new year, new…

Okay, okay. We’re not doing that here. But regardless, happy new year! One thing I’ve found fairly surprising was the amount of people not in the gym as soon as it turned 2024. I figured it was going to be like every year - packed for the first week or two and then settling back to normal by week 3. This year? Nope. Even online, I didn’t see many people saying what they plan on doing this year or making resolutions simply because it’s a new year. Something in the air?

Since I last updated, I got the Store back up and filled with some really awesome stuff. Before, I wasn’t able to find a vendor good enough to work with to make some truly quality products. Now, though, I have my collage designs on tees and mugs available for sale. I’ll be doing some campaigning for that soon, and look forward to shooting my own products for advertising. Very exciting. I also have some other “limited print” projects in the works that’ll make their way into the Store as well.

In photo news, I was finally able to shoot with my friend, Haylie, after not shooting since our feathers shoot. You can check out that shoot here. This time, we did what I call an “expressions shoot”. Previously, I’ve always shot models on-location or in-studio, full body work, etc… and wanted to do something a little different. I first got the idea when I was planning for a shoot with my buddy, Tony. It was going to be just a single roll of 120 black and white film, 15 shots in 645 format. The idea was to shoot a different expression on every frame. Angry, sad, worried, happy, silly, etc… From that, the pics could be printed as is or made into other art works. The shoot with Tony never happened, unfortunately. But, that doesn’t mean I scrapped the idea. That would just be silly. So I just held onto the idea until I got the opportunity to shoot someone else - someone I could see doing this shoot really well. Thankfully, Haylie was down to do this idea.

The only difference between the original idea and this time was that I was not going to restrict myself to one roll of film. Some people are worth throwing everything you’ve got at them. Haylie is certainly one of them. I ended up shooting three rolls of film and some digital. I shot a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 35mm, a roll of Kodak Portra 400 35mm, and Fomapan 400 120. I shot 35mm on my Nikon F100 and my 120 film on my Bronica ETRS.

The shoot was so much fun and it was so nice to see Haylie again. Since I normally shoot “standard” model-type stuff, creating interest and drama in such a restriction of framing was a new challenge to both of us. She was used to using her entire body to create shapes, interest and expression. But to do that all from shoulder-level up was certainly new. After warming-up, though, with some digitial shots, we got into the film. I’m still doing some editing and still have to do the final selections for release and art imagery, but here are a few various digital and film shots.

I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again - man, film is special. Insider FYI: I couldn’t develop this film until a week after I shot it as the developing chemicals in my kit had expired. The black and white film was developed with Ilford’s Ilfosol 3, Ilfostop, and Rapid Fixer. The color film was developed in Cinestill C-41. The negatives were digitized with my D500 and Valoi 360 and were then converted using Adobe Lightroom and Negative Lab Pro.

I still have some work to do on this but I’m almost done. From this stuff, I can make other things.

In collage news, I’ve been able to get better “accomidations” for my library of materials. Previously, they had been stored in folders based on their category only - color, background and items. But in each of those, it was nearly mayhem fpr color sorting. So now, rather than being in folders, they’re in gift boxes by category each seperated by color from red to black. This makes coordinating collages in the future much less of a task.

Here’s a couple of hauls from some recent harvesting sessions.

Also in December, I got to shoot a band in Seattle that needed some shots. Here’s some shots from that!

Which leads me into this year’s first shoot. The drummer of that band, Ricky, also makes drums! He has his own drum brand that he makes, markets and sells. I’ve watched him make them before and it’s a really cool process. Well, he had a few sets finished and ready for sale and needed them shot, so we got together last weekend and made that happen. We shot in a really open space I’ve used before and they came out really well! Since shooting it just 2 days ago, I haven’t even had a chance to select the exports or anything. But, you know I’ve already pulled some for here, so there ya go…

This was an absolute pleasure to shoot. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but music is also an art I created with for a while as well. I played the drums, so you can see why I really liked doing this shoot. I will say, though, that it really made me miss my drums. I had a gorgeous 7-piece kit with no expenses spared. Here’s the only remaining pictures I have of them. The pics are old and the image quality reflects, but I think you get the idea. The pics are from 2010ish and I didn’t pick up “real” photography again until 8 years later.

I would love to be able to piece together another kit like this, but I don’t think I’d do a 7-piece again. I played metal back then and as much fun as it was, I told myself since then that if I ever played with a band again, I’d like to work on something post-rock instrumental. Some bands in this category are God is an Astronaut, This Will Destroy You, Hammock, and Explosions in the Sky. Really good stuff. But, alas, I have enough projects and things pulling me in all sorts of directions as it is, I don’t think I need to be addin another project to my plate.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.

Until next time!