In A Room Where No One Sees

Photography / Portrait / Social Commentary / studio nudes

In A Room Where No One Sees

July 26, 2020

Dreams give us the ability to experience what we know may never come true.

Late at night, after the kids are tucked in bed and fast asleep, after the laundry is done, after the dishes are washed, and the bills are paid, she wanders into her bedroom and sets her phone on the dresser. She removes from the back of a drawer something she’d bought once, years ago when her dreams might have had a chance, when there were opportunities on the horizon, before reality dragged her to a place she never imagined.

She puts on the costume of something she never was then reaches over, plays her favorite song, starts the video recorder, and begins to dance for someone she’s never known. Giving a brief yield to her latent desire, she dances for someone who cares, someone she can trust, someone who values who she is, a person who won’t beat her into submission, a friend who won’t betray her, the one who says, “I love you,” without reservation.

She imagines the lights. She feels the smoke. For a moment, she is not in the dingy, cramped 8×8 bedroom. She pours what little energy she has left into the voluptuous ballet she imagines, the private choreography intended only for the eyes of that one soul, the one person who has never let her down. She feels free. For three minutes and 47 seconds, she slowly turns and dances, and dreams of seducing someone who she has never known.

Then, as the final strains of Eden’s “Dirty Blonde” fade into the quiet night, she turns off the video and deletes it from her phone. She puts on a faded t-shirt and the closest pair of sweatpants she can find. Turning off the light, she goes to bed dreaming of a different life; one where she is loved.

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Current Issues / Documentary / Photography

Signs of the Time

July 19, 2020

The signs we display say a lot about our approach to life’s biggest challenge in July, 2020.

No one would question that life this year has been bizarre. I’m still waiting for that first photoshoot since February. Maybe it will happen this week, but I’m not going to be surprised or upset if it doesn’t. There are too many challenges. The National Weather Service this morning issued a heat advisory for all of Central Indiana for today from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM with warnings of heat indices over 105 degrees. Tomorrow may not be any better, nor the day after that. Shoot indoors, you say? Where? I’ve yet to find an indoor location that is both suitable to the content and appropriately sanitized against the virus. If you know of such a place, please share.

This situation leaves me with a conundrum each week of whether to re-process and re-imagine work from the archives, as we’ve done often, publish pictures of the kids, which we’ve done a few times, or go with something more random and timely, which we’ve done once. I’ll admit to not feeling terribly motivated by any of those options. I’d skip this week completely if I wasn’t afraid that with everything else going on you’d completely forget I exist if I didn’t regularly remind you that I’m still here, still hanging on, pining for days when I’m shooting something exciting every week. So, we went with a topic more documentary than anything, just to have new pictures to post.

One thing of which we are now certain is that this damned pandemic is going to roil this entire year and probably next year as well, at least in the United States. Why? We’re stupid and we lack substantive leadership. Our so-called president has decided that the virus is a distraction and doesn’t want to be bothered. Daily, he proves himself a fool. Even if he was capable of the leadership necessary, however, a formidable portion of the US population is just stupid. There’s no other reasonable explanation for why people didn’t wear masks and stay home and shut this thing down in March and April like every other developed industrialized country in the world did. NO ONE is continuing to face increasing infection rates as high as we are. Yet, I see doctors re-stating the obvious each morning: if everyone wore a mask, the virus would be contained within two weeks, a month, max. That this hasn’t yet happened is disgusting.

As a result of failed leadership across the US, corporate entities, trying desperately to remain solvent, stepped up this week and began requiring masks in their stores. And while the cynics among us are waiting gleefully with cameras in hand for when the requirement at Walmart goes into effect this week, many of us are questioning why we had to wait this long for such a substantial response. Indianapolis has been under a mask mandate in public for the better part of two weeks now and I’m still cautious when going to the grocery store because no one wants to be the “bad guy” who enforces the safety measure.

The recent corporate decisions, however, have spurred a requirement for new signage. In most cases, local stores were sent images to print out and tape to their front doors. Larger entities, such as Kroger and Home Depot, have more professional signage. Knowing this, and being completely clueless as to what else to photograph this week, we went to our nearest strip mall and took pictures of the variations of signs informing customers of the need to mask up. The result was marginally interesting. Some were adamant with a “do it or else” tone. Others gave a, “hey, it’s not our fault,” message. A couple came at it from the perspective of personal responsibility, not that Americans have a clue what that is.

What we ended up with is some of the most boring pictures I’ve ever shot. Really. Grass growing in the front yard would be more exciting. I tried adding some artistic nuance to them in the processing, but even that feels too much like a giant, “UGH!” How many different ways can one say, “Hey stupid, wear a mask!” None of the ones we saw were imaginative to any degree. Dealing with my own reflection in the glass doors didn’t help any, either. Still, there is some, perhaps minimal, documentary value in recording how we’re (not) handling this situation. I apologize for not being more exciting this week. Maybe next week will be better.

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Editorial / Just For Fun / Photography

Vacation and the Sacrament of Dudeism

July 12, 2020

Or “How I Didn’t Spend My Summer Vacation.”

This is one of those posts that, perhaps, is better suited in some ways for Old Man, Talking, but this one has pictures and that other site is involved in a new novel which you should probably read, so we’re going to put this one here for the convenience of having here for the purpose of putting things.

I wrote recently of the need for everyone to take a vacation, and some people, I’ve noticed by the endless parade of beach and lake pictures on social media, have done so. Not all of us can take those risks, though, which hardly seems fair, but then, nothing ever is, so, whatever, man. We have to find our own leisure.

If Dudeism has a sacrament, and nothing officially says that it does, it is bowling; not necessarily in the literal sense, though that’s where this is ultimately going, but at least in the metaphorical sense of engaging in an activity that requires absolutely no skill for one to enjoy the act of participation. Just don’t step over the line, man. We’d have to mark it a zero.

Turns out, there’s a lot of wisdom in doing nothing. Kierkegaard, when he wasn’t doing something else, said “Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.” Gertrude Stein took it a bit further with, “It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.” Extrapolate out a bit and that honorary Ph.D. one gets for doing nothing starts to feel pretty weighty.

Perhaps the quote that best gets to the point is this one from The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, translated by Burton Watson. Pay attention to this:

Once there was a man who was afraid of his shadow and who hated his footprints, and so he tried to get away from them by running. But the more he lifted his feet and put them down again, the more footprints he made. And no matter how fast he ran, this shadow never left him, and so, thinking that he was still going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without a stop until his strength gave out and he fell down dead. He didn’t understand that by lolling in the shade he could have gotten rid of his shadow and by resting in quietude he could have put an end to his footprints.

Leisure comes in many forms and to say that one has to go bowling in the literal sense would be antithetical to the most basic premise of Dudeism. You’ve got to be you. Still, there’s something to be said for sitting around in rented shoes and heaving a 14-pound ball at ten carefully-weighted pieces of shaped wood. Personally, I find it cathartic right up until about the eighth frame when my shoulder starts hurting, causing me to drop the last two frames. My diagnosis is that I should probably spend more time bowling.

Looking for something we could do with children led us to this reliable form of recreation. We confirmed with the bowling alley that no one was allowed in without a mask (they were delightfully fierce about that qualification), social distancing was excessively enforced, and that every reasonable sanitation method was being applied, piled the offspring into the van, and introduced them to this most sacred of Dudeist pastimes, which, qualifying as vacation this year, necessitated pictures.

Who won or even how high the scores were is irrelevant. There’s no proof that the Dude himself ever actually bowled a frame; he just sat there as though he might if he’d wanted to. The whole scoring thing is digital now anyway, which makes that bowling class I took in college, where the final exam was correctly scoring a game, by hand, on paper, rather moot at this point. What’s important is that we were introducing the children to the skill of leisure, a skill that, when properly refined, will do them much good for the rest of their lives. They’re too young for bowling alley beer, of course, but there were chili dogs so, in some ways, from a gastrointestinal perspective, I guess that’s the same.

I guess what I’m showing you this week are, kind of, our family vacation photos. And one might notice that I’m not in any of the photos. That’s not a bad thing. The evidence of my presence is the fact that the photos exist. Of course, I couldn’t just dump them on you with standard processing. I’d be just like everyone else on social media if I did that. They’re what we’ll call “enhanced”. Whether you like them or not is, like, just your opinion, man. What’s important is that we understand the great importance of leisure, of actively, intentionally, doing nothing. Look at the pictures and then take a nap.

