Legs - A celebration - and a new (to me) way to publish my photos

Piernas (Andrea on the hood of my old truck)

 Last Friday I saw a great photo essay by Magnum Photos on the theme of Legs at slate.com.    I remembered Joe making a movie using images of Dr. L and another model and knew I wanted to experiment. This inspired me to try and make a movie out of my photos as well.  Along the way of creating the movie, I discovered a few challenges and some rewards as well.

I went through all my digital or scanned photos and chose some that I believe the legs are the key ingredient to the image.  After some editing and post production work in Lightroom, I was ready to make a movie.

At first I used the online movie-making service at animoto.com.  While this service is free for 30 second videos, longer videos cost a little bit.  I opted to get the one year membership and made a few movies.  It is a very easy tool.  You upload the photos, choose background music from their free library, set a few parameters and then their program does all the work.  In the end you get a slick video with little work.  The downsides are the music selection is limited, you can not put in custom text/credit screens, and their is very little customization.  The video at the very bottom was my first attempt.

After playing in that, I used iMovie on my Mac.  It allows for much more customization and editing.  I could also choose any song from my iTunes library, which I did.   After a good bit of time of editing and putting in transitions and text screens, I made the movie you see here.

I thought loading it would be the easy part.  First I tried blogger's video upload.  While convenient, the output player was way too small.  I then created a youtube account and uploaded it there with very tight privacy settings (unsearchable and not published publicly).  I have a few concerns about posting this video there, but I doubt I will keep it there for long.

This is my second attempt at making this type of video.  I see room for improvement, but I am happy with it as a beginner's effort.  Any feedback is welcome.  So, without further ado, here it is - Piernas Bonitas (Nice Legs).

vimeo version

Piernas Bonitas from Karl B on Vimeo.

blogger version

Piernas - Candace

Nudophobia - another story

 The Quiet Times

I read an interesting article over at What We Saw Today about the conservative fear of nude art aptly named by Dr. L as "nudophobia."   It made me think of my own experiences exhibiting nude photos.


As I've mentioned in past articles, I had a business.  It was half high-end hair salon and half art gallery.  I was in charge of the art gallery, one of my partners who was a stylist managed the salon, and her boyfriend/other partner managed the business end.

Every month we would switch out the art and have an artist's reception.  In February, we decided to have a mixed media show (paintings, sculptures, glass work and photos) of nudes to coincide with Valentine's day.  None were explicit, some were erotic and all were good art.

I posted three of my nudes and sold one and traded one.  A number of the other artists sold pieces as well.  It was the second best money making exhibit for our little gallery.  The customers liked it, the stylists liked it and I never heard a complaint.  We decided we would do the same thing next year.

A few months later, the local artists community organization sponsored their annual event called "open studios."  Every participating artist put one piece up at the organization's gallery as a token of their work and then held a show at their own studio.  My business offered to host three artists plus myself since we did not have studios to exhibit in.  Two of us had nude works along with non-nudes to show.  I was in charge of hanging all the work which took seven hours.

Lines to Her Heart

The next day I came in and all the nude works were down and a few pieces were haphazardly shifted so that the whole flow of the exhibit was ruined.  I was fucking furious.  I went to my partners and asked,"What the fuck did you do?"

The stylist partner said a couple of the other stylists complained about the nudes and she felt they were not appropriate pieces.  I countered with the fact that the nudes were less risque than the ones we had at the Valentine's exhibit and they had no problems with them.  She then said, "Yeah, but that was a special Valentine's show.  This show is supposed to be about the local art community.  We don't want to offend our staff and customers."  I asked who complained and she would not tell me.

I was so mad at her for undoing my area of ownership and responsibility  at her whim.  I never told her how to run the salon,  how dare she change my work without consulting with me first.  I told her all that.  She said  she had to work there all day and did not want to have to deal with comments.  What comments?  At that moment, I knew the partnership was mortally wounded.  I told her that I relinquished all artistic choice for future shows and would only hang work and sell art.  She said that wasn't fair.

Just typing all this makes me mad about it again.  This time though it makes me mad that the belief by her and others was nude art is only acceptable around a holiday that celebrates erotic love.  Once again, nudity equals sex.

Look at the photo I posted of Candace Nirvana yesterday titled Holding the Moment.  Candace is beautiful.  She is nude.  That photo is not erotic.  It is actually tough for me to look at and I love it for that.  I feel pain when I see it.

Dali and Nirvana 4

With all that bitching out now, I have to share a glimmer of hope.  I've talked about the photography classes I took at the local public community college.  In the studio course, a number of photographers experimented working with nude models.  I had the honor of having the photo of Candace below titled Dali and Nirvana 4 hung in the department's gallery and then in the college library's gallery, where it is currently exhibited.  I am proud to have my name and the title on a little card stuck under it.  I am proud of that little college and its acceptance of nudity and art.


Photo note - I feel this photo from the Dali and Nirvana series is erotic and is art.  I doubt my former partner would have wanted that one hanging in our business either.  The nude photos I wanted to exhibit, but were removed, are the two above - Lines to Her Heart, and The Quiet Times.

