Okay. I think I am done. Maybe.

Street Urchin

I'm leaning toward, "Maybe I have picked up Lyme disease in the last month".
For the last ten or twelve days I have gotten increasingly more achy to the point where I am having some serious difficulty moving about.
I will give it a few more days and if things don't turn for the better I will head to someone who knows more than I do about this.
Could be that I am just getting o.....................o.......................ol........................old.

_______________________________

The above image is that of a street urchin, for lack of a better term. She is living in her broken down car in the parking lot of a community college. And when I say living in her car, I mean living in her car.
She spent three days with me modeling. She ate well, had a nice place to sleep at night, got to take a couple of baths, and experienced some things she probably never would have in the way of scenery within a couple of hours from where she holed up at night.
She was very excited the entire time we were working, wanting to try just about everything I mentioned in the way of ideas. And she was willing to climb rock walls to get to cracks like this one when it was 30 degrees.
But I'm slipping.
Time to move on and forget that retched ingrate of a couple of days ago. I would rather photograph a rotting squirrel carcass.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

_____________________________

This evening I will drop of the wife's car at the body shop once again. Deer 2, Wife 2.
But for the deductible we pay we could have bought an entire, prime, Black Angus steer, and it would have at least been eatable.

I need to start hanging out with professionals

Somebody is enthusiastic about working in April
33 degrees that morning
(Or maybe she was trying to just keep her feet off the cold ground)

Well that was a trip, so to speak.
I blame myself. I let myself be talked into working with a teenager. She told me she was very mature and responsible. I should have known better.
She was just another teenager who blows things off because she, Doesn't want to.
A mature person would have said, I made a commitment, and even though I am going to be uncomfortable and miserable, I need to carry through with that commitment. A mature person would have realized the trouble and expense that had been gone though by the other party involved, also.
The teenager no doubt said to herself on the way home, "After all, it is not like he was paying me."
That is the way teenagers think. She probably was not saying to herself, "I have a responsibility because I made a commitment that has resulted in a lot of work and expense for someone else, and, as a responsible person I need to carry though with my commitments even though it is going to be uncomfortable, and may cause me money.
And there are no doubt her regular photographers that will be telling her she did the right thing in order to stay on her good side because they haven't quite talked her into that crotch shot they are looking for yet.
The world is full of deceptive and self serving people who really don't care about anything but themselves.
Okay, enough ranting about useless teenage, wannabe models and photographers that don't allow their own wives access to the top levels of their websites for fear of what they would see.
I shall try and not let myself be talked into it again.
Think 30+ Swanson!

______________________________

It looks to be a nice day and I may get the pontoon boat ready to shove in the lake.

______________________________

Tomorrow: Gerts Tavern shows up on the County website for delinquent back taxes.

I'm liking this park and may stay another day

Claudine

We often hear of photographers complaining about model no shows. “Flaking”. And it is not only models, photographers “Flake” too.

It is one thing to be stood up when you have scheduled your time, and it is another when you have laid out several hundred dollars; spent a day getting camping gear in order and cleaned; a partial day driving into town (60 miles) to shop for food for the model for three meals; driven 200 miles; set up a nice camp; and oh, let’s not forget the two days wasted because you might as well stay now that camp is all set up. Two days that you no longer can spare when you are this age.

When you are 19 years old I can understand being a jerk. Why not? Why do something that is uncomfortable? Who do you owe? If you do, so what?

Oh to be 19 once again and not give a shit about anyone else or what they have gone through to be able to work with you. I wish I was 19 again and a total asshole.

Trouble is you can piss off the wrong people and pay for that mistake the rest of your life. The, “What I could have been if I could only do it over again”.

Thoughts from around the evening campfire here at Jay Cooke State Park.

Dinner tonight was grand. Another glass of wine and a couple more logs on the fire before bed.

I am the only person in the park tonight. Sort of nice. I may invite the ranger over for an evening cocktail while we tell lies and poke the fire to change the channel.

I hate models under 30

Claudine

Drove two and a half hours to the shoot site and spent two more hours setting up a very nice camp.

Model showed up and said it was too cold to work, then left.

I have about $300. invested in this shoot, not to mention my time.

I will have a wonderful planked Atlantic salmon with garlic & dill butter, asparagus drizzled with home made Hollandaise sauce, and a nice white wine around the campfire this even.

