Holidays 2009

It has been a while since my last post ... as so often, the holidays are getting the best of us ... if we like it or not ...

First there's the never ending remodel of my studio that is taking a toll on my time ... there's still so much to do ... at least my subterranean termites are under control after removing my hardwood floor in the studio and kitchen ... trying to decide what my next floor covering will be ...

Then there's the travel ... both domestically and internationally ...

I'm writing this from Batam, Indonesia where I'm involved in a project launch for an exciting new product for a major consumer electronics OEM. I find myself shuttling between Singapore and Batam quite often ... it is only an hour ferry ride between these two vastly different worlds ... there's no way to describe this, you have to experience this to get the full space ...

Travel with its inevitable people watching is always a time to reflect for me ... there's so much distance in between locations giving me sufficient time to space out in appreciation for all I've got ...

My thoughts revolve around friends and those people around me that know how to live the unconditionality of true friendship ... true love ... total acceptance ... the no-need-to-change-you love ... the friends that are solely there for a no-expectation journey and know how to keep any destiny desire at bay ... The friends that only need a sentence to understand where you are in life and likewise know to express their space in 160 characters or less ... the friends that love to love ...

Thoughts and love also go out to those who only briefly touched my life but made a profound impression yielding immense growth regardless of the pain any perception imparted on our lives ... it is after all all about growth for the next connection, the next love, the next romance ...

Yes ... it is a season for thanks ... although I like to think that every day is a reason for thanks ...

I've been photographing a bit less the last couple of months because of travel and the need to catch up on editing and retouching images ...

The long evenings in business hotels have giving me some opportunity to retouch work for a couple of publications ... I've also laid out a few books I'm self publishing @ blurb.com in 2010 ...

Back to the grind with a smile on my face ... just having witnessed a colliding space and time continuum ...

* * *

Images from different photo opportunities ...

Boston ...

Traveling this week ... during the day in training and in charge of content management for a sizable web site overhaul ... all other hours are dedicated to editing and retouching images for my second photo book

A couple of teaser images are included in this post ... the whole concept was photo-journalistic with the models having the option to "pause" at any time ...

I shot this a little over a year ago, mulled the retouch/edit process over for a while and finally got the impetus to get this going ... all lighting is natural ... no make-up for a very natural look ... yes, I did change my mind about the all B&W approach ... ;-) .. the retouching process runs from B&W to a variety of color processes ...

* * *

I was cleaning out my wallet of receipts today and came across two forgotten fortune cookie notes I picked up in early September ... I keep those religiously as I'm constantly working on improving my Chinese vocabulary ... ;-)

Your career will soon be enhanced by a new friend ...

A beautiful person is with you, confide your problems ...

Variations on a theme ?

Time for real coffee ... continued ...

Los Angeles trip ...

Breakfast with Lu, sushi with Betcee, dinner with Amarilla and Salim ... wardrobe shopping on Melrose Avenue ... more window shopping in Santa Monica ... checking out Courtney's new studio ...

Looking at new faces in agencies ...

exploring more of the window lights at the Custom Hotel ...

Making new friends ... intense ...

Casting call ... long drive home ... time flies ...

* * *

Three days of shooting on the street with Kayla on her first shooting trip to LA ... she flies ... on heels ... in a long dress ... defying traffic ...

Beautiful ... sweet ... tall ... confident ... graceful ... unleashed ...

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This journey started the last day of May ... Kayla arrived in my studio for her first shoot ... a bit nervous ... tense ... unsure of what would happen ...

It took only 11 minutes to discover her affinity for the camera ...

She came back in June to shoot some more fun ...

Then July ...

Then the trip to Los Angeles ...

Watch ...

More images soon ...

Pixie Sunday ...

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself ... before you can move their tears, your own must flow ... to convince them you must yourself believe ...

Winston Churchill was sure an artist ...

