Return to Choum Khong

Wat Choum Khong, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2006

It’s been a couple of months since I posted any of my travel photos, so I thought I’d remedy that today.

For the past few years, I’ve been donating photographic prints to the annual benefit auction held by Friends Without a Border, a non-profit organization that raises money to support a children’s hospital in Cambodia.  As Friends has recently opened a health clinic in Laos, I thought it would be appropriate this year to donate a photo that I made in that country.

The photo that I agreed to donate is the one above, made at a Buddhist Temple, Wat Choum Khong, in Luang Prabang, Laos – the former royal capitol of that country.  I made the image on my first trip to Laos in 2006 and is one of my favorites from that country.  The young monk happened to be standing in just the right spot, centered in the middle of the doorway in the background.  It was a moment in time, and I got it.

The story doesn’t end there, however.  In 2008, I returned to Laos and Luang Prabang.  As I sometimes like to do, I wanted to return to this temple and this particular spot to see what it looked like after two years time.  It took a while but I did manage to find it among the many temples in that beautiful town.  When I got there, I saw a monk holding a small dog, so I made a photo.  I still wanted to get something that would be closer to my 2006 photo, so I waited.  The monk didn’t get into the same position as the previous one, and the open door didn’t help, but he was close to the spot, so I made a photo of that, too, for comparison.

The other thing of note that happened was the surprise, so to speak, of seeing the scene in living color.  I had become so accustomed to looking at my 2006 photo in black & white that, in my mind, that particular scene – the porch, the floor, the columns – really did exist in black & white.  Going to look at again and seeing it with my eyes in color was a bit jarring.

More with Kyla

Nude, Nova Scotia, 2012

I wrote last time that I finally got to show some of my photos from last year’s Maine and Canada trip to Dane and Erica, the two models who accompanied me the whole way.  I spent a lot of time scanning photos with them.  However, they were not the only models I photographed.  In Maine, I worked with Kelsey Dylan, Brooke Lynne and Dyaphanye at the beginning of the road trip and with Rachel at the end.

In Canada, near Halifax in Nova Scotia, I also spent time working with local model Kyla Nicolle.  That was the first day that I went out photographing with Eric Boutilier-Brown.  As this would be my only day to photograph Kyla, I spent the morning working with her while Eric worked with Dane and Erica.  In the afternoon, at a different location, we all worked together.

Now that I’ve shown my photos to Dane and Erica, I decided to spend some time this week scanning more photos of Kyla.  I had actually forgotten had much work I had done with her, so the amount of negatives to scan took me a bit by surprise.  I still have more to go through that I want to scan, but here now are a few photos that I made with Kyla that cloudy and damp morning.  Stay tuned for more to follow.

Reunited

Nude, Nova Scotia, 2012

I wrote in my last post on Friday that I had completed making the DVD with a slideshow of my photos from my trip to Maine and Canada last summer.  I also wrote that I was going to get together shortly with my two models and travel companions, Dane St. Clair and Erica Jay, to “premiere” the photos for them.

Well, I’m happy to report that the reunion did indeed happen as planned – on Friday night.  (I was thinking of writing in my post on Friday that I was going to meet with them that evening, but I didn’t want to jinx it.)  I had seen Erica a couple of times since we ended our adventure last August, including my trip to Vermont a couple of weeks ago.  However, I had not seen Dane at all since August, so this was the first time that all three of had been together since then.

The important thing about this in regards to the blog is that I am now free to post all of my photos from the trip, now that Dane and Erica have seen most of them.   (At least, most of the ones that I am likely to scan.)  With that in mind, I’m posting another one from the trip today.

In my last post I included a photo of Erica, so this time it will be Dane.  The photo at the top is one that I made in the area of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first day that we went out to photograph with local photographer Eric Boutilier-Brown.  This was at a location that Eric had discovered and photographed at frequently, with beautiful trees and boulders and a shallow river.  Toward the end of our session, I found a nice set of boulders framed by some trees.  I asked Dane to pose on the boulders and included the foreground trees as a framing element.  I like the result.