Remember these words of Oscar Wilde: “To do nothing is the most difficult thing in the world. The most difficult, and the most intellectual.”

Enjoy.

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Art / Photography / Portrait

A Decade Seems So Far Away

July 5, 2020

2010 wasn’t really that long ago, but in this moment it feels as though lifetimes have passed.

The exif data on this week’s images tells me they were shot April 13, 2010.

I don’t remember shooting them.

Going through one of the archive drives last week, looking for a specific image and not finding it, I opened a folder I hadn’t looked at in a long time. I hadn’t looked at that folder because I thought I knew what was in it. The label referred to a much-loved set of pictures that I’m not terribly inclined to re-process because I love the originals too much. Frustrated at not finding the image I wanted, though, I opened the folder because there are times, as I’m moving things around from one drive to the next, folders accidentally get nested in places one wouldn’t expect. That’s when I discovered two sets of images shot on the same day as the ones I love that have never been processed. With the set I’m showing you today, there’s at least the appearance, based on exif data, that I opened them and made some adjustments to the RAW files. With the second set, which I’ve not decided to process just yet, the images are completely untouched.

Ten years ago, Miranda was one of my favorite muses in a period where there were multiple (so very unlike today). She would drop by, chat, and we’d almost always end up taking pictures of some kind. That I don’t remember every set is probably inevitable. There are dozens. Since then, Miranda’s become a mother, suffered the heartbreak of losing a child to SIDS, and, like most of us, learned a lot of life lessons over the course of time.

Going through these photos raises a lot of sentimental emotions. I tossed Miranda a message and perhaps, if we can make schedules work, we can get her back in front of the camera again. Until then, we have this wonderful set of images to enjoy.

Technical note: For the most part, these are composites of the image processed through three different methods. The two exceptions, each a single process, are obvious.

Remember, click on any of the images below for a full-screen view.

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Holidays / Personal / Photography

Visiting Grandpa Bob’s Plane

June 28, 2020

A rainy Father’s Day didn’t stop the kids from being able to stop by and see Grandpa Bob’s toy.

Father’s Day is one of those holidays that means less to me now that my own father is gone. Yes, we remember him fondly, but we do so on other days as well. As for my own adult offspring recognizing my participation in their existence, that was always a forced celebration so it’s rare now if I even get a text from any of them. I am increasingly of the opinion, given the ubiquity of single-parent families, that perhaps Mother’s Day and Father’s Day should be combined into a single Parents’ Day so to both recognize the effort of parents filling both gender and avoid the immediate depression that comes from having a day that specifically celebrates someone who, for many, was the perpetrator of their abuse.

Father’s Day is still a bit awkward with the younger two. Sure, they call me Dad, but it’s never been something I force on them and pushing Father’s Day on them has the effect of reminding them of the deficiencies of their biological participant. However, they are fortunate to have Kat’s Dad, warmly referred to as Grandpa Bob. The kids love their Grandpa Bob and Grandpa Bob enjoys doing things with his grandkids, especially now that they’re big enough to not require intermittent diaper changes.

Grandpa Bob has always enjoyed aviation but it’s taken on a new enthusiasm as he recently purchased a used Ercoupe, a two-seat craft from the mid-twentieth century that still enjoys a fierce and loyal following. Grandpa Bob is still tweaking the engine and since it was raining, going for a ride wouldn’t have been advisable anyway. Instead, we met Grandpa Bob at the open hangar where he stores the plane.

Are kids and airplanes ever not a good mix? Maybe with infants whose ears object to the change in air pressure. Outside that, there’s not much anything more cool than getting to sit in the cockpit of an airplane, any airplane. Needless to say, they were thrilled. Pictures were required. We hope you’ll enjoy seeing them as much as we enjoyed taking them.

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Photography

Looking For Signs Of Life

June 21, 2020

Some days one is prone to wonder if there is any intelligent life on the planet at all.

I can’t say this this week’s photos are particularly inspiring. Perhaps that is due to the fact I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. Not that I didn’t try. It was still fairly early when I arrived at the Eagle Creek Marina one morning, hoping to at least catch some wildlife in action. Nothing seemed to be overly cooperative, though. Even the starlings kept themselves backlit so their portraits turned out too dark to salvage reasonably. Trying to chase a cardinal through the trees was wholly frustrating.

Patience is necessary for trips like this, though, and time was a luxury not afforded to me this particular morning. I had but 45 minutes before I needed to be on my way. Thoughts of stopping back by another day were interrupted by necessary tasks needing completion prior to Kat leaving for the salon.

Our need to still stay distant from others is proving frustrating. I’ve booked a shoot for a couple of weeks out with someone new doing something different. The concept is one that demands I shoot from some distance. I have no idea how well it might work. Such a different approach has me re-examining why I shoot.

For the moment, however, there are these eight images. At least the squirrel seemed mildly amused.

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Documentary / News & Comment / Photography

A Stark Reminder Of What We’re Facing

June 14, 2020

The state of Indiana may say it’s re-opening but downtown Indianapolis is a very different picture.

Yes, I do still have a good camera. Yes, I still remember how to use it. Having not shot anything new since February, though, I had to dust it off and clean the lenses before taking everything out early Thursday morning and venture into downtown Indianapolis. I was itching to shoot something, anything, and after hearing about all the protests downtown and the Arts Council’s project for painting boarded-up shops, I was fairly certain I would find littered streets juxtaposed against incredible murals.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I hit downtown at 8:20 AM, right smack in the middle of what should have been one of the busiest times of the day. Instead, I encountered practically no traffic at all once I was inside the mile square. I parked less than a block North of the Circle. The place was empty.

Sure, there were some construction people doing construction things, but there were no pedestrians, no one rushing to get to work on time, no one grabbing that last cup of coffee before trudging into an office, no police, no lingering protestors, nothing. Almost everything was boarded up but most the boards were still bare and the few on the Circle that had been painted were amateur attempts at prettying-up a hard message: Black Lives Matter. The streets themselves were perhaps the most clean I’ve ever seen them. No sign of the previous night’s protest remained. Even the trash cans had been emptied.

I walked south out of the circle to Washington then west to Illinois. Seeing Circle Center Mall boarded up was surreal. Even more unnerving, though, was being able to stand in the middle of an intersection, multiple times, and take my time framing my shot without having to worry about being run over. Traffic was practically non-existent. I walked on down to Georgia Street where a lone couple sat snuggling on one of the concrete supports. There was some utility construction nearby, but beyond that, everything was quiet.

The one image that stands out in need of comment is the statue of Governor Oliver Morton with what appears to be bird poop squarely down his face. I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate. Morton, on one hand, got the state of Indiana through the Civil War without it being torn to shreds. He fought off white supremacist groups and made Indiana one of the most supportive states in the Union. Sounds like a good guy, right?

Hardly. While he might be applauded for his support of the Union, the methods he used in the process were nonetheless detestable. He illegally borrowed millions of dollars in federal and personal loans to support the state budget because he wouldn’t let the state legislature meet. He hired thugs who beat up, kidnapped, and allegedly killed political opponents. When Confederate troops crossed the Ohio River into Indiana, not only did he illegally call up the state militia to fight them but he had them ransack and burn the homes and barns of any Hoosier family who displayed the flag of the Golden Circle, a group sympathetic to the Confederacy. Perhaps difficult times call for difficult measures, but seeing bird poop on his face still feels appropriate.

Seeing the city this way was a reminder that regardless of what other issues we might face there is still a pandemic to fight. While people out in the suburbs might be reckless and running around without a care, the few people who were downtown were taking matters seriously. Mosts wore masks. They all avoided getting too close to anyone else. And the whole place felt a bit like a ghost town.

I can’t say the following photographs are exciting. If they are interesting it is on a documentary level as we consider where we are and what is really taking place. While it was nice to get the camera out again, I must say that I prefer more lively subjects. I kept looking for tumbleweeds; at least they would have been interesting.

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Current Issues / Photography / Social Commentary / video

Black Lives DO Matter

June 7, 2020

The United States, since its inception, has denied the value of black lives. We are overdue for a change.

I am privileged. I know that. To some degree, I’ve always known that. The fact that we were poor, living in borrowed housing, and barely making ends meet didn’t change that. My brother and I look white and that automatically gives us privilege in the United States. So much so, that our mother actually discouraged us from claiming the native heritage that courses dominantly through our blood. She specifically forbid us from getting tribal roll numbers. Her reason was rooted in history.