*   *   *

It was raining like hell last night and I was falling asleep while listening to the raindrops clattering the skylights ... I dreamt a red barn dream where I'm dreaming of listening to the raindrops clattering the panes of my father's father little farm in Flanders ... I was six ... sleeping on the attic where one could see the stars through the cracks in the panes ... where one would wake up in the winter covered with powder snow making it through the roof ... it was cold ...

The red barn was warm and cosy ... I curled up and listened some more ...

*   *   *

Image of Betcee May from our very first shoot a little over 9 months ago in LA ...

I had a great shoot ...

... with Jessa, Kristin and Kay ... make up artist Gina Novotchin joined us for the fun ...

Images later ... much later ... still having hard drive issues to resolve ... enjoy one of the images from Betcee and Tiana in the meantime ... shot in my studio one moon ago ...

*   *   *

Added new music to my car CD changer ... Paris by Night ...  a compilation of classic French songs and singers from 1929 to 1964 ... 

Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Maurice Alexander, Leo Mariant, Lucienne Delyle, Tino Rossy, Charles Aznavour, Line Renaud, Django Reinhardt, Jean Sablon, Mireille, Les Compagnons de la Chanson, Lys Gauty, Frehel, Eva Busch, Damia

Milord (Edit Piaf) makes me cry ... that good ... Eva Busch is a close second and who does not like Django Reinhardt in "Nuages"

French classic street song entertainment at its best ... I grew up listening to this music ... my parents were fond of it ... 

EMI CDP 7 94478 2

*   *   *

I dreamt about my Red Barn again ... pleasant ... it was full of people and art ... you were there too ... 

Studio double fun 1

Couple of weeks ago I had all the photography gods working for me when I got the opportunity to work with Betcee May and Tiana Hunter in my studio ... this was the second duo shoot with Betcee and Tiana, the first one being in Los Angeles, September 5, 2008 ...

We captured spontaneous silliness and goofiness ... the serious and even more serious ... but also a lot of tenderness, friendship and love ... 

It was truly a privilege to be have them in front of my lens(es) again ... these models know to sway the camera and how to emote ...

Betcee and Tiana connect well together and have a very similar posing style, yet different enough to make each image a keeper ... yes ..

. you read that right ... 

I'm a lucky man to have the opportunity to work with all this talent ... 

This series is once more about interaction ... I create the environment ... instill the plan and the rest is up to what develops with some gentle guidance ...

Lighting this set was simple, one overhead gridded softbox and one gridded snoot for accent ... side window light fill with a fluorescent wall of light ... no flash was used at all ...

Continued ...

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

I'm traveling to Europe to visit my mom.  Writing this from London during my layover for my next flight to Brussels.

My mom is in the hospital, ill.  We've know for a while that there's no holding back on the cancer anymore but she's gotten worse in a short amount of time because of a bout with pneumonia and a collapsed lung.  This could be very well our last visit.  Prognosis is very grim, we were all hoping she would make Christmas but this may not be the case anymore.

She sounded good on the phone the last couple of days but we're both looking forward to connect.

My BlackBerry doesn't work in  London and I'm sure the same happens in Brussels, just like last time.  I was on AT&T for the longest time until the company switched me over to Sprint.  That is a nightmare.  Not only does Sprint not cover my home location, I also have to deal with poor reception at the office where I have to switch to a landline on most days when a cell phone call comes in.  Sprint is so not worth it.

Luckily there are airport lounges with *paying* wireless connections ... no more freebies I guess ... T-mobile hotspots.

On my way here I was able to do some editing in camera of my last shoots with Betcee May, Tiana Hunter and Nicole Vitelli.  We did get a wonderful collection of editorial work to support my evolving  photography stories.  

The image on the left is from my "Two friends" story ... Betcee and Tiana being spontaneously goofy.

This shoot was a lot of editorial photojournalistic fun.  Watch out for more images from this series.