Minutiae that Eats Our Time and TPS Reports

The Quiet Times
Photo by Karl

My most valuable resource is time. I can earn more money, grow food, build a house, and find replacement resources for scarce ones, except time. For the past few weeks, I've felt like I am driving 12 mph in a dense fog of life. Every moment I am handling little things like sending an RSVP to a proposed meeting, faxing my TPS Report (with a cover sheet!), mailing the electric bill payment (actually done online), taking out the garbage, driving to an appointment, eating, sleeping, then repeating.




I am not whining too much since I put myself on this path of sludge. I need to figure out how to get out of it and get some inertia going. Hopefully I will be able to write posts more frequently as an outcome.

Photo note: Here is a photo from my first session with a nude model, Lisa. I really miss taking photos with my Hasselblad. Medium format offers such great detail and tonality.

Alone vs. Lonely - Revisited

Old Chair 2
Photo by SB

I've written before about my interpretations of the differences between "alone" and "lonely." I am very comfortable being alone whether at home or traveling. I am not a hermit. I appreciate being alone.

I have also written about "alone" time, which has its own unique onanistic magic. Sometimes that is one of my desires I wrote about yesterday. I've discovered that sex is beautiful when shared with someone, but it can be deeply exploratory and rewarding when it is just me.

I do get lonely, but that is a rare feeling. When I am eating alone in a restaurant, I am not really alone. I am with all the other diners, wait staff, cooks, and people walking by on the sidewalk. Being alone is very interpretive.

Below is a great link (click on photo) to Magnum photo series titled, All by Myself. I can relate to the photos.

Amboise, France - 1972

Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos

_________________________________________________________

If you get a chance, read my slightly edited article at Univers d'Artistes about use of light when photographing men and women. It is a much cleaner and better edited post than the one posted in this blog. Thanks UL for your selecting this post and publishing it at UdA.

Univer d'Artistes

My original post, Men Take the Light.

Confirmation...

Symmetry
Photo by SB

I just talked with the model I am photographing tomorrow. We are working on transportation logistics since she is visiting the SF area. It feels good to get the confirmation as it gives me the energy to complete the set up of my studio. I have to sweep and dust one more time, set up the backdrop and lighting, set up the computer and the... wait, that is the secret part.

I have a question about Michael Jackson's will. Didn't he own the Beatles catalog? What will happen to that? I really hope it will be be put on iTunes so I can finally buy some of their music.

I guess this is a rambling post. If you want to read some substance, I suggest you go to WHAT WE SAW TODAY. Joe and Dr. L. both provided great posts. Joe's post about coming home to Detroit after falling in love with New Orleans is very deep felt and personal. Dr. L.'s post about true love and our inability to celebrate it should make everyone ask themselves about their own love and ambitions.

My Old Girl
Photo by a family member

Six Word Stories

Woven
Photo by SB

Six Word Stories - each one an individual tale. There are also 6 word memoirs covering a whole life. Maybe I can figure that out some day. Learn more about six word stories here.

Forty, mortgage, balding, and taking photos.

First, second, third, fourth, downshift, third.

Why say "yes", you hate me?

You read it, can you handle?

Phone call, you flirt, not me.

You hang up fast, your hangup.

A thousand sticks of the needle.

First you screamed, then you threw.

You said you forgave, did you?

I talked, you said "fuck you."

She writes to her love again.

My fingers remember all of you.

They are secret for good reasons.

Who has ever loved others completely?

Faith no longer a loving passion.

You probably think this is personal.

Should've known better than to blog.

Six-word stories make weak blogs.



What are your six word stories?

My First Nude Model... Disaster

Old Chair 1
Photo by SB

I still remember the first nervous moments of working with Lisa. I was working with a mentor and it was my day to shoot. Nothing quite prepared me to work with a nude model. I am thankful she was patient, supportive, and had great ideas.

We shot for almost two hours. Later that day I developed the film and was heartbroken. Only a few photos from the many medium format rolls I shot were any good. I had two major problems. First, I overexposed most of them. Lisa has very fair skin, so she lit up like a light bulb.

The second problem really sucked. If you have used a Hasselblad, you may know this. When you trip the shutter, actually two shutters are released and the huge mirror is pulled up and then dropped. All of this happens in an aluminum cube in a fraction of a second. The sound from a Hasselblad is instantly recognizable as a loud "kerrrplop." Because of all of this movement, it shakes the whole camera. Here is where I failed. I had put it on a cheap Velbon (under $50) tripod. It shook the whole tripod. So, almost all of the photos had motion blur due to the camera. How stupid was I? I put a $2000 camera on a $50 tripod. I don't blame my mentor. He never used a Hasselblad (he uses an 8X 10 large format camera).

The next weekend I went shopping for a new tripod. I ended up getting a very big, very heavy, slightly-used Bogen Manfrotto tripod with a ball head on it. I tested it with my Hasselblad and observed that it would take an 8.0 magnitude earthquake to move the monster. While it is heavy and big, it does have some great features. Each leg pivots independently so I can shoot as low as 15" off the ground or as high as 7' 6" and know that the thing wont vibrate. Needless to say, this tripod does not go on backpacking trips through Yosemite. I have never had camera-shake again.

A few weeks later I asked Lisa if we could do it again. This time it worked. Above and below are a few photos of her. In another post, I will mention how it was being a nude photography virgin. I am in the process of getting many of my older negatives scanned. Until then, I unfortunately have to use a cheap scanner that does not do justice to the original prints.