Art In The City

Posted on May 14, 2024 by djnpub

Dan, San Francisco, 2024I made a trek into the city to see an exhibition of Irving Penn photography at the de Young museum. I had succumbed to heavy advertising on Instagram, but it was nonetheless something I was interested in seeing. I also remember why I don’t undertake such journeys as often as I used to. I left at around 10:30 thinking I would escape the worst of the traffic. But I didn’t. It was slow going in the valley, sometimes stop-and-go, then the Bay Bridge was also very congested, not helped due to a crash that had blocked some lanes. Then I had to navigate downtown SF and find the parking garage. I finally made it there after about an hour and a half.

I think this is the first time I’ve been to the de Young. It was very nice, right across from the California Academy of Sciences, and set nicely in Golden Gate park. I mainly went there for the Irving Penn exhibition, and spent a bit of time looking at the photos. It was interesting to see the variety of his work. A couple of features particularly were interesting. First, his nudes were all headless — not all bodyscapes, but all separated from their person as distinct from his portraiture. Second, it was interesting to see how unsharpe some of the photos were compared to what seems to be demanded from today’s technology. Despite that they were still very impactful.

Traffic back was as bad as going, even though I left around 2:00. I’m glad I don’t have to drive in that mess every day. But it was nice to see some inspiring photography.

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Cheyannigans

Posted on May 4, 2024 by djnpub

Cheyanne, Livermore, 2024Returning a bit to normal after my month of jury duty, I had the opportunity to work with a new model who had reached out to me from Australia, Cheyanne. She’s had been touring around the western US, and while our originally scheduled date was somewhat in jeopardy due to my jury duty obligations, I was able to reschedule our shoot to the weekend (and then jury duty ended anyway). She had a bit of a challenge getting to me on BART, and the weather was gray and rainy braking a long streak of nice weather. Nevertheless, we had a nice shoot inside trying various backgrounds and wardrobe, and ending up with some light painting. She was very experienced and great to work with, and I hope I get the chance to do so again.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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April and a Month of Jury Duty

Posted on April 29, 2024 by djnpub

Though living in the same area for decades, I never had to serve on a jury until after I retired. Five years ago I had my first experience on a jury for a criminal trial. While I thought it was stressful, and interesting in the abstract, the whole process lasted little over a week. This year I again received a summons and ultimately ended up having to serve on a jury. This case was much more heavy, more complex in terms of evidence and in the number of charges. The jury selection was pretty involved, going through a lot of people to get the final jury. The whole process (jury selection, trial, deliberations) ended up taking about 4 weeks this time. It’s a little scary thinking of being possibly subject to that much time obligation every 12 months.

On the downside, from a personal perspective it was a major inconvenience. I had 3 photo shoots scheduled during April, two with models I had never worked with before. Luckily when I got the summons, I was able to move one up a few days to the weekend before I reported (Denisa Strakova). I had to cancel the other two, resulting in having to pay $$$ in cancelation fees. The subject of the trial was also quite heavy and difficult to have to listen to — but important. The charges involved a number of serious felonies. It was like being back at a job: I had to get up early every day and do an hour-and-a-half commute to and from the courthouse, arriving home pretty toasted.

On the positive side, separating it from the horror of the crime, it was interesting to learn about forensic DNA. A significant amount of the evidence had to do with DNA and we had to be “educated” on the subject in order to understand the testimony. Another positive was that we seemed to have a good jury who got along very well together, which made the challenging aspects of deliberations go smoother. There was a sense that we might maintain contacts after the trial. In particular, I discovered one of the jurors lived quite close to me and we ended up car pooling to the BART to go to court everyday. I always find jury duty important to have done, but it’s also something that since I’d done it once I didn’t really have a desire to do it again.

A wild postscript: we obviously couldn’t do any research on the case before or during our service on the jury. But after finishing and returning home, one of the jurors sent me a link that indicated that our defendant had also been charged with another murder that happened around the same time as one of the crimes in our case. Apparently he was found not guilty in that case. Other reporting indicates he was implicated in a number of other cases. He is apparently a very bad dude.

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House Guests and Another Photo Shoot With Auroraa

Posted on April 27, 2024 by djnpub

Dasha U, Livermore, 2024Do to hiccoughs in their travel plans, I got an unexpected visit from Dima and Auroraa on their way back home from Mexico. I picked them up at SFO and they stayed a couple of nights with me. I got to do another photoshoot with Auroraa barely six weeks after I had shot with her in Oakland. She also managed to schedule a shoot with another photographer at my house. It was nice to see them, and great to have something fun to do like a photoshoot after this heavy month.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Denisa Strakova Photoshoot

Posted on April 1, 2024 by djnpub

Denisa Strakova, Livermore, 2024I had a photo shoot with traveling Czech model Denisa Strakova. This is the first time I had met her. She had reached out to me and we managed to get together. She is a very talented experienced model. We shot a variety of looks and setups and it was fun to come up with some that I hadn’t done here before. The timing was a bit hectic because of what I have going on this week, but it was great fun. We lucked out with a nice warm and sunny Spring day. I hope to work with her again sometime.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Alaina Wulf Photoshoot