“They gave us numbers before,” she said. “They gave us numbers and rounded us up. Your great-great-grandparents were Tsa=La=Gi (Cherokee), had a nice home in what is now Georgia, did nice business, got along well with their Choctaw neighbors. Then, the government came, rounded everyone up, and took our land. They made us move. They watched us die. We learned a lesson. Don’t let them number you again. They don’t need to know what their eyes don’t tell them.”

We grew up with the privilege of looking white and at the time didn’t give it a second thought. There are many problems with privilege, though, one of the biggest being that it makes one blind to the challenges and abuse of others. Privilege lets us sit safely at home, watching protests on our televisions and phones, while not worrying about whether we’re going to be killed the next time we step out of the house. Privilege disconnects us from those in need, those in trouble, and those being mistreated at the hands of a government for whom too many of us voted.

We all have sat by too long and watched as our black neighbors endured challenges we couldn’t fathom. We’ve watched them be killed simply for existing and blamed it on everything except the real problem: the United States is a systemically racist country.

The protests that have filled our streets the past two weeks demonstrate how severe the problem is. Yet, protests alone don’t change anything. Policies have to change. Laws must be written. And along the way, a helluva lot of white people are going to be made to feel uncomfortable as the power to bully black people and other people of color is taken away from them. There’s a lot that has to happen.

Use of tear gas and rubber bullets by police has to be made illegal nationwide
Use of paramilitary equipment and/or military surplus equipment has to be made illegal, nationwide.
Budgets for police “special ops” programs have to be eliminated.
Police have to be charged, tried, and convicted for all the crimes they commit in the line of duty, no exceptions.
Civilian review boards must oversee every police department in the country, with the power to fire police for misconduct.
Once a police officer is fired for misconduct in one department, they can no longer serve in law enforcement anywhere else.
The incarceration of black people for non-violent crimes must not exceed the per capita comparison for white people.
Existing incarceration records for black people must be reviewed by a civilian board with the objective of overturning or dismissing charges administered unfairly on account of race.
Crimes against black people that have gone unpunished must be re-opened and tried fairly in a court of law.

I could continue that list at some length but that reduces the likelihood of anyone reading so I’ll stop there. The protests must continue. Our history of systemic racism goes all the way back to the first white person who ever set foot on our shores. Racism was one of the diseases brought over on the Mayflower. The heritage of suffering and abuse is long and one of the places we see that abuse reflected is in the music of black people. So, what I want to leave you with today is not merely a set of pictures from our archives, but a set of songs representing the history of the struggle black people have faced in the United States.

Look. Listen. Pay attention. Keep marching. Keep chanting. Create the change that improves the lives of black people everywhere. Black lives DO matter.

“One of these mornings and it won’t be long; you’re gonna look for me and I’ll be gone.”

“You gotta fight on just a little while longer …”

“Deep in heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.”

“Brother we can’t quit until we get our share.”

“It’s been a long time comin’ but I know change is gonna come.”

“Black rage is founded on blocking the truth
Murder and crime, compromise and distortion.“

This is America
Don’t catch you slippin’ now
Look at how I’m livin’ now
Police be trippin’ now
Yeah, this is America.

If you think we live in the land of the free
You should try to be Black like me.

Art / Current Issues / Photography

Plagues, Rage, and Home Decorating

May 31, 2020

Art reflects what we experience but when our experience is something other than positive or sanguine, how do we make that art fit into our lives?

This week has been unnerving, to say the least. I’ve waited until Sunday morning before deciding whether to post what I’d planned or wait. I won’t argue that what we have to share this week doesn’t fit with national or local tragedies. I don’t have anything in my archives that would. However, I’m not convinced matters will have improved by next week, nor the week after. So, I’m sharing in the hopes that, perhaps, in some moment separate from the chaos filling our conscious existence, the pictures might provide a distraction, a different vein of thought, perhaps even a twinkling of amusement that helps in some small way to carry us all forward.

I created this week’s images, perhaps unsurprisingly, in response to the global pandemic that, despite all other distractions, continues to take lives around the globe. This morning’s verified numbers are that 6.05 million people have been confirmed to have the virus. 369,000 of those people died. 105,000 of those deaths were in the US. 1,850 were in Indiana. COVID-19 is no respecter of race, gender, religion, or political persuasion. Diseases are like that. They don’t care who they infect.

The first six images reflect how the virus takes a beautiful life and distorts, consumes, and obliviates that existence. The last three images shift to the softness of our response. Sure, there’s some caution and some urgency, but we’ve colored our attitudes and responses with excuses and misinformation and a complete suspension of belief in science so that we’re convinced it’s no big deal and you’re not going to notice the body is on fire unless you look closely.

I like the finished works and probably, eventually, will make them for sale. You’ll want to keep checking our catalog at Saatchi Art for those updates. What occurred to me, though, as I was working on the first piece, is that art addressing challenging topics can be difficult to place in a room. Showing the art by itself in a staged room didn’t quite provide the aesthetic experience I want to share. So, I pulled out some design templates and created mood boards for each image with different ideas for colors and textures that might match well with the photograph.

Does one decorate a room around an image representing such an unpopular and rather depressing topic? One certainly doesn’t furnish a room to clash with such an image! If we find the artistry in the photograph, I see no reason to not work the room in which it hangs so that everything is complimentary.

The problem with digital mood boards, though, is that they really don’t give one any sense of the image’s detail. So, I’m giving you both the image and the mood board. Depending on what size device you’re viewing these, the layout will either be helpful or leave you scrolling down forever. I’m not responsible for the failings of your electronics.

These images do not take away any angst or worry one might have regarding current events. They do nothing to address the violence nor the systemic racial injustice. These photographs are a distraction. I hope they provide you an experience void of pain.

Advertising / Art / Current Issues / Photography

It’s All In The Marketing

May 24, 2020

Government leaders can’t make people leave their homes to return to large group gatherings. Feeling comfortable in public is largely a matter of marketing.

We, as a society, have arrived at that point where we have to start making some choices that have the potential to be life-altering if we’re wrong. Government leaders, looking at declining tax revenues and a crumbling economy, want businesses to re-open and with that a return of large-group gatherings, such as eating indoors at restaurants, sporting events, art galleries, and more. Cities, especially, have already lost millions of dollars in tax revenue which means less money for things such as infrastructure repair and public safety. The longer businesses stay closed and groups are limited to the smallest of gatherings, the public agencies we look to for basic required services suffer. This isn’t a management issue, nor is it a political one. Reduce the purchase of goods and services and public revenue is going to slide.

The challenge is that even when places do begin to open, many of us won’t feel comfortable going back out in public at the same rate as we did before, and when we do, we’re likely to take more precautions. For me, personally, there’s not a lot of choice. My doctor made it very clear to me that I need to still stay home as much as possible, use extreme care when I do have to go out, and to limit who I’m around. That means I’m not going to be taking any new pictures of people for a while yet.

What’s true for me, however, is not necessarily true for everyone else and a lot of people don’t have a choice about whether they go back to work. While they can still take reasonable precautions, they face an increased risk factor every time they go out.

14 civic organizations, including the Indianapolis Arts Council, have put together a survey to gauge where you’re at with this whole re-opening thing. When are you likely to venture out? What precautions will you still take? This survey is very important as it will factor heavily in determining public policy for Indianapolis. Click here to participate in the survey.

The survey is open until Friday, May 29. If you live or work in the Indianapolis area, it is important that you let city leaders know how you’re feeling about the whole start up thing. We always gripe about no one listening to us. They’re listening more carefully now than perhaps ever before.

I am still convinced that, for the greater majority of people, how comfortable anyone feels going out is largely a matter of marketing. If we see pictures of people out having fun even with health restrictions such as wearing masks and staying six feet apart from each other, then we are more likely to have a positive attitude. If all we see are news stories about increases in Covid-19-related deaths, then we’re more likely to keep our happy little asses at home.

The time is ripe for trying something new, in my opinion, and one of those concepts is the ability to make art mobile. The technology has been there for quite some time now to be able to wrap images onto vehicles of pretty much any shape or size. We can share our favorite pieces of art just by driving around!

The problems, however, are many. First, those wraps aren’t cheap. Wrapping a mini-van or SUV, for example, is going to run around $5,000. Not exactly pocket change for most people. Then, you’re going to want to change the wrap every once in a while, so each time you do the expense is incurred again. Then, if you don’t produce your own art work, there’s the matter of paying license fees for the use of the image. Those can range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per use.

