Kisa Hues Photoshoot

Posted on December 6, 2024 by djnpub

Kisa Hues, Livermore, 2024On a nice Fall day I had a chance to work with semi-local model Kisa Hues for the first time. She used to be based in Oakland but has relocated to further north in California. An interesting aspect is that she is deaf (not from birth), so she speaks normally, but she uses a real time voice translation app that allowed her to see what I was saying. When shooting with flash, she could tell when I was shooting, so if was virtually the same as working with a hearing model. When I wasn’t using flash, we had to find a rhythm where I would catch her in each pose. She is a very good model, and I hope to work with her again.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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First Photoshoot With Liz Ashley

Posted on November 24, 2024 by djnpub

Liz Ashley, Livermore, 2024Only a short two days after my last photo shoot I had another session with traveling model Liz Ashley, who is based in Houston. Liz is very experienced and has been broadly published. She tends to lean towards glamour work, but also does artistic. I was glad to make the connection. We were a bit too chatty and I took significantly less photos than during my previous session. Nevertheless, I think we managed to make some beautiful and interesting images. Now I’ve got a couple of weeks until my next shoot, which gives me a needed period to catch my breath.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Photoshoot With Barbora Aria

Posted on November 22, 2024 by djnpub

Barbora Aria, Livermore, 2024I had a nice photo shoot at my house with traveling Czech model Barbora Aria. I was unaware of her until she reached out to me while I was traveling in Spain. Due to where she ended up staying in south SF she chose to take an Uber to me, which I think is a long Uber ride. I ended up taking a lot of pictures even though the weather wasn’t really cooperating and we stayed inside. A nice day to enjoy some creativity after my construction project was done.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Unexpected Massive Construction Project

Posted on November 21, 2024 by djnpub

Like the little crack in the dyke that turned into a flood, it started with a little thing and turned into a giant thing. I had planned to do a bit of an upgrade to the outside of my house for quite a while, mostly related to the desire to repaint the house. In addition, I had planned to replace my rotting deck before the pandemic until the price of wood skyrocketed, and my patio cover has needed either replacing or stabilizing for quite some time.

A contractor came by my door one day and offered to sand some of the trim boards on my roof (which I would need to do to paint) for a small price, which I agreed to as it was something I was thinking about doing prior to starting painting. It then started evolving. He mentioned that his crew could paint my house, and as I thought about it I decided to spend some money as it was taking me way to long to get to it. As things progressed, he identified some stucco areas that were damaged by moisture that need to be replaced. Then they found that the moisture barrier on the foundation had eroded to nothing and offered to redo that. It continued to grow. By the time it was said and done, the house was painted, the stucco repaired, the moisture barrier reapplied, the deck replaced, the patio cover removed, and the driveway and sidewalk replaced with paver stones. It took them around 3 weeks. I’m happy for the upgrade since this is the first major thing I’ve done to the exterior of the house (which is 70 years old). It’s as massive upgrade. I’m just a bit uneasy about how much I spent, particularly as I didn’t really research it much before I started with this guy. But I guess if I amortize the cost over my time in the house it’s tolerable.

I still have to do a few things to clean up some details that they did a bit sloppy, but overall I’m happy with the improvement. As it’s mostly infrastructure I don’t know to what degree I’ll make my money back if I sell it, but at least it’s in a good state and looks good now.

Posted in Life

Carmen In The City

Posted on November 19, 2024 by djnpub

Carmen, SF Opera, 2024I went in with Bob to see the SF Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen. We took the BART in and got some dinner before the show. Although I don’t think I had ever seen it before, I had certainly heard elements of a number of the songs which certainly pervade popular culture. It was very good and enjoyable. It was a full house as it is apparently the 4th most popular opera they do.

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Photoshoot With Alice Antoinette

Posted on November 9, 2024 by djnpub

Alice Antoinette, Livermore, 2024I had a very nice photo shoot with well known freelance model Alice Antoinette, who is based in Miami. She mixes modeling, model training, a YouTube channel, and event planning. She traveled out from the city on BART, and I brought her out to the house. My house was in a major state of chaos due to some major construction happening on the outside of the house. I arranged for the work to only take place in the front and we were able to work inside and in the back yard. Luckily the demo on the outside hadn’t gotten to my window area, but the deck and covering in back were all gone. Nonetheless we were able to get some nice shots outside as well as inside and in the garage. I was glad to make the connection with her and hope to be able to work together in the future.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Photoshoot With Poetic Minx

