tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66969622748806442672024-03-13T10:04:13.023-07:00ed's adventures with etherEd Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-27417147104447124012011-02-09T10:37:00.000-08:002011-02-09T10:37:08.581-08:00Nekole and Mayer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5124/5369144678_f42da08bd6_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5124/5369144678_f42da08bd6_z.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><br />
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When this plate did its magical-moment thing, turning from negative to positive, when dipped in the potassium cyanide bath, all three of us gasped "WOW", as if on cue. It was such a great moment. And, while many shoots are somewhat laborious in terms of trying to perfect a particular idea, this one came out beautifully on the first crack. A few more notes about this plate....<br />
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We were in a public space, just underneath the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. The fog kept rolling back-n-forth, putting the bridge in-and-out of the picture, as if God herself was just not sure whether the picture looked better with the bridge in the background, or without. In this plate, she chose without. I kinda liked it in, but one doesn't argue with mother nature.<br />
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Most readers of this blog will know that I'm a big fan of naked women, and a particularly huge fan of Nekole in her birthday suit. But we were in a public place, and I wasn't going to propose to her that we do anything too revealing. (Plus it was cold!) So imagine my pleasant surprise when she volunteered, "Can we do one with me naked on the back?" Me: "Uhhh ... OF COURSE we can!!!" And this shot came out next. Mayer rocked it too, with a perfect pose. The other plate that really stood out from the nice collection we made that day was this one....<br />
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The technical notes are pretty simple -- Dallmeyer 3B, stopped down to f8, at one second (there was a very surprising amount of available light!). But I owe a big thanks to Mayer for helping throughout the day with set-up and clean-up and transporting the gear and bike around. It was truly an all-day effort. Thanks Mayer! Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-66685668872293539522011-02-08T08:02:00.000-08:002011-02-08T08:02:05.597-08:00Aja<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUoBJqMfU9hJheJ1_qTJOBMuKgKGLemPIbCjDVHxBQiacmRl96pCsUovhzkRvdCMqxv2cvJIWTgOaYsaD_q4Q3AV5Ly0XkKrMOI0afPr_4HuzD0HGJPk3Qz7iRUJrjnpwTs52AcA0l0gzo/s1600/Aja+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUoBJqMfU9hJheJ1_qTJOBMuKgKGLemPIbCjDVHxBQiacmRl96pCsUovhzkRvdCMqxv2cvJIWTgOaYsaD_q4Q3AV5Ly0XkKrMOI0afPr_4HuzD0HGJPk3Qz7iRUJrjnpwTs52AcA0l0gzo/s320/Aja+1.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What a great session this was. After each plate, one or the other of us reacted with, "Now this one is my favorite!" I love when that happens. I used my Ross 12-inch f3.5, dating from about 1870. Gorgeous lens. The small spots you may see on the third plate are the tell-tale signs of using collodion from near the bottom of the jar -- technically imperfect, but I kinda like the insta-tarnish effect. Thanks for looking.</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-87013699668843042812010-11-06T09:17:00.000-07:002010-11-06T09:17:26.171-07:00YosemiteFor wet plate photographers, at least in the US, there are really two high points in the history of the craft: Matthew Brady's civil war images and Carleton Watkins' Yosemite images. Living not too far from Yosemite, I decided to give it a try. Of course, one can never walk in the footsteps of the great Watkins. Watkins and his assistants traveled by a wagon pulled by 12 mules, over what must have been very rudimentary wagon trails. In the wagon he carried his 18x22-inch camera, glass plates, portable (tent) darkroom, and chemical and food supplies to last weeks. My trip consisted of my Toyota FJ Cruiser, pulled by its reliable V6 motor, carrying me and my 8x10-inch camera, dark box, and chemical supplies over paved roads. And I ate and slept at Curry Village in the valley (mmm... pizza!). <br />
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Anyway, it was a rewarding trip for me. Here are a few of the plates I took.<br />
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This was taken with a Ross Cabinet No. 3 (petzval lens, designed for whole plate). This Ross lens is new to me. And it is a beauty! It feels like a small canon. Very heavy brass. Did I mention the perfect glass? Perfect brass? Like just off the shop floor. 12--inch focal length, with f3.5 aperture. I guess most people don't get excited about lenses. I do. This thing is beautiful. And it dates from .... 1882! I just bought another Ross (1874!!) for my planned trip to Yosemite. More on that later. Anyway, I love this shot of Noel. I hope you too like it.... <br />
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.Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-18131211728689776992010-08-08T21:24:00.000-07:002010-08-08T21:42:01.016-07:00Discovering Josephine Baker......Cwen made this banana skirt!!!<br />
