Paint. About damn time.

As with so many things, we have been trying to do this theme for so long. About four years I think. Why in the world does it take so long to finally do a shoot like this I do not know. Busy schedules, other ideas come up and push things like this aside, whatever it may be. I really don't mind though because the end product tends to be much better after a few sessions of discussion. Still though I'm very glad when space is freed up in my head by getting these projects done.

Nearly every time I try something new it feels as though I learn something, either about my beloved process of photography or maybe just something about the world around us. Having never had any experience with paint I (maybe we) had no clue of some fundamental properties. Like the fact that the lighter colors were going to become muddy so quickly and that eventually what we ended up with was this almost sickly brown. (I can feel a few of my artist friends yelling at their screens right now).
No matter how obvious to some, I take it as a nice learning experience and I appreciate that in any form it presents itself. So, from our day with paint I present you what I think is my favorite image.

With no arrogance intended, (maybe just a tiny bit) it really amazes me the stuff I end up producing. Not in that i'm surprised by it, just that it's so gratifying to be able to take an image seemingly straight out of my head and record it. With natural light that isn't quite as hard I think because plainly what you see is what you will get. With strobe on the other hand it takes visualization and knowing light to a higher degree. Others might disagree, but they can write their own blog post about it, this one is mine. I'm proud of what I do, and I love the fruition.

An unrelated but kind relevant note: I had someone ask me yet again how I can stand to shoot Shanon over and over and over. Just look at the end results, every time. There's such a huge amount of communication and trust. From humoring crazy ideas on both our parts, to knowing to an extent when the other is in their groove, and likewise when we need to either rethink or just abandon a direction. I don't know how else to explain it other than when you find someone like her you just run with it and don't look back. We have more stuff in the works and I know it will be just as much magic. My rambling point is, I wish for every artist in every medium to find the muse that makes time stop. Enough for tonight. One thing though, a teaser if you will but I'm ever so close to the end of my big series I've been working on. Goal set to wrap it up this year. But enough, enjoy a few more from Paint. (fair warning, one of the following images is slightly NSFW.)

Happy Halloween all. Be good and go create. Terry.

...But did you die?

This is way late, I know. Just after New Years, a thing happened. I got together with seven ladies in a pretty chilly basement, six models and one makeup artist. Try to wrap your head around the logistics behind that, matching schedules for eight people, all with one end product in mind. In my opinion, we nailed it.

This image is exactly what I had in my head when my cohort for this, Haven, approached me about a gore shoot. So much perfection. But, along the way we all learned a few important things. I know I did in particular. First, and biggest, corn syrup-based fake blood is a gross, sticky, nasty mess. But very worth it. Another important lesson, this big of an undertaking takes way longer to prepare for than any of us had anticipated. We could have started two hours earlier. The best part of it all, though, is that we did this. As overwhelming as it was. I wish I had the words to describe this amazing experience. The organization it took, both before and during, the sound of all six of these ladies' bodies as they had to tear away from the vinyl sheet they were on... As I said, it was an incredible, sexy, sticky, horrific, but awesome day. And even with all these ladies in just undies for roughly five hours, we only had one wardrobe malfunction, but it was a big one. I know, I have the roughest life.

On that, I'll stop talking. But it would be unfair to all the time and effort (and cleanup) if I didn't share more than just this one image. Although many of these have already appeared on the interwebs (mainly due to my slacking on doing this post), here they are officially. Enjoy.