Posted on October 17, 2024 by djnpub

Poetic Minx, Livermore, 2024The last photo shoot of my mini-marathon was again at home with Austrailian/Polish model Poetic Minx (Aurora). I had know prior knowledge of her and she had reached out to me while I was in Spain. It turned out great. She was fun and creative and we work some of my standard locations much more heavily that usual. Even though this was only two days after my shoot with Jamie Lee Bauern I was very energized. We were having such success and getting interesting results we extended the shoot originally scheduled for 4 hours to 5 hours. We had started later than I usually do, so after the shoot we sent to dinner and then I returned her to her lodging in SF. She was great to work with and we had a lot of fun. She also runs events, so I’m interested in seeing what those might offer. Now I’m ready to take a breather and spend some time trying to finish my office update.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Photoshoot With Jamie Lee Bauern

Posted on October 15, 2024 by djnpub

Jamie Lee Bauern, Livermore, 2024Four days after shooting with Išinka I had a photo shoot at home with Arizona based traveling model Jamie Lee Bauern. She travels all over the US mostly driving. We had a 6-hour shoot that went by extremely quickly. It was a very enjoyable session and I look forward to working with her again.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Photoshoot With Iši

Posted on October 11, 2024 by djnpub

Isinka, San Francisco, 2024After being gone for nearly a month in Spain, I perhaps unwisely had scheduled 4 photo shoots in the first 3 weeks of October after returning, all with models I had never met or worked with before. Unfortunately, upon flying home I came down with Covid (for the first time to the best of my knowledge). As a result I had to cancel the first of these shoots. Luckily the second shoot was far enough out that it gave me a chance to recover, and I met up with Išinka Luxova, a Czech model who was new to me. She was staying in western San Francisco, far from BART, so I decided to go and shoot with her in that area. As we were outside in public we ended up doing lifestyle shots around Lands End and the Sutro Baths. In my recuperating state it was a bit of a challenge climbing up and down the hills, but I managed it and we had an enjoyable shoot.

[o] [More pictures on my Photo Blog]

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Adventures in Spain — 4

Posted on September 30, 2024 by djnpub

Exploring Barcelona (cont.)

After all the walking and sightseeing we decided to just take a lazy day with some quality time relaxing. The next day we booked a ride on the one of the double-decker tourist buses that drive past high points of the city. We did 2+ loops to catch both routes of the tour. It was a nice relaxing way to get an overview of the city out to areas we hadn’t seen yet.

The next day we decided to visit Barceloneta Beach, the most well-known beach in Barcelona. We took the metro over to the waterfront and then walked down to the beach area. It was cool to see a lot of the boats and general ambiance. We discovered they were running the 37th America’s Cup yacht race in Barcelona, an event that only happens every 3 years. After we got to the beach we could see some boats and a helicopter in the distance. Ultimately New Zealand won. Apparently the US hasn’t won since 2013. We spent some time on the beach getting some sun and taking some periodic swim breaks in the Balearic Sea (Iberian Sea). The water was warm enough, but not overly so. There were a lot of people there, but it was still a nice relaxing place. There were a few topless bathers on the beach, but not many. Apparently there is a full nude beach a little further away from where we were. After a few hours we walked back to metro. We ran into crowds gathering for the last day of La Mecca festival which was taking place up the hill from our Airbnb. We couldn’t get to the top of the Areas for dinner so we ate at a place where we often ate breakfast. We decided to avoid the crowd and just go to the apartment … but that was close enough. They had a big concert with synchronized fireworks just a few blocks away. We could see to top of the fireworks during an impressive 30 min display. We were also able to see in in a clearer view as it was being live-streamed.

Montserrat

In our only adventure outside of the city we took a train trip to Monserrat. A normal train took us to the base of the mountain, then a rack railway took us up the steep pathway to the Benedictine Abby near the top. Even though our tickets included it we skipped the last crawler railway that went up from the abby to the top of the peak. There was a great view of the surrounding area, but Maddy got a little vertigo from the ride up and needed to sit for a bit before looking out over the edge. There were lots of people there. The place had a nice ambiance and lots of shops for tourists. We skipped the long line to go into the Abby, but saw a lot nice sights and had a few snacks. I’m glad I visited it, but seeing it once was enough.

Winding Down

The next day (our last full day there) we took easy, doing some walking around, getting some souvenirs doing a relaxed preparation for travel. In the evening we had a final dinner at La Lola.

The next morning (Friday) we headed to the airport and took our respective flights home (mine being substantially longer). I made it home uneventfully. By Monday I wasn’t feeling well with a fever that was eventually diagnosed as Covid (my first time as far as I know). Apparently Maddy also got it. Luckily we were essentially healthy during our visit and I’m glad we didn’t come home with anything until we got home.

This first trip to Spain was great. I got a very good taste of what Spanish (or at least Catalan) culture is like. People were nice, and it was great to see how everyday people lived their lives, including friend groups gathering for long breakfasts, elderly folks out for daily constitutionals, lots of people with little dogs including a surprisingly large number of Dachshunds. I enjoyed it a lot, both the photography and the tourism, and I will happily visit again someday.

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