Fire Attack Helo
An opportunity I had to fly alongside Ventura County Fire. They had just filled up from a lake below. A huge Thanks to my buddies who made this happen. That was a tremendous flight!
C-130 Parallel Parking
How good are you at parallel parking your car? Well how about parallel parking a C-130 Hercules!
Badwater Walking Dead
The “Walking Dead” in Death Valley. Actually tourists at Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level. On one of my photo excursions. Photographed with a Hasselblad digital camera system.
Jack Rabbit Homesteads
Drive too fast and you will miss them. Don’t get out of your car and explore, you won’t see what is there. “Jack Rabbit Homesteads” in Wonder Valley California. From one of my photo excursions.
The Small Tract Act of 1938 gave up to 5 acres of land to people. If they built a small home on it within 3 years, they could buy the land for between $10 – $20 per acre.
Train Station Budapest
A train station in Budapest I photographed on one of my days off from shooting on a motion picture for seven weeks.
The Road Rat #5
I just received the #5 edition of The Road Rat Magazine. Incredibly beautiful photography, wonderful historical photographs and superbly printed. Even shipping is top quality. One of the finest magazines I have seen in decades. Check it out at https://theroadrat.com
BodySpace Happy Town
One of a series I did for Bodybuilding.com “BodySpace” social media some time back. “BodySpace Physique Of The Month”, a series I photographed and wrote for Bodybuilding.com and also appearing in Iron Man Magazine monthly for three years.
Do watch this to the end. It will make you “Happy”. The videos like this one were produced around my photoshoots for the magazine feature, online features and print advertising. Thanks!
“Photo Conversations” Replay
Photo Conversation With Me
Coming up on Monday August 31 at 10am PST, very fun to be a guest on John Cornicello’s “Photo Conversations“. It is exciting to be included in an ongoing series that has featured photo industry luminaries such as John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Kevin Raber, Jack Reznicki, Lee Varis, Michael Newler, Benjamin Von Wong, Jeff Schewe, Jeff Dunas, Mac Holbert, Greg Gorman and more.
It is all free, so please join in and register in advance at https://cornicello.com/zoom It will also be on Facebook Live and YouTube. Thanks!
Red Lips
Studio photo shoot with model Aristodeme. Hasselblad digital camera system and Broncolor lighting. Thanks!
Model Aristodeme and her red lips.
“Blade Runner” 1982
Are you a fan of the 1982 motion picture “Blade Runner”? This is a very interesting look at it’s creation and cinematography. Do watch the videos at the end of the story. You will be happy you did. Click here… https://bit.ly/3h65Hcf
And if you are a photographer, there is much to learn from this, especially the videos.
Gym Photo Shoots
I sure do miss my gym photo shoots. Maybe we can get back to doing them again before next year. But for now going back in my archives, and I have a lot! Here with my best buddy Natalie Lyle. Makeup and hair styling by her too. Natalie actually started with me some years back right out of makeup school.
Natalie Lyle in the gym
Coming Up Tuesday
Chatting With Sherri With Me
My third “appearance” with “Chatting With Sherri”. Some of her broadcasts reach over one million downloads! August 11th at 1:00pm at http://tobtr.com/11788122 Thanks!
Chatting With Sherri welcomes back multi-talented photographer; Ian L. Sitren!
Ian L Sitren is a multi-talented photographer. He creates amazing pictures of athletes, models, actors and aircraft! “As a little boy I used to build military aircraft models and hang them from the ceiling in my room. Now I get to photograph them and fly in historic and military airplanes from World War II and many others.”
“My project about the Yiddish Theatre has it’s beginning with my own family. Uncle Izzy as he was known in our family, was one of the pioneers of the Yiddish Theatre along 2nd Avenue in New York City along with the famous Maurice Schwartz. The impact of the Yiddish Theatre through the Century and today reaches from Edward G. Robinson, Irving Berlin, and even Marlon Brando and so very much more. Indeed without the Yiddish Theatre even “Apocalypse Now” may never have been the motion picture it became.”
