High Praise From A Master

I had the pleasure of shooting with David way back in 2010 and it changed my photography forever. David is a master photographer whose work has been shown in museums, resides in personal collections and has also won awards at juried Kinsey Institute erotica exhibitions. He specializes in the nude and his landscape nudes inspired me from the beginning. It wasn't just the places and models that he photographed, but the way he placed the model into the landscape and then captured the image! It was magical.

As it were, a friend of mine who is a nude art model for a local art class had decided to try being a photographer's model and soon had a nice portfolio. I was proud to be part of her early portfolio, in fact. Her portfolio was interesting enough that it attracted the attention of David (who lives in an upper Midwest town 2000 miles away from southern California) and they soon set up a weekend for him to fly out and work with her. Since I knew the desert like the back of my hand, I would tag along and learn all that I can. The three of us got along very well and those two days were spent talking, hiking and making great art. David was especially gracious with and answered every question that I threw at him. We talked composition, posing, technical settings, post-processing and a number of things and I took mental notes of everything. In short, his process is simple: he is deliberate and everything is well-considered before he actuates the shutter and captures the image. He takes one picture, checks to see it's good and then he takes one more. Then it's off to the next spot. Simple.

I have not seen David since that first meeting, but I speak to him a few times each year. This past Friday was our most recent check-in. For some reason, he'd popped into my mind and I called him while I was at lunch. I could hear the excitement in his voice as we talked and got caught up on things. He has not photographed any models since last year, as remodeling his kitchen took up several months, but he hoped to do so again sometime this year. I told him about my pretty girl, and how she has ruined me for working with any other model and he perked up when I said this. "She must be something else, Ian!" he exclaimed and I confirmed that indeed, she was. As we ended the conversation, I told him that I'd send him a few pictures that I'd taken and I'd love to get his feedback and criticism so that I can improve my photography. He responded this morning with the following:

"Dear_______,

You are a fortunate man to have a lady with such a classical, Renaissance figure that is willing to create art with you.  She certainly is a keeper. 

On that first lava tube image, I am still taking it all in.  It has so much going for it.  All the parts come together perfectly.  The light above balancing out the darkness, the circle of light spotlighted on ________.  The circle of rocks on the edges of the light ring.  Damn!  And then her pose for such a scene.  The entire image is balanced, top to bottom, but focused on _______.  Then the triangle of it all.  If one were to create the perfect composition out of ones head, you couldn't come up with a better scene.  Kudos to both of you.

You are a master of light in your work, and it plays out in the second image as well.  The spray of light radiating from the dragon is something out of an Indiana Jones movie.  And ______'s wonderful figure and pose, with just a hint of her face looks so 1500s art history.

I can find nothing critical about either image.  And can only find myself a wee bit jealous that they are not my work.  

As you can imagine, I was ecstatic to hear this and knew that he was being sincere in his praise. I know that these images are indeed perfect and need nothing added or taken away, but it's nice to hear that your mentor shares your opinion and enthusiasm. It has me in such a great mood today and I knew right away that this story must be shared for posterity's sake.

#artnude #nudemodel #nakedoutside #landscapenude #mojavedesert #joshuatree #artmodel