I will never again be temped to work with this gal, I don't care how good of a model she is. She will forever remain on my shit list. I hope she finds a like minded, inconsiderate photographer to keep her interest.

You studio photographers are welcome to her. I want nothing to do with this gal ever again.

Super location I am at however and I will enjoy my time alone, wandering about.

SPRANG

Claudine

The ice is about halfway off the lake and the loons have returned. They just can't wait for the lake to open all the way as some other set will claim rights.

Caught momma robin in my garage and tried to chase her out. After a half hour I finally gave in and will suffer her raising another batch of young in there. Makes a mess where ever the nest will end up being.

Went for a walk about and found the frogs have laid their eggs in the pond. A bit further walk found frog/tadpole eggs in many of the low areas in the woods. It is going to be a good frog year.

Lupines are poking their heads out of the frozen ground and the field will be colorful once again.

I scratched in another handful of butterfly weed seeds that I had harvested from last fall. Can't have too many of those.

I noticed two butterflies sipping sap from a maple tree where we have pulled the tap. I guess it is a treat for them as they always seem to find it before the tree seals the hole.

U.S.A. - A Chinese owned territory

Claudine

Bought a new wire brush to clean the grill. Getting home I noticed the stamping.

"Made in China, National Headquarters USA"

I don't doubt it one bit.

______________________________

I would have bought a brush made in the U.S.A., only we don't manufacture anything in the U.S.A. anymore. Nothing.

There is no pride anymore. None. Cheap plastic crap works good enough.

There are no jobs for the unskilled. We let the illegal Mexicans do all the hard work because they work cheap and don't mind. Oh, there is the auto industry where the unions have created jobs for the unskilled. They make three times what a college graduate makes and only need to put in about fifteen minutes of actual work a day. I just wish they would put in all six screw instead of putting in two and throwing the other four under the seat. Their jobs are safe because if they get into trouble the Government will bail them out. The auto industry and the Government operate the same way. Sometimes I think they really are the same and pretend to be two separate entities.

_____________________________

Wednesday and Thursday I will be off working with a model that I am very excited about. We will be shooting in a location I have never been, so I do not know what to expect. She however appears to have the ability to adapt well and has shown enormous talent for modeling. I'm not sure, but I think this will be her first outdoor work though. And then of course there is the Swanson factor that will get thrown in. If she can survive that she may have a bright future.

Another good news is she eats most things so I can do something nice over the campfire. Last gal was a true to the heart vegan and besides lettuce I was lost as to what she could eat. It will be nice to be able to cook something good once again.

I'm thinking planked Atlantic salmon and steamed asparagus spears drizzled with a home made hollandaise sauce. A nice, dry white wine.

Should be a fun outing and shoot. Images to follow.

Loot Rock

Frank

Per the New York Times:

Bill Seeks to Designate Drug Cartels as Terrorists

A Texas congressman is seeking to designate seven of the top Mexican cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," a move he says would give law enforcement in the United States enhanced tools to combat the cartels.

Isn't that changing the laws to justify the means? Something Gaddafi would do that we would be all up in arms about.

But that is what this country has turned into. How can the Government expect the people to obey the laws when it pays no attention to them, or changes them to fit its whim?

Loyalty to this country? Long gone as far as I am concerned. I welcome the nest form of government that takes over. Bring it on, whatever it may be. This one no longer works. And hopefully the bleeding heart liberals will have no say-so in the next one, else they wreck that one too.

________________________________

Now...to my goldfish. I have fallen in love with my goldfish. Goldie. I want to marry her/him. I'm not sure just what it is. At any rate, we seem to allow all sorts of strange marriages these days so why not? Where in the Constitution does it say my partner can't be a fish? And of course I will expect health insurance coverage for Goldie as my spouse. Maternity leave for me when she is laying eggs, and an IRS classification as, Married Filing Joint Return.

Of course we should be able to adopt children too.

Sound stupid? Not any more stupid than what we are allowing these days. Give in to one and give in to all.

Or does changing the laws to fit only apply when it is your family?

I need some alone time

Claudine

My kitchen stove is 40+ years old and although it is beat to crap it still functions well. However, a couple of days ago we bought a new one. Maybe just to make the place look better. I don't know.

