Yep, We Went There...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope this week finds you all doing well out there. Things here are busy and very good! I have a ton of projects in various stages of completion, so let's hop right in, shall we?

To start, I finished up my Mermaids of the Maine Coast project and submitted it to the Water, Water Everywhere competition this week. This was one of the funnest projects I've done in quite some time. (We always have fun, but this was too much.) All humor aside, I feel these shots from an execution/editing standpoint are fairly strong, so fingers crossed! And a huge thank you to the boys who wore the tail... thank you, guys! The mermaid photos are also available as fine art prints in both the Stapelia shop and over at Society6, so if you're interested in decorating your walls with crazy, place that order!

And speaking of Society6, that is a site for fine art prints of all sorts; paintings, photography, illustration and so on. A ton of very talented people are represented in that community of artists. Out of all of the prints made available on the site, Society6 also sub-curates a group of prints to feature/sell in their company store. Yesterday, I found out that 3 of my Zom-B-Vex prints were selected to go in this store, which is very exciting! So, now you can find Baseball Boy, Scout Master & Businessman up in there. Yay!

What else? Oh! I was in the studio all this past Sunday photographing sets of twins for another contest I am entering very soon. What a great group of people. I had a lot of fun. We were throwing confetti and balloons and party things all over the studio. I believe my favorite quote of the day was, Me: "And why are you laughing?!" Model: "Because confetti is funny..." So true. Look out for those shots next week!

This was not the actual confetti used, but I've flung it around my studio so many times, I had this shot available for illustration purposes...

The weather is getting so nice up here and I've been working almost constantly, so Saturday, I decided to take a break and a friend and I headed to a place called Savers down in New Hampshire. Now, I am not a native New Englander, but I find them to be a frugal people. Consequently, there is no shortage of discount stores, thrift stores, salvage stores and the like up here. Which (as someone who loves to repurpose and resell vintage items), is fine by me. Savers was a new one to me and I was not disappointed. 50% of the fun was the customers. While searching through the records, a woman who was leaning all in my personal space, remarked to her boyfriend: "Give me some room, I don't want to fall on this lady and this ain't my good leg." Wowza. But I found some things for STAG as well as a couple of great records, including this Harry Belafonte record with my favorite song of his on it: Suzanne. Not my favorite version, but still good. And that cover? The colors and font are just great.

And these records I did not buy, but maybe someone can tell me about this Ding Dong School, or why that rabbit is all creepy up in the park with all those kids... no one? That's what I thought. Yikes.

And we wrapped a great day at an adorable place called The Friendly Toast, which is full of great vintage advertising things. I want to take up residence in this place, truly. Oh, and the food was also good... Haha.

Until next time: Unpleasant dreams...

Super Douche & Some Bowling...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all doing well out there. Things here have gone from busy to literally straight up insane. I have a ton of big projects coming up that I can't wait to share! To start, I have a project I just finished that I dropped today. This shot was inspired by the vintage ad for hair product that I found below. I just thought the image of this woman killing herself 3 different ways because her hair was a mess was just too much. So, I did my own version. I absolutely love how it came out and it will be available soon as a fine art print in the shop and over at Society6! And because I love the beautiful Sarah and her amazing look, I couldn't resist taking some additional shots of her for fun. Such a good time. Thank you, Sarah!

Also in the business vein, I just dropped a ton of new product over at STAG this past week! I am trying to ramp the shop inventory up for the holiday season so you have plenty of great vintage gifts from which to choose when the time comes. I will also be dropping some vintage Halloween items in the coming week or so and some costumes for your All Hallow's Eve needs. (I just did a shoot of promotional pieces to accompany these holiday offerings with my STAG man and I can't wait to show those off as well.) The great vintage green fedora, 1920's era carbonator for cocktails with fizz, and the vintage game pieces below are but a few of the neat things at STAG right now.

One of my good friends recently turned 40, so he threw a little bowling party over the weekend and I had more fun than I expected. I mean, I totally stink at bowling, but I was happy to roll my frames and then spend the rest of my time photographing the party and sipping my beer at the beautiful Bayside Bowl in Portland! There are more great pics here. So much fun and so much vintage goodness to bowling.

I picked up a great independent comic/'zine the other day from one of my faves, Rhode Montijo called the Halloween Kid and it is amazing. I follow him on Facebook and I was lucky enough to snag a copy before the first run sold out. Well, a day later, it showed up in the mail with a cute sticker of Skeletown and a plastic bat ring!!! (I was almost as happy about the bat ring as I was about that 'zine, I'm not going to lie.) A great artist making fun, Halloween and vintage-inspired work.

I'm going to wrap up with an amazing photo that a good friend posted on my wall today. Yep, that's Anne Margaret with a turtle on a leash that also has a very cute purple umbrella on its back. It's images like this, simple, strange, funny that just get my brain going. Maybe I'll do a version with a snake...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Meat-B-Gone...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope you are all doing well out there. Things are busy as usual over here. To start, my latest work is finally done and posted! Meat-B-Gone is a funny modern reversal of the misogynistic advertising of the 50's. Instead of husbands spanking their wives over stale coffee or chastising them for burning dinner, here is a product marketed towards housewives to take care of that pesky philandering issue. Funny stuff. This piece is available as a fine art print in the shop or in many other archival formats over at Society6! (I actually offer quite a few prints over at Society6 to give my customers additional format options, peep it out.)