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And I love this one -- Hemingway meets JB! <br />
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.Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-1881362870508754612010-08-02T13:01:00.000-07:002010-08-02T20:50:47.571-07:00NikkiI've become friends with Alex LaMarsh. In addition to being a delightful person, she is a professional hair stylist and make-up artist. This past Sunday, she came over with her colleague-stylist, Heather Sansky. We'd invited the lovely Nekole Kemelle over for a shoot. I've shot with Nikki a couples of times previously, and she is a pro with the stunning good looks and work ethic to prove it. Anyway, we had a very good day. Here's just a couple of the large crop of good results....<br />
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.Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-46805156398675415442010-07-25T18:57:00.000-07:002010-07-26T09:04:47.356-07:00Rachel AbbyBecause wet plate was invented in the early 1840s and came into the mainstream later that decade (overcome in large part in the 1870s by dry plate), it seems that in America at least the process will always be associated with the Civil War, as soldiers got tintype portraits of themselves and photographers made ambrotypes of some of the battle locations. I'm not aware of any "pin-up" type plates that may have been made, but had they been made I'd like to think they may have looked something like this... <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4533747086_2da49917cc_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4533747086_2da49917cc_o.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-58017496850535371982010-05-02T10:58:00.000-07:002010-05-02T10:58:09.543-07:00SamihaMay 1st is World Wet Plate Day, in honor of Frederick Scott Archer who invented the wet plate process in 1848. Why May 1st -- Archer died on May 1, 1857. He was buried in an unmarked grave in his local cemetery in England. Some fellow colllodionistas raised some money to buy him a tombstone, which they set just yesterday during a ceremony. On this day, collodionistas around the world shoot in Archer's honor and post-up their plates here:<br />
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http://www.wetplateday.org/index.php<br />
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On this celebrated day I had the great opportunity to shoot with Samiha, who has such gorgeous features that I suspect a monkey could get some pretty good plates shooting with her. In any event, the following is the one I liked best. <br />
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I note that this plate shows very well the attributes of the curved-field petzval-design lens. As you'll see, her eye is very sharp, but not much else in the picture is. Indeed, toward the bottom of the image the background almost melts into her skin, nearing the periphery of the curved field where the spherical aberration is strong. At f3, and a long-focal length lens (10 inches?), the depth of focus is very short indeed, probably not much more than an inch. This was a 14 second exposure taken on the side of my house. I used a small plastic pill jar to try and hold her head steady, and it appears to have worked. Also, there was a slight breeze, so the gray cloth in the background was moving a small bit, as was her hair, all of which I think adds to the softness of the background, drawing the viewer's attention to the detail of the eye. I love it! Thanks for looking. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4569810964_76eca15b2f_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4569810964_76eca15b2f_b.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-16539008104930941622010-03-11T07:36:00.000-08:002010-03-11T07:37:43.582-08:00Meghan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4423994800_6d3e4651dc_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4423994800_6d3e4651dc_b.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><br />
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Meghan and her hair. We went to Point Reyes for this shoot. It was a lovely day. Six pack of beer, bottle of collodion, and a stack of plates.Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-30552971589785820392010-02-16T20:37:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:13:55.680-08:00Miss Managua, take 2You may recall the Angel de Managua.....<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJzyTKXE0H5qir-bkf5O5vXkkPh60KzsNixlYX1yh3waSJ790oXZ0V_u3TkmXKJCK63R1-VJbwWyQGFs8CEKtcmJ6wtWRnIOUEgAcbf0t5uXtVUuc02wTGdVYdJWGORNWyDKFqkI_Uo4j9/s1600-h/Lucia+A.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJzyTKXE0H5qir-bkf5O5vXkkPh60KzsNixlYX1yh3waSJ790oXZ0V_u3TkmXKJCK63R1-VJbwWyQGFs8CEKtcmJ6wtWRnIOUEgAcbf0t5uXtVUuc02wTGdVYdJWGORNWyDKFqkI_Uo4j9/s400/Lucia+A.JPG" width="283" /></a></div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-58458394279760591252010-02-01T08:08:00.000-08:002010-02-01T08:10:25.047-08:00At the lake......well, reservoir to be exact. But lake sounds nicer to me - more natural. Anyway, here are a few shots I took with Nikki (the knife). She was a super trooper and even got in the water repeatedly! I really like shooting in nature, but it is hard to find spots that aren't "private property -- no tresspassing" and that are relatively private and that aren't too far from the vehicle (all the gear is heavier than you might think). Anyway, this spot at Nicasio Reservoir fit the bill. SF photographer Julia Comita came along to learn a bit about the process and she was very helpful throughout the day. Thanks for looking.