If anyone has ever seen my car (Golden Hooves) you will know that I have trouble parting with a loyal friend, so the old stove will be retired not to the junk heap, but the studio, where it will keep the tea pot boiling for the wife and I while we work out there. It will also make for a place we can do up a pizza without having to stop working and come into the house.

Of course this project will entail me running 50 amp service about 100 feet to install the old beast in the studio. And that will mean I will have to crawl through 3 feet of blown in insulation in the attic. Fun!!!!!!

I can look for my $45.00 pair of lineman's pliers I lost up there last time I was crawling around in the stuff.

____________________________

Things I am tired of hearing:

"All this crap made in China"

We wouldn't have all this crap made in China if you didn't buy it. So shut up!

"Goes viral"

This is the stupidest catch phrase of the decade. Every news agency uses it at least twice a day and morons have begun using it like they knew what VIRAL meant last year.

If you are so basic brained to use that term you are automatically categorized by me as having no mental capacity to think on your own.

_____________________________

22 hours for the last round of cook down with the maple syruping. Enough is enough. I am done and do not care to ever see another maple tree for the rest of my life.

Like everything else this family does, they do it to excess and what fun might have been involved in doing something becomes painful. More good times are spoiled by overdoing with them. If a little is good, lots must be better. Only lots is anything but better. Lots is tiring and hateful.

My idea of maple syruping in my retirement years was to spend a day, maybe two at it and have enough to last me the rest of the year. Not two solid weeks at it from 4am until 10pm every stinking day. That is hateful. That is not what I had in mind for my old age.

_____________________________

I wish the world would quit trying to make energy efficient stuff. Why? Because they don't work.

We have toilets that don't flush everything so you have to flush it again. That wastes water.

We have funky light bulbs that you can't read by.

We have cars that save us $10./month at the pumps but cost us three times as much to buy.

Who is really making out with all this supposed energy efficient stuff? The manufactures are. We are just blindly nodding our heads in agreement that this is the way we should be moving.

Well not me. You won't find me on a street corner toting water saving measures and fuel saving measures. I want to live not spend my day trying to make shit go down the toilet.

_____________________________

Coming tomorrow.....

"I want to marry my gold fish and have health care benefits for her/him."

I hated high school

Marquardt School

Yep, this image is of the school I went to for eight years. Grades 1-8. We didn't have kindergarten where I grew up. For eight years I was with the same seven other kids. That was the size of my class.

Marquardt School was a two room school house where each grade had a corner. The school was surrounded by an electric fence because it was in the middle of a dairy farm and the fence was there to keep the cows out and the kids in. Our only source of entertainment during recess.

Everyone would hold hands and someone would grab the electric fence.

The above image was not my class, but a few years before me. I could not find an image of my era.

Eight years with the same seven kids.

Then bam! We were thrown into a high school that had over 4,000 students. We became lost. Teachers that cared nothing about education, only getting their tenure. Those who had already attained tenure cared about nothing.

High school was a processing plant that you went into and came out four years later, just as ignorant as the day you went in.

Mix that in with your body going through puberty and you have what amounts to Hell.

College was a return to civil life where the pace was slower but the information you absorbed was much greater. It only lacked an electric fence.

When I left the 8th grade I never saw those other seven students that I spent eight long years with. And I have no desire to make any attempts to locate them now. They are no doubt old codgers, like me.

My best friend back then was Dan Interlandi, who did shoot his eye out with a B-B gun. His dad was my family doctor and he regularly made trip to our house when I was down with the Mumps or Measles or had some part of my anatomy broken.

Dan had an older sister named Lisa. There was also a secret passageway in the walls of their house that one could enter Dan's bedroom closet and come out in Lisa's bedroom closet.

I learned most of my knowledge about female anatomy from that passageway.

Last week when I was visiting my son in Illinois I glanced about. Where Dan's house use to be was a toll road. Where Marquart School use to be was a Walgreen's drug store. The once dairy farm was wall to wall houses and town houses.

I feel like (and somewhat look like) Water Matthau in Grumpier Old Men. "I hate change. Things never change for the better."

The power to create a story

Where's Waldo (For D.L.Wood)

This image is taken in the infamous St. Louis Canyon.