Posted on March 25, 2024 by djnpub

Alaina Wulf, Livermore, 2024I had a nice photo shoot with Alaina Wulf with whom I’d worked with a couple of years ago on a UTadventure tour. Alaina is based in the Midwest so most of her modeling takes place while traveling. While we had had a nice Spring warming the previous week the day of our shoot was cloudy and grey and a bit cool. Nevertheless we had a nice session getting a variety of setups, both inside and outside. It was fun to see her again and work with her. I’m in an interesting period of where I’m having photo shoots almost every week.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Her Stillness Dances

Posted on March 20, 2024 by djnpub

Her Stillness Dances, Livermore, 2024I had a photoshoot at my place with semi-local model Loreal, aka Her Stillness Dances. She drove down from Sana Rose, and we had a warm sunny day to shoot. I had met her just about a month earlier at a workshop, and it was great to be able to have a longer shoot with her. She is a dancer by training, and her posing reflects that. I hope to be able to work with her frequently in the future.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Photo Shoot With Dasha / Auroraa In Oakland

Posted on March 11, 2024 by djnpub

Dasha/Aurora, Oakland, 2024I had my first ever one-on-one photo shoot with the amazing model Auroraa (formerly known as Dasha U) who I’ve known for many years as one of the co-organizers of the UTadventure tours. She is a striking Russian who has been modeling for many years, but who took a few years break from modeling, then recently had babies, but is now back on the modeling circuit. She had rented an Airbnb in the Clairmont area of the Oakland hills that had a great view. It was a mixed cloudy day with the sun poking through from time to time. It was nice working with her again and we were able to make some very nice pictures.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Back in México

Posted on March 10, 2024 by djnpub

Dan, Tulum, Mexico, 2024My first big photography trip of the year was a Femme Nue photography retreat in Tulum, México. Due to the timing of flights I had to drive to the airport (at 2 am) and leave my car in long term parking. I changed planes in Salt Lake City and then flew on to Cancún. Passport control there is now automated which made it fairly easy to enter. I finally made it to my hotel in late afternoon.

I traveled to México a few days before the retreat to give myself time to acclimate. I stayed at a nice hotel fairly close to the airport, and mostly hung out there. I did make one Uber trip into the Hotel Zone to have lunch at a hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant favored by locals, El Galeón del Caribe. After a few days we gathered at a local hotel to board our bus and head to Tulum. We had a nice welcome lunch at a restaurant on the beach, La Zebra. After our lunch we headed over to the villa(s), Yum Kaax Botique Villa and Ambre Epices Jungle Hotel and Spa, where we would be having our retreat. They were actually two villas joined together which could be rented as separate spaces or one big space, so it represented significant space for us to shoot in. They were designed in the style of Moroccan Riads and included some swimming pools on the top floor on one side and a large pool area on the ground and a few smaller pool/spas spread around. The only downside was lots of stairs and lots of going up and down because the upper areas didn’t really connect together above. But that was a minor inconvenience, and it gave me some much needed exercise and steadied my footing. I had a nice room overlooking the main pool area that had a couple of hanging chairs that came in to good use during my photoshoots.

The retreat, while fairly short consisting of 3 full days and 2 partial days, was a relatively large affair. We had 9 models and there were 11 photographers. I had shot with all but two of the models before, and I managed to book some time with all of them. We had Vivian Cove and Eva Luna from the US, Sienna Hayes, Muirina Fae, Kate Snig, and Ali Clare from Canada, xKes from the UK, Nausicaa Yami, an Italian model living in the UK, and Shira Nuballet from Spain. As a result of the scale and number of days I ended up shooting more hours per day than I normally would have.

The group was very nice and very harmonious. I knew a number of photographers and models from previous events, but there were also many new people there as well. We generally shared some nice lunches and dinners together. It all ended too quickly. We had a farewell lunch, again at La Zebra, then we all dispersed. A few stayed in the area, a few of the models headed to Humberto’s to hang out for a few days, the rest of us were delivered to Cancún, some going immediately to the airport and a few others of us went to hotels before eventually heading home. A big win for me was that I didn’t get sick on this trip, which differed from a number of recent trips.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Amber Flowers Photo Shoot

Posted on February 22, 2024 by djnpub

Amber Flowers, Livermore, 2024I had my first ever photo shoot with freelance model Amber Flowers. I’ve been aware of her for years as she runs a photo tour herself. She’s currently based in southern California, but will soon be moving, and she may not be modeling again for sometime to come. So it was good to make this connection when we did. We had decent weather and we were able to shoot both inside and outside. She was a pleasure to work with and I think we got some good images. This is my last one-on-one shoot before my first big trip of the year.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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