My problem, aside from the fact I don’t have $5k to drop on wrapping a vehicle, is that the images I would want to use are not exactly what one might call safe for work, or general public consumption. I can just imagine the accidents that might be caused by me driving down the street with an art nude on the side of my vehicle. Our society is simultaneously both horny and prudish enough for the sight of a pair of bare breasts to be considered a public safety hazard.

Still, that doesn’t stop me from imagining what such wraps might look like if they were actually placed on vehicles of different styles and sizes. Fortunately, there are plenty of bare vehicle templates available for me to use. So, of course, that’s exactly what happened. We played.

There aren’t a lot of pictures here because, let’s face it, the concept is steeped in folly and wishful thinking. This isn’t going to happen. However, given as I am to fairy tales, we developed a handful of images to share with you. So, take the survey and then enjoy the images below.

Art / Experimental / Photography

Butterflies, Bugs, And Blossoms

May 10, 2020

Taking a creative turn toward nature

Being quarantined over two months, not having the slightest clue when I will feel safe enough to invite someone back in front of my camera, is really pushing me to come up with creative ways of processing images. Part of the problem is that I’ve looked at the same pictures for so many years that I now find the originals a bit boring. Whether that might translate into something more interesting when I do start shooting again, I can’t yet say. I do know, though, that I’m likely to be more involved in directing models so that I have a greater variety of poses.

One of the things I’ve noticed in looking around various art sites is the popularity of butterflies and other elements from nature composited or layered onto images. The technique is so popular, in fact, that with some artists it becomes redundant after 20 or so images done in exactly the same style. To that end, the images below are likely to be the only ones you see done in this precise style. I’m not saying I won’t use some of the elements again, but if I do it will involve a very different processing style.

I also am not particularly moved at this point from the stark magazine cut-out style of compositing that is popular with a number of artists. Again, it feels redundant to the point that if I see another butterfly with an uneven white border placed over a person’s mouth I may have to puke just on principle. As a result, I deliberately worked to keep edges softer, often deteriorated, and in some cases completely obscure. In one piece, Floral Explosion, there are no edges at all, no lines, just vague shapes, and colors. Artistically, I like the softer touch and may eventually do a set of figure pieces that avoid lines completely, which would be abstract as hell but potentially interesting. Potentially. What exists as a concept in my head doesn’t always work out in reality. We’ll see.

Anyway, we’ve uploaded this set to Saatchi Art for purchase. No, they’re not cheap because they were incredibly time-intensive to produce. Everything we’re doing at the moment is time-intensive. Part of the purpose is to keep myself focused on creating so I don’t get lost thinking of how much I’m not creating. I hope you find something here you can enjoy.

Art / Photography

Turning Destruction Into Art

May 3, 2020

What looked like nothing more than trash turned out to be some very interesting images

All this quarantining stuff has really been a challenge. I’ve thought about taking pictures of all the animals, or the children, or perhaps the sky on an interesting day full of fluffy cumulus stuff. None of that has yet to prove inspiring or cooperative. Other people’s cats may not mind posing for pictures, but ours do and fight it every time I try. The children aren’t much better. Clouds are probably my best choice but dang it, they always seem to end up behind power lines that make the editing a pain in the ass. So, I’ll still work with pictures from the archives for now.

First off, because I spent so much time on this week’s pictures, I didn’t have time to go back and link last week’s pictures. If you want to see more of the black and white figure work, click here.

The photos we chose this week originated in 2006 when a Daimler-Chrysler plant was in the process of being demolished. I honestly don’t remember the exact circumstances of how we came to the then-abandoned site. I know we didn’t have permission to be there (like that’s ever stopped me) and apparently I wasn’t using my camera, though it’s not clear whose camera I was using. I know it was a Canon and that’s about it. I remember the covered stairway that took employees from the parking lot across the street to the plant. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get too close due to additional fencing, but we got close enough.

The result this week was a set of six images that were painstaking to complete. Each one is processed multiple times (which takes forever) and carefully composited together to create the final image. They are unique. A couple of them border on abstract. Any of them would look good hanging on a wall somewhere.

One note about that wall-hanging thing. These are super-busy images with a lot going on in the details that aren’t immediately seen in the images below. For that reason, I’m strongly recommending that they be hung on walls that don’t have much else on them. Put them on a busy wall or too close to other artwork and the effect is going to be diminished.

Here are the works mounted, one of which I intentionally put in a place that creates some irony. I’ll let you figure out which one it is. With each, click on the image or the title to get a more detailed view of the image.

These are also more expensive. I spent so much time with these that my head was throbbing by the time I was done. There has to be some compensation for that.

Enjoy the works and feel free to ask questions in the comments below!

Church Of Destruction — *Church of Destruction*

Yeah, there’s a touch of irony/sarcasm in the placement of that last one. [grin]

Art / Photography / pop culture

Yes, You Can Hang Nude Art In Your Home

April 26, 2020

Yes, You Can Hang Nude Art On Your Walls

Get over those old taboos about what you can and cannot put on your walls.

If there is one thing the past few weeks have taught us it is that we never know when our lives are going to be upended in ways we never imagined. Home has suddenly become more than a place where we sleep, visit with family, and perhaps occasionally catch a quick meal or two. Home is now where we work, where we socialize, where we create, where we eat every meal, and where we sit on social media fondly remembering those times where it was safe to go out. At least, we thought it was safe. We rarely gave a second thought to what might happen if we left home.

Now, though, we’re home, or we’re supposed to be, and despite all that talk about opening things back up so that the virus can spread even more, the truth is we’re likely to remain at home a lot more than what was formerly our norm. If we are going to spend more time at home, then it only makes sense that we want home to look more like someplace we really want to stay at more than a few minutes. We want home to be comfortable, fun, inspiring, entertaining, and relaxing. What we’re realizing some 4-6 weeks into quarantine is that our home spaces really aren’t any of those things. The good news is that now we have the time to change that.

For our house, that means Kat painted the kitchen. I can’t claim to have had anything to do with that. While the kids helped her a little bit, and at least one of the cats dipped his paws in the paint, she did most of the work while I was unconscious. She did consult me on the color, but for the most part, this was one of Kat’s moments where she saw something she didn’t like and she solved the problem. She has plans for solving other problems as well if the stay-at-home order continues.

As we’ve discussed completely re-working the living room, one of the topics is where to hang art. This is complicated by the fact that I have more art sitting behind the couch than we have wall space. It’s all framed and ready to go, but you didn’t buy it so now I have to do something with it. This problem is all your fault. Don’t try to weasel your way out of it. Given that the majority of that art involves nudity in some form, that raises a question: can we hang that in our living room?

The short answer is Yes, we can. You can, also. Any prohibitions against doing so died several years ago, actually. We perpetuate them out of an unreasonable fear that we might offend someone or because we have children in the house. Both of those are nonsense arguments. First, few people ever have anyone over to their home in the first place and that number is likely to decrease now that we’ve grown accustomed to social distancing. Second, those who do have people over to their home tend to choose people who have similar tastes and values. Third, children actually benefit from having art of every kind in the home. No, it’s not illegal, we have had multiple assurances on that front, as long as it’s not explicitly pornographic. There are benefits to having nudity in your home, and at least one person thinks children should participate in nude art classes. You can hang nude art in your home!

Eventually, this begs the question, how does one hang nude art in their home. Do you put it up high so the kids don’t see it? Do you put it in a separate room so those non-existent guests aren’t offended? No, and no. Nude art can and should be hung using the same advice given for hanging any kind of art.

Hang art at eye level so that one needn’t struggle to see it
Center the art above large pieces of furniture, such as a couch
Place some on shelves (if you don’t have cats)
Lean some against the wall (if you don’t have dogs or toddlers)
Consider a masonry-styled art wall for displaying different sized pieces
Place the art in a place that compliments the entire wall

See? Not difficult at all! I think the biggest challenge to hanging nude art at home, once we get past the ridiculous concept that there’s something wrong with doing so, is that it is difficult for us to imagine how that might look. So, let me help you out here. Below are some pieces we’ll be adding to our gallery on Saatchi Art, hopefully sometime in the next week or so. I’ll add links to the art when we do. We’ve mocked up different ideas for how the art, all sized at 16×20 inches before framing, might look on a wall. Take a look at these, and then compare how they look on a wall versus the pieces we showed you last week. The biggest difference is that these pieces are all black-and-white.

There really are no excuses. You can hang nude art in your home and if it is something that you enjoy, something that inspires you in some way or makes your space more pleasurable for you, especially now that you’re stuck in it 24/7, then you should hang nude art in your home.

