Lilly Rae Photoshoot

Posted on October 5, 2023 by djnpub

Lilly Rae, Livermore, 2023For the second time in roughly a week, I got a chance to meet and have a photo shoot with a new model who I had never met before. Lilly Rae is a traveling model, as well as a photographer, originally from Australia. She reached out to me from out of the blue and we agreed to work together. She has been modeling for over a decade, but dropped out of full-time work a while ago and has recently gotten back into it. She didn’t have a car in the area, and because of where she was originally going to be staying, I agreed to pick her up. By the time our shoot actually happened, she had changed her lodging to a place in south Berkeley, which gave me a chance to drive to some areas I haven’t been in in quite a while. I also agreed to drive her back at the end of our shoot. It was fun to see bits of Berkeley again, but I didn’t love driving in rush hour.

I really enjoyed our shoot together. She was very collaborative and brought lots of wardrobe that we managed to shoot. My only regret was that we didn’t have enough time. I guess it’s good to leave some ideas on the table to give some motivation for getting together again. I hope we have the opportunity to work again in the future.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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My First Published Photograph

Posted on September 30, 2023 by djnpub

Good Light Magazine, Issue 116, Editors Choice

An editor from Good Light! Magazine reached out to me with the offer to have one of my images (that they saw on my Instagram feed) featured as one of their Editors’ Choice images. It has appeared in Issue 116 (September 2023). As one of my goals this year was to get published, this was quite exciting. Other photographers featured in recent issues included top tier people whose work I follow like Lindsay Adler, Michael Sasser and Joel Grimes, so this made me feel quite good. Although this goal was achieved without me really having to do anything, it has boosted my confidence and I will continue to pursue more publications in the future.

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Anoush Visits Again

Posted on September 29, 2023 by djnpub

Anoush Anou, Del Valle, 2023In what may be our last chance to work together in quite a while, traveling model Anoush Anou visited the Bay Area for the second time this year, and we spent some time doing a photo shoot in my vicinity. Earlier this year we had a full day and shot around San Francisco and up into Point Reyes. I also had a chance work with her a bit on the Femme Nue retreat near Joshua Tree the previous week. This time we had half a day, and we shot at Del Valle as well as at my house. Even though the reservoir is relatively close, I’ve learned a lesson that trying to do too much traveling on a tighter photo shoot window eats up a lot of time. Anoush is the model with whom I have shot the most since I began my journey into people photography. She has been great to work with, and I always get interesting images. I feel lucky to have worked with her 3 times this year, and I hope she doesn’t disappear for too long a time.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Whitney Masters Photoshoot

Posted on September 27, 2023 by djnpub

Today I had an opportunity to meet and work with traveling model Whitney Masters. I had never met her previously, but I was aware of her thought the Venus tours, and she reached out to me and we made it happen. Whitney is a model and an actress, who has acted in films and even several Shakespeare plays. She came out by BART and I picked her up in the afternoon. We had a fun and creative shoot lasting past sunset. She was an awesome model and I look forward to working with her again.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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An Unplanned Retreat to Joshua Tree

Posted on September 22, 2023 by djnpub

Dan, Joshua Tree, 2023I got a last-minute offer to attend the Femme Nue retreat near Joshua Tree California due to a last minute withdrawal of one of the photographers. Despite having decided to pull back from traveling as much this year, I decided to go for it. I had slowed the cash flow a bit and was again comfortable with expenses. I also used this as a reason to bite-the-bullet and purchase the new Nikon Z8 that I had been planning for later this year.

I drove down to southern California. I had taken over the bookings for the photographer that pulled out, and I had 3 hours of shooting the first afternoon, so instead of driving down the morning that the event started, I drove down the day before to Victorville and stayed in an Airbnb. A good decision. The next morning I drove to Yucca Valley where the event house was located. Despite being late September, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree were quite busy. The weather was pleasantly warm, but not too hot. The event house was a beautiful (newish) two story Spanish style house that had a large back deck area the opened out to a private rocky desert valley area. The house and the surroundings provided many interesting places to shoot at.

