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

How to make a most fabulous bookshelf without your boyfriend's help

A couple years ago I saw this bookshelf in my local coffeeshop, Sugarlump Cafe.

Inspired, I decided I wanted to make a bookshelf like that of my own, to house my record player and various oddball decorations.

For a couple years I thought about it and figured I'd get around to it.. get my boyfriend to cut the shelves, find brackets, etc. Well one day at a local hardware store I came across the standards, or the long pieces that mount to the wall, on complete give-away sale. Bought them and then eventually bought some brackets, also in a brass finish, to match.

Next up was the shelving. I decided to go for inexpensive, in case the whole mess turned into exactly that. So I bought a 4x4' oak-veneered 3/4" plywood board and had it cut to spec at Lowes. Making a base shelf 16.5" deep, to fit the largest bottom brackets and then a bunch of 10.5" shelves of varying widths to stagger it like above.

I bought some Miniwax light walnut stain for the shelves and had a few dremel tweaks to do to the brackets, but ended up with the following story:

I first taped the marks on the wall to get a feel for it.

Then used 3" screws to secure to the lathe in the wall. I learned here that whoever built this wall made the door a full 1" wider from the corner at the top of the door to the bottom.

 

Had to dremel away a bit of the metal on the brackets to fit in the standards. Different brands..

As the stain dried I set them in to take a look.

Then threw some crap on the shelves to make it real.

Babes in the Wood: Ethan

Every once in a while a shoot goes smoothly, all is reaffirmed towards spending money and energy towards this project. Such was the case shooting Ethan this past week.

Noting, after the fact, that this could be a possible publicity still from Battle Royale, private school uniform and chosen weapon nearby. Though I suppose now it would more widely recognized as Hunger Games homage. I enjoyed both, but did read Battle first and will always love that it was a random find at a bookstore at SFO.

 

Ethan had just seen The Amazing Spider Man, and was testing out jumps and leaps in between photo-direction

And then Ethan and dad had to try out the bow and arrow:

 

annnnnd, more spider man

 

From the (non) Bully Pulpit

Decided to bring photo gear along, while camping last weekend, to shoot a portrait of pal Kevin: lover of camels and dirtbike rides in the mud.

an amazing storyteller..

I seem to be, these past few years, shooting lots in the woods. I plan to make a conscious effort to change it up in the near future. Noted here.

 

 

 

pretty woods/ scary trails, to a novice rider (ie me).

Pinecone Baseball

Last weekend we went up for a last day of skiing in Tahoe for the season.. Skied and stopped at this spot to shoot Tony on the drive home.

hero shot

Messed around a bit with some outtakes...

self portrait by Tony

pinecones everywhere

view from rock above

squirrel time

 

Mural Series: Chuck

A Fishmonger in the Tenderloin District, San Francisco

 

A few months ago I set up this guy in the Tenderloin with some fish and a spear. Slow to start this series, I am creating tacky, contrived portraits in front of tacky, contrived murals painted on sides of buildings. Maybe, at long last, two wrongs will make a right?

Anyway, Chuck totally brought it in terms of effort and willingness, so early on a Saturday morning. Thanks a shit-ton/ fish-ton, Chuck!

 

This guy wandered in and kind of made it as well:

 

And, in case you were wondering... the fish stayed nearby, to swelter in the growing temperature of the midday sun:

nothing about photography....

.. but I just joined Pintrest and am wanting to post some ideas for apt decor and art projects,  but they are in photos on my phone, not already online. So I am now officially posting them on the internet!

Coolest thing ever: this house in Pac heights, owned and decorated by the interior designer/ owner, had this art on the wall in one of the boy's bedrooms:

hella awesome..

Second idea, and this I've seen for a few years, every time I go in Sugarlump Cafe I see this wall unit and am getting ever-closer to building one of my own:

 

I have the brackets and standards in brass, need to make shelves. It's to be an entertainment center, with amp, record player, and then two wall-mounted cubes below to hold albums. The brackets were $$, the standards were on a closeout at Center Hardware. The shelves and boxes will be made out of plywood, but a nice birch-veneer, with a walnut stain. It may or may not work out..? Tony's on it. Like he was on this project:

 

The staghorn fern trophy mount, not the whale weathervane. My grandpa Joe Hale made that. Damn cool, both. Animal corner..