For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on a series of images using a single light source. I mounted a single light on a boom and suspended it directly above the subjects. I also added just a little bit of spill on the black seamless paper at the back of the wall. Yesterday George came to look at the proofs from last week and I asked if I could use him for a quick test of the light set up to see the results. Everything was locked in where I wanted it, except I forgot to change the color balance back to studio strobe from shooting live theatre the other day. The first shot was stunning, resulting in an amazing mistake, adding a bluish cast to the overall exposure. Theater incandescent lights are rated at a color temperature of 3200K, measured in Kelvin; studio strobes are balance to simulate more of a daylight at about 5500K. The color temperature fluctuates depending on where you are shooting and is something photographers are always aware of when they are working in color. So the way the color temperature works is the lower the number on the chart the warmer the color of the light, for instance candle light is very warm at about 1900K, the higher the number the cooler the color temperature, open daylight can run upwards of about 6500K. Yes, it seems like a contradiction, as so much of photography does, but color temperature is read on an actual scale with the lower numbers actually starting in the red and yellows (warmer) to the higher numbers ending in deeper blues and purples (cooler). The settings on most cameras are now set to a standard icon that represents the closest to that color temperature for the situation you are in and neutralize the color temperature making it appear natural. A light bulb is for incandescent and the clouds for shade, a lighting bolt for strobe. Many new cameras automatically read the temperature and automatically set it.

So anyway, once we saw the result on George’s skin tones, we became very excited and began to explore the possibilities for about 20 minutes as he began to strip down so I could see how it was affecting his skin tones. The images are simple and the color works beautifully with his dark skin tones. It was a happy mistake. Sometimes we have to think outside the parameters of where we normally work. I tend to not work outside of them too much because I pretty much know where I want the final images to go, but when I was younger I did a lot of experimentation to understand all the possibilities, but then as we got older we tend to gravitate toward what eventually becomes our signature style, and we just begin to refine it. I tend to always shoot my images with just a slightly warmer color temperature than normal, which I have calibrated into my camera, because it feels a little richer and becomes more romantic and I love what it does to the skin tones and it also turned my gray walls into a warm greenish glow. It takes years to come up with a style to match your own personality and vision; but today I have moved in another direction. I will play with it and see what happens.

I spent the weekend putting together a profile and gallery for the Indiana artist Jim Ferringer. I have admired Jim’s work for a long time and aspire to create such beauty. After seeing the way this feature come together, I sense in my gut this website is going to become something quite remarkable. It seems that I put a lot of time into each part of it, but overall I love the cleanness of the final galleries. Jim’s work is a mixture of classic images and styles from every period conceivable and his portfolio so prolific that it was hard to choose which images to feature. I could distinctly see different movements in the work. This project seems to keep growing and becoming better as I hone and perfect it. It is amazing to get this close to other artists that I have admired and adored for so long.

I have been working on the image of George that I took earlier this week.  For the shoot I recreated the same light I had used for Seth the previous week because I have been working this concept of a single light source coming in from the left as the only means of light.  It is a very narrow channel of light, there was a second light set up with a snoot to create a specific high light on the backdrop for to highlight and separate the subjects.  It is amazing see how different the subjects are with almost identical lighting and how much the skin tones absorb that and refract that light.  On one it seems harsh while on the other it is smooth and even.  I often find a concept and explore the man variations of possibility within that idea.

I am beginning to censor the site by putting the full nude image in a restricted category.  You must register on the site to see the full effect of these images.  There is no extra charge, it is only there to make sure people who are not offended by the male penis and full frontal nudity get there by choice and not by chance.  To see the full effect of George’s images, that are more powerful fully exposed I recommend you register.  I have tired to make it as simple as possible.

I have not seen it snow like this in a very long time. We have had probably close to two feet up here to my studio in the Rattlesnake in the past forty-eight hours. I stayed inside all day yesterday and worked on the website. It is finally becoming what I envisioned from the beginning. The home page has been reworked. I have completed the galleries for the blog months of November and December. Giving people quicker and easier access to last year’s blog project. I have also begun adding images to The Naked Man Project Facebook page and posting some of the images on some of the Facebook feed galleries created by other artist. It’s getting a good response on a French feed.

I spoke to my father in Yuma last night; I had sent him a link to the feature Martin had given me in Enlightened Male 2000. He was quite moved by it as well. He said he was amazed what a good writer I was and how well I was to express myself. I could tell he was very moved. It is the first time I have sent him a link since the project began the beginning to last year. I have always been fearful to let him into my world and needed to work though issues of growing up throughout the year that I didn’t want to influence my thoughts if I knew he was following. He is the one person I need and what to get closer to.

Yesterday’s model didn’t show up, I suspect because of the snow but it turned into a prefect afternoon of catching up. I have Cheyenne back this afternoon to work on a new headshot and hopefully shoot with the new lighting scheme I am trying to fine tune. He will be prefect in this sort of light.

Things are moving so fast now it seems hard to keep up with them.  The site and my work are moving at sonic speed as I am finally beginning to feel a new rhythm. I have been adding new galleries and cleaning so much of the site up that I can finally begin to see some shape beginning to emerge.   I have most every afternoon of the week scheduled with some sort of shoot or activity.  I miss the old blog process but love the extra time I have in the mornings to catch up on everything.  So I have decided to just jot down notes of what’s going on, simpler thoughts so everyone can still follow my process and what I’m doing.  It was wonderful the have the break.  First of all I have been focusing on myself with those free mornings.  I have lost the excess weight I had gained from last year and am beginning to work out most mornings.  I am feeling a lot better about my physical self.  About a week ago I was featured on a blog called Enlightened Man 2000.  Martin Brant, a writer from Dallas, took many of my images and excerpts from many of the blogs to sort of paint a portrait of what the project had been.  I was both startled and deeply moved to see all this had actually come from me.  I’ve been having lunch and meeting with others from my community and beginning to see what a powerful process that blog has become.  I then met up with a guy named Seth and shot a new series of images.  It was the first shoot of the season and I feel my skills have jumped to a whole new level of work.  I feel more focused.  I have been in contact with old and new models and begun creating awesome new images.  I am still searching for models.  Yesterday I spent an extraordinary afternoon with George.  I am about to load those on the computer, we laughed so hard during the shoot that the bond was so strong I know they too will be fantastic.  My goal now it to try and dabble here most every day, simpler, easier, more like notes or personal thoughts.