Yucca Valley CA, 2023There were 3 models at the event, two of which I’d worked with many times, Sienna Hayes and Anoush Anou, as well as one new model that I knew of but had never worked with before, Eva Luna. I had worked with both Sienna and Anoush earlier in the year, and I actually had scheduled a session with Anoush the following week. This trip gave me an opportunity to take some more interesting images as well as getting some needed real-world experience using my new camera. During one of the gaps in my shooting schedule, I took the opportunity to drive through Joshua Tree National Park (and see it without the sky being smoky grey). It was a nice relaxed group, and I’m glad I made the trip. We had some nice shooting and some nice relaxed times for dining. For me the round-trip was roughly 1000 miles (more than I was expecting), and the cost for gas was about $215. The drive home took about 8 hours, so it was still probably better driving than flying. It was a nice trip and I’m glad I went.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Sara Scarlet in Livermore

Posted on August 29, 2023 by djnpub

Sara Scarlet, Livermore, 2023I had an enjoyable day with a photo shoot with traveling model Sara Scarlet today. I’ve worked with Sara a couple of times before on tours in Mexico and Utah. She is a tall fashion / art model from Belgium. She is a very capable and nice person who travels the world. She used public transportation to come out towards me from San Francisco. We had a little glitch, but eventually managed to connect up.

We used our time pretty effectively, and managed to get a good variety of shots. Even though it ended up being a hot day we managed to get through it without having to endure too much uncomfortable heat. I had added to my front room look, and it seems like the shots turned out pretty nice. We had a nice late lunch/early dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, and then got her back to BART. Next month I have a couple of shots scheduled at home, as well as a last minute trip that came to me. I need to keep up a regular schedule of shooting to continue to develop my skills.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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OP Comedy of Errors

Posted on August 6, 2023 by djnpub

Comedy of Errors, COSF, 2023Tonight I saw my final play in my visit to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, an original practices production of The Comedy of Errors. In the past, with the original practices productions they usually do lesser known plays. This time they decided to do one of the more commonly produced plays. These OP productions are always a little rough, which is what makes them fun. The cast has less preparation than in a normal production, and they have a que help on stage to help guide them. This was a funny play, and the cast obviously had fun with this approach. There were almost no errors in the first half, then people started forgetting lines and stepping over each other, which makes it exciting. They even called back some lines from other plays they’re doing in the season.

It was the coolest night of my visit, and during the first half we got a light steady rain for a while. But the play carried on. This was a very nice way to end my short visit.
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King Lear

Posted on August 5, 2023 by djnpub

King Lear, COSF, 2023Tonight I saw another Shakespeare classic at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, King Lear. This was a heavy sad play that was very well acted. The one twist was they had a woman playing King Lear (but as a male, not female). The bad guys were extremely bad. I had forgotten how awful the two daughters Goneril and Regan were, but these two were well played to the hilt. The double dealing servants were very smarmy.

Overall the production was very effective. The actress playing Lear played the mental and physical deterioration affecting him, and her grief in the final scene when Cordelia is reveled as dead was powerful. The role of Lear is always tricky for me. They have to represent a long serving successful and powerful king who gives up his power in old age. The issue I had with this actor was that while I could see the deterioration played well, I never really saw her as the once powerful and formidable king. But that’s a minor picking point. All in all an enjoyable play and a nice night out for theater.
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The Winter’s Tale

Posted on August 4, 2023 by djnpub

The Winter's Tale, COSF, 2023On night three of my trip to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival I saw my second Shakespeare play, The Winter's Tale. This was another indoor play and overall it was quite good. The first half was excellent, with a serious solemn story well acted. I very much enjoyed it.

The second half, where the scene switches from Sicilia to Bohemia, the tone of the play changed dramatically. It’s normally supposed to be different, but as has been a theme in the three plays I’ve seen so far this year, they really pushed the comic aspects over the top. The actor who played the thief, Autolycus, was very hammy (in the vein of Snidely Whiplash), as he was in the previous day’s play. There it didn’t seem so bad since that was a farce. But here it seemed way too much. Not only was his performance too hammy for me, but he seemed to dominate the story of the second half, which I don’t recall being the balance in the play.

Apart from that annoyance, they brought it back to Sicilia and wrapped up the play beautifully. All in all I enjoyed it. I hope I’m not just getting crabby unable to enjoy humor.
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One Man, Two Guvnors

Posted on August 3, 2023 by djnpub

One Man, Two Guvnors, COSF, 2023I saw my second play of this year’s Colorado Shakespeare Festival, a British farcical comedy One Man, Two Guvnors. This was apparently a contemporary update of and older 18th century commedia dell’arte, and it was set in the early 1960s with a backdrop of the emerging pop music phenomenon. Musicians provided snappy interludes between scenes.

Overall it was a bit silly for me, with lots of audience interaction (which sometimes got out of control). Twice they brought up people from the audience to participate in the scene, but clearly the last one was a plant. The success relied on a focal character, a servant, who ended up serving to people who were both in disguise and trying to find each other, but of course kept being unknowingly frustrated by the servant. There was so much going on, and it was so silly, it was a bit much. But a nice was to spend the evening nonetheless.

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