1960: Three women decide to get together while their aristocrat husbands are off doing business stuff. They get lodgings at the impressive Starved Rock Lodge that was build by the C.C.C. One morning these three women decide to take a hike into the canyons. They never returned. A snow storm hits that night. The next morning they are found. All three bodies are stuffed into a small cave within St. Louis canyon. All three had been sexually assaulted and bound with a specific twine. All three had their heads bashed in.

The investigating law enforcement agency was lead by a blundering idiot (No doubt originally from Minneapolis) and he decides to melt all the snow in the canyon to revel and evidence covered by the snow. Of course any evidence that might have been there washed away, down stream.

After several days they arrest a worker from the kitchen of the Starved Rock Lodge, claiming they found a similar type of twine in a storage cabinet in said kitchen.

Odd how this sounds like so many arrests in the past that were based on an upcoming election.

Not odd that there was an upcoming election.

Odd how this small man was able to tie up and beat to death three fairly large women by himself with nary a scratch to show for it. But upcoming elections can create super criminals, if only for a short while. And none more so than elections for States Attorney when the incumbent is running again. The power to arrest and fabricate a story can not be greater.

I personally relive the DuPage County, Illinois States Attorney election in 1984 every day of my life, having spent more time with that ten year old body than most parents spend with their own children. And most of my hard work of collecting evidence for the truth was conveniently lost.

All in the name of running for a political office. Yep, these are people I want controlling my government.

St. Louis Canyon is impressive for being in the middle of flat Illinois farmland.

Which way do I go, which way do I go?

The Nook

While in Chicago at my opening I was asked what I thought of someone else work. My response was my usual response when asked that, "I don't really like anybody else work".

Now as far out as that may sounds, it is true. If I liked something that someone else does I would be doing it myself. I do what I like and I do it better than anyone else because I do it the way I want it done.

It is not an ego thing. It is a practical thing. And I am not into pretending.

The gallery owner did overhear my words however and shot me a glance not to my liking.

____________________________

What is the matter with racial profiling? We are of different races.

If I am looking for a terrorist in the U.S. why would I not racial profile and concentrate on the races that would most likely want to plant a bomb on a subway?

If I am looking for illegal immigrants why would I not look at Mexican looking people.

These are probably the best clues we have for seeking out illegal activity. Racial profiling.

To not use it is STUPID. With a capital stup.

Anybody who is against racial profiling is buffoon. With a capital buff.

***Bomb goes off in a crowded theater. Two men come running out of the theater's back alley. One is an American and the other is Pakistan. The Minneapolis police offers standing on the corner nearby takes off after the two. After a couple of blocks they split and the American runs down 3rd street while the Pakistan runs up 5th ave. The Minneapolis police officer gets confused and stops. "What do I do? I can't racial profile in Minnesota. Which one do I chase?"

Now in Arizona the cop would have gone right after the Pakistan man and tackled him. Arizona is not full of STUPID people.

***Police receive a call from the currency exchange saying a man with a fake immigration card tried to cash a bad check. The guy is standing outside the currency exchange at the moment.

The Minneapolis police show up and find two men standing out in front of the currency exchange. One Mexican and one American. They confront the American and begin asking him questions. The Mexican sees this and takes off, never to be seen again.

In Arizona the police arrive and tackle the Mexican before even talking with him. The American standing there gives a little chuckle and lights up a cigarette.

Arizona is not full of STUPID people.

Anybody who thinks law enforcement should not racial profile, hold up your hand. Now those who held up their hand can promptly move to Minneapolis where the rest of the limp wrist, blubbering idiots are so we can keep an eye on the lot of you.

More dead

Predator's Kitchen

Wouldn't you know it. For ten days it rained, and then the one instant I was banking on a totally overcast moment....the sun came out.

Not much to be done with it except go with the flow.

Oh, I could have cloned in some detail where the bright sun washed out the rocks, but why. Just because I can do that (and I do know how to do that) doesn't mean it must be done.

As it stands it is a very accurate representation of what I was seeing, and that is pretty much what I am always after. Not some fabricated image.

I was reading an article that was an interview with one of the silicon valley big wigs. He was commenting on how we have seen external hard drives of 250 gigs, and the size of a hard copy of Moby Dick to cigarette package size drive that is a terabyte. Camera memory cards go from 126mb to 32 gig.