What else? Oh, more items have been listed over at STAG my Pretties! Including some neat vintage nautical signs like the one below made out of brass (these are the real deal), a ton of great book lots by topic, including this lot of vintage scouting guides. But the neatest thing listed this week is this old Eastman Colorator from the 20's. It can be placed on the lens of a 16mm projector and lenses can be pushed down to add color tints to the B&W film! It's definitely a rare piece and something that a collector of vintage film items might appreciate. Things are selling like crazy over there, which is great! I'm always adding new, quality items, so stop by often.

I have a ton of fun shoots coming up, but one that I'm particularly excited about it a luchador related one that I hope to shoot in the fall. Thanks to a helpful and very sweet blog reader, I have added 3 more masks to my collection and I will be using all of them for this shoot which should be... hilarious. If you're local and interested, shoot me an email or comment below. I would ideally like 2 males and 2 females. Pass this image along... I think it says it all. Ha!

Enough about me, I have some great things I've found that I want to share with you faithful readers. First off, I am absolutely in love with the Men's Fall Prada line and I don't even really follow or like designer labels. Why do I love it? Let me count the ways. First, I think placing Willem Dafoe and Gary Oldman beside two younger models was a stroke of genius. It gives the line gravity and a unique spin. Secondly, the man in the white vest absolutely has the face of a late 19th Century man of the world. And, lastly the clothes. Those reds, those purples, the cut, the tailoring. Le sigh. I wish modern society wasn't so lazy some days.

Oh! And check out this breathtaking dark circus wedding shoot, you guys. This wasn't a real wedding, it was merely a show of what this group of artisans can do if you decide to hire them... and it's amazing. (And to think I sometimes meet with resistance here in Maine when I suggest to my clients that their engagement shoots should be styled at all!) California is a totally different (and wonderful) world, I guess.

And lastly, I have come across a great illustrator over on Deviantart who I wanted to share. I just adore his line work and I have actually decided to commission a piece from him very similar to the first one below because well, I love Halloween, I love costumes and especially love his execution of the above 2 things. Don't you? I'll share the piece just as soon as it's done!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Meat - B - Gone, Indeed...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope this weeks finds you doing well out there. I have been busy over here as usual, trying to balance all the different sides of my business so fresh content is always there for you! I shot my latest conceptual project yesterday. I'm still working on it, but here are some teasers. Below is the fake product prop box I designed for the shoot and a candid of the model. (This candid shot reminds me of the soft dreamy cover of Chet Baker's Chet album for some reason. For a two-second shot, I kind of love it.) I will release that work next post!

What else? Oh, since I do so much conceptual/commercial work, I feel a lot of people have the impression that I don't do product or family photography. This is simply not true at all. So, to clarify what I can do, I designed this handy FAQ for your reference! The bottom line is this: If you want the best and you're not sure if I do it, please send me an email and ask. That anniversary headshot below was very different from my usual eccentric fare, but I can do that too (and I enjoy it)!

But back to the odd, I don't usually do casting calls on the blog, but I need 6 8-9 year old kids for an upcoming project, so I thought I'd widen my net. If you are local to Portland, Maine, have a son or daughter who is 8-9 years of age and has the ability to focus and take instruction, and if they're comfortable in front of the camera, email me! I am shooting my annual Halloween card September 30th and it's all about the kids this year. The main criteria is that they have to fit into one of the outfits I'm renting. So, send along a message if you're interested and I'll try to make it work. (I don't want to spoil the concept, but it has to do somewhat with the below image...)

I have found an amazing artist recently who I wanted to share with you: Fernando Vicente. Wow. That's all I can really say. Mixing an expert mastery of human anatomy with a classic painterly approach and then placing his subject matter in clothing and fake magazine covers to give it a 1940's Vogue sense of familiarity, I honestly have never seen anything like it. And those faces (when they aren't dissected) are so expressive. I love this work. Take a look.

And let's wrap up with a movie recommendation, shall we? As you know, have no taste in film by most peoples' standards. No Criterion Collection for this girl. So, it should come as no shock that I love almost everything Pam Grier did during her blacksploitation period. Including, my latest find: Big Doll House. Wowza, this movie has it all; cat fighting, naked women, prison breaks, drug addiction, torture with cobras and of course, Pam Grier's horrible acting and ginormous fro. The bottom line is this: watch it if you have a spare hour or two and tell me what you think, and if you have better things to do, I laud your self-restraint. Ha!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

And to all Happy Thanksgiving...

Hello Lovelies-

Here's a mid-week post to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. I am thankful for all of you readers and fellow-lovers of the dark, beautiful and sometimes downright bizarre things I share with you each week. And speaking of bizarre, the She Walks Softly blog has a great collection of vintage parade float imagery here. Great stuff(ing). So, safe travels and remember:

You can use your turkey for food or as a car... not both.

If you see this during dinner, it's time to stop drinking.

Turkeys love cigar-smoking so don't let them near your humidor or you'll regret it.

This isn't really a tip, it's just weird. A croc float? Really?

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...