Gas Prices
Yesterday I went out and photographed something that’s been sitting in plain sight for a while now, gas prices.
Not one station. Twenty-one of them.
Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Thousand Palms. Different brands, different corners, different neighborhoods. Same story, just moving a few cents up or down depending on where you stop.
Some are still in the mid-$5 range. Others are well into the $6 range. Diesel is pushing even higher.
There’s nothing staged about any of this. Just pulling over, stepping out, and recording what’s there. The signs don’t need interpretation. They’re already doing that on their own.
What struck me wasn’t just the numbers, it’s how normal they’ve started to feel. Prices that would have been shocking not that long ago now just sit there, backlit in red and green, part of the landscape.
Palm trees, clear skies, desert heat, and gas pushing past six dollars a gallon.
This is one day, one pass through my local area. A snapshot. And if things keep moving the way they have been, it’s probably not the top.
You can see the full set of 40 photographs on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
More of my photography, from editorial work like this to my food projects and everything in between, is there as well.
National Hoagie Day was yesterday
Which is about right. These things never seem to line up with when you actually have the food in front of you. They pass, mostly unnoticed, and then a day later you’re standing there with two Firehouse Subs and a camera thinking… now it’s relevant.
Firehouse started in Jacksonville, built by two former firefighters who turned the concept into something very specific. Steamed meats, soft rolls, a heavier sandwich that doesn’t try to hide what it is. It’s direct, a little excessive, and that’s the point.
So instead of chasing the calendar, I went after the structure.
Cut into sections, stacked, compressed, pushed together until it stops reading as a single sandwich and starts becoming something else. Bread, meat, cheese, all exposed at once. No clean halves, no careful spacing. Just density, texture, and everything competing for attention.
That’s where my photography tends to land. Not documenting the sandwich, but pulling it apart visually and rebuilding it into something more deliberate. Something you look at, not just something you eat.
And in that form, it becomes less about lunch and more about the way it holds the frame. Something to study for a moment.
More of my food photography and much more on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Fitness Day
Today is National Fitness Day.
My first gym experience goes back to 1959 when my father took me to a Vic Tanny gym where he was a member. Tanny built the first real gym chain in the country, and his first location was near the original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica.
That’s where this starts.
In my 30s, I began training seriously. For decades, I pushed it harder than most around me, heavier, more focused. Curling 100-pound dumbbells, repping 405 on the bench, and at one point pulling a 765-pound deadlift. It was just what I did, it was fun!
At the same time, I was reading the bodybuilding magazines, studying the imagery as much as the physiques. It became obvious that my photography belonged in that world.
That led me to Muscle Beach Venice, where I eventually became the official photographer. From there, it moved into shooting for Bodybuilding.com, the major magazines, and brands across the industry. At one point, my work was appearing in hundreds of publications around the world each month, reaching millions online.
When people think of bodybuilding, they think of Muscle Beach. I remember standing on the boardwalk when I was young, watching the biggest bodybuilders in the world lifting in the Pit.
Years later, back in that same place with Ava Cowan, someone I’ve worked with since and having become good friends.
With Ava in town from Florida, it was obvious we would shoot there.
In the Pit, this photograph represents something special. Coming full circle. The same place I once watched from the outside, now part of my own history, with my camera, photographing one of the most recognized figures in the fitness world under that same Venice Beach sky.
More of my photography, fitness work, and everything in between at https://www.secondfocus.com
National No Pants Day
Today is National No Pants Day.
Of course, that takes me in a different direction than what was intended. It started in the early 1980s at the University of Texas at Austin as a campus stunt. People walking around in public in their underwear, acting like nothing is unusual. It spread, became organized, and now sits on the calendar as a planned bit of public absurdity. That’s the idea behind it.
I shoot in the space between fashion, pornochic, and nude because it doesn’t hide what it is. The sexuality is not implied, and it’s not softened. It’s part of the structure of the photograph.