Nicole did a great job showcasing a lingerie and sexy dress collection.  No images yet but I'm happy with what I've seen in camera from this mostly available light shoot.

We worked in the new studio 405 from Lucinda Wedge in downtown LA.  Lovely location with a myriad of possibilities.  The roof access is nice, plenty of cool corners there also.  Looking forward shooting there again.

I'm living a roller-coaster.

Continued ...

Friday, September 5, 2008

It has been a couple of days since my last update ... very busy time for me, business travel and not too much time to sign up online.

Managed to do a shoot today with Betcee May and Tiana Hunter.  I always wanted to shoot these professional models in a natural "real" home environment and I finally got the opportunity.

Great timing as Tiana was in LA till the 4th and graciously extended her stay till the 5th ... Betcee is getting ready for an extended modeling stay in Europe and this is one of her last shoots in the USA till next year.

Both Betcee and Tiana were great at playing and feeding my concept.  Norton, Betcee's cat, became at times a very willing participant during the shoot.  

Norton is funny, likes to be petted and cries incessantly for attention.

Adorable ... he became my friend in no time and as one can see, Norton is not afraid of the camera !  Well trained kitty ... lol ...

Pictures of this shoot will be edited and retouched later this year.  

I'm currently shooting a small editorial portfolio together and I'm focussed more on the creation process than the finishing process.

Continued ...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

Mildly sunburned from yesterday ... no surprise ... it always gets me ... fair complexion and always forget the sunscreen ... was a beautiful day though ...

Dealt with the insurance for my rear-end collision from yesterday ... wait and see what the adjuster comes up with ... my rear AMG bumper is totally shot and I don't trust the rattle in the car ... there could be more wrong than what the eye sees ...

Finally got to work on some more retouching.   

A continuation of my Betcee May series in the creek ... a gracious flow of movement ... it was a spur of the moment thing ... Betcee picked up effortless on my feedback to repeat a pose and the ensuing "dance" yielded a great series.  Betcee is always aware of  where the photographer is and how to move and position her body for maximum impact and elegance.  This model never ceases to amaze me.

The image below is from April, shot in London (ON) on a balcony.  I'll be posting more of these fashion styled images.  April needs little direction to come up with styled poses in a fluid movement.

Continue to work with Susie on plans for a San Francisco trip in mid to late October.

Maybe we can make Susie's and April's trip coincide and put both models together 

Talked to my mom on the phone also ... it was good to hear her voice ... we both needed this talk.

Hurricane in New Orleans ... terrible thought ...

Continued ...

Sunday, August 31, 08

Last day of the month ... this went by quickly.

Set out for a short urban decay shoot this morning only to find out a couple of homeless have taken possession of the building. I did shoot for a while but left ... didn't feel comfortable with the idea of invasion of privacy although no one was there.

*   *   *

Sarah Ellis and Betcee May in a fun and not so controlled moment ... priceless !

*   *   *

I was asked recently when I picked up photography and what the appeal was at the time.  I had to think about that one. 

As long as I can remember I was fascinated with camera's and I owned at various times during my childhood and teenager years a couple of cheap plastic film camera's that never performed.  (110 format and 6 x 6 ~ Diana I believe ...)  In those days I didn't have the money either to buy film and process it.

Fast forward to 1978.  I started collaborating with Peter Beyls, modern artist extra-ordinaire ... computer music, computer graphics ... I developed a ton of hardware for our joint projects over the years and Peter was crucial in my development as an electronic music medium artist.

Peter always documented his work with the camera and I've seen a ton of great B&W images in his studio.  I used to have quite a few of his pictures of him and me taken during various concerts or interactive collaboration efforts.  Unfortunately, I lost all of these during the various moves I went through.  For sure Peter made me take attention of the power of B&W photography and also the various cultural modernist movements in the US.  Peter was already well traveled and extremely well spoken in the 70's.  (I recommend reading his short bio)

In the 1982-1983 time frame I developed a digital image capture interface that connected to a analog video camera and we were able to digitize analog video signals and come up with a digital, monochrome, image on the computer screen.  There were no printers in those days that could handle the output of the Seiko multi-processor unit (pre-PC) we were using ... so I had to buy a 35mm film camera to capture the output of the screen ... hilarious if one thinks about this in 2008 technology.

