Wednesday, November 04, 2009







I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.
~Author Unknown

I can't help it...I absolutely love Halloween! As soon as September's days become cooler and candy begins to appear on the shelves of local stores, I get this restless excitement to buy pumpkins, bake, and start decorating our house like crazy! There's something about the changing leaves, the cool nights, and the edginess of Halloween that I just love. As a kid it rocks b/c you get to dress up, go to strangers' houses, and ask for free candy. But as an adult, it's even more fun. You get to drink and eat really fun stuff, dress up as your alter ego, and party like a rockstar.

I always look forward to watching Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and decking out our house with giant hairy tarantulas, orange and purple lights, and things that jump or screech unexpectedly. It's just such a macabre, pagan, wonderfully artsy holiday that I can't seem to get enough of (I'll probably leave our decorations up until Turkey Day). Every year I seem to convince myself that I need to buy more decorations. This year I've deemed it the "Year of the Spider," putting up way more cobwebs than any self-respecting home should ever have. Steve and I have a self-proclaimed spider-friendly home (we personally escort the larger ones safely into the backyard). Recently we discovered that we have a beautiful orb spider which built it's web right above our front step as if knowing it has arachnid immunity near our abode.

Here are a few random pictures from this year's Halloween...my angel costume, our band dressed up for a Halloween gig at the Doubletree Fess Parker (Rotary Club Halloween Bash), and a bunch of decorations at our place, and a few choice pictures of our friends dressed up for Halloween. I hope yours was as much fun as ours was!





Photo Shoot with Asia Warren, Bodyworker and Owner of "Rejuvenasia," Massage, Skin Care, and Spa Service
www.rejuvenasia.com

While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.
~Dorothea Lange

I had the opportunity to photograph another incredible woman through the dance community...the gorgeous and ever-accomplished dancer and bodyworker, Asia Warren. An additional bonus was getting our girlfriend, Shani Herron, to model as her massage client (rough job!).

I've been having way too much fun doing these shoots lately. Time just slipped away once we got situated, picked out her outfits, and started shooting. It's been a source of never-ending satisfaction to find a profession where obsessiveness and perfectionism aren't just tolerated but rewarded and necessary...Thank god!

Although I personally know many of my photography clients, it's always fascinating to me to see their various faces being revealed through the camera. Asia is primarily a strong, passionate woman but I also found that she had some other sides I've rarely seen before in her...a playful girlish side, a more innocent college-looking fresh young woman, and then her serene and radiant bodyworker persona.

And it's not even that I'm entirely aware these sides are coming out as I'm photographing...it's only afterwards that I discover another presence... when I'm in the process of editing. It's as if a phantom spirit only appears through the eye of the lens.

I continue to be grateful that I'm living the creative life and having the opportunity to photograph incredible men and women. I feel that I am personally changed, my energy altered in a blissful sort of way, after every shoot...and I can only call it magic!

Thankyou Asia!







I've also included a smaller version of the slideshow which I created for Asia of our shoot together. Because, it's been condensed for web viewing, the photos' resolutions are more grainy that the original...but it gives you an idea of how gorgeous she looks and how fun the shoot was!