Sometimes it's My Life I Can't Taste.......

Did you ever find yourself just existing? Not in a bad mood, not in a good mood....just there. I sorta' have been living this way for the last couple of weeks. I am not sure why, but shooting the dolls only- is not helping any. I have been putting together a mock-up of the photo book I'm working on. It's a smaller incomplete version of what I envision. I will use this 8"x12" mock-up to pitch to some publishers...we'll see how all that turns out.

Well, one way to reignite the lost spark, was to book some photoshoots with living breathing models. So I trolled around MM (a model/photographer networking site) and found some beautiful girls to shoot. The end of the week brings the biggest challange for me. I have almost always shot in a controlled environment- not suprising, since I am a Virgo. But this time I will be on the roof of my building, with the empire state building as the backround (I live eight blocks away). The dilemma is twofold:

1) Do I ask permission of my building and risk them forbidding me? or shoot gonzo style and risk Muffy, Buffy and all the Park Ave princesses being offended???

2) ring light or strobe.

There will be two people in the photo...a blurry man in the foreground, camera right, and a HOT girl with nipple pasties and a thong, 5' away from the man. I dont want the man lit as much as the woman, and I don't have an assistant- and therein lies the problem.

Well the shoot is on Saturday @ 6:30 pm, so that gives me some time to work out the kinks.



did someone say kinks?








The photo is a shitty old shot of the dolls in a series called "Taylor Welcomes Tabitha"
The title is from a Korn song entitled 'Freak on a Leash'

Ring Around The Rosie...

If my lens was named Rosie.

So I have had in my posession, the LaChapelle book since Friday. This has given me enough time to look at roughly half the book (it's friggin' HUGE). One thing I notice photo after photo, is LaChapelle loves himself a ring light. I have heard enough about their even lighting to want to check one out myself...so I rented one from Alkit Camera. It works better with LaChapelles style, I find the lighting too flat for my personal taste. The following photo is an example....







I start my second class @ ICP this week and I am super excited!!!! Look out world- a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

9/11 + 365 = 2272

A series of events following 9/11 brought me and my husband together. We didn't know eachother that day, but true love would be found because of it...

I was involved with a guy who wanted to change everything about me, we'll call him Dr. Dick (because he was a cardiologist). It was the day after my 30th birthday and I was down in the dumps. It was early and Dr. Dick called to see if I was feeling better and if I enjoyed spending my 30th at home sulking. I was NOT feeling better and just wanted to get the hell off the phone and have a pitty party for myself, so we hung up.

and there it was.

right in view out of my living room window.

the first tower was hit...I ran and grabbed my film camera with a 200mm lens and I began snapping away. How would they put the fire out? Was my first thought, and then the second tower. I caught the whole thing on film, I was crying and snapping, roll after roll...

after a week in front of the television, not eating, smoking waaaayyyyy too much- just crying in a deep depression. With the average age of the victims of September 11th being 32 years old, I realized life is too short to be unhappy. So I dumped Dr. Dick. How could I be with a man who hates everything about me? I am not a blue blood, I am not a W.A.S.P., I am a true Ginny from Brooklyn, NY. Deal with it.

So there we were, a year later in a Starbucks. Both single and both Wall Street suits. Our eyes locked and that was it. We talked a little bit each time we saw eachother and finally sat down one day to talk over a caramel macchiato. And we fell in love, right then and there. After a long engagement, we finally got married last year on April 13th in City Hall. Yep, I said it- City Hall. I fucking hate weddings.

But I love him.

And this Friday we were together officially for one year. The hallmark suggestion for a one year anniversary gift is paper, boring ass paper. But he one upped me with his creativity and bought me what I have drooled over for some time now...




That's alot of paper.

Bokeh....

This is NOT.

What it is...is "undesirable bokeh", because the foreground is also out of focus. I kinda' like it though because I dodged and burned to give her as much life as possible, I think I had some level of success. Rare is the photo of a realdoll with soulful eyes...ok, not so much rare as never...

But sometimes I swear I feel them looking back at me.

I'm All That and a Dime Sack...

Where the paper at?

Ok, put aside the improper english- I couldn't have said it better myself. That is a line from a song called 'Gimmie the Loot' from the uber talented (and sadly deceased) Notorious B.I.G.. I was, and I suppose still am, a HUGE fan.

During a wonderful lunch with the genius photographer James Graham, I learned a fact that I had long suspected....
We artists' will sell our soul, for some recognition. Sad really, if you ask me. I was not paid for 'Lifelounge' magazine, and I later found out that JMGenius, along with countless other amazing talent have also given up rights, and allowed their art to printed for gratis as well. Where did we all go wrong?

oh well.

Not on this one...

I am going to dive back into shooting again after having gone on hiatus for awhile (due to my mothers health and the sublime sadness). Slowly but surely I'm getting my photos in order for a mock up of a book I am working on. It is what else...but a book of Realdoll photography. I have been struggling with whether or not I should include some of my sub-par earlier works? Not many mind you, but as time goes by, the dolls lose their ability to pose as well as they can when they are brand new. Some of the earlier poses can't be replicated because of "loose joints", as we Realdoll folk' call it. I have officially set a deadline for myself- 30 new doll photos by May 1st. It sounds easier then it is, photographing Realdolls is not NEARLY the simple task some people may think.

Trust me on that one.




The above photo is my first cover, photo courtesy of Lifelounge.com. My copies should be arriving this week!!! I can't wait to see the inside.