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4321916127_f9535ced0e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4321916127_f9535ced0e.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-85132396390172749872010-01-23T16:12:00.000-08:002010-01-23T16:13:00.241-08:00Golden Gate BridgeIt has been far too long since last I shot. With a break in the rain, I loaded the gear and headed toward the iconic shot of SF through the Golden Gate. The plate below wasn't the cleanest of the day, but I liked the mood of it the best. Shooting among tourists was kinda fun -- no shortage of people with whom to explain what I was doing. And I realized that when (not if) I lose my job, I'm going to head here to sell some plates! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one....<br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-8250164410919909662009-12-01T07:57:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:15:41.589-08:00V RevisitedThis is my second shoot with Ms. V. She is such a delight to work with and has such a unique look, that I couldn't pass up the opportunity when it knocked.<br />
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As we're entering the low cycle of UV light, otherwise known as winter, the exposures and development times are getting corresponding longer. <br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-75683071150725911102009-11-23T09:20:00.000-08:002009-11-23T09:20:01.332-08:00Meghan's HairHair. It is not often that I find the pinnacle of a woman's attractiveness to be her hair. But it happens. And it happened in spades with Meghan. I think I've come a step closer to understanding the force that Jane Morris had over each of the greats, William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.<br />
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Here is my hommage to Meghan and her hair....<br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-53280792428258537832009-11-14T13:42:00.000-08:002009-11-14T13:44:44.259-08:00From the Archives, IIWell, it is a rainy late afternoon in Wilmington, Delaware. And there isn't much to do here besides visit the Delaware Art Museum, which has a wonderful collection (the largest outside Britain) of Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood paintings. It is a superb collection of one of my favorite genres. Other than that.... not much to report from the corporate state. So, badly missing my either fix, I return to the archives.<br />
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I've tried about five times now to shoot away from my home and its (well-lit, fairly spacious) darkroom. The difficulties with wet plate mount, I might add, when shooting "in the field." The portable darkroom is great in concept, but in practice it is a MUCH more cramped environment in which to work, ventilation is horrible, the wind can be a real annoyance and problem, and it takes a good bit of effort to pack it all into the car, unpack/set-up, shoot, pack back into the car, then unpack back into the house. Which doesn't mean it isn't fun, just that it is a lot of work.<br />
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But sometimes it is great to get out and try shooting in new environments. With this model, we went to the local park in my town. Fortunately, this park is not well travelled during the week, and it has some very remote spots, off the beaten paths. And, my model was absolutely fine with being naked in public! She's from Italy, and is a real charmer with her accent and enchanting demeanor. Fortunately, only a couple people came within 100 yards of us over the course of the day, and we had absolutely no issues -- it worked great.<br />
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I had noticed a wall of ivy, and thought it would make a nice backdrop for some shots. I like this first shot -- it is a bit of a mash-up between Julia Margaret Cameron and Madonna. The last shot was a "mistake" for a number of reasons, including leaving it in the cyanide too long, the effect of which is that the cyanide starts to dissolve away the image, which you can see starting to happen at the lower left. But when I got home and scanned it, I liked it! Also, I'm throwing in the third shot because it shows well the effect of the "petzval" swirly lens signature. I don't get much swirl in most of my images because I usually use a backdrop that is pretty close to the model (in my small home "studio"). But with an expansive background, especially of plants, the swirl is readily apparent.<br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-23156436657248078072009-11-03T20:03:00.000-08:002009-11-03T21:24:20.030-08:00YahudiThis gal is the last of the Jewish Persians, exiled from her home and land by the righteous ones. And now a resident of East Oakland. Talk about a change in scenery! At any rate, I adore her disposition and her looks, each au natural. Truly, one of the things I most like about my hobby is the opportunity it provides to meet such interesting people. And the Yahudi (a term in farsi for persian jew) has been a special treat. I hope to shoot with her again soon.<br />