Dane, Erica and Aubrey at dinner

As for the reunion event itself, I invited not only Erica and Dane but also Aubrey, a model who lives not far from me and I who I plan to photograph this summer.  Dane came by car and arrived first.  Erica and Aubrey were both taking the bus here, and fate would have it they met each other on the bus.  That was a good thing, as they stayed on the bus well past my stop and had to call me to get directions.  Finally, I was able to talk them to the right place.  (I say that it was a good thing as I only needed to talk them in once together rather than twice separately…LOL)

As most of us were hungry, we went to eat first at a local diner.  Then it was back to my place for the big premiere.  The first feature presented was a DVD slideshow I had put together in 2008 featuring my art nude photography up to that time.  Then it was on to last year’s events.  First was a slideshow of snapshots taken during the trip which brought back some good memories of the fun we had along the way.  Finally, the main event: a show of my scanned black & white art nude photos, which had Erica and Dane hootin’ and hollerin’ with shouts of joy as the photos rolled by on the screen.  They even asked to see it again – which I took as a sign that they liked it.

Happy together

So, it was a happy reunion all around, and it’s gotten me thinking of trying to set up a little trip again this summer, though not as extensive as last year’s.  In fact, I’ve been corresponding with a photographer we met along the way last year, and he’s interested in setting something up with us together with another photographer we met plus some local models.  Let’s hope that it happens.

Another from Cape Breton

Nude, Nova Scotia, 2012

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any of the photos I made with Dane St. Clair and Erica Jay in Canada last year.  The truth is that I’ve been spending a lot of time lately scanning negatives from the trip.  I haven’t posted much because, rather than send them to the two models a few at a time, I’ve had the idea to invite them over and show them a lot of photos all at once via a DVD slideshow set to music.  Once that’s done, I’ll be free to post those photos.

Well, I finished working on the DVD last night and I have plans to meet with Dane and Erica in the near future to “premiere” the photos for them.  So, with that in mind, I thought I’d post another photo from the trip today.  Some of you may have seen it on my Facebook photography page.  Others will have not.  As were the photos in another blog post, these were made early one morning at a beach on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  The model is Erica.

Hopefully I’ll be posting more soon.

Weekend in Vermont

Nude, Vermont, 2013

I wrote last time that I was planning to drive up to Vermont to see my photo on display at the Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction this past weekend.  Well, the weekend has come and gone, and I did indeed go.  Not only that, I had two beautiful ladies accompany me and model for me.

Early on Saturday afternoon, I ventured off in my car with models Erica Jay and Nadine Stevens.  Erica was one of the two models who traveled with me on my big trip to Maine and Canada last year, but Nadine was someone new to me.  She had written to me earlier expressing an interest in working with me, so this proved to be a good opportunity to make it happen.

Saturday was essentially a travel day.  After heading out of the city and getting lost in New Jersey (where else?), we finally got on the right track, eventually heading into some beautiful rural scenery in upstate New York and Vermont, stopping at a pizza restaurant for dinner.

Saturday dinner

The big day of the trip, however, was Sunday – our one full day in Vermont.  Erica and Nadine had come along not just to keep me company on the long drive and attend the gallery reception, but to model for me as well.  The plan was to get out on Sunday morning to a beautiful outdoor location where my friend Dave Levingston had photographed last year.  Before going down to breakfast, Erica asked me what the temperature was.  I didn’t know, so I asked her to check on her phone.  The answer: 30 degrees.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “at least the hotel room is spacious enough to try to do some photography indoors.”  Still, after breakfast, the two young ladies wanted to get out to do some modeling, so off we went as planned.  It took about half an hour to get out to the location.  The weather had warmed up just a bit but it was still cold, though it was sunny, too.

When I wrote that it took about half an hour to get to the location, I meant the general area of the location.  What we still had to do was find a place along the road from where we could get down to the specific location.  The other chore was finding a place nearby to park.  After driving up and down the road several times trying to figure out just where to go, I looked at some of the pages I had printed out from the internet with information about the location.   One of those was thankfully useful and allowed us to find our spot.

Those same internet pages say that this location is very popular with people in the warm weather, but with the temperature in the 30’s, we were the only people around.  That was the good news.  On the other hand, that kind of weather is not exactly ideal for nude modeling, but Erica and Nadine were brave and didn’t need any coaxing to risk the cold for the sake of art.  I can’t say enough to thank them for doing so.  Brava!  Still, I did take my time changing film to give them ample time to warm up.

Warming up

It did help them that it was a sunny day, but as we began working around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m., with the sun fairly high in the sky – and getting higher – it really limited what I could do.  In such a situation, the best thing to do is to have the models lie flat on the ground to get the sun falling on their figures fairly evenly.  You can see one of my digicam snapshots of the scene above.

Nadine

As this was my first outdoor photo session since purchasing my fisheye and macro lenses on eBay, I also used this as an opportunity to try out those lenses further.  Half of the six rolls of 120 film that I shot were with the fisheye, with one done using the macro.  Although shade was limited, I did manage to get some photos out of the sun, too.

