Babes in the Wood: Alexander

For the second spring in a row mourning doves have nested and hatched from a tree outside Tony's kitchen window. Last spring it was neat to watch the new babies and when one of them spazzed out on the mom bird, he was henceforth known as Violent J.
 

This year two came and laid eggs a few weeks ago, thus giving me a good idea for a setting for baby Alexander.

They hatched after a couple weeks, with mom and dad dove taking turns with nest duty. The babies this year are called Reno Raines and Magnum. Within a week they flew off and have only been seen once.

This shoot was inspired by the wealth of strong male lead-actor type birds, and I naturally thought that a giant nest would rule, if I could figure out how to make it.

Thanks so much for letting the nest be hung way up in the tree, Peter and Brandy!

Babes in the Wood: Max

This shoot was pretty darn easy: had a vision, a tire, a gaffer, two parents a willing model, sunny woods and a location with a steam train and tracks nearby.

 

Kind of fun stuff of note: 

1. Max loved the chocolate thing from Arizmendi Bakery.

B. Steam trains rule.

3. Banana slugs aren't always yellow.

these guys look a little old for train time..

oil heats the steam train which moves a piston. rad! Also rad, a hobbyist made this train out of iron and brass parts in 1978 all on his own for a project.

a train ride and chocolate bread thing!

Hanging out in Sparks

Tony and I went skiing last week, then decided to prowl around Sparks, NV to scout and explore potential photo locations.

I set up lights at one spot, next to an auto shop working after hours to build a hot-rod tractor, but wasn't sure it was a great picture.

We then hit the opposite end of the building, where some dude was popping an entire carload of popcorn. Seriously, a Jeep Cherokee filled with massive bags of fresh popcorn.. I almost couldn't pull Tony away, but then the existing sunlight went behind the Sierras right as I set up my lights.

Then I drove around a bit and saw a very curious storey-high silhouette of a tall miner, did a block-around and thought the building across the street was pretty rad. Some editing later and this photo is now on my website:

  

the minor Miner building in G major

Retouching the photo of Tony hanging, I referred to older photos of him, and realized he's almost always wearing his leather boots. He wants me to point out that they are not always the same boot, as he has exactly eight pairs, leading up his entry steps:

First skiing of the season

..and with it comes bringing along lights and camera and the eternal search for a new way to shoot Tony.

 The Sands Hotel and Casino as kind enough to put us in a top floor room with morning light, when asked. No idea what they thought of us bringing up a light case, stand bag and camera stuff.. I'm sure more than one suspect 'photo shoot' has been filmed upstairs. 

The sunlight came in at a pretty rakish angle in the morning. I thought it might be more straight on, but I guess it ended up working out. Good thing I stole a pint glass from downstairs, it made for a rad sun-refracting disco star. Happy accidents, best occurring in photos, not on snowy mountainsides while wearing skis.

chair by night looking out at the Eldorado.. home of the best $17 buffet dinner in Reno

Sugar Bowl was fun, with soft perfect snow and helllla cold. We had to take the gondola across from the secondary parking lot, as the Judah side wasn't open yet. Kind of cool, like riding the old Sky Ride across Kings Dominion.

Gondola face

Mt Lincoln ski-lift face

Babes in the Wood: Diego

"Diego, he's a pretty fun kid", to quote his mom...

... I couldn't agree more. Give him an axe and he's killer!

We shot some fun family pics as well 

some outtakes:

And then I needed a child hand model for another Chronicle Books kids placemats cover, so I roped Diego's mom into dropping him off to be a model while she had a haircut in the city. 

teaching Diego the fine art of throwing a model's tantrum and demanding a nonfat latte before working any more.

taking a dirtbiking-posture-on-the-CL175 break

Tilt Up

Last Friday (11/9/2012) I had a solo photo show at a space called the Garage Sale Project.

For a couple years now I have been photographing Tony when we go up to Tahoe to ski, bringing along lights and camera and exploring a bit of outer-lying Sparks and Reno, where we stay overnight. More than a few times I have found myself intrigued by buildings in the industrial areas and used them as a backdrop for shooting a sort of staged portrait of Tony.

Using these photos as a start to the show idea, I was inspired more when I went to see the garage space firsthand. Across the street was the back side of the local Safeway, sporting a similar facade to some of these locations.

I then began to form a vision for the space, making each of the three walls be a different part of a study of that style of tilt up architecture. 

 

The third wall was perhaps my favorite. I work alot in an industrial park the town of Brisbane, CA, and have often wanted to take photos around that area and see what evolves from it. This show seemed like a prefect place to pursue that. Especially since Chris, the owner of the space, is someone I met there...

To see the Brisbane project in more detail, I have posted a link here.

The opening was fun, lots of folks came out, thanks to all of you!

Babes in the Wood : Molly

Babes in the Wood project took young miss Molly to the hills of Berkeley for a shoot last weekend. Bringing along my firepit cauldron as a prop, I scouted the week before for a location that had surplus amount of trees but would also not be host to a carpet of poison oak.

After stumbling through a number of families' Labor Day picnics, I found the spot. Sorry, but if I tell you where it is, I'd have to kill you. Pretty sure Molly's father Bryan almost did want to kill me after almost getting us lost looking for it again:
.

 

I met Molly and Bryan, Molly's parents, when I photographed their gorgeous wedding in the mountains four years ago:

 

But back to Molly.. making some great faces after licking the cauldron:

baby wrangling!

Visit the rest of the Babes in the Wood project here