Take a look.

Note: I didn’t bother with changing matte colors in creating these mock-ups because of the time hit. With darker walls, especially, I’m personally in favor of using mattes of a contrasting color. If you’re using a particularly decorative frame, double matting might not be a bad idea. These are all matters of personal preferences, of course. The point is that you can hang nude art on your walls at home.

Just make sure it’s not in the background of your office Zoom meeting. It’s not going to be considered work safe. No point in fighting it. You should probably be using a fake background anyway.

Enjoy! Create! Make you’re home the place of comfort and pleasure you want it to be!

Art / Photography

Quarantined Creativity on the Wall

April 19, 2020

Just because we can’t take new photos doesn’t mean we can’t create new art.

It has been several years since my camera has sat idle for this long. Granted, I could continue taking it out in the yard and taking pictures of things like sticks in the grass and dog poop, but it’s been a little cold and wet this week and, quite honestly, I’m feeling something less than inspired by the whole idea at the moment. Still, there is a need to shake things up and do something different. What could I do? What should I do?

I should read some of those emails that I’ve been ignoring, that’s what I should do. I’ve had an account with Saatchi Art for something in the neighborhood of nine or ten years and have done absolutely nothing with it over that period of time. I don’t remember why necessarily. Chances are it hit at a time where there were a lot of such sites coming online and I just got tired of uploading the same images all the time. Or there might have been something about the original format that I didn’t like. I don’t remember. Yet, with amazing precision, they have continued sending me regular emails encouraging me to upload artwork to their site.

Not having anything better to do, I reconsidered what is going on over there and decided that perhaps this might be a better deal than what I’ve been getting from Fine Art America. For starters, I have more control over the price, which is kinda important. Then, there’s the fact that Saatchi doesn’t try and slap art on low-cost swag such as yoga mats and coffee cups. Those things decrease the overall value of the art, in my opinion. The ability to display more than 25 photos at a time was a significant factor as well.

What was important to me, though, was that if I was going to display art on a new site, it needed be works that I hadn’t already tried selling. And, given that tossing new work on a website doesn’t take that long, it made sense to me that I should go back through the archive and, at the very least, give images a strong update and, in many cases, completely re-imagine the works, creating something new. So, for the past two weeks I’ve been focused on creating new works, many of which represent multiple days of processing, rejecting, re-processing, and multi-processing images to create new pieces for upload. As of this morning, there are 27 pieces of artwork on the website.

One of the things that I really like, though, is the ability to show the work as it might appear mounted on a wall. I think this is significant because when one is simply looking at a picture on a website it can be almost impossible to imagine how it might look in your own home. This helps solve that problem. So, rather than just posting pictures of the new images, I’m posting pictures of them mounted on walls. If you want to see a larger resolution version of the picture itself, click the link under the picture. You’ll also find full descriptions of each image.

Go and take a look around. My goal is to have 50 images up and for sale by the end of the month. That’s a lot, to be sure, given all the time and work I’m putting into them, but I like the idea of being able to offer a lot more than what we’ve previously been able to do.

Enjoy!

Art / Photography / Social Commentary

Devils And Details And Discovery

April 5, 2020

What we don’t know might not always hurt us but it could definitely harm someone else.

Pardon me while I cough. A lot. Well, not that much, but if I’m indoors, it’s been a problem this week. Of course, my immediate concern was that I’d caught that dreaded virus and was going to die. More likely scenario: spring allergies, especially after Kat spent portions of the week cleaning, which means kicking up dust. Still, it’s been enough of a problem that I’ve taken to walking around the neighborhood for somewhat fresher air. When I’m outside, I don’t cough. Interesting, don’t you think? By the way, I’ve no other symptoms of anything so no, I’m not likely to die. Yet.

Given the need to spend all this time outdoors, and since the kids spent yet another week on my computers (resulting in a stubborn ‘m’ on my laptop), I thought it might be fun to see if I could construct this week’s post entirely from my phone. Jump to the end: Can I? Yes. Is it a good idea? Probably not. While it would work in a pinch, trying to do everything from my phone creates some unique challenges that I don’t have when working from the desktop or even the laptop (although, the laptop brings challenges of its own in terms of accessing images).

Perhaps the biggest challenge is one I should have seen coming. Those 108-megapixel images? Yeah, those create some significantly-sized images, even after cropping. In theory, I’m supposed to be able to upload images as large as 64 MB. The reality, however, is that neither my WiFi nor data stream wants to cooperate with that file size. Crashes every time. So, that means creating a small-sized file, an extra step that was less than intuitive. On the plus side, I’ve learned a lot of new things about using Lightroom on my phone this week.

Second, eye strain. Sure, I can do a lot on my phone, but the more detailed the work is, and this week’s images required some careful up-close attention, the more pressure it puts on one’s eyes. About 30 minutes of that at a time is all I can tolerate without risking a severe headache. Mind you, this is even with the larger screen of the Samsung S20 Ultra 5G. The size and resolution are great, but the long-term effect remains the same.

Third, writing copy just isn’t as efficient on the phone. I’ve had the phone three weeks now and it’s still learning my swiping patterns. I’m constantly having to go back and fix errors that I didn’t notice when I first posted something on social media, and, of course, there’s no “fixing” Twitter. I’m much more efficient at writing on a regular keyboard (when the m is working). 90-something words per minute efficient. I can almost type as fast as my brain can make mistakes. The final compromise was taking, editing, and uploading the images from my phone, but then assembling everything from my laptop while sipping on freshly ground coffee early in the morning before everyone else is awake. It works and I don’t have to turn on lights in the living room. Now, let’s look at this week’s menagerie of images.

No, they’re not green beans, though it amazes me how similar they look in the detailed photos. Those are wild onions that Tipper plucked from our yard this week. She “harvested” them thinking I could used them in seasoning a meal. In theory, I could. In reality, she probably wouldn’t eat the food if I did.

So there I am, walking through the neighborhood on one of the warmer afternoons, and I pass the creek that runs along the northern border. Since it was warm, I decided to see if the local ducks had returned yet (they have but they’re not feeling photogenic). I couldn’t help laughing a bit when I saw that a stop sign had somehow managed to make its way into the creek. If one stops at the sign, they’re going to have a problem! While taking the picture was easy enough, the editing challenge was to create a strong enough contrast to make it clear that the sign was under the water and not floating on top of it. I love how much fun this image is and it’s for sale if you have some discretionary funds to share.

Playing with double exposure is always fun but this isn’t a true double exposure. Rather, it’s the reflection caught in the glass as I’m taking a picture of the cat through the window. The feline in question is Gypsy the Wandering Vagrant, aka. Fat Guy. He was our first stray, having jumped into the floorboard of Kat’s car one evening to announce that we needed to feed and care for him now. He’s adapted to being an indoor cat, but he still looks out the window, longingly remembering the days when he could roam free.

I wish the reflection in this photo was more elegant, or perhaps nature driven. Solaris was sitting in the kitchen window, though, which overlooks the driveway. Thus, the reflection shows Kat’s car and the trash can. Solaris is another cat that enjoys watching out the window, but he’s never been outside. He’s not so much interested in nature as he was curious about what I was doing on the other side of the glass. Obviously, I was not entertaining enough as he watched for a while before eliciting a massive yawn that could have been a ground-shaking roar if only he were a couple-hundred pounds bigger.

Not all my time was spent outdoors. The first part of the week was a bit on the cool side, so I stayed inside. Coughing. I suppose coughing could be entertaining if it weren’t for the paranoia it induces. So, out of boredom, I took picture of a couple of bowls sitting in the sunlight on the counter. One is whole, the other has had its handle broken.

What’s worth noting, from a philosophical perspective, is that both bowls still hold the exact same amount of food. Being broken does not keep the second bowl from being useful. If anything, one might make the argument that the second bowl has more character, holds greater interest because of its unfortunate anomaly.

Yes, it’s a somewhat gratuitous platitude that I’m offering, but I’m sheltering at home with children. You’ll excuse me.

Anyone who watches those cooking shows scattered across cable and streaming media knows that when one chops vegetables they’re supposed to be relatively uniform in size/shape. Ask me if I care. Go ahead. This photo is proof that I don’t. When I’m cutting vegetables I have only one goal in mind: making them small enough for the children to consume without complaining. The children don’t care about aesthetic value. Neither do they notice the more delicate tones of flavor. It’s yellow. That’s all they notice. I may not win any culinary awards but at least they’re eating. You can click here to buy this print.