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Fortunately, there isn't much to report on the technical side. The day went well. These are all full (or whole) plates (6.5" x 8.5" inches) at 14 second exposures. You can see in the bottom image the effect of the depletion of alcohol in the developer (as the 190-proof alcohol fumes out of the bottle over the course of the afternoon) -- without the alcohol, the developer beads up, as it is, how would you say, chemically adverse to the composition of the collodion. You see it happens in the bottom-left of the image, which is the far side of the pour (I pour from the top right), showing that the effect is compounded by the time the developer makes it across the plate. I don't mind the effect it has in this image, as it doesn't interfere with the optical focus of the shot, and gives that unique hand-made look. <br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-61916097339629543392009-11-01T17:29:00.000-08:002009-11-03T20:26:26.395-08:00Angel de ManaguaThis seniorita recently moved to San Francisco from her home city of Managua, Nicaragua. And I think she speaks better english than I do! A delightful and beautiful young woman is she. <br />
For this shoot I hooked up an angel wing that a friend gave to me from out of his dusty prop closet. Up close, the wing is pretty nasty, although it is made of real feathers. So I tried to keep it just beyond crisp view. I have both wings, actually, but I'll save the double wing job for another shoot. <br />
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From a technical side, the shoot went smoothly. However, I did get one plate that had a million "comets" on it, which I've posted below (second one). Also, the winter is upon us. These exposures were 14 seconds (down from a high of 1 second in mid summer in central California), which gives you an indication of the drop in UV light through the seasons. Such long exposures really test the model to keep still, and inevitably you get movement on most shots. c'est la vie (a nod to cafe selavy there ;) <br />
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I wish I could relate how great these look in-hand -- nothing beats a solid layer of silver for visual impact (screw ink).<br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-53825300496784802702009-10-25T07:21:00.000-07:002009-10-25T07:23:20.553-07:00The DerelictThe Derelict could either be a reference to the grounded boat in the image below, or it could be to the roommate who punched in the chest the woman who was supposed to model for me yesterday. Seriously, the model had to cancel on me because her housemate, while drunk and high on mushrooms, punched her in the chest hard enough to give her a big nasty bruise. What a derelict!<br />
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Anyway, without a model I decided to head out to the coast with camera and darkbox. This spot is just up the road, in Inverness, CA, from the "Launch for Hire" spot where I shot previously. It was a bright fall day. I don't like bright images, however. I prefer moody images, which is one of the reasons I think I'm drawn to collodion -- it seems to render moody images very well. Anyway, I exposed this one for the highlights, such that the foreground went virtually black. More importantly, it rendered the sky dark (which under a longer exposure would have gone basically bright white).<br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-38132991619198597592009-10-11T21:18:00.000-07:002009-11-02T17:16:38.271-08:00The PerformerI've been excited to shoot with Babette for some time, and today it finally came to pass. And I couldn't be more thrilled with this shot -- I love it. Babette is a circus performer, and I just knew we'd be able to come up with some cool shots. She brought some great attire, a super limber body, and a fantastic attitude. It was an overcast day, but I was still holding the exposures to 8 seconds, for fear of losing too much visual impact to movement, and extending the development times to nearly double normal. I don't like to do that, but as you can see here the resultant images didn't suffer too much for it. Not much more to say, other than I can't wait to shoot with Babette again -- she's a bundle of photographic possibility!<br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6696962274880644267.post-75525739758638117032009-10-10T15:51:00.000-07:002009-10-16T12:19:10.487-07:00The Sheltering SkyThis image evokes for me Paul Bowles' classic novel, The Sheltering Sky. I love women in confident poses, and this shot hits the mark with its north-african-meets-bohemia look. The woman, originaly from Bulgaria, is a lovely model, wife, and mother. I very much enjoyed our shoot. She had more of what I might call a classic vision for the shoot, and I always like the slightly different. We settled in the happy medium you see below. The dynamic with a model is always unique, and I always enjoy shooting with confident and collaborative women. <br />
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From the technical side, there isn't much unique to report from today's shoot (and I think that is a good thing!). <br />
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</div>Ed Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15035736107793056635noreply@blogger.com0