Erica

The other big event of the day was, of course, the reception for the “Skin” exhibit at the Darkroom Gallery.  There was a nice turnout of local people, and it was also nice to see photographer Bert Halstead from Massachusetts, who I had met at the reception that I attended there last year.  Bert had a couple of photos in the show, and it was good to also see the prints of my friends Dave Levingston and Scott Nichol.  Overall the quality of the work presented was good, though I was sorry to see so few darkroom prints included.

A visitor looks at my print

Also returning from last year was local artist Kadina Dinash, who once again was body painting the lovely model Ollie.  After the reception, Erica, Nadine and I went out to dinner in Burlington with the gallery’s owner, Ken Signorello, to cap off a fine day of creating and seeing photographic art.

Kadina and Ollie

Dinner on Sunday

The creation wasn’t over yet, as I shot a few more rolls of film with Nadine on Monday morning in the hotel room.  It may surprise some of you to read this, but I have actually gotten all of the film from the weekend developed, so hopefully I’ll be able to show you the results before long.

The way back home on Monday was a bit of an adventure.  After stopping at a place that Ken recommended to buy some Vermont maple syrup (and more!), I just followed the directions of my GPS as it lead us back into upstate New York.  We crossed the interstate border at a different location than we had two days before, and this time we rode through some beautiful forest scenery on back country roads until reaching the main highway heading south.

Dinner on Monday

So, overall, things went well, I have to say.  I got to drive through some beautiful scenery, did some photography at a beautiful location and viewed some beautiful figurative art – all in the company of a pair of beautiful women.  Why can’t every weekend be like this one???

Here are some more photos:

Dave Levingston’s print

Erica (right) with gallery assistant Damaris

Nadine and I

Why not???

Work on the wall

Prints by Scott Nichol (left) and Bert Halstead

The gallery

Tim the bartender

Shoes

Ollie’s back!

Gallery owner Ken Signorello

Ken again

Three models

Last of the Blue Devils

Pensive Erica

The garden gnome at the hotel

Vermont maple syrup

Nadine and friend

A good weekend

Nadine cartwheels

Cool chicks

A Trip to Vermont; and, What Happens in Vegas, Part 2

Nude, Nevada, 2012

I’ll be making a quick post as I’ve got a bunch of things to do today.

First off, I am planning to attend the reception for the “Skin” exhibition at the Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont (near Burlington) this Sunday, April 21, at 5:30 pm.  If you happen to live in the area or are within driving distance, please consider coming on down to say hi and see some great figurative art on the walls.  The address for the gallery is 12 Main Street in Essex Junction.

As for today’s photo, I haven’t had the chance to do much scanning lately, so here’s another photo of Carlotta from the session in Las Vegas that I posted about last time.

I’ll give a report on my trip up to Vermont next time.  (Well, that’s the plan, anyway.)

What Happens in Vegas……

Nude, Nevada, 2012

I just returned home this morning from a trip to visit family in Las Vegas.  I have used many of these trips in the past to also do photography, taking models out into the Nevada desert to create some imagery.  On this trip, though, I did no serious photography, and it was actually quite pleasant not having to schlep my big camera bag with me, deal with the added weight of a tripod in the suitcase or worry about getting film through security without it being x-rayed.

On my previous trip to Las Vegas, late last year, I also had no plans to drag my camera gear with me to create some photos – but I did.  That’s because I just happened to see that Carlotta Champagne just happened to be in town when I would be there.  She was going to Vegas for a workshop, and had some available time in the days before the workshop to work with me for the third time, so I figured, why not?

Unlike our first photo session together back in 2006, which was out in the desert in June, working outdoors was not an option due to the much colder weather late in the year.  (Yes, believe it or not, it does get cold in Las Vegas.)  Wanting to work with Carlotta but unsure of where to do so, I contacted a photographer friend who lives in Las Vegas, and he recommended that I book a room for a night at a particular hotel that has spacious rooms at a reasonable cost.

So I did.  I’ve photographed models in hotel rooms before – either the room I was staying in while away from home or the room that the model was staying in.  This was, however, the first time that I booked a room specifically as a location – but I guess it’s no different than booking a studio to photograph in, and a lot less expensive, too.  A hotel room cannot compare as a location to the beauty and grandeur of the desert, but I guess it’ll do.

I haven’t had the chance to scan many of the photos from the session, but I have scanned a few.  Here’s one of them at the top, and I’ll post more as I scan more.  For now, here’s also a photo from our desert session back in 2006.

Stay tuned.

Nude, Nevada, 2006