I never thought I would live in a time where having healthy food to eat would be as challenging as it has become. Yes, that is a massive point of privilege and I am well aware that millions of people, thousands right here in my own city, don’t have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, more than ever, though, I am thankful that we can have the makings of this salad delivered weekly without having to go to the store. Warning: non-compensated plug coming up. Imperfect Foods has been our source for things like fruit, vegetables, meat substitutes, and occasionally some pantry items. They work with produce that doesn’t meet the aesthetic requirement for grocery shelves as well as overstock for dairy and other items. Their prices are not always cheap and the selection changes from week to week, but Tipper loves the small-sized apples and when food is chopped up before being used who cares what it looked like before? Plus, we save food from being tossed into some incinerator or garbage can somewhere. This is one habit we’re likely to continue once this stay-home order is lifted. You can click here to purchase a copy of this print.

Metaphor time. We give lemons a lot of grief, what with their being sour and all, and the standard trope is that we are to make something sweet and pleasurable of those sour moments in our lives. Yeah, good luck with that. Most of us will be at home, with children, until May at the very soonest. For kids here in Indiana, they’re home until school starts back in the fall (no idea how that’s going to look yet, either). While I’m sure there are some who love their little darlings so much that they’re thrilled to have them home, most of us are not in that boat. Our current situation is throwing a lot of unexpected and unanticipated challenges at us. Moreover, we’ll likely be dealing with various challenges off and on through the middle of 2021. So, my word to you is this: Life gives you lemons. Get used to it. The universe has cultivated a whole orchard. Click here to purchase a copy of this print.

The last image for this week as I wearily look across my laptop and wonder how there are crumbs on the keyboard when I haven’t eaten anything. Oh yeah, children. Don’t tell Tipper that she’s getting her own for her birthday. We gotta do something to ease up the pressure on electronics. It would help if Internet providers would open bandwidth a lot more so that we wouldn’t lose service quite as often, but since no one is likely going to pay their service provider this month I’m not expecting much change. Still, we’re privileged. We have service. We have devices. We have pets with whom we can carry on endless conversations. This situation we’re currently in could be a lot worse than it is. I mean, what if this cough isn’t allergies (it is)?

There will be another post this week because I am very much aware of how vulnerable artists are and I feel a need to more fully address that situation. Look for that one in the next day or two.

Until then, stay safe. Buy art.

Camera / Photography

Staying At Home With 108 Megapixels

March 29, 2020

Spending multiple weeks at home isn’t necessarily boring when spring sits right outside the window.

Everyone’s life has taken an unexpected turn without exception. Either one is staying safe at home and doing their best to avoid spreading or contracting the Covid-19 virus or else they are on the front lines of fighting this terrible disease. No one’s life is the same as it was two weeks ago. Businesses and services we took for granted are either closed or in such high demand that one has to carefully schedule when and what they buy. City streets are practically deserted at the height of what used to be rush hour. Kids are home from school. Anxiety levels are high.

We knew the virus was coming, let’s be honest about that. What we didn’t necessarily anticipate, because we weren’t listening, was the severe impact it would have on everyone’s lives. I expected to stay home because I knew I would be high-risk. What I didn’t expect was for everyone to have to stay home, completely eliminating income for everyone. Since I wasn’t expecting that loss of income, I went ahead and purchased the Samsung G20 Ultra cell phone. Why? 108 Megapixels.

Pay attention, this is the part where I have to eat crow. Again. When it comes to digital photography, I have, more often than I care to admit, been wrong as to what could be possible. I never expected digital DSLR cameras to overtake film. I never expected pedestrians to overwhelm the digital camera market. And I never expected phone cameras to have any value beyond being the digital equivalent of Polaroids, minus the character. I strongly derided the first instances I saw of someone attempting to turn iPhone-based photographs as art (and rightly so at the time). The speed with which this technology has leapfrogged everything else has been astonishing. So, I knew when Samsung announced that their new phone was going to have a 108-megapixel camera that now was the time to tread into that water.

What’s important to realize is that the phone has multiple cameras and the default rear camera is “only” 36 megapixels, which is still more powerful, in terms of megapixels, than my default DSLR. For those quick, spur-of-the-moment shots that just happen and don’t require set up, that camera still produces a pretty sharp image. There are a lot of features there that I’ve not had a chance to test yet, so I’ll refrain from making opinions yet, but the video from that camera works wonderfully. I’m taking nominations for on-phone editing software if anyone has had a good experience with something.

The 108-megapixel camera is not designed to be used on every shot, nor should it. These are shots one wants to plan, at least a little, consider the light, and frame with utmost care. Optimally, one has some manner of stabilization to help because the camera is super-sensitive to motion and shake. Again, I’m open to suggestions there, especially for outdoor shots. I’m going to assume a tabletop tripod would work for indoor photos, which is something to explore later.

The photos below were taken on either side of a thunderstorm Saturday afternoon. As a result, we’re working with cool, heavily diffused light. However, even in the place where it shouldn’t have yielded a decent picture at all, in the middle of an evergreen bush, the camera did well. There are a couple of caveats worth noting. The limited 1.8 to 2.4 aperture makes for an extremely shallow depth of field on tight shots. The effect works on photos where there are more than three feet between you and the subject but not so well up close. Also, be aware that controls over focus, ISO, and white balance only are available in Pro mode which doesn’t work with the 108-megapixel camera. You’re limited to the onboard AI which is pretty good in some situations but, again in the evergreen bush, proved frustrating. On the plus side, when taking the pictures of the kids, it was able to drop the ISO all the way down to 32, making for remarkably sharp photography as long as the shutter speed isn’t too fast. Let’s take a look at the pictures, shall we?

Ready To Bloom — *Ready to Bloom*
Click Here to purchase

*Waiting for Sun*
Click Here to purchase

Before The STorm — *Before the Storm*
Click Here to purchase

*After the Storm*
Click Here to purchase

Gman finds a worm — *Gman Finds A Worm*
not available for purchase

Tipper plays in the water — *Tipper Plays in the Water*
not available for purchase

Yes, I needed to bump the shot from the pine bush quite a bit. I rendered the two pictures of the kids in black and white via my normal process simply because I’ve not done black and white in a while. The others required some tonal and color correction, but rare is the image that doesn’t.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered but since it seems that I’m not going anywhere any time soon I should have plenty of time to address them. If you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Art / Current Issues / Status

Imagining A Different Perspective of Life

March 22, 2020

I am disappointed, I truly am. The number of views from this past week, the depressingly low number of people who even, for a moment, considered purchasing a print, has me both frightened and concerned. I am frightened because there are too many people who seem to think the whole coronavirus thing with its shutdowns and limitations will be over in another week or so. It won’t. We’re going to be living with this for the rest of the year and probably into the next. Yes, there will be breaks where we can work, but a month’s break is most likely to yield yet another 2-3 month period of quarantine. I’m concerned because at some point I will need to buy more food for the family and prices on that food aren’t going down. As I watch the numbers in my bank account decrease, I have to consider rationing what we have, reducing serving sizes, asking kids to back off the snacks, to make sure we have enough to at least keep the children healthy.

To that end, and perhaps my own physical detriment, I’m adding three images this week. “Don’t Forget To Dance” is brand new and was the most time-intensive endeavor. This digital composite is meant to be an encouragement to find time to dance or do other things that make one happy. To the extent one is able, this is the time to indulge in one’s self, dance, sing, consume large quantities of ice cream in a single sitting, or whatever else makes you happy. I worked on this image a bit at a time as I was able and was initially the only image I planned on offering this week. You can click here to purchase a copy of this print.

The next two pieces were late additions after realizing late yesterday how miserable this week’s numbers were. From a health perspective, I shouldn’t have stayed up as late nor gotten up as early in order to finish these pieces. Fortunately, we started with previously completed works and only needed to add to them, which helped to reduce the processing time considerably.

“Together We Survive” draws attention to the fact that the vulnerable and at-risk are dependent on those who are strong. This applies not only to the current environment but throughout our society in general. The virus has us more aware of those who need assistance but the truth is that those in need were here long before the virus. You can click here to purchase a copy of this print.

