2020 - Global Pandemic - Year 1

Lust - Merrique

The twentieth year of the second millenium of the Common Era was almost a total bust for me photographically.  I did exactly two glamour shoots the entire year. One was a Patreon set for my friend, Merrique, and the other was a socially distanced, outdoor shoot during a lull in the pandemic. The rest of the time was primarily spent coaching my kindergarten and 2nd grade grandkids with their online studies while we were doing our best to deal with the pandemic conditions.  

I did do a bit of editing and cataloging and, of course, I continued to take photos of my family events and portraits of my grandchildren as opportunities permitted. I did a fair amount of walking and biking, but most of the summer and into the fall we were plagued with heavy smoke from the many wildfires in the surrounding areas which made landscape photography nigh impossible. It definitely impacted the ability to breath out-of-doors and made for some unusual sunsets and sunrises.

Danielle at Sauvie

Fortunately, my one outside shoot happened in May before the wildfires gained a significant hold. We shot on Sauvie Island, one of my favorite places, and even though the model and I stayed well apart (separate vehicles to the area), we got some lovely images. I also found out where the exact boundary of the clothing optional area was located thanks to a friendly ranger.

Along with the pandemic, we had the utter chaos of the election cycle and all the idiocy that typically goes along with it. This time, though, it was exacerbated by the lies and venality of the former president and his cult of ignorance. Fortunately, there were enough sane voters left to oust the previous president, though the Big Lie continues and he continues to babble his nonsense on the right-wing networks that will have him.

That's enough about 2020.  I'll discuss 2021 in my next post.  At least I'll have a few more images to share.

Winter Editing

Joey Darke at Fairy Creek

Since I retired from my full time job a few years ago, I was able to concentrate on shooting more projects with various local and traveling models. So, for about 4 years I was shooting about about 50 sessions a year with many different models. Of course, many of these sessions were repeat shoots with the same models in different settings and shooting different concepts and themes. Nevertheless, as you can imagine, I have built up quite the inventory or images, very many of which have been edited and published, but a majority are untouched except for some preliminary global editing for white balance and exposure as they were imported into my Lightroom catalog. This winter, I've been working on editing some of this backlog, and even re-editing previously published images with new techniques that I've learned in recent years.

These days, besides picking up a few shooting gigs here and there to help out local models with their various endeavors, I'm primarily spending time taking care of my family and grandchildren, which leaves me little time for shooting. Though I do plan do shoot this year with several of my favorite models, I'm sure my yearly average of sessions is going to drop significantly. So, you're likely to see fewer new shoots with new faces on the sites where I usually publish my images, and more images from past shoots and concepts.

Nikko at Sauvie Island

Island Girl

A couple of summers ago, I had the delightful experience of shooting with the friend of a friend at our local nude beach. Cy is a lovely and accomplished model whose company I thoroughly enjoyed.

We had a wide-ranging conversation during our 3 hour afternoon shoot and had a wonderful time wandering around the beach shooting and talking.

 For those unfamiliar with it, Sauvie Island lies west of Portland along the Columbia and Willamette rivers. It is an island of farms, wildlife refuges, and lovely woodlands. Along with the farms it boasts a number of nature trails and river beaches.  Collins Beach is a clothing optional area and is a grand place for photography due to is varied terrain and ease of access. 

There are drawbacks such as mosquitos on hot humid days, crowds on the weekends, and the occasional creep in the bushes (Brennan Hill know how to deal with those), but all in all, it's a nice place to relax in the sun or do some small amount of photography as long as you're discrete and photography only your model.

Model: Cy
Project: Barefoot Glamour
Location: Sauvie Island, Oregon

Pearls in the Woods

Woodland's Edge

Along the Shore

Between Forest and Shore

At the Spaceship