Photography by Ian L. Sitren

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Sexy Back

Interesting how a photo by model Nora Zainglein of herself in a photo on the back of my camera could be so very sexy!

Makeup and Hair Styling by Blanche Lebeau. On a Hasselblad digital camera system. At Bombay Beach at the Salton Sea.

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PSPF 2017

My gorgeous buddy Gabriella Muttone and myself (who should stay behind the camera) here for the opening of the Palm Springs Photo Festival all this week. A wonderfully talented photographer herself, Gabriella is also a professional model who has been in front of my cameras twice, including last week at the Redbury Hotel in Hollywood. Those photographs soon! Thanks and now I will get behind the camera again.

Gabriella_Me-PSPF-2

In Tune With Harmoni

In tune with my buddy Harmoni Everett at the Hasselblad Broncolor Pro Solutions Workshop this last Tuesday at Siren Studios in Hollywood. She was kind enough to leap about (a lot!) in front of a Broncolor Para 177 reflector powered by a Broncolor Scoro while I pushed the shutter button on a Hasselblad H6D-100c 100 megapixel camera.

By the way, Harmoni is one super duper photographer herself. Check her out on her Instagram here. And she has quite the film history too as an actress and more, her profile at IMDB here. Lucky me, the only time I have ever been in tune!

Hasselblad H6D Test

Just Lounging By The Pool

She lounged by the pool and I shot photographs. The result of good planning. A sexy and edgy photo shoot destined for an editorial series. Model Noel VanBrocklin, photographer me and my Hasselblad digital camera. Thanks!

Noel VanBrocklin Poolside

 

Flying High!

So very fun! Video from my flight on this B-17 Flying Fortress this last Monday. Did you know I am also the photographer for the Palm Springs Air Museum and also now do their social media! How cool is that! And you thought I only photographed guys with muscles in the gym and beautiful women.

Bold!

The adventure around Salton Sea continued with my new friend Nora Zainglein, a fashion model from New York City. If you look back on my Blog you will see that I found her dancing around a pole in the middle of nowhere. All true of course! So after the part where she didn’t hear me and the black lingerie we moved on. Her, me, her little suitcase of clothes, my Hasselblad camera and luckily her makeup and hair styled by super duper Estee Lauder star Blanche LeBeau.

Next stop was Bombay Beach which is a little hard to describe. Maybe call it post-apocalyptic chic? With my favorite dive restaurant, the Ski Inn where some people might refuse to stop, but that would be a mistake. Even the famed Anthony Bourdain stopped and shot a segment of his Travel Channel show “No Reservations” there!

However back to my photo shoot with Nora who had now changed into what I guess we would call lingerie or underwear perhaps. We had already shot in a one piece black swimsuit and then a black corset with black garter panties and black nylons. Why would I now be surprised about a bra, panties and long net pantyhose. As I came to learn, Nora is just a little more bold that I had first expected or anticipated.

And that made it sure fun! If you follow my photography, you know I do have a preference for more bold, shall we say. Just scroll through my Blog. So I can say I am loving Nora! Guessing you are loving Nora too by now! And more to come…

Nora Zaenglein

Black Lingerie Salton Sea

More of this amazing tale, all true I promise! My new friend, model Nora Zainglein from NYC had this small suitcase with her with clothes. I showed her this shoreline at the Salton Sea and she said she knew just what to wear to do some photo shooting. I just said OK and within a few minutes she had changed by the car and we went off and started shooting.

If you read my prior post about how we met and then how she didn’t hear me, you know more about the day so far. You see other photographers going on with simple statements and direction to models during a shoot but Nora was doing just great all by herself. I had heard from someone who knows, super duper Esteee Lauder MUA, Blanche LeBeau who styled her that morning, that Nora as a model is the “real deal”. So we actually just had some talk getting to know each other.

It crossed my mind wondering how Nora decided to pick gorgeous black lingerie to wear at such an odd place as the shoreline of Salton Sea, so I brought it up. I think here Nora was explaining that it just seemed so obvious to her, obviously the right thing to wear for the moment, or maybe all the time. Looked really good through the viewfinder of my Hasselblad camera. So I could not disagree!

Nora Zaenglein

 

She Didn’t Hear Me

If you read my prior post just below, you know about my chance meeting with Nora Zainglein at the Salton Sea. Also especially lucky that I had my Hasselblad camera with me. Just one of those things when you meet a New York City fashion model dancing around a pole on a vacant road. It is all true! Trust me!

So we drove down a dirt road I know which takes you to a somewhat hidden way to get on the shore of the Sea. Nora seemed to have a wardrobe idea for this spot and changed by the car. Makeup and hair had been somehow perfectly readied by the premier Estee Lauder artist Blanche LeBeau.

No one there of course and the Salton Sea was beautiful in it’s usual eerie sort of way. Noon and the Sun was high and the temperature hot. Nora embraced the feel and view of it all. Just having been in Manhattan the day before made it quite the scenic change for her. Amused by the long line along the shore of mummified Tilapia, I was sure that thoughts of lunch were not on her mind.

Walking along she raised her face to the Sun and closed her eyes. I said “Nora what are you thinking about?”…  She didn’t hear me.

More to come…

Nora Zaenglein

 

 

It’s All True!

So this is the story, it is all true, I promise!

I was driving down to the Salton Sea, and just past the International Banana Museum I see this girl kind of dancing around this pole. So of course I stop and figured I would check things out. She tells me her name is Nora Zainglein and that she is a model from Manhattan, as in New York City, who has been modeling for ten years and worked for Calvin Klein and Forever 21 and others. Well around the Salton Sea, the unusual does happen.

Lucky for me I had my Hasselblad camera with me so I asked if I could shoot some photos. She said, well that sure is a big one so go right ahead. We shot for a while right there and we got along pretty good. I told her that I really know my way around the Salton Sea and I could show her the sights, and we could shoot at some more cool spots.

That’s all it took! She grabbed her little suitcase, with more clothes in it, and jumped in the car and off we went. Models always have little suitcases stuffed with more clothes. And how good was it that she had just had her makeup and hair done by a big time Estee Lauder makeup artist, Blanche LeBeau. Amazing how some things just fall into place.

Anyway we shot at some fun unusual spots around the Salton Sea for the rest of the day and finished up by having dinner at Bobby Mao’s Restaurant in Palm Desert. And you won’t believe this, who showed up too? None other than Blanche LeBeau. Quite the beauty herself I must say!

It is all true, really! And I will show you some photos from more of our photo shoot over the next week. Of course there is more to the story too. Thanks!

Nora Zaenglein

Twin Beech

Always something fun going on at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Yesterday the B-25 bomber crew arrived to fly their plane for the Doolittle Raid On Tokyo flight demonstration. And they arrived in style in this vintage 1952 “Twin Beech”.

This is that 1952 Beechcraft D18S “Twin Beech” starting up and departing. Continuously produced from 1937 to 1969 (over 32 years, a world record at the time), over 9,000 were produced, making it one of the world’s most widely used light aircraft. These aircraft saw military use as light transport, light bomber (for China), trainer (for bombing, navigation and gunnery), photo-reconnaisance, and “mother ship” for target drones. In World War II, over 90% of USAAF bombardiers and navigators trained in these aircraft.