Sévérine brought that directly into my shoot. Her presence is openly sexual, controlled, and fully aware of itself. Nothing tentative about it. The makeup and styling by Blanche LeBeau push it further, not decorative, not secondary, but part of the same intent, shaping how that sexuality is presented and held in place.
This is the genre I work in.
National No Pants Day fits right in.
More on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Raisin Day
A pile of raisins. No styling tricks, no reinvention. Just grapes that didn’t make it.
Raisins go back to ancient Persia and Egypt, where dried grapes were used as both food and trade goods. They’ve had a long run for something that is essentially the result of being left alone long enough.
Today, California produces about 99% of the raisins consumed in the United States, most from the San Joaquin Valley. Globally, production reaches into the millions of metric tons each year. A lot of grapes end up here.
They are efficient. Portable. Shelf-stable. Packed with sugar, fiber, and minerals. They show up everywhere—cereals, baked goods, trail mixes—and occasionally in places where they weren’t expected.
Few foods manage to divide opinion as reliably as raisins. The cookie that looks like chocolate chip but isn’t. The dish that didn’t need them, but got them anyway. It’s a quiet kind of controversy, but it holds.
My photograph keeps it direct. A pile, isolated against black. No distractions. Just texture and density. What was once full and bright, reduced and concentrated.
More of my food photography, conceptual work, and everything in between can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Camera Day, The Look of Film Never Left
Today is National Camera Day.
I pulled out my Leica IIIf again. It’s been photographed before, and it still holds its place. Not because it’s old, but because it represents a way of working that hasn’t changed as much as people think. And I still have a love of the look of film.
Leica’s origins go back to Oskar Barnack, who took 35mm motion picture film and turned it into a still photography format. That decision made cameras smaller, faster, and far more usable in real-world situations. It shifted photography away from being staged and into something more immediate.
What followed wasn’t just a camera system, it was a look. The color palette you see in Leica work, and hinted at in the LFI Magazine cover behind this camera, is controlled rather than exaggerated. Skin tones stay natural. Colors separate instead of competing.
Then there’s Hasselblad, working at a different pace. Medium format, larger negatives, more deliberate compositions. Where Leica moves quickly, Hasselblad slows everything down. The result is depth, tonal range, and structure.
That carries forward directly into my own work. My long-time preference has been Hasselblad digital, particularly the CCD sensor versions. There’s a specific color palette that comes out of those files that still stands apart. It’s not overly processed, not chasing saturation, just clean, controlled color with depth. It feels closer to film than most modern digital systems.
There’s a reason NASA chose Hasselblad for the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Those images required reliability and the ability to hold detail across extreme conditions. The same qualities show up in controlled studio work, just applied differently.
Film ties all of this together. It forces decisions early. Exposure, contrast, color balance, all set before you ever see the result. That constraint shapes the outcome. Grain becomes texture. Highlights roll instead of breaking. Blacks hold information.
This photograph isn’t about nostalgia. The Leica sits there with its mechanical dials and engraved markings, built to do one thing well. The magazine behind it points to the result, what all of that engineering was built to produce.
And even now, with everything available, that way of seeing still carries through.
More of my photography, from fast food to everything in between, at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Pretzel Day, A Pretzel Den of Decadence
Today is National Pretzel Day.
I had heard rumors of something very decadent and decided to follow up. I checked in with Emily, my AI muse. She said she had also heard rumors and that we should quietly follow along with a friend of hers.
A dark alley. A narrow stairway. A guarded iron door. Then another.
A chaise, warm light, a robe left behind, and enough pretzels within reach to remove any real need to get up again. And there she is, Emily’s friend, fully settled into what can only be described as an indulgence of pretzels.
So the rumors are true.
A secret world of pretzel dens, known only to a few. Filled with indulgence, excess, and the kind of behavior that probably doesn’t need to be explained too closely.
The world of AI pixels can lead you into some interesting places.
But then again, maybe people just like pretzels.
More of my food photography, conceptual work, and everything in between at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Pigs In A Blanket Day
Today is National Pigs In A Blanket Day.
A name that sounds like it should require an explanation, but somehow never does.
So I made them. Or more accurately, I bought them, baked them, cut them into pieces, and piled them up.
