Camerosity

May 19, 2013



Always looking for talented and creative MUAs, hair stylists, wardrobe stylists and clothing designers to collaborate for the benefit of the portfolios of all parties.


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If you’re interested in working with me, I encourage you to read my profile.


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Fifteen years of professional photography wasn’t enough to get it out of my system, so I decided to do it again – starting on a part-time basis.

“One man's fantasy is another man's job.” – Richard Avedon

I started out in newspaper photography and did mostly news, sports and photos for models' portfolios (best of all worlds) before taking a job that I couldn’t refuse – which left no time for photography.

My previous experience was during the Film Era. Until the last weekend in September, 2011, the only cameras I had used for several years had been point-and-shoot digital cameras. The first two dozen images in my portfolio all made in my first weekend using a professional grade camera that didn't have film in it (or a digital camera that wasn't a point-and-shoot).

I spent the last three months of 2011 climbing the Photoshop CS5 learning curve and post-processing those first two dozen images (and looking for a studio to shoot in on a regular basis). Good post-processing is time consuming – and it's ridiculously so while you're learning the software.


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I’m doing portfolio development again. My rates are reasonable (which isn’t necessarily a synonym for cheap).

As I continue to build and round out my own portfolio (again), I will do limited and selective TF*/trade work as time permits, as long as it will benefit the portfolios of all parties. If I approach a model and invite her to do a shoot, I won’t be asking her to pay for it later. Models will be asked to sign releases for trade shoots.

I believe all parties should benefit equally from trade shoots, and all parties should get the types of images they want and need for their portfolios.

Different models have different career paths and different portfolio needs. I don’t automatically try to steer models toward glamour, nudes, implieds, lingerie or swimwear in paid or trade shoots. I will be glad to analyze the model’s port and help establish a direction and a general portfolio development plan or strategy.


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After a shoot, my goal is not to see how many images I can cram into a CD. It’s to produce 1-2 true portfolio-quality images for each wardrobe/hairstyle/background combination. You really don’t want more than one image from the same set in your portfolio anyway, unless they’re *very* different – do you?

I’d rather be shooting than post-processing, and I’d rather spend my time getting the absolute most out of the best images than post-processing second and third bests and trying to salvage the mediocre ones.

I don’t give out unretouched images. No exceptions. And I don’t allow others to retouch my images, with the occasional exception of a professional working under my direction.

Virtually all my prints and the vast majority of my negatives and transparencies after college were destroyed in a flood in 1986.

I've uploaded a b&w blast from the past for those who remember the Nikon F and Tri-X film – or wish they did. I remember them well. I shot the last image in my portfolio during my freshman year in college, ca. January 1966.

"If you remember The Sixties, you weren't *really* THERE." – Dean Martin, Jay Leno and others too numerous to list