Senior Portraits.......

The heat has finally stopped and with the oncoming rains from the Hurricane it is going to be a great Senior Portrait Season. My Seniors have always been distinctive primarily due to the fact that I only use a background once for each client. It belongs to them. I started this policy in the early 80's for two reasons. I wanted my Seniors to be distinctive  and I always wanted to keep myself continually searching for more challenges. I love this type of challenge as it keeps me at my best and every client image is different. Over the next few postings I will show you some images from the past as well as new clients after they make their selections. This is going to be fun........

Another story from Byron...

As many of you know, Byron Morgan and I had a company in the film business that was to produce some of his scripts in the late 70's and through the 80's. It was Byron that was responsible for getting me involved in the rescue of the Japanese hostages in 1990 that were being held in Baghdad. The story of that adventure is in an earlier installment here on the blog. I woke up yesterday with John Paisleys' name in the forefront of my mind. This is the story I got from Byron......

Byron went to California to partake in a program which was called Life Spring,  a series of self awareness classes and exercises. In the classes bonds were built between members present and Byron connected with John Paisley as well as several other individuals. Byron explained to Paisley that he was a writer/producer for NASA and Paisley said he worked in D.C. also. They exchanged phone numbers after the event so they could reconnect when they got home. Byron told me that he tried several times at the number Paisley gave him but was consistently told that there was no one there of that name. Byron was perplexed as one of the main points of the Life Spring event was honesty. Byron eventually wrote off  the meeting as "the way it was".

One afternoon Byron received a call with the other end of the line stating that he was John Paisley, and they needed to have lunch. Byron accepted and at the meeting Paisley told him that he was sorry he didn't reconnect but he couldn't because of his job. As far as anyone was concerned he didn't really exist, he worked for the CIA. Because of this and his responsibilities with the organization, he didn't reply to Byron's calls. Paisley went on to say that he had retired and now was free to meet, which they did on several occasions as they both had military backgrounds.

I was talking to Byron one day and this is where the story came from. I had seen in Time Magazine
that a body had been found a few days after a boat washed ashore in the Potomac not far from the Russian Embassy. It was the body of John Paisley and it was reported that he committed suicide. Because the body had been in the river for several days identification was made by dental records.
Byron went to the funeral and noticed three distinct groups attending, Friends, CIA, and a Life Spring group. Byron had a lingering set of questions concerning Paisley's passing. It was ruled a suicide with with a gunshot to the head. Byron thought that IF it was a suicide, Paisley would have burned the boat as part of the sendoff so to speak, and Paisley was shot in the back of the head. A few days after the funeral the Dentist that identified the dental records retracted he assessment. he didn't think the teeth matched Paisleys' records. Byrons'  assessment of the whole thing is that Paisley jumped the fence and joined the other side. Paisley was pretty idealistic according to Byron and may have thought he could have changed the course of history by his actions. We'll never know.`

The light......

I had an interesting series of conversations with a photographic friend of mine over the course of a week or so and it got me thinking. He was pretty blunt in the statement that the most recent images he had seen on the blog were low contrast and not much color. I disagreed in most cases, not offended, just thought it was a matter of inexperience and lack of vision on his part. I say that after looking at his images, large 30x 40's and smaller shots in bright light of race cars, tulip fields, and flowers. His eye saw a different subject in a different light. I will admit I shun direct sun but have used it to my advantage many times. I just like the quiet light. I'll do some more images today and post them today or tomorrow. Come back to see if you notice the difference.

And the Winner issssss....................

Ok................I love the muted color and the black that seems so soft. It's all in the lighting.

I'm satisfied.

Mushrooms revisited in white.....

Ok....I tried it again on the white background with  different"subject". A little broader smile this time but I still feel as though the black may be the way to go.

New Mush..they're everywhere !!

In spite of the devastating heat we have been having Mushrooms still continue to pop up. These came from a neighbors yard which could make them felony mushrooms as I didn't ask if I could take them......check out the police blotter if you don't hear from me. I tried the white on white instead of black and I don't think I'm truly happy with the result. I think today between sessions I'll try it on black with maybe some different lighting. Stay tuned in.....

Fire !!!

It seems as though I'll never learn..with the fires  50 to 75 miles away from us I didn't photograph the sky. It was absolutely amazing. The smell of burning wood with a tinge of man made material floating  through it, greyed the sky into a yellow green grey patch which can only spell disaster for someone. The sun was a faint light glowing white through the fog. I'll never forget the sight.

The new family.....again

We have had an amazing number of rabbits in the back yard ever since we moved in. I looked out yesterday and there were 4 hangin' out and as I looked at them I noticed they were nest building. These are some of the shots I took for the record and I'll keep you posted on their progress.