Still not back yet. Thought I was, but I’m not. Not yet. But until then–
“I’m not ready to be back, but I’m tired of being gone.”
[ERROR 404] - 2024.
I’m around. I haven’t gone anywhere. Things have just been interesting for the last year or so. Consider 2024 a much needed gap year.
Zak asked me to photograph his entry for the Volante Design Halloween 2024 contest, and I couldn’t bring myself to say “No”.
This is a bit of a departure from my usual yearly Halloween post, but all things considered, I’m not mad at it at all.
Am I back? Far from it. Am I open to be back? Maybe? Thanks for sticking around to find out.
I’d usually post this on Twitter…but I’m actively choosing to boycott that cess pool right now, I guess let’s see how it goes on Threads. Ya’ll got Threads? Anyway, please enjoy the full and uncropped photos (seriously, WTF Instagram?!? Still?!?) from this series along with some graphic assets I made for the contest.
Hope to see you all again real soon!
This is a fun little bonus. I bought one of those single-use-camera lenses in a body cap and slapped it on my full resolution camera rig. I’m going to keep playing with it a little bit. I think it could fix me.
“…I’m here for a good time, not a long time. Life is too short not to wear fun clothes.”
Ruby Marx - 2023.
I think sometimes you have to celebrate your challenges and failures along side of your victories. This session was a challenging one across the board. Ruby and I may have locked in this shoot over a month ago, but a week ago she let me know that she just wasn’t feeling as energetic as usual and wanted to take things a bit more low-key than the costume shoot we had planned.
Cool. No problem. I’m here to do the work. I don’t care all that much what I’m doing, as long as I’m doing it. Also I prefer to test new equipment on more “low stakes” shoots anyway (not to brag, but most of the time I really do like being a photo industry secret agent and getting to play with pre-release toys…this will come back to bite me in just a few seconds).
I’m not sure what happened this time around, but I think I was fighting my equipment from the first frame. My first mistake was thinking I could use good quality lights with a poor quality modifier. I’m spoiled I guess with having access to better equipment, but I still can’t believe I can notice a difference with something I relied on not too many years ago. However, that was only the first battle. No matter what troubleshooting I did I kept having blank frames where my strobes just didn’t fire. I have some troubleshooting to do, and even though I’m happy with what we ended up getting, I’m still a little disappointed we had to cut things short (even if it did mean we did get more time mobbing around a new antique store and Target for the afternoon).
Adryana - 2023.
Oh hey, look who it is. Miss me? I’ve been spending the last few months dealing with some health issues and general weirdness. But sometimes you just have to get back on the horse and do the work.
I’ve been planning this shoot for a few years now (in a way anyway), and in a lot of ways this is actually a “Part II” from an earlier shoot I did for my “Cats who live with my friends” series (which I probably should get back to at some point).
When I was invited over the first time, things just didn’t line up the way we both wanted, so I was happy to finally get another chance.
This shoot was a bit shorter than what I’m used to doing, but after several months away I was happy to take things a little easier this time around. Nonetheless I think we were able to get some great stuff out of it.
“…I take off my noodles, I hump my bread, I play with my meatball clit. That sort of thing…”
Roula Roulette - 2023.
Shortly after working with Golden Mystique a few weeks back, Roula Roulette reached out to get something on the books. If you are a long time reader of the blog (or know how to filter posts by key word) you may have seen some various shots of her in action (To be fair I only remembered this while I was making this post because I already had a tag in my system with her name on it…but I digress).
When I asked Roula what ideas she wanted to explore, she said she had a “Spaghetti dress” that needed to be shot for promotional materials. Little did I know what I was in for.
We spent a wonderful morning laughing and cutting up while her partner played DJ and knocked out some side work. I learned the story of how they became a member of the Atlanta burlesque community, and more importantly became a key part in the training and support of the next (and the next, and the next) generation of performers.
So without further ado, take a look at what we made together. And remember, when you’re here in the studio…you’re family. Or something.
