…6 months later, I drag my butt back here. My life has the tendency to pop into bursts of extreme fast forward and…well…I’m in about as starkly opposite a life situation now as I was a year ago (or even since I’ve been on this blog). But, it’s due to incredibly good news.

I don’t usually feel the need to babble about such personal stuff, so I’ll just indulge in what this blog is mostly meant for: pictures. Two collages of a new series I’m starting called “Halcyon”.

It’s nice having one; even when other life events (including my car being temperamental) have slowed the shooting frequency lately.

(A Marvin the Martian accent popped into my head as I thought up the post title.)

These shots are quite overdue from a wonderful, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants shoot I had with Angelica Paige. Sometimes I enjoy the simple and moody throw-togethers better than the more intricate and elaborate of setups.

They irritate the hell out of me.

Particularly, panhandlers in the guise of collaborators seeking some creative symbiosis until much later in the discussion process (when they’re the one that contacted you).

More particularly, panhandlers in the guise of collaborators seeking some creative symbiosis until much later in the discussion process who change their travels plans so that they don’t swing through your town after all and then try to convince you to travel to where they will be (at a 3-hour minimum drive).

Even more particularly, panhandlers in the guise of collaborators seeking some creative symbiosis until much later in the discussion process who change their travels plans so that they don’t swing through your town after all and then try to convince you to travel to where they will be and then have the audacity to call the fee that they’re suddenly asking from you a “travel expense” (can there possibly be any greater an exercise in contradiction and irreverent hypocrisy?).

And most particularly, panhandlers in the guise of collaborators seeking some creative symbiosis until much later in the discussion process who change their travels plans so that they don’t swing through your town after all and then try to convince you to travel to where they will be and then have the audacity to call the fee that they’re suddenly asking from you a “travel expense”, after having told you during the initial discussion months ago: “As for working with you, throw in some gas money so I can be certain to make the drive regardless of the tennessee bookings I get, and I will be there.”

(Note: I was also kindly informed that I have secretly and subversively (unbeknownst to me?) treated essentially every model that I have shot as some throwaway ragdoll because I didn’t flash cash at them in order to properly honor their uniqueness as a model. Preemptive apologies to all of you for the likely delay, as it will take some time for me to mail all the “I’m sorry” cards I’ll need to now send.)

I’ve had an incredibly productive weekend (I realize it’s actually the middle of the week, but my  weekends, of late, are Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Most of the initial productivity involved menial stuff you probably couldn’t be less interested in (except, perhaps, for anyone who has previously driven with me…who might now be ecstatic to know that my car no longer gives you a full-body jiggle massage when braking!), but it ended with the better stuff.

I finally got to catch up with a friend who I hadn’t seen in too long (good drinks, good art, good conversations, good times). Part of that chapter involved being told that I must create a Tumblr…so I did. Then a shoot this afternoon that came from a chance poke of a friend of a friend on facebook which turned into me notching two more tallies onto the Tummy series (among a few other delicious images I’ll get to placing here…some of which [for the impatient] have already been upped to said new Tumblr account).

One more rum & coke (with Capt. Morgan’s Tattoo), and I’ll call it a very positive ‘weekend’. And here are more tummies for you.

A handful of the rest of the goodies from my recent shoot with Cherry.

It was actually incredibly nifty having someone whose look almost immediately demanded a pinup look, as I don’t toy with that too often. The bubbly personality is something that doesn’t need to get “turned on” for the camera with her. Plus, we found a nice geek camaraderie to connect on (I already mentioned the FF music thingie last post, but talking about doing a visual representation of her D&D character in the future is just damn nifty).

Absolute fun.

Cherry DeVille is the latest sneaky, fantastic find of mine in the Nashville area. I’ll be getting into a more thorough delving into her niftiness with a subsequent blog, but, for now, this will serve to add one more tally onto the Tummy Series.

She may be only one of a handful of people who would actually pick out the Final Fantasy Crystal theme when it cycled into my random mp3 playlist. It was a total bonding from there!

It felt good to go bouldering again. It cost me 4 nice, big, open blisters. A worthwhile trade. It’s the first time I’m been bouldering since rolling my ankle pretty horribly after landing on a harness when I was back in VA. Although it still doesn’t have the full rotational mobility it used to (which is admittedly my fault for not being diligent with exercising it), it performed just fine during a couple of heels hooks.

And, in pictures, I’d found myself recently looking over some shots I’d taken a while back that I hadn’t taken the time to tweak until I was satisfied. A nice gritty black and white ended up being the best result to mix with the overt sexuality of the shot. I’m quite glad I went back to it.

Warmth is finally starting to creep into thermometers. And, little by little, shooting fun is falling into place.

Tia is another co-worker I’d recently pestered to play along with my Tummy series, and it (along with other images) turned out quite happily for a first shoot. It’ll be nice, once our schedules starting coinciding more often, to see her develop into the modeling process (ideas and accessories are already in place for it if time ever works in our favor again!).

I’m happily amassing quite the collection of signed Chris Pureka albums. This past Saturday was a much-needed indulgence, when she swung into town, playing at the Basement.

Swann Song