Jezz

Some things that only former film photographers remember (and certainly don't miss...):

Looking at and having to edit with contact sheets. Ugh. I hated this. Trying to look at 36 little images with a loop and figuring out which were worth printing. Then you tried a print, only to find that, yep— it wasn't worth printing. I remember thinking that there has to be a better way. Now you can look at them big as a screen, side by side, whatever. Slight improvement? Hell, yeah.

Cleaning up the darkroom (chemicals, trays, sink, developing containers, et cetera) after every session, whether it was 20 minutes or 8 hours. That got old. I remember thinking that there has to be a better way. It's called a computer and a screen.

Either the extreme expense of having a lab develop film for you— or developing it yourself, which was real tedious. I remember thinking that there has to be a better way.

Having to check how many shots you have left on a roll. The guilt of thinking that you have just shot 7-9-12 (more?) rolls of film, and the cost and tediousness of dealing with it. I remember thinking that there has to be a better way. There sure was.

Having to stick with one ISO for at least a whole roll of film (like 100, 400, or 3200). Not to mention that anything over 400 ISO was only good if you considered it fine art. I remember having to juggle two cameras at a wedding— either a combo of low and higher ISO, or color and B&W. I still keep two great cameras with me (you have to have a back-up camera)— but one with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens and one with a 50mm f1.2 lens, so I can quickly get appropriately different kinds of shots. Much better.

Speaking of weddings, having to change a roll of film right when there is a shot to be had— yeah, that sucked. I could go on and on, but these are some of the biggies that I really don't miss at all...

Percolate

Over the past few years, I have been doing suspensions in collaboration with Ian. He is very experienced with rope bondage and suspension. In the BDSM world, "full suspension" refers to suspending a person's entire body off the floor with the aid of ropes, chains, or cables. A typical full suspension is an advanced and somewhat risky form of rope bondage. It involves the use of elaborate knots, and many practitioners use modular rope segments that can be quickly released in case the subject experiences a loss of circulation, unwanted pain, or loses consciousness, etc. This is one of the reasons that Ian does the suspensions. Besides that I'm not really experienced enough to do suspensions, it wouldn't be wise for me to be oblivious to someone's safety while I'm photographing them. Most of the rope work that is photographed on the floor, however, are things that I have done myself.

One of the reasons that I began an interest in doing a series on suspensions is that, both in books and surfing the net, it is very hard to find many well-made photographs of suspensions. It's not difficult to find well-done rope work, but the combination of great rope work and images seems to be greatly lacking. So it seemed to be something really worth taking on. After this portfolio builds and expands (I'd like to move the setting outside in trees, for example), I'd like to perhaps get a book published on it.

Valentina

I often do shoots where the model wants to remain anonymous in one way or another. One way is that I do not ever display their images on the internet if they are in any way recognizable. I'm not particularly fond of that method, but I can respect it. Another way is getting creative with obscuring the face just enough to make recognition of the person in question impossible. Yeah, her name isn't Valentina...

Jade Vixen

I fancied up my "Sitting on a Bar Stool" series by draping some black velvet background over it. Voilà! Instant elegance! I love simple solutions like that.

Lady Lazurus

A certain elegance to this one– despite being one of those "Oh, look, my breast fell out of my dress!" shots that I typically try to stay away from. It probably works because it has some abstract qualities, a nice moodiness and that sweetly coy look in her eyes– even though it's still just one of those "Oh, look, my breast fell out of my dress!" shots...

Meira

There's some kind of vague Bill Brandt quality to this one. Not any image of his in particular— just the general feel. I've read so many photography books over the years, and all of it gets sort of mashed up as influences, and then I'll just spit out a little bit. It reminds me of someone who made his lunch sandwiches with a slice of tomato, but then he took the tomato off. So then the sandwich simply had the "essence" of tomato, but no actual tomato. True story. This image has the "essence" of Bill Brandt.

Devorah

Yeah, this is one of my tried and true shots— model laying down with eyes closed and letting hands and fingers roam, while I shoot it all from above and behind. I basically developed it as a way of getting a sure shot for paid boudoir shoots involving a green subject who is nervous and has never done a shoot before. I have some other set-ups like this, but this one is practically guaranteed to succeed every time. The secret is that she can become oblivious to my presence (eyes closed & listening to good music), with the added bonus being that closed eyes remove the need to make that often difficult emotional connection to the lens. Yeah, the cat's out of the bag... closed eyes= instant soulfulness! Not that I invented that, as it goes back to the beginning of photography with photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron in the 1860's, and every one since. It is a nice trick to have in the arsenal, though.