Thursday, January 20, 2011

Final Shots from Guys Night Out

So... to conclude the series I want to say ten things...

1. First and foremost... I am not this scary in real life. Although I can be intimidating, so I have been told, upon first meeting me, once I am warmed up to you, I can be be the biggest teddy bear.

2. My first horror film, that I remember watching, was Race with the Devil, with Peter Fonda. I was six years old. The movie that scared me the most is a tie between Carrie (1976) ( I was six years old when I saw it at the drive-in) and Phantasm (1979). Both of these movies did some real damage to me in the form of fear of monsters, demons and chicks who start their periods (think opening shower scene in Carrie). I was afraid of something grabbing me from under my bed while getting into or out of bed, into my early teens. I literally took a running jump into bed each night and jumped to the middle of the room getting out of bed because of films like these. I don't do that any more.

3. So while I spent my childhood exposed to graphically and psychologically damaging films as a young and impressionable kid, I have to give props to my mom as she refused to let me see The Exorcist or Jaws as as child. As a matter of fact, my first Jaws film was Jaws 3D (1983) and I didn't see The Exorcist until I was 19 and in the Navy and I understood why my mom wouldn't let me see it. But as I was saying, I am a fairly well adjusted person these days. Sure I have psychopathic tendencies from time to time; but don't we all? I can manage those urges quite well. 

4. While a lot of my personal art seems dark, if you were at the shoot you would have seen just how much fun we had. I have been known to scare the person behind the camera more than once with my intensity when I get into character, but it is all in fun.

5. This knife was really, really sharp and I, in one of the shots, while the knife was really close to my eye, I accidentally poked my eye with the tip. It hurt a little, but I was shocked that more damage wasn't done. I think I might been donated Superman's eyes. 

6. I didn't do these shots alone. In front of the camera was Chris Sabato of BuffaloGrafix.com using my camera. Also helping me execute these shots with some creative lighting and smoke effects was Nathan Smith of SmithFineArt.com, Chris David of PeoplePhotos.biz and Michael Conkey of nine22.com. Michael also provided us the space to shoot in his cozy home.

7. The shot above was a painful shot for Chris David and not for what appears to be the obvious reason. Chris was forced for a half an hour to arch his back and lean into me while we messed with lights and such. There were several dozen shots taken before we captured this final exposure.

8. The funniest thing about the above shot is Chris was originally less afraid of the knife than he was of me behind him. But then as I, somewhat forcefully, turned his head to the left to expose the right carotid artery, he said, a little nervously I might add, "Okay, you seem to have some practice doing this." Hopefully he doesn't read this because now that he knows that I know what area to expose and that I actually know the name of what I was exposing he probably knows that I know why to expose it. I promise Chris, you were never in any real danger, I have never stabbed anyone on accident.

9. Okay; I understand that this doesn't seem to fit into the theme of the images above, but it is from the same event. As Nathan and I were walking to the street, ready to head home, he pointed out some really cool light from a street lamp shining through the leafless branches of a tree in somewhat of a radial fashion. He was very successful in capturing it with his camera phone, but the above shot was the result of my camera phone.... I don't even know where the Blue, Green, and most of the lights came from. It was a standard sodium vapor light, so yellow.

10. If you don't have friends to get together with on a regular basis, I would strongly recommend it. The creativity of a collective far outweighs what I could come up with on my own and that creativity sticks with me for days and days afterward. Thanks Chris S., Michael and Nathan. It was a fun evening. Special thanks to Chris D. for loaning me you carotid artery, and the rest of you as well. 

11. Bonus comment - No photographers were hurt during the shooting of this series... well except for the knife I took to the eye, but that was my own damn fault. 

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