Gary Ochoa.

One of my last posts was about an artist I'd been introduced to, Gary Ochoa.  He lives in a great place called the Santa Fe Art Colony, a place where artists live and work together in this old brick warehouse-turned-artists'-lofts.  We spent quite a while talking, and I was able to shoot away as we went.  I love the active feeling of these images versus the standard stationary portraits.  I'm looking forward to shooting more this way and seeing what develops.

 

 

 

James

James is a guy I just shot for my senior LGBT series.  What I like about this process is the chance to spend time with new people and get a chance to get to know them a little.  I've heard over and over -- and I'm learning now -- is the important part of the shoots are the relationships you build with your subject.

So I was in my photography studio (garage) the other night.  I had a number of different lighting concepts I'd thought of that I wanted to try.  Of course, during these impromptu shoots, I tend to be the easiest model to work with; I know what I want the model to do, and I don't have to talk to myself to keep me entertained (though I always enjoying spending time with me).  Anyway, as I went through the different ideas I wanted to work with, I'd needed a mirror in order to see how the light was hitting my face.  During one of my change-ups on the lighting, I'd set this little vanity mirror down on the ladder to keep it out of the way.  Looking from where my camera was, I loved the starkness of the simple image of the mirror sitting on that ledge; that's when I decided to play around with the concept of putting myself in the image through the reflection of the mirror. 

I must say that sometimes shots that look simple and easy to carry off end up being the ones that are a real pain in the neck.  Between struggling with the placement of several different light sources along with making sure to get just the right amount of face in there that I was looking for, along with not wanting to blow out any portion of the lit areas with too much light -- well, I tweaked it enough to where I got this shot that I was finally pleased with. 

Someone who saw the image said it was a very telling self-portrait.  I knew he got it as it does tend to represent the way that I have difficulties dealing with the world directly, and how sometimes I have to look at the world through indirect means.

You know, there's moments that something catches my eye and I have to stop and see what it is that's capturing my attention.  Late this afternoon I was coming home passing the local Blue Line metrorail near where I live.  It was a drizzly afternoon and the light was almost gone, and this lone metro train was passing by this deserted area.  I saw it in a number of different ways, but first I had to rush back home to grab my camera (yes, I know that it should have been in the car already!).  Of course, that one magical moment that I'd seen had passed, the lighting was different by the time I got back.  But since I was out there in the cold and wet already, I decided just to play with the scene a little. 

Now, on a winter, late afternoon Sunday, the train doesn't run that often, so I did have time to thoroughly enjoy the chill in the air and the mist dampening everything that wasn't under my umbrella.  Before I left, I was able to get a couple shots. 

When I got home, I was looking at the image, and I got into a playful mood and decided to do this black&white-on-color image.  The holidays are putting me into a playful mood letting me enjoy my fascination with all things fantasy and magical.

Gary Ochoa.

So the other day I went to shoot an artist, Gary Ochoa, painter/collagist, for the series I'm working on relating to LGBT seniors (50+).  Gary lives in this incredible environment called the Santa Fe Art Colony.  It's in an old warehouse district outside of downtown L.A.  This huge, old brick building along with some surrounding cottage-type spaces has been renovated so that there are quite a number of artists' lofts on multiple floors.  The loft I was in along with the various corridors to this place were incredible spaces with skylights throughout and interesting angles and textures throughout.   I loved the architecture and the varying use of different color temperatures 

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After photographing my subject in his studio, we meandered around the building finding several different locations to shoot.  Having taken up more of his time than I originally told him, we stopped, though I kept gathering ideas for a future shoot.  

As my subject and I were talking about art and looking at his work, I was moved by the idea that when we finish an art piece, it will live on long after we're gone -- assuming it's not damaged or destroyed.  In looking at the artist's huge collage pieces, I wanted to capture the piece's permanance along with just his essence showing how ephemeral our existence is.

As we were walking back to my car after a totally satisfying creative experience, we were passing a row of large individual studios.  I looked in the open door of one of the studios and saw this young female artist working in the middle of her space.  The studio was dark except for a small circly of light illuminating her at her table.  As I started to pass, I just had to go back and introduce myself to this young lady and ask if I could take her photograph.  Because of how dark it was outside and how I had originally framed the image, I had to use a very high ISO which gave the image quite a bit of noise.  Using one of the tools in Photoshop, I eliminated most of the noise, but this created a little softening of the image, almost giving it a "painterly" feel.  However, when I first passed her door, that is exactly how I saw the scene.

The last image was a fun shot of the artist and his studio space as seen through a concave mirror.



Tbis last summer I was at this outdoor concert where the artist was a wonderful woman singer by the name of Barbara Morrison.  It was the perfect time of day and I had a wonderful spot to take some photos.  Out of the series of images I did, I put these three together as a triptych, and I posted it shortly afterwards on my blog here.

I was recently contacted by a gentleman I don't know who owns a jazz club.  He came across my photo in searching for images of Barbara on the net, and he wrote to me asking for permission to use the photo for promo work relating to a gig she was doing at his club -- with credits, of course. 