He said the technology to create an external chip storage device the size of your fingernail with 5 terabytes has been around for a long time, but bringing out such a device would kill the industry. There will be many generations of reducing size and expanding storage capacity in the future to ensure profits for technology companies for years to come and we may never see what is possible for them to build today.

Makes one compassionate and mad all at the same time.

Image from a couple of days ago with the new model.

Out of the pan and into the fire

The new gal and I wrapped up a two day shoot in the sandstone canyons if Illinois.

I found a new canyon that few to non go into in a years time. A small trickle of water flows over the ledge and into the gorge. It was pleasant knowing we had it to ourselves for as long as we wanted and didn't have to worry about someone walking down a trail in our direction. In fact one had to hike through some thick vegetation in order to even be made aware that there was a canyons back in that direction.

I have learned to read the surrounding landscape and deduce that there should be a canyon back in there some place. It is a nice feeling when you finally emerge into one that few others know of.

The image above is from a few days before when we went on our trial shoot in the woods near her home. I should have some canyon work for you to see in a couple of days.

I seemed to have come home to find the maple sap still flowing and will be busy with that crud once again.

While I was gone a bear came along and made off with the deer carcass I had left for my fox family. Last night the foxes came calling so I had to raid the refrig for a snack for them.

If I get a chance in the next couple of days I will find them a new road kill to feed upon.

Even though I have much to do between maple syruping, repairing the wife's car, organizing the camping gear for another shoot coming up very soon, editing all the images from this last trip with the new gal and Claudine, repairing a toilet and shower, repairing a sheared off well head (ugh), and catching up on eleven days of house cleaning, it was nice to roll into my yard at 5am yesterday morning. 15 hours of driving has taken its toll however. I'm beat and don't feel like doing anything. Not even going down to the lake and retrieving one of my boats that seem to have departed land and is semi sunk about 20 feet off shore.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be soon enough to get under way. I think for now I may just go back to bed for a few more hours.

Back home

She may look like another murder victim that was dumped in the woods to you, but I like this one. So tough.

My son tells me he looks at my blog to see if I am still alive.

No inheritance today.

Pre-shoot day

Matraka

The model and I are holed up in a motel for the evening. Cold, rainy and windy. We did some scouting and planning for tomorrow. We intend to spend the entire day shooting and we wanted to make sure that we had ideas going before we began. It was a productive scouting trip.

But now a hot shower is calling.

Rain drops keep falling on my head

Rain, rain, rain. Developed a leak in my tent rain fly last night and woke to one of my shoes full of water.

Last night went to a gallery opening that I had a piece in. It was a Juried photography show at a gallery on the north side of Chicago. When you walked in the door the first things to hit your eye were two photos straight across the room from the entry. Mine, and one by Peter Le Grand of Carla Johnson and Fitness 101. Two images as starkly different as could be possible.

It was a pleasant mix that set the mood for the remainder of the show.

D.L.Wood and his lovely wife arrived and we spent a goodly portion of the evening talking.

My son came with me to this show but I think he got a bit bored as he disappeared from time to time.

It was hot in there as the place was packed, so I imagine he went outside to cool off a bit too.

There was a lovely young lady there that had a piece in the show and she was so damn excited. I was enjoying watching her as much as anything. Reminded me of my first juried show, of so many years ago. I tend not to get excited these days.

All in all a very pleasant evening, right up until I knocked a glass of wine to the floor while talking with my hands. But there were only six of us left in the gallery at that point so I didn't make too big of an ass of myself.

Off to Starved Rock in a moment with a new gal. Raining still. Not the best weather to break in a new model, but I can't control the weather.

Can't wait to get on the road again

Claudine

Here is the most stupid thing I have seen in the news in years.

Politicians getting involved in what you can eat and can't eat.

They have told us what we can see and can't see, so I guess this follows suit.

And it gets worse every day.

Tomorrow they will tell us what we can hear and can't hear.

Think that is silly? Think hard about what they are voting on now.

Three more days of living in a tent and I will be home in my own bed. Sort of miss the wife. She makes a great hot water bottle on a chilly morning.

And running water!

I don't mind tenting, actually. I use a nice pad that keeps my hip bones off the ground and a warm bag to snug into. It is pleasant to hear owls at night or the snorting of some raccoon or other creature as it investigates that odd shaped thing that wasn't there a few days ago.