Finally, “Fracturing The Midwest” is based upon a previous contest piece from 2011. With the help of Christopher Thompson and Pam Warren, we covered the model with elements of grain, corn, and flowers representing the agricultural heart of the Midwest. What I’ve done in this version is trying to put in visual form the ripping apart of lives in the Midwest as jobs are lost and lives are fractured by the realities of necessary and ongoing quarantines. Here, even where assistance is offered, artists and those working in the gig economy often don’t meet the documentation requirements necessary for assistance. These people not only have no savings but are often already up to their eyeballs in debt. Their lives are being shattered with each day the pandemic continues. You can click here to purchase a copy of this print.

Fracturing The Midewest — *Fracturing The Midwest*

Now, I’m going to do something I probably shouldn’t do and offer you a discount. Enter the code BTAYPJ when you check out and get 20% off my markup on any image. Mind you, I can’t discount Fine Art America’s raw cost. Any discount comes out of my pocket. So, I’m only offering this sale for ONE WEEK. Prices, of necessity, go back to normal after that. My hope is that perhaps there will be enough sales to make up for the discount. We’ll see, won’t we?

Life is not great at the moment. I am not happy. Health concerns external to Covid-19 are mounting. I’ve had one photoshoot in the past three months. We’ve been lied to regarding the virus and its long-term effects. We are not going to shake off this crisis and return to life, as usual, any time soon, if at all. I will continue to attempt to create at least one new piece a week as long as doing so is feasible. Thank you for supporting us during this time.

Art / studio nudes

A Moment Of Fantasy: Restrained Flight

March 15, 2020

As challenges continue from all sides, one new image per week remains the extent of our effort. Model: Kat Franson Rope Suspension: Dewey X. This image is available for sale. Click here to order.

Art

Goddess Of The Storm

March 8, 2020

Click here to purchase a print of this image.

Art / Experimental / Photography

Experimental Series: Rewind And Reconsider

February 16, 2020

Not everything we attempt turns out exactly the way we planned.

What I thought would be a good idea at the beginning of this week, wasn’t. In fact, it was an absolute disaster and being the rather stubborn-minded person I am I didn’t give up on the concept until the end of business on Wednesday. By that time, it was too late to shoot anything new for this week. There is a lesson to be learned here, but I’d probably flunk the test. I really wanted that concept to work and am disappointed that it failed so miserably.

Fortunately, one of the advantages of having worked with digital images the past 15 years is that we have an archive to which we can turn in moments like this. For this week, I dropped back to another rather experimental art project from eight years ago. These images were originally shot in February of 2012, using only a single lightbulb as illumination in a basement with a red floor (which tinted everything) and white concrete block walls. The nature of the original project, though, was such that those factors didn’t matter a great deal. Here are a few samples from that project.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16695″ layout=”wide” columns=”2″]

The posing limits imposed on that project were rather severe, so to come back to them eight years later and try to do something different makes the original concept feel rather limited. Because of that, I’ve chosen to not crop the new work. Instead, I left everything at its original ratio so that there would be plenty of room to play. In a couple of cases, that resulted in the model looking a bit as though she’s hanging out in the middle of space. While that’s not the best look possible, in the experimental sense it is not the worst sin committed.

I also didn’t use exactly the same processes on all the images. This is because certain processes blended better than others and as I didn’t have an extra 50 hours to do a full set getting some differentiation between images felt important.

Blending the processes was more of a challenge this week than it has been with others. There was a lot of posterization as the colors interacted. While there are plenty of people who like that effect, I tend to not be one of them, and I re-worked a couple of images to avoid getting as severe an effect.

All this reminds me that this is very much an experimental series. We try different things from week to week and sometimes they don’t work. This was one of those weeks. We learn as we go and hopefully can apply what we learned to the next set of photos.

Here is the limited collection from this week’s experiments. Click on a thumbnail to view the image full screen.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16708″ layout=”wide” columns=”2″]

Art / Photography

Experimental Series: Exploring External Design

February 9, 2020

Did you know we take pictures of things other than naked people? Now, imagine if we apply our experimental tactics to inanimate objects.

I started this week’s experiments with two goals in mind. First and foremost, I wanted to see what would happen if we applied the same multi-processed concept to inanimate objects, primarily landscape shots with dominant architecture as the focal point. Second, I wanted to see if these images might be marketable to a more mainstream audience. I know the experimental series we posted last week was a bit much for many people, especially given that a fair portion of the population went spastic because JLo did a pole routine at the Super Bowl. Perhaps we could create a more sanguine set of photos to appease those who think I’m totally one-sided.

One of the challenges to this week’s images was trying to keep a sense of depth and texture to the image. As a result, we ended up using a very different set of processes than was required last week. We also added a fifth process to prevent the images from looking too much like an architectural sketch. Not that there’s anything wrong with architectural sketches, but that’s not the look we’re wanting. Of course, this significantly increased the time necessary to create each image. We also had to do a great deal more intimate masking work with these images. The process certainly wasn’t as easy as the end results might appear.

I learned something very valuable this week. When using Photoshop’s “save to cloud” feature, one cannot simply save one version of an image to the cloud and then save a lower-resolution version of the same image locally. No. If one does that, Photoshop overwrites the high-resolution image on the cloud with the same low-resolution image saved locally. To avoid this, one has to create a duplicate image and save it separately. Of course, creating a duplicate image can mess with the Exif data of the image, so there are issues there that I’m not sure how to correct. I’m open to suggestions.

I had originally hoped to be able to offer many of these images for sale. Unfortunately, partly because of the resolution problem and because of external copyright issues, there are only three we could safely offer for sale. If you click the Prints option in the menu, you’ll be taken to my Fine Art America profile and can order prints from there.

You’ll want to view these at the highest resolution possible and may want to bump the brightness on your monitor or screen as they tend to view a little darker than they actually are. As always, click on any thumbnail to view the full collection at its optimal size for your device.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16679″ layout=”wide” columns=”2″]

Art / Experimental / Photography

Experimental Series: Anonymous Erotic

February 2, 2020

Erotic art takes on a different tone as the absence of personality focuses one’s attention

Here we are already in February and I have yet to shoot a new frame with my camera. Yes, I’ve taken some snapshots with my phone, but I consider them more pedestrian, capturing a moment for memory or a concept for later development. In previous years, I’d be chomping at the bit to shoot but this year is different. First, I came into the new year with a four-week backlog of images. That hasn’t happened before and, to be honest, it was a relief as I didn’t have to try and create content at a time of the year when no one seems in the mood to shoot.

Just as important, though, without having new images to parse and process, I’ve had time to experiment, try new techniques and throw away what I didn’t like, keeping what I did, and then trying something different again. This week’s images are the result of that experimentation. When I was creating a header image for the front page of this website, I developed a composite process that I found interesting and immediately wanted to explore more. This is the kind of maybe-it-will-maybe-it-won’t experimentation that I’m reluctant to impose on a new set of images. Archived photos that were previously undeveloped are more appropriate.

However, working with archived images can present a problem as people who posed two or three years ago aren’t exactly expecting pictures of them to come popping up on the internet this morning. My resolution to that issue was to keep everything anonymous. Anonymous work doesn’t always play as well as we’d like but in this instance, it is perfect as the concept would be diminished by a full image with an individual personality.

What you see below are the ones that survived. I learned a lot about where this particular set of processes works and where it doesn’t. This needs to be a carefully selected group of photos where focus can be limited to a specific portion of the photograph, the not content of the entire image. Even with that focus, not everything worked. It’s also worth mentioning that this process takes about five times the effort of a normal photograph. A good day was finishing two images.

Be aware that I ramped up the eroticism on this set. That’s partly because it serves the concept well and partly because we’ve been a bit soft on that portion of the genre the past couple of years. My goal is to be less reticent in displaying what is real and genuinely beautiful in its own right. Still, this is NSFW and I would think twice before viewing them with children in the room.

As always, click on any of the thumbnails below to view the full set.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16659″ layout=”wide” columns=”3″]

Art / Photography / studio nudes

Taking Nude Pictures Is The Best Experience

January 26, 2020

In a photo-op-oriented world, the best experience comes from taking those pictures without clothes.

To say that society sucks the life out of life is an obvious statement worthy of a dramatic eye-roll. Our puritanical tendencies have led us, collectively, to do some really stupid and mindless things such as Prohibition, banning possession and use of hemp, allowing health-care to be run by for-profit companies, and putting limitations on who, where, and how one loves. Such inappropriate rules have ruined millions of lives over the past 150 or so years (none of the rules I just listed existed before then). So, as much fun as it can be to poke at everything Millenials are doing differently, I can’t say I blame them for putting exhilarating experiences ahead of more traditional things such as buying homes, going in debt to attend grad school, getting married, having children, or committing to long-term employment for someone who doesn’t appreciate their effort. Don’t blame them one bit. I wish my generation had thought of that.

