@Randem

Batsday photos on Flickr

I don’t believe they had this when I lived in Florida.

That’s a shame, too, because I’d have gone! What a great idea!

Shadow of Evil

One of my favorite things to use in photography is shadows. It’s often too easy to pay so much attention to your subject that you miss the shadow they’re casting. Each person’s body, arms, legs, head, and hair combine with posture to form a unique shadow unlike that of anyone else, and as a photographer, each subject’s shadow can be very interesting.

I like to think of it as playing shadow puppets with a whole body. You can make a a hedgehog, or a witch, or a statue.

American Wasteland

Yesterday, the House of Representatives approved a Constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the flag by a vote of 286-130.

This is the seventh time the House has approved an amendment since 1989, when the Supreme Court ruled the federal Flag Protection Act unconstitutional. The bill has been endorsed by all 50 states, but keeps getting shut down in the Senate.

Folks, this is scary.

Look, I have my complaints about this country, but it’s still my home. The American flag represents a lot of good things. I’m not saying that we should burn, or soil, or defacate on the flag… I’m only saying that we should always have the right to do so.

The Constitution gave me the freedom of expression, and included in that is the freedom to make photos like this. But once we allow laws with words like “desecration of the flag”, it opens the door for every thin-skinned nutbag who thinks he (or she) knows what’s best for everyone to call what I do “desecration”. Trust me, it WILL happen.

Don’t let the government silence the expression of artists. Call your senator. Call your state government. Don’t let the Republican party start silencing your freedom of speech.

Feldgrau

Most people would probably run for cover and reschedule their shoot if it started to rain, but I chose to press on and the band didn’t have a problem with that. This is one of those times when having a bunch of old, fully manual film cameras was far better than some modern digital wonder. My digital stayed dry in the car while I churned out film in a torrential downpour. I’m glad I did, too, because this is my favorite photo from the shoot.

Click to see more.

After some relatively “tame” swimsuit photos, we brought an end to the normalcy and pulled out the fishnet and gas mask. This is what I love to do, and I was happy to see my model felt the same way. “I like making pictures that piss people off,” she said. I think we got a few of those.

See more photos in Pixel’s gallery.