“Photo excursions started out a few years ago with me just looking for interesting shoot locations. Then a couple of my friends wanted to come along so they became road trips for the purpose of finding the odd and unusual. One of the guys in our group does paintings from his photographs and is now in galleries here in Southern California and Montana and has been in number of prestigious art shows. Another of our group has also been successful in art shows with his photographs, here and abroad. Art Patron Magazine last year did a story about our photo excursions.”
USAF Thunderbirds
When I was a kid, it was the United States Air Force Thunderbirds that captured my imagination. Guess they still do! Photographed by me at the Reno Air Races 2019.
Grafitti At Rock-A-Hoola
Some examples of the graffiti at Rock-A-Hoola, an abandoned waterpark east of Barstow in the Mojave Desert.
From a photo excursion in June 2018. Camera was a Fujifilm X-T1 using the Velvia film simulation. Lens was the Fujifilm XF 16-55 f/2.8.
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Rock-A-Hoola
Rock-A-Hoola, an abandoned waterpark, east of Barstow in the Mojave Desert. Built as a private resort in the 1950’s, opened to the public in 1962. Renovated and re-opened in 1998. In 1999 an employee using one of the slides into a partially empty pool became a paraplegic and was awarded $4.4 million in a payout. After various owners it closed for good in 2004.
From a photo excursion in June 2018. Camera was a Fujifilm X-T1 using the Velvia film simulation. Lens was the Fujifilm XF 16-55 f/2.8.
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert
Andy Summers – The Police
Jeff Dunas, the founder of the Palm Springs Photo Festival, kept announcing that we would have a surprise evening presenter back in 2009. A surprise it was, Andy Summers of the Police! Not only a rock star but a very talented photographer with a great eye for the moment.
It really was a great presentation that was a highlight of the all of the Palm Springs Photo Festivals I have attended since 2005. A part of his experience was something I often experience. Andy said he always had shot film but then decided to try digital. But he found that digital kind of left him empty and his photography went into a decline. He started with film again and Leica as I recall, and went back to his creativity and enthusiasm.
I got a copy of his book afterwards at the Festival party and talked with him briefly. I had him sign it to Rosie because she would have loved to have been there.
Yiddish Theatre Tickets 1956
The National Yiddish Theatre, built for Boris Thomashefsky, opened in 1912. Yiddish Theatres along Manhattan’s Lower East Side on 2nd Avenue brought cultural heritage and entertainment to the 1.5 million Eastern-European Jewish Immigrants at the turn of the century. The legacy of the Yiddish Theatre in music, motion pictures and American life reaches through the decades, even today.
My project about the Yiddish Theatre had it’s beginnings over a year ago but did not take hold until badly timed with our pandemic. However I continue to research and just acquired these actual theatre tickets from 1956.
The Leica Film Look
Going a different direction for some of my photography. Will be shooting some film in a Leica lllf camera. This camera was manufactured in 1952 or 1953. All manual and not even a light meter. I always loved the look of film shot in Leica cameras.
Velvia
Fujifilm Velvia has been one of my favorite films. Even when I shoot my Fujifilm X-Series digital cameras, I shoot RAW and Velvia film emulation. It was because of the photographs in this book that got me into it. I like the saturated colors and high contrast. And I will be shooting the film again too.
Walter Iooss is a long time photographer for Sports Illustrated. And the man who shot the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition for years.
Film Again
I always liked shooting film. Dwayne’s was the only film lab left still processing Kodachrome. I like many photographers saved our last rolls to get into Dwayne’s to be a small part of photography history.
Now in these changing times, I am going back to shooting some film for a change of pace and for the idea of going back to the history of photography. There is no more Kodachrome or Kodachrome processing but many films are in production and have been brought back in to production.
SecondFocus Blog 