Sometime last year, I made the call to stop doing nudes for a while. It actually may have been the year before and I was just settling down in 2009 as I still finished up some promised gigs. Oh-9 got pretty darn hectic which also made slowing down easy… to a crawl in fact. I was working a job with the State that took up a really good chunk of my time. I wasn’t shooting anything of much during that spell. There were other projects that kept me busy and some that threw me for a loop. Up til recently, I’ve worked with 2 models since October of last year. Before then, for all of 2009, I may have worked with 5 total models.

Rework of 2007 version of Dana

I’m not stopping my nude work ever again. This has been the pits getting started back up again. As I said, I’ve worked with 2 models this year and they were both by request. That sort of jump started me to getting back in the game again, but now I realize just how rusty I am at it. Since March, I’m pretty sure I’ve had at least 7 maybe 8 models that expressed an interest in doing some work after I initiated the contact and asked them for their consideration. Actually, I should down play that number a bit. Three come to mind who were also ones that contacted me first. All of them however have backed out, for one reason or another. Two chose to not model for anyone at all. One had a husband that objected. One was in school and between working and a toddler, just no longer had the time. Two gave no real reason other than to say they had a change of heart on the matter. Only one was just absolutely rude and wasted my time, by being a no-show twice. I’m not making good selections.

Rework of 2007 version of Elizabeth

Models I’ve worked with in the past have also not panned out for different reasons, whether that be no time to do it, no longer doing nudes, or they moved away like two Brittanys have done this year. One to New Jersey and another to New Orleans. Good Gracious! What’s a photog to do? Keep at it, I guess. Part of the problem has been mine. Aside from quiting doing nudes to begin with, I no longer cultivated the relationships I already had nor did I try to build fresh relationships. I have a tendency to stop looking for new models when I get one that I really click with and get great material. Then when that model isn’t available, I’m stuck without anybody to call up. I noticed that last week sometime. I can go through my phone contacts and there’s no one to call as opposed to the options I had when I got her in 2007. I know I had listened to some friends who told me they wanted to see more of my work besides just nudes, which is understandable. I don’t solely shoot naked women. I’m very proud of my other artistic endeavors as well, especially emotive portraits, landscapes, and abstracts. I love shooting, period. However…Nudes are my thing. Take away a painter’s brushes and canvases and see how he feels. Leave a musician without his instruments and see how she behaves after a month. Granted, no one has taken away my camera. So rather, I should say tell the jazz musician he can only play bluegrass.

A simulated scream, Samantha

My point is that I need to stick to my core. I can do everything else as well, but I can’t give up my core. It doesn’t matter if my core doesn’t make me money or win me critical acclaim. It doesn’t matter that my nudes won’t see a mag cover or centerfold. Its not hanging up on exhibit in exclusive art galleries. The Bellagio Art Gallery has not extended that offer to me yet. Will they ever? Who’s to say. The good thing is that I don’t do my nudes for recognition from the Bellagio. I do it for me and my model. I care not who else likes or appreciates it. If I achieve the objective I set out for in my head and the model likes what is produced then that mission was a success. I don’t want to be in this spot again. While I don’t need a bunch of models, I’ll make sure I keep relationships cultivated. I’d rather have one to shoot all the time, but even when that one isn’t available, there needs to be somebody on the depth charts. The rejections and the change of hearts is just part of the cost of doing business. All this used to come really easy to me and I let it go. I’ll get it back.

….Patience, Grasshoppa…

“One of these things is not like the other”, Joanie

On another note, I’m killing the ability to make anonymous comments on this blog for a while. I’ve come up on somebody’s spam list and I hate getting all excited about a comment that shows up in my inbox only to find that its spam. That blows. So rather than do the word verification, I’ll try this for a while. So, you don’t have to have a Blogger ID to comment, but you can’t be unknown.