The other night I had turkeys tripping over my tent ropes in the morning.

Tomorrow night I will be back down there with the turkeys and owls, out of this city noise. It will be very welcome.

Go Georgia!

I'm for shutting down the U.S. Mexico boarder completely. Don't let anybody cross in either direction. Shoot anyone crossing. Simple!

Short of that, any Mexican that can't prove U.S. Citizenship or have a valid passport gets sent back with the notification they will be shot if found on U.S. soil again.

We need someone with guts in the White House. Someone who states publicly that if you do not have fair skin and blue eyes you best have all your Ts crossed and your Is dotted or you are going to be in some hot water. We need Janet from Arizona to run for president. Someone who upholds the laws of this country rather than pushes them aside.

Rant over.

Yuck....City life

Claudine

It was a beautiful day in the Chicago area, even though it was in the Chicago area.

Don't know how people can live with the constant sound of cars. Never ending, even at 3am.

Can't see the stars because of the smog and lights.

All these automobiles spitting out fumes can't be good to breath.

I am looking forward to heading down to Ottawa on Saturday. I really don't know how I lived here for so many years. Must have been nuts.

Reminds me of a movie I saw some 50 years ago about the Tennessee Valley Authority that built a dam for power generation and flooded the valley. The movie centered around this old woman who had a cabin in the woods and how they forced her out because that area was going to get flooded. They gave her a house in town where she had neighbors close enough to reach out the window and touch their homes. She sat on her new front porch and heard dogs barking, doors banging, people yelling and smelled the tar truck as it repaved the road.

She quickly died. And I didn't blame her.

You can have city life. I am glad there are idiots out there who like it. Keeps them all in one place where reasonabe folks can keep an eye on them.

Tenting tonight on the old camp ground

At The Root Of The Matter

Worked with the above new gal yesterday in an arboretum outside of Chicago. We located an area that was fairly secluded that had downed trees in it. Not the main, well kept part of the 3,000 acre arboretum that was chocked full of people on this nice day.

She had never posed nude before, and only for a couple of new photographers that did not work with her like they should have. So this was new to her, posing nude and actually modeling.

She did exceptionally well. I had not the least bit of problem getting her to do exactly what I was after. One of the benefits of a new model. Well seasoned models want to do their thing and not my thing. Sometimes that becomes a problem.

I have been living in my tent for several days and will be for several days more. Tomorrow I will attend my opening in Chicago and the head back to Utica with this model above for a couple of days of shooting in the canyons.

Internet access is limited to restaurants and such so posts will be spotty.

Worn out body

Claudine

Spent a good portion of today hiking about in the sandstone canyons in central Illinois. Found one I had not been in before that I like very much and will be using it on Saturday with Tabris.

Might just as well break her in right from the get go. Hike, climb, forge rivers and then get naked and lay on cold, rough rocks. All in the name of art.

But now I am pooped and comfortable to be sitting here in Starved Rock Lodge next to the huge fireplace. A soft, comfortable chair to park my tired ass in. Maybe some dinner at the restaurant instead of cooking over the campfire is in order tonight.

I do know that sleeping bag is going to feel awful good in a couple of hours.

Need to head back to Chicago for a shoot around noon tomorrow so I am done hiking for a couple of days. There will be a bit for that shoot but nothing serious. Nothing an old man in a walker couldn't handle.

Hello from Illinois

Claudine

It has been a hectic few days. I did a couple of days of scouting locations and then meet up with my friend, D.L. Wood for a bit of liquid refreshment in his back yard. His birthday, I might add.

Yesterday I managed to meet up with Claudine, who like me had a morning free. So we decided to work one of Cook Counties many forest preserves. I no sooner pulled the tripod from the car and a Cook County Forest Preserve police car pulled up and asked if I had a permit to photograph. "Trees?", I said.

"Yep"

"No, I don't"

"Got to get one before you can photograph in the forest preserve."

Yeah, right! So we shot anyway.

Yesterday afternoon I went south to Ottawa/LaSalle area and set up my tent. I had a very bad head ache and laid down at 7pm in my tent in some hopes of it going away, but it didn't and it still is lingering this morning. But I have lots of hiking to do today and I can't let it get in the way.

