These are the cooling towers for one of the nuclear power stations in Tennessee. I think this was the Watts Bar station, though we passed not far from the Sequoyah station during that same trip in 2011.
The spirit of creativity and the joy of free expression is the foundation of Burning Man and the regional festivals that have formed from it’s inspiration.
With that spirit in mind I asked this lovely woman to let me capture her expressions of that freedom and her inner beauty at the Alchemy burn in 2011.
Images behind the cut and as you already know, They’re NSFW. Tasteful and beautiful nudity abounds in this set.
Back in June of 2011, I had a fun couple of hours in the studio with two of my favorite models from that year.  I’ve gotten a higher percentage of good shots out of that session than just about any other that year.  A couple of those images even became the centerpiece of three different gallery shows.
As anyone who follows my work knows, I’ve spent a good portion of this year going back over my entire body of work and pulling out those gems that just did not have the tools or techniques to polish at the time.  I also have been revisiting the “finished” pieces to see if I can get just that little bit of extra shine from them.  This shoot is one of those that I have gotten both new images to show and been able to really refine the quality on some of the ones already deemed “finished”.
Only one of the shots I worked on tonight is work safe and you can see it up top. The rest are behind the fold.  As always, use your discretion when viewing.
It’s that time again. I’m thinking of making this a weekly post. This time, we’re diving through late 2011 to experiment with more B/W conversions and edits. Images below the fold are NSFW. You’ve been warned. The gallery from the original shoot is here.
We start with an image that I had passed up at the time I shot it. Back then, I couldn’t quite get the emotion I wanted to come out. A bit of work with filters and color.
“Saved” this one from my 2011 archives. I took this shot while visiting Oleg Volk in Nashville, TN. The original was a bit rough and way too noisy. I have a few new techniques now and this is the result. If there’s enough interest, I’ll post the original and a brief description of how I edited it.
Back in 2011 I posted this shot of Jessica and a few people asked me to detail how I accomplished it and how much editing it took. I realized that I never actually made that post.  So, here’s that post.
(edit: Added one more photo to the gallery. It’s not a part of the sequence below, but was from the same shoot. It’s just too good NOT to include.)
Whenever I feel I’ve made a breakthrough on some new technique, I will go back and revisit some of my photo sets from past shoots. I’ve been known to go back 10 years or more and pull a new gem from the pile and polish it up to something I didn’t even know was possible then.
I’ve done that with a set of the lovely FireBitch from 2011. You’ve seen a few of the images from that set in both color and black & white, but this new tone & texture technique works much better for one of the sequences from that shoot than either of the ones I used then.
Enjoy, and you shouldn’t need the warning by now that images after the ‘more’ are not safe for work.  Click for the full gallery.
Added after original post. Just too good not to include.
I’ve been going through some of my better photos from the last couple of years and revisiting my techniques for B/W conversion. I think this one works much better than the old technique. I was able to bring out the details on her jacket and give her some hair back.