When we think of great experiences, we most often think of things that involve travel, seeing great sights around the world, experiencing different cultures, different atmospheres, and different philosophies in action. I can’t discourage anyone from doing any of those things. However, I fear one enthralling experience doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should: Taking nude pictures. No, I’m not talking bathroom selfies. Taking pictures of any kind in a bathroom, your own or someone else’s, can only come under the heading of “future regrets.” I’m talking thought-out, well-conceived, planned photoshoots that capture a spirit, an idea, an expression, a statement, or an emotion that cannot be relayed any other way.

For those who take the plunge, the experience is exhilarating. Perhaps more importantly, though, is that shooting nudes demonstrates a level of personal strength and independence that wasn’t present in previous generations. I have been amazed at the poise of models such as Karlie Kloss, Emily Ratajkowski, Arizona Muse, and dozens of others filling fashion’s pages over the past decade. What’s even more impressive, though, are people completely unrelated to modeling, sports figures, dropping their clothes to appear in ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue the past 11 years. Sports stars from Indy Car driver James Hinchcliffe to golfer Greg Norman to the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team, Odell Beckham, Jr., Venus Williams, and the Indianapolis Colts Offensive Line, among dozens of others, have dropped everything and shot nude for the magazine. Why? Not because it’s sexy, but because it shows the incredible physical and emotional strength of these athletes (and often a great sense of humor as well). Posing nude makes a statement that goes beyond what any of them can say in their respective sport.

One also gains a sense of freedom in posing nude. Not just freedom from breaking antiquated social norms about what’s acceptable behavior, but freedom from inappropriately imposed authorities and everyone standing on the sidelines saying, “You can’t… ” Posing nude allows one to make their own statement on their own terms. Sure, we provide a number of the concepts we shoot but come to me with a strong idea that makes a statement you want to make and be sure we’ll do our best to shoot it.

The two sets of images in this week’s collection are the last of several photos that were shot back in October. It was one of those incredible experiences of friends doing something together (you’ll remember Cassandra’s set with Mercedes which is viewable here) that was fun, totally unrestrained, and filled with excitement. While most of the pictures can’t be shared on social media, they still are fun to share with friends and one was accepted to a major art festival later this year. As experiences go, ones like this are invaluable.

Our thanks to Cassandra for being patient as we waited to post these separate from the others. More than usual, we strongly recommend viewing the images full-screen on something other than a phone in order to see the detail in the image. Click on any of the thumbnails to enter full-screen mode.

There is no experience that can match shooting nude photographs, especially with a professional photographer. Please, don’t hesitate to contact us if you’re interested.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16638″ layout=”wide” columns=”2″]

Art / Experimental / Photography / studio nudes

Experimental Series: Bound In Chains

January 12, 2020

Bondage concepts are popular but when we trade rope for chain it takes on a new dimension

Even though it’s only been two weeks since we posted a new set of pictures, it feels as though it’s been a month. I’ve been sitting on these for what feels like forever and am excited to finally be able to share them with you.

These were shot back in late October, but the origin story goes all the way back to August when one of our neighbors who had lived here for over 40 years decided to move to North Carolina. Among the many things she discarded was a box of rusted chains. I’ve been in this profession too long to let a prop like that escape so I snagged the box assuming that it was medium-weight tow chain. I put it in storage and waited for the right concept.

One of the issues with rusty chain, however, is that they can cause problems if one has any kind of cut or skin abrasion. The appropriate precaution is to make sure that whoever is going to handle the chains has their tetanus shot up to date. Not too surprisingly, not many models have needed to think about that one, so it took a moment before we found Cassandra who, to my delight, was up to date on her tetanus.

Then came the surprise of actually unpacking the chains and getting them ready. Did I have one length or two? What size were the hooks? What were my options? Low and behold, they were tire chains!

For those too young to understand, tire chains are designed to wrap around a set of tires to provide traction in snow and ice. They usually come in sets of two or four. In our box? One. Granted, it was a very large chain for a good-sized truck tire, but there was only one.

Suspending the chain and wrapping it around Cassandra proved to be fun and entertaining. As you can see in the pictures, she swung on it, hugged it, became completely immeshed in it before we unfastened it and let the weight take her down.

The end result is dramatic and erotic and enticing all at the same time. We still have another set from Cassandra waiting, but these were too exciting to hold back any longer. Click on a thumbnail to view them full screen.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16086″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]

Art / Photography / video

Our 2019 Year In Review

January 5, 2020

The year 2019 saw a return to high-volume photographic output.

Several years have passed since I shot over 5,000 images across twelve months. This year, with the aid of a new Canon camera and the ability to drive myself places, we once again topped 10,000 frames for the year. In some aspects, it doesn’t really seem like much. Then, I think how far behind I got with processing at times and there’s no question it has been a busy year.

Our processing methods progressed over the year as well. We were able to produce a lot more content in the Experimental Series and looking back at those images now is very exciting. I am more convinced than ever that this is a good direction for the future. In addition to that, I spent a great deal of time developing a higher level of digital art techniques that are especially noticeable in photographs posted in November and December. We’ll be looking for appropriate ways to advance those skills.

One significant event this year was having work accepted into juried art shows. I’ve shunned juried shows for several years, but this year seemed like a good time to change that stance. As a result, I won the People’s Choice Award for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. Given the success of this past year’s attempts, that will definitely be a direction we will pursue in 2020.

We also exhibited a fair amount locally, but that proved to not be as successful. I am deeply disturbed by the fact that people in the Midwest don’t buy art as an investment when they buy art at all. I’ll be talking with connected people to discuss how to change that matter, but in the meantime, I think local exhibitions may not be worth the expense.

I enjoyed working with some incredible people this week, a cool mix of new faces and some I never shot before. It was especially great to have Pashur House back and have the privilege of witnessing his incredible talent. I’m very much hoping that we can re-connect again this year. Time will tell. I’m also hoping to find many new faces and personalities.

The downside, as usual, has been negative reaction to our work from people who are completely uninvolved and deserve no real voice. One model’s presence had to be completely scrubbed from our site to meet the demands of her new employer whose complaint is illegitimate at best and possibly illegal. Others have had to go by only their first names, a practice we’ve now adopted universally just to avoid any future problems. What can I say? The world is full of ignorant people and we cannot fight them all.

Looking back is fun. Rather than our usual format, though, I thought it would be easier to put some of my favorite shots from this year in a video. The seven-and-a-half-minute video includes at least one shot of every person and event we’ve shot this year. There’s no particular order, but it’s well worth watching to see your favorites. It’s been a creative year. I hope you enjoy the look back.

https://vimeo.com/382773879

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Page 6 of 41

charles i. letbetter

Dreams give us the ability to experience what we know may never come true.

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The signs we display say a lot about our approach to life’s biggest challenge in July, 2020.

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Or “How I Didn’t Spend My Summer Vacation.”

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2010 wasn’t really that long ago, but in this moment it feels as though lifetimes have passed.

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A rainy Father’s Day didn’t stop the kids from being able to stop by and see Grandpa Bob’s toy.

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Some days one is prone to wonder if there is any intelligent life on the planet at all.

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The state of Indiana may say it’s re-opening but downtown Indianapolis is a very different picture.

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The United States, since its inception, has denied the value of black lives. We are overdue for a change.

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Art reflects what we experience but when our experience is something other than positive or sanguine, how do we make that art fit into our lives?

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Government leaders can’t make people leave their homes to return to large group gatherings. Feeling comfortable in public is largely a matter of marketing.

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Taking a creative turn toward nature

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What looked like nothing more than trash turned out to be some very interesting images

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Get over those old taboos about what you can and cannot put on your walls.

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Just because we can’t take new photos doesn’t mean we can’t create new art.

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What we don’t know might not always hurt us but it could definitely harm someone else.

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Spending multiple weeks at home isn’t necessarily boring when spring sits right outside the window.

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Not everything we attempt turns out exactly the way we planned.

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Did you know we take pictures of things other than naked people? Now, imagine if we apply our experimental tactics to inanimate objects.

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Erotic art takes on a different tone as the absence of personality focuses one’s attention

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In a photo-op-oriented world, the best experience comes from taking those pictures without clothes.

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Bondage concepts are popular but when we trade rope for chain it takes on a new dimension

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The year 2019 saw a return to high-volume photographic output.

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