Tomorrow I will head back to the suburbs of Chicago to shoot with a gal in Lisle. Then on Friday I have a meeting with a model and an art opening that evening.

Saturday I will pick up a model in Elmhurst and head back down here to Utica, Illinois to shoot in the canyons for two days with her.

Now it is time to make some breakfast over the campfire before I head out for what appears to be a pleasant day of hiking.

D.L.Wood

Me neither

Sarah Jean ~ Parts

There is a notable difference between good artists and so-so artists in many different factions of their work. But none more than so-so artists constant, self promotions. Good artists don't do that. You never, ever see a good artist talking about their shows or their books. And they never plead with the public to buy their work.

So-so artists on the other hand are constantly pushing their latest self published books that don't sell. But they do get to claim they are published artists......I guess. They also get excited and tell you about a show they have gotten into. Mostly coffee house type displays of their work, but getting in the Guggenheim compares in their mind.

This all came to mind today when I stumbled across a well known, and good photographer while I was in Chicago this afternoon. It was a chance meeting in a back room of a gallery. We were there on totally separate business.

I asked her if she had a show coming up in Chicago soon and she replied that she had an opening on Friday evening. That was it. No name of the gallery. Nothing. No, Hope you can make it. No, self promotion what-so-ever.

I felt obligated to not tell her I too had an opening on Friday. After all, I didn't want to sound like a so-so artist, pushing my self on the public in hopes some fool will like my work.

No....I let it slide. And for awhile I felt in her league. If she stumbles across a notice of my opening she will think a bit more highly of me than if I had groveled in front of her in any attempt I might have made in trying to impress her that I too have gallery shows.

And although I am a fan of her ability as a skilled photographer I will not attend her opening as I do not care for her subject matter. And I am not one to hang on the coat tails of the famous just because. Those who have listened to me for any reasonable amount of time know that I find people who do that, distasteful.

On the road again

Sarah Jean ~ Conclusion of the Water Ballet

I'm currently holed up about 30 miles west of Chicago. And I do believe I will say put for the night. 600 miles is enough driving for this old boy in one day.

I am liking this being able to talk with people via a lap top. Something to be said for modern tools, although I still draw the line at cell phones. Don't have one and certainly don't want to hear one go off.

This contraption is perfect. Don't have to answer calls from people, just turn it on when I want to talk.

I will go visit with the grand kids in a few minutes. Tomorrow I will drop off some artwork in Chicago and do a bit of scouting for an upcoming shoot.

Oh, and I may stop and see D.L.Wood and talk him out of a beer.

News from the Sugarbush

Sarah Jean ~ Wind & Willows

Gawd damn I hate maple syruping. I seem to forget every year just how much I hate it. Sort of like smacking your thumb with a hammer. We have all done it but we really don't remember just how bad it hurt at the time.

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I will be working with a brand new model on the 16th and 17th in the sandstone canyons in Illinois. When I say brand new, I mean never modeled before.

Today I decided that we should spend a few hours shooting before we head out on this adventure so she understand what I will be looking for and give her a chance to get comfortable modeling nude, so we will spend an afternoon shooting in a wooded area not far from her home on the 13th.

It will at least give me an idea if I should expect anything of value from our two day outing.

She is at least game for this. And she is not all full of tattoos or sporting a 57 Ford bumper from some part of her face.

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This type of story on CNN pisses me off. Didn't we have slaves here? Why must we attempt to make every country, even though they have not progressed to where we were in 1860, on the same page as us? Can't we kindly let them progress in a normal manner as we were allowed to do. That was not a question, just a sad statement of fact.

America is nothing but a bunch of assholes.

2012 - A nonvoting year

Abigail ~ Crazy Horse

My god! Why doesn't the United States just lock up all the heterosexuals and be done with it.

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Obama is going to run again? This guy has got to be kidding. If he thinks he has a snowball chance in hell of getting re-elected he is a lot stupider than he makes out to be. And that is pretty damn stupid.

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Charlie Sheen should throw his hat in the ring for president. He would fit right in with the rest of the crowd.

The sad part is the idiots of this country will elect one of them.

You don't have to vote. It is a right not a mandate.

I think we should all stay home and say, "Fuck it. There is nobody running I want in as president."