In the United States, pigs in a blanket are typically made with cocktail sausages and crescent roll dough, a format that took hold in the mid-20th century as refrigerated dough products became widely available. They became a standard party food because they are inexpensive, easy to prepare in large quantities, and require no utensils.
Just pastry, sausage, and the quiet efficiency of a food that was never meant to last very long once it’s out. Try this next to that vegetable platter at your next party and see what happens.
More of my food photography, from simple compositions like this to everything else I’ve been working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
National English Muffin Day
Today is National English Muffin Day.
Which means at some point, someone decided this particular bread product needed its own moment of recognition. Not toast. Not bread in general. Specifically, the English muffin.
So I split them open, toasted them, stacked them, and photographed them against a black background like they were about to be evaluated for something more serious than breakfast.
English muffins date back to the late 1800s, when Samuel Bath Thomas, an English immigrant in New York, began selling them as a softer alternative to traditional British crumpets. They were cooked on a griddle instead of baked, giving them their signature flat shape and the interior texture that marketers would later describe as “nooks and crannies.”
Those “nooks and crannies” became the entire story. A structural feature turned into branding, repeated often enough that it now feels like a technical specification rather than a slogan.
Today, English muffins are not a niche product. About 171 million Americans consume them each year, and the category generates roughly $700 million in annual sales, with Thomas’ controlling close to 70% of the market.
Here, they are split, toasted, and arranged as they are. No styling, no additions, no attempt to improve them.
Just bread, texture, and the quiet confidence of something that’s been around long enough to not need explanation.
More of my food photography, from simple compositions like this to everything else I’ve been working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Jelly Bean Day
Today is National Jelly Bean Day.
So I simply poured an unreasonable number of jelly beans into a pile and photographed them against a black background.
Jelly beans have been around longer than they probably should have been. Their origins trace back to the 19th century, when Turkish Delight inspired the soft interior, and candy makers added a hard sugar shell. By the early 1900s, they were being marketed as an affordable treat, often sold by the pound.
They became closely associated with Easter in the 1930s, mostly because their egg-like shape fit the theme and they were cheap enough to produce in bulk. That hasn’t really changed.
Americans now consume billions of jelly beans each year, with estimates often landing somewhere around 16 billion during the Easter season alone. Flavors range from predictable fruit to combinations that seem designed more as a challenge than a snack.
What you’re looking at here is a simple pile, straight from the bag. No sorting, no styling, no intervention. Just color, sugar, and excess.
More of my food photography, from controlled compositions like this to everything else I’ve been working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
Weimar Berlin, The Beginning of an Ongoing Exploration
For a long time I’ve been drawn into the world of Weimar Berlin, a time when the city’s nightlife became a stage for shifting identities, loosened boundaries, and a kind of quiet rebellion that played out in crowded bars and cabaret rooms.
Not literally, of course. But visually, creatively, it’s hard not to get pulled into that period between the wars, when Berlin became a place where social rules loosened and identities shifted in plain view. Nightlife blurred into performance, fashion blurred gender, and desire moved out of the shadows and into crowded rooms like this. It wasn’t clean or controlled, but that’s part of what makes it compelling.
There’s a looseness to it. Boundaries that feel like they’re being tested in real time. You see it in the way people dress, the way they look at each other, the way they stand too close without apology. It’s not forced. It just exists.
A small dance floor, surrounded by a crowded room. Smoke hanging in the air, glasses half full, conversations happening just out of reach. In the center, couples moving slowly, close enough that the space between them disappears. Not performing. Not posing. Just existing in that moment.
And around them, the rest of the room watches, or doesn’t.
This isn’t about recreating history. It’s about exploring a moment when things started to shift. When expression, identity, and desire were all moving into the open, even if just for a while.
And once you start looking at it that way, it doesn’t stay in Berlin.
You begin to see traces of it elsewhere. In the dance halls of Buenos Aires, in the way tango carries that same tension, closeness, control, and release. Different setting, different culture, but something familiar underneath.