The rest is history ... I've always owned a camera since then and I've been tremendously active in the full digital imaging processing chain.  Developed computer hardware, camera's and software in the field. 

Both our 8 channel computer controlled synthesizer Peter talks about in his bio and the camera system above were featured in the television program "IJsbreker" for the Belgian and Dutch National Television in 1985.  There's somewhere a video excerpt floating around on the internet of Peter and me taking down an environmental art installation in MOMA Ghent in 1985.  Would love to get my hands on that segment.

Continued ...

Saturday, August 30, 08

Didn't get to do any edits last night after all ... got sidetracked ... in a good relaxing way ...

Today is shopping & cleaning day. Getting ready for a shoot tonight ... concept, accessories ... filling in two storyboards ...

Working on shoot prep for an October concept.  Called April ... She's good to go for that concept ... need one or two more models for that shoot ...

Long night ahead, still need to make up for the edits from last night ... these are fun ones ...

*   *   *

Betcee May and Lauren Warner arrived on time and got to work after quick introductions ... it's always good to see how professionals "click" in no time.  It's my third shoot with Betcee May  and my fourth with Lauren Warner.  They both know by now what I'm looking for and I trust Lauren will do a stellar job on Betcee.   I'm shooting Betcee May today with a beauty make up accentuating her mostly blue eyes while keeping the long curly flowing hair.

The first concept is shot outdoors.  There's a hill across my studio and that hill overlooks Alameda creek all the way till Coyote Hills at the bay.  Magnificent view but it takes a half hour climb to get there, a little over a mile with 800 feet of altitude difference.

Before we left for the hill, Sarah Ellis arrived and it was wonderful to see the mutual respect between the two models and the excitement for a duo shoot.  What a team !

The pictures to the left feature Betcee during the climb ... something she did with flying colors on sandals.  This girl truly grew up in the outdoors and I had the pleasure seeing her in action on steep riverbanks a couple of months ago.

When we got back Sarah Ellis was in the Dior make-up chair and Lauren was finishing off with the hair.  In the meantime I shot a couple of new backlighting set-ups with Betcee.

Soon both models were interacting in front of my lens in a splendid exchange of looks, intertwined arms and ... of course ... laughs.

Finished the evening with some Sarah Ellis solo work.  Black leggings, black heels, ethnic jewelry and my wrought metal iron chair.

Never got to do my edits ...  talked with Nicole in preparation of our next shoot ...

More pictures later.

Continued ...

Friday, August 29, 2008

Busy day at work ... not surprisingly, the last day before the long weekend ... solved some sticky customer issues to everyone's satisfaction ... life is good.

Went shopping for some new toys ... I'm a guy after all ... lol

Posted the Newbie Model of the Week composite on Newbie Model of the Week 

... I'm the OP since a couple of months for this forum thread, all a part of giving back to the community at large.

Working on more edits, planning on doing a couple of retouches tonight ... April, Nicole, Betcee, Sarah, Tiana ... plenty of it to go around.

Thursday, August 28, 08

Working on shoot edits and posting them to the client section of my website at Amedeus Photo

Send some candid shots off to a friend ... lab prints are on their way ...

Enjoyed some great feedback on my latest shoots.  I'm a bit behind in the editing process but waiting is well worth it as I'm kind of meticulous in my retouches.

Worked on an image of Betcee May in a creek in my backyard ... this is the first image in a sequence of ten ... enjoy ... this is from a sequence in my "Flashback" story

Evening was filled with  phone calls with my team in Singapore ... late night calls with editing in between.  

Last call from N. ... priceless ...

Continued ...