Dr. Sketchy's...

A few weeks ago my girlfriend Shannon asked me if I would go with her to Dr. Sketchy's anti-Art School at Birdy's Bar here in Indianapolis. If you aren't familiar with Dr. Sketchy's, it's a Burlesque show where the models take poses and everyone takes a few minutes to try to sketch them out. In my case, and in the case of a select few others they allowed us to photograph the event.

Nikon D3s, 2500ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4G, 1/60th@F1.8

Not to say that I didn't sketch a few things out with Shannon as well as photograph the event, after all we went to spend some time together on top of doing an art related activity; but my sketches were so EPIC that I was asked not to post them here for fear that I would give the troop a bad image devalue the sketches.

There were a few other shooters there, Ryan Baxter whom I met at the Warehouse Photo workshop last year, as well as a guy named Don, whose business card I can't find at the moment but will try to remember to update with a last name later. It was a neat experience as I'd never actually seen a Burlesque show before, but the thing that really excited me was the fact that I was there under no deadlines, instructions, limitations (other than no flash) or any pressure to post the images anywhere. Very un-normal for me.

Nikon D3s, 2000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@185mm, 1/60th@F2.8

As it also turns out Shannon and my friend Nikki is joining the troop as well, so it looks like we'll be going back to see her perform. That night she was doing the job known as being the 'Stage Kitten', meaning she got to collect the things that the Burlesque Dancers dropped while they were on stage. Unfortunately due to different distractions, as well as a lack of spotlights while she was doing this I was unable to get a photo of her doing her job. Next time Nikki, Next time.

Nikon D3s, 4500ISO(EEK!), Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm, 1/60th@F2.8

That's Violet Phoenix from the Bloomington Burlesque Brigade. She was the special guest/model for the evening and she really genuinely seemed to enjoy what she did. Holding poses for anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes at a time is tough! If you don't believe me, you should try it out and see for yourself. I digress, though. It was quite the event, and it definitely helped me out with working on shooting things just for myself as I wanted to do in 2011. It's not something I concepted out, or had any control of; but whether I took the photos or not didn't matter. I was doing it because I wanted to just like this guy here using crayola crayons to sketch miss Violet.

Nikon D3s, 12,800ISO (hOly cOw!) Nikon 70-200F2.8VR@180mm, 1/60th@F2.8

Last night I gave the opening class lecture for the Advanced Portrait class at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. One of the things that I pushed to them was that their personal work would get them more gigs shooting than anything they shoot with a big name attached. I'm not sure that my night shooting at Dr. Sketchy's really qualifies as 'personal' work for me as it was just kind of an event coverage, but the fact that I was there shooting just to shoot under no real pressure from anyone or anything is a good start. I even broke the ISO barrier in as I very rarely take my camera above 800 normally... Welcome to 2011. More Soon.

Tourist Shooting...

Every now and then I'm given an opportunity to shoot like a tourist. By that I mean, I am given an assignment at a location and am told just to wander around and take photos of things. Just like a tourist. Last week I had scheduled to visit the IMA, right here in Indianapolis Indiana.



These kinds of assignments are nice because it's exactly as I mentioned earlier; I just walk around and shoot things, looking for the artsy stuff that show off the place that I'm at. The photo below shows a lot of the foliage that the IMA has to offer. The amount of Foliage is one of my favorite things about the IMA, as I like trees, grass, flowers, plants, and the like. Not that I could identify them, or that I grow them at home necessarily; I just like to see and smell them while they are in a large herd.



I like to call this style, shooting like a tourist, as the venue's are usually pretty beautiful and anybody with a cell phone camera could take a photo that's probably going to be pretty awesome. As I was there in tourist fashion I wish I'd have been able to visit my friend Kate, who works there as the New Media Manager. Unfortunately there wasn't time to see her, and I ended up wandering the gardens alone chasing butterflies as if they were cars. These places need photos too though, just like sugar cubes, cardboard boxes, or tiny screws. People love going to these places because they aren't like normal. They aren't the inside of a cubicle, they aren't the back of a pickup truck,and they most certainly aren't cutting the grass.


Overall it was a nice day to wander around. Take a bit of a departure from doing the little logistical paperwork things that fill up the down times in the profession as a photographer. It was nice to go and do something mindless, nice to take time to smell the flowers, if you will. More Soon.

Artistic Blog

It was brought to my attention recently that I don't post a lot of my more artistic works; either on my website or anywhere for that matter. This blog entry is dedicated to remedying that I suppose as the most recent to tell me this was my friend Dr. X.



Primarily a debate was launched about the difference between photographic styles. Dr. X Fancy's himself as a much much more artistic style photographer, experimenting with Depth of Field abstract forms and ect ect. Dr. X makes me realize that having a release is very necessary in order to survive having a profession that is 95% of the rest of the worlds Hobby. In honor of Dr. X's and my conversation I give you a few of: My Trees.




As shooting info, the first image of the blog was shot with a Canon 1D Mark II ISO 200, 1/50th at F14 @16mm. THe second image in the blog was the Nikon D3 320ISO 1/40th sec, 28-70mmF2.8@58mm F2.8. The last frame was the Nikon D3 ISO 100, 28-70mm@70mm F16, 17minute and 4 second exposure.

Why do I shoot trees? I have no idea. It just started one day on a shoot for the newspaper when I saw one, that I simply had to photograph. It was a strange thing, but that's how it happened. I don't go looking for my trees, but if I see one I definitely take a minute to snap a few frames. It's not that Tree's are my only outlet for creativity it's just the one thing that I do for no purpose. I shoot the Trees just to shoot them. Not for anyone but myself. I have this one hanging as a 24"x36" hanging above my computer at home:

(Nikon D3, 500ISO 60mm AF-S Macro @F10 1/60th)

I want to thank Dr. X for showing me that just because you shoot something just to shoot it doesn't mean someone may not want to see it. I'd never really thought about selling prints of my trees, or setting up a gallery out there for people to see. Maybe someday if I have quite a few of them I can make a coffeetable book out of them or some jazz. I don't know. I've got about 15 of them now, so slowly but surely I suppose. We'll see if I even find any more to shoot after this. That would be my luck anyway now wouldn't it?

Anyway, this week is more Bartenders. I'd post one, but I've got about 30 left to shoot this week, and that sounds like a nice surprise for next week. Next week also I've got another Roller Derby calendar shoot. Speaking of the Roller Derby, last night was the end of season Banquet. I was awarded the "Quentin Tarantino" award. 'd say it was coveted, except I don't think it existed until about 8pm last night. I also am not positive as to what it means, but all I have to say is: COOL! THANKS LADIES! Exciting week ahead indeed. Until then though, I leave you with one of Dr. X's shots. Instead of Trees, he shoots doors. More soon.


(Photo by Dr. X)