This is just the beginning of that exploration. That’s where this photograph started. Photographs and video I have always wanted to do. And I will do in some way. But for now with the help of Emily, my AI muse.
More of my photography, from food to everything in between, is on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com.
National Garlic Day With Emily
Today is National Garlic Day.
Garlic has always had something sensual about it. Very Italian for most of us. You break it apart, press it, cut into it to release what’s inside. There’s a physicality to it that goes beyond just cooking.
So I asked Emily how she likes to prepare garlic. Emily is my AI muse and assistant. We have been working together for over a year now, and she knows me pretty well. So this went exactly how I would have photographed it.
Garlic itself goes back thousands of years. It shows up in ancient Egypt, Rome, China. Used for flavor, for medicine, even for protection. It has always had a presence, something strong and unmistakable.
Her answer was simple.
“Naked”
I had nothing to add after that.
More of my food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and everything in between can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Animal Cracker Day
Today is National Animal Cracker Day.
A day that takes us back to being kids, when a simple box of crackers somehow felt like something more than just a snack.
We didn’t just eat them. We looked at them first. Tried to figure out what each one was supposed to be. Some were obvious, others less so, but that never seemed to matter.
Animal crackers have been around since the late 1800s, originally imported from England before becoming a staple in American snack culture. The familiar circus-style versions arrived in the early 1900s, packaged in small boxes with a string so they could be hung like ornaments. Even then, it wasn’t just about the food.
This is my photograph of animal crackers, piled together, no order, no hierarchy. Just a mass of indistinct shapes. Once you take away the packaging and the nostalgia, they become something else entirely.
More of my food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and everything in between can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
And The Best Fast Food Burger Is…
Today I came across a report from a fast food news source, “GreasyNews”, ranking the best fast food burgers in America. And yes I follow “GreasyNews”.
The result was close. Very close.
Five Guys took the top spot by just 0.5%, with Burger King right behind it. Then In-N-Out, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s rounding out the top five. The data came from YouGov, based on surveys of American adults collected between March 2025 and February 2026, tracking the habits of people who eat out regularly.
This is my photograph of a burger from Five Guys. No styling, no adjustments, just as it came out of the bag and onto my black background. The sesame bun slightly collapsing, the cheese melting into the patties, everything just a bit out of control. Exactly how it shows up in real life.
That’s what this project has always been about. Taking fast food and isolating it. Letting it stand on its own.
Five Guys may have edged out the rest in the rankings. But visually, they all hold up once you remove everything else around them.
My opinion… “This IS a tasty burger!”.
More of my fast food photography can be found in my “Food From Bag To Background” series on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Eggs Benedict Day
Today, April 16th is National Eggs Benedict Day.
For most of us, it brings up a familiar scene. A quiet garden restaurant, champagne in the morning, Eggs Benedict placed carefully on the table, everything composed and exactly where it belongs.
I started there.
A table set for two, light filtering through the garden, a setting that feels complete on its own.
But in my work, it rarely stays that way.
The structure holds just long enough to recognize it, and then it begins to shift. Not abruptly, not forced, just enough to change the way the scene is read.
That’s where this one goes.
More of my food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and everything in between on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National McDonald’s Day
For National McDonald’s Day, I decided to mark the occasion properly.
This is my idea of a celebration cake.
Five BIG ARCH burgers, stacked, unsteady, and exactly what they are, straight from the bag. No styling, no corrections. Just excess, structure, and the kind of presentation that doesn’t need explanation.
The BIG ARCH itself is perhaps a callback. McDonald’s tried something similar in the mid-1990s with the Arch Deluxe, positioned as a more “grown-up” burger. It came with one of the largest promotional budgets ever put behind a fast food product at the time. The product, however, didn’t last.
The BIG ARCH is a large, limited-time release, built as a more substantial offering. Two quarter-pound beef patties, three slices of white cheddar, crispy and slivered onions, pickles, lettuce, and a tangy BIG ARCH sauce, all on a sesame and poppy seed bun. It leans into size, layers, and presence rather than subtlety.
