A Long Week

Lauren in Sword & Sorcery

It's been a rather long week. It's Spring Break here and my wife has been out of town since last Saturday visiting our son and his family in Mesa, Arizona. She goes there every year to spend some time with our two year old granddaughter and to soak up some sun to recharge her internal solar cells.  Usually when she's away I take the time to work on my photography by doing a couple of shoots, scouting some new locations for my summer shoots, and post processing images from previous shoots.

This year, however, circumstances prevented me from my normal Spring Break activities. My left knee went out just before she left requiring the use of a cane, large doses of anti-inflammatory medications, and the occasional pain killer. That really limited my mobility and prevented me from doing much scouting or shooting.  Add to this the cold, wet weather we've been experiencing this March (record setting rain and low temperatures) and I simply didn't do any scouting our outside shooting at all. So, I've primarily been limiting myself to cataloging recent shoots and post-processing images from my back catalog.

I've also been thinking about where I'm going with my photographic projects. I'm wrapping up a couple of projects this year - The Fae in Us All and Women & Chains. That's not to say, I won't shoot any more images like those once the project is complete, but rather I'll be switching my concentration to a different project. I haven't come to any decisions yet, but after this year, or maybe even later this year I'll switch to something new or different. I'm looking forward to that as there will be new techniques to learns and different lighting with which to experiment. In the meantime, you'll just have to put up with the materials I've been working on for the last few years.

Christy & the Chair

Ashley as the Art Fae

The Agony (and no Ectasy)

Charlie Kristine

Well somehow last week I managed to wrench my left knee. I don't know what I did--the pain was minor on Monday, but by Friday I could hardly walk and wound up visiting the doctor for steroid injections in the knee (a very painful experience in and of itself). This is sad, because I had hoped to shoot my Winter Fairy session this week, but there's no way I'd be able to tromp around in the snow, not matter how beautiful or scantily clad the model is.

I'm sure I'll get a couple of shoots in soon despite the knee and it does appear to be on the mend - or at least the ibuprofen and the Vicodin the doctor prescribed are kicking in finally.  I did have some studio time scheduled in hopes that I'd be able to work on a couple of different projects, but I cancelled that and will instead work on post processing some of the images from my last two shoots. You can see one of those to the left, but there are quite a number of models that I can choose from the last three months. So, I don't lack for creative opportunities.

Still, it will be good when we finally get some decent weather around here and I can get back outside for some shoots.  Summer seems far away give the cold and wet days we've been having so far. Spring has officially started, but the only signs of it here are a few daffodils and some budding hydrangeas. The sun certainly hasn't made its presence know and all the models I've chatted with recent are just as eagerly awaiting its warmth.

Fortunately, I have a couple of business trips coming up that will be taking me to warmer climes for a week or two. I'm certain I'll be taking along a camera.

Catching Up, Yet Again

I had another shoot last weekend. Again, I shot we three new models I'd not shot with before. I managed to get some great shots and all three of the models were easy to shoot. This was the 2nd time I used the new studio, but I don't think it's going to work out in the long run as I can't get much time on the weekend due to another group booking the space out every Saturday at mid-day for the rest of the year. I've mentioned this to the owner of the space, but he doesn't seem inclined to do anything to ensure equity with regard to sharing the space, so I guess it's good thing that it's getting to be time for warm weather shooting.

Here are some shots from last weekend:

Jasmine in the Chair

Christy in Chains

Kristy in the Sorceress Lalr