Just when I think that no one ever looks at what I've been up to, something like this pops up that lets me know that there are connections with other people out there.  I'll just keep shooting what I love and let the universe take it from there.

Postscript - Olivia

This is little Olivia, who was born five weeks ago.  Back in August I posted a number of photos of the proud parents-to-be, Gina and Dan.  We talked about doing newborn photos of Olivia at around 10 days or so, which is the perfect age I understand for those gorgeous curled-up-sleeping-baby images.  However, due to certain complications and the new parents adjusting to their new lifestyle, I didn't get a chance to take any photos until Olivia was a month old.  She'd grown from the curled-up-sleeping-baby-makes-for-beautiful-baby-pictures to the squirming-kicking-crying-cantankerous stage.  I didn't want to wear mother or daughter out, so we just did a very short shoot.  In the middle of flailing arms, feeding, belching -- I mean burping, I did manage to catch her in a more quiet moment and got this image.  My hats are off to those professional newborn/baby/toddler photographers.  From what I've seen on YouTube, most of them are women, and they hover over Baby cooing and relaxing the baby in ways I was clueless about.

But I love new challenges and opportunities to shoot different things, and I wasn't about to say no to this wonderful opportunity.

Jean

I've been away from my photography for a short time -- life is happening!  But I find whenever I have my camera in hand, everything starts to fall into place.  It's what I use to focus on the here-and-now, and it helps to put perspective back into my life.

Jean is a wonderful woman I have known for almost three decades.  I live next door to her; and ever since her husband, Mel, passed away many years ago, Joe and I have watched out for her and made sure she is safe.  We've gone through so much good and bad together, we're this side of family. 

Jean's younger sister just passed away after a long illness, and on this day Jean was getting ready to go to her sister's memorial service, but she knew I've been wanting to shoot her for a long time and invited me over for a short photo session.  I could tell she was somewhat distracted, but she insisted we give it a try.  Now that we've gotten that initial shoot over with and she knows now that she doesn't have to be nervous, we're going to have many more sessions.  I want to give something to her -- and her family.

Vanara



I've wanted to shoot this young woman, Vanara, since I met her earlier this year, and we've talked about it a number of times.  The other night she and I ran into each other when I just happened to have my camera with me, so I asked if we could take a minute to do a couple shots.  These two shots were all I could get in during our chance meeting with a hurried search for a spot to shoot in, but I loved the way her face takes the light.  I can't wait until we actually get a chance to do a real shoot.

Portrait of a Dance - 3

This is the third week I went to watch the rehearsal of this performance-art piece being choreographed by a new friend, Rudy Perez.  This week I wanted to concentrate mainly on motion, and capturing what, to me, was the essence of the piece.  I didn't want to use fast shutter speeds to get sharp, crisp images that caught a movement cleanly, but rather using slower shutter speeds to capture longer moments of the dance in a single frame.  The piece itself is very abstract, and I wanted to experiment and play with getting more abstract images.

This week the artists went through the entire piece with the "music,"  which was more of long, drawn-out sounds and noises, at least to my untrained ear.  Watching them going through their movements was so interesting I had to keep reminding myself to shoot.  There isn't a theme or story to this piece that I've been able to discern, but one long piece where one motion flows into the next seamlessly. 

Of course, at the same time I also watched for "moments" to happen during and between the different sequences.  I'm intrigued by this particular series, though it may not speak to anyone else.  But I'm learning that is going to make my photography speak -- because of my own personal view of the world that no one else has.

While I was watching for movement, there were times I also saw other moments that I wanted to try to capture.  I'm enjoying this whole process because I find that I am totally immersed in the moment with the only thing in my mind is the dance.  After the first of the year I'm going to go back and continue to see what happens next.



 



Portrait of a Dance - 2

Post 2 of "Portrait of a Dance." 

I wanted to post this image from the series "Portrait of a Dance" that I've started.  What dancers have to endure in order to create movement amazes me.  When I look at a piece being performed, it all looks so effortless that I forget about the blood, sweat and tears that took place to make it look so easy.  There is such a tremendous strain on the dancer's body, and during this week's shoot I took time to examine the feet of these artists. 

The last image is one that I just couldn't justify converting into black and white.  I feel the colors and feel is just perfect this way.  Thanks, Mindy, for giving me an inspired moment.





Portrait of a Dance - 1

One of the series I'm working on is a portrait series of senior men and women.  Since I'm getting older myself, I've been interested in the aging process, and I have fallen in love with the mature face and the stories that form them.

I met Rudy recently, and he's a very interesting man.  He has spent his life in dance and performance art, and he invited me to come to a dance studio in Santa Monica where he is choreographing and rehearsing a performance piece along with a small company of dancers.  I first went to photograph him, but I was drawn to watching the rehearsal going on, and the movement was hypnotizing.  I started to shoot the rehearsal, and I'm going to go back over the next couple months to document more of the process of bringing this piece to performance.

Donald, 82.  An LGBT senior who doesn't look anywhere near his age.