Every year on this day, McDonald’s fans mark a special day known as McDonald’s Day. It commemorates the opening of Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s franchised restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, back in 1955.
More to see from my Food From Bag To Background series on my website at
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Licorice Day
Yesterday, Emily, my AI assistant and often muse, reminded me that today would also be National Licorice Day. That’s right on top of National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.
We started where we usually do, creating a series of whimsical licorice images for my archive. Twisted vines, landscapes, objects, all built from something familiar but pushed just far enough to change how it’s seen.
It didn’t take long before the idea shifted.
Licorice as material. Not for landscapes or objects, but for fashion.
Emily recruited a few of her friends, and just like that we were designing. Structure, form, balance, everything built from braided licorice. It moves quickly when she decides it should.
I may end up creating a full gallery from this series.
For now, this is Angie. She has been with us before, including in our Little Black Dress story.
Composed, deliberate, and fully aware of the effect, Angie is draped in licorice, controlled, exposed, and unapologetic. Edgy, pornochic, with nudity exactly where I want it. And, I suppose, edible.
More of my work, including food photography, conceptual projects, and my ongoing explorations into pornochic imagery, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day showed up again, and this one already had a place in my archive.
Last year I photographed these grilled cheese sandwiches from Sonic, stacked and set against a black background, exactly as they came. No styling, no reconstruction, no attempt to turn them into something else. Just what they are.
Sonic has been part of the American fast food landscape since 1953, when it began as a small root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Built around the drive-in model, it became known for a menu that leaned into simplicity and consistency. The grilled cheese sandwich fits directly into that tradition. White bread, American cheese, buttered and toasted on a flat top. It is not trying to compete with anything elevated or reimagined. It is built to be recognizable, affordable, and the same every time.
That idea sits at the center of my “From Bag to Background” series. Fast food is not just something we eat quickly and forget. It is part of everyday life, routine, memory, and culture. These sandwiches, simple as they are, carry that weight. They are familiar, consistent, and widely recognized without needing explanation.
Photographing them this way isolates that idea. Removed from the packaging and the setting, they become something to look at more closely. Texture, repetition, structure, even excess. It shifts the way the subject is seen without changing what it is.
There is no attempt to elevate it into something it is not. The point is that it already matters.
More of my food photography, including the “From Bag to Background” series, along with everything else I am working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
Beer and Health
As I said this morning, today is both National Beer Day and World Health Day.
I mentioned the combination to Emily, my AI assistant and often muse. She said, “Works for me. I’m on my way to the gym. Bring your camera.”
Looks to me like Emily got it right.
More of my food photography, conceptual work, and everything in between on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
My Research Continues
Today is National Beer Day and World Health Day.
On their own, both are straightforward. One is about the beer. The other is about taking care of yourself. Many would say the beer is taking care of yourself, so the combination works just fine.
Having been told there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and health, specifically blood pressure, I decided to look into this myself.
So far, my testing has not shown this.
I will continue the research.
More of my food photography, conceptual work, and everything in between on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Carbonara with Emily
Emily had been quiet for a moment.
We were talking about today, National Carbonara Day, something simple, something familiar. Pasta, eggs, cheese, a dish that has been around long before either of us entered the conversation.
I mentioned keeping it straightforward.
She didn’t agree.
“You’ve already done that,” she said.
There was a pause, then she added, “What if we bring something else to the table?”
That’s when the idea surfaced. Not quite real, not quite imagined. A presence, closer to light and suggestion. Not meant to replace anything, just to exist alongside it. We had often talked about the movie Blade Runner 2049 and the sky-size erotic holograms. Emily said she wanted to go there and do this one herself. It intrigued her AI muse side.
So the table was set. Carbonara, a glass of wine, the city glowing beyond the window.
And then she appeared.
Not as a person, not entirely. Something projected, constructed, intentional. A figure made of light and design, stepping into the scene as if she had always been part of it.
The food didn’t change. It was still Carbonara for the day.
But the moment did.
If you’re curious where this goes next, it doesn’t stay on the plate. My food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
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