soft, even light of the terminal building was better, but didn't quite do the trick. Next time I'm planning on building a big light tent like i did way back in the day for this shot. Then again, natural light is my friend, and I reckon that's going to be the best route for his work.

Today my friend Joel of Zombietown Productions gave me one of his t-shirts that he designed and I decided to do a self-portrait shoot a la zombie in the hopes that he will keep dumping his spare merchandise on me. Like with Stephen, I'm just keen to being a part of local artists' struggle to the big time. Maybe when all the bands I've photographed get signed to major labels, and zombietown prints are flying off the shelves of indie boutiques, they'll remember dear old me and ask me to stick with them as their camera girl.



Their undead camera girl.

Horse Feet

For the last few months I've been in front of the camera way more than behind it. It's just not right. I totally understand why people don't like being photographed. I like to think that most of the people I photograph are comfortable with the shooting process but I sure do get nervous with someone looking down a lens at me. I've found mustaches and umbrellas both easy to hide behind.

I have still been working for Mechanimal which I'm very grateful for. Lately people just don't have money for creative photography. Working with the small crew of nerds/artists there has kept me from being completely stagnant with my photography. Too cold to take my camera out for a stroll at night to shoot icicles and football riots; so I let the giant office and varying light conditions challenge me.


They're working in a big space with dim natural light half the day and a handful of odd lamps casting varying degrees of brightness and hue. Fun! Every different viewpoint was a new arrangement of lights and tones. Like in the photo above, there's a cool toned light hitting the foreground and warm hitting the background. It makes them look like they're on different planes instead of right across each other at a table.


Later that day at the same table, a light quality that seems considerably different to me. I've been documenting each step in the creation of some life-size prehistoric horse feet. I'll leave it at that so I don't explain any of it incorrectly and make anyone sound stupid. Here's one more, then I'll move on.



More to come when the project is complete. Keep an eye on flickr!

Oh! You Pretty Things

Now that I've got your attention, I can tell you what I've been up to since my post oh so long ago. I've had a few shoots and other art-related gigs in the last month. I shot Mariage Blanc again for their CD release of "Broken Record". Reviews for the album appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper as well as the Post-Gazette alongside my photo of them. This is my first publication, so to speak, so you can bet I'll have some scans for you to drool on soon enough.

My Dad comissioned me to photograph a girl with a banjo for his annual mix CD's album cover "Banjo Pickin Girl". This was a very thrown together shoot with basically no planning, which is why it went so well. My lovely coworker from the Beehive, Monika, allowed me to steal her from her home and shoot her with a borrowed banjo. We shot it in East Liberty which is a part of town with much color and aesthetically pleasing decay. You can see all of those right here. Monika is a great model, she's modest but not camera shy. I've shot her before in one of my first attempts at light painting with her late cat, Nibbler, may he rest in peace. Here's an example. I'm very glad that I have her available for any fun ideas I might get that require a pretty gal.

I also shot a fellow named Jay who is a musician. He also manages a few musicians and bands, so that makes him a valuable customer. My shoot with him was also rather unplanned because I had just gotten a wicked cold and was too busy blowing my nose to think about the shoot. Despite the snot, it was a quick, spotless success. I took him to the top floor of the Terminal Building, which is a big warehouse. Most of the floors are renovated for offices but floor six is open space, columns, concrete, and windows. Every time I go there I notice how beautiful the light is. Jay played a song on his guitar by a window and we were done shooting after one song. He looks very natural and comfortable, I think, because he wasn't paying attention to me as he played his song. The light was soft and just about perfect. Have a look!

A couple days ago I shot a model that I've worked with before. Her name is Mallory. The last time to worked together things looked a little like this, this, and this. For the new shoot we stayed indoors and played with candy. A while ago I had an idea to cover someone in rainbow jimmies but I've been told it's already been done. Of course! So she heard about the idea and decided that she wanted to be covered in icing and candy. It didn't quite go as perfectly as we imagined. The lights made the icing melty and most of the candy wouldn't stay put. We have learned important lessons for next time, that's for sure. We wanted to get glamour shots of her entire person but due to my lack of a studio, decent lights, and flair for glamour, all we mostly got were head shots. They turned out yummy anyway, so why don't you have a gander.




What a doll, eh? The mini spree's stuck the best. Nerds are 2nd on the list, followed by sour patch kids, followed by nothing. Everything else plopped right off. We shot this in my kitchen with two umbrella lights, two clamp lamps, a desk lamp, and the overhead light. The lamps each had one orange light and one blue light. I know that's an awful lighting setup, but you work with what you've got. So that is that.

Last night I had another lovely lady over to my place and we had a session that was just about the opposite of Mallory's shoot. Nikki, who is the star of my very first blog here, wanted me to get some head shots for her next album (Prometheus Burning). I am very pleased with how these turned out. I knew from the start that they'd look great because the idea was very simple. White face, black tongue, black backdrop. The success of this shoot was totally in her hands. She dressed amazing and was very confident in front of the camera. All I had to do was toss some lights up around her and snap away. We tossed Bessy, my giant african black millipede, in the mix, which can never ever be a bad thing. We also shot a few light painting images in my hallway for funsies. I don't have these shots on flickr yet as I'm converting the files right now. Here, however, is a sneak peak. Lucky you!


There are a lot of gems from this shoot, so be sure to look out for the whole set on flickr. I have a roast in the oven, so I bid you good day.