justThorne, Noticing: new frontispiece: Never Before

Robin, shot July 2004 in Lexington, with my (then brand new) 10D and 50mm f1.4 lens. 1/125th at f/3.5 and ISO 200. 24" print.

This one looks better on black, so make sure to check it out on the home page or in the Latest gallery.

Found this old shot in October while looking for another, and it grabbed me like very few do. Within a couple of days, I was hard at work, the first to be completely developed on my then-new 37" screen. Thrilling to see it coming to life at its full print size right in front of me. This might become available at 30" once I can check it out for myself, but the pixels might be thin for that, so I'll wait to see. Even at 24", her face will be virtually life size on your wall.

If you're new to my work, an introduction is in order. This is Robin. They say that we never forget our first, and she continues to inspire me like no other model ever has. In this new mode lately, I completely expect to do a new Robin image a month for the next year. This shot above is from the first day of our four-day shoot in July, 2004. There's a story behind that.

I'll tell the story of meeting Robin some other time (because it's amusing), but she ended up serving as my very first model in December of 2002. I only had a dingy little single megapixel camera then, but the interaction went fabulously. She'd already done quite a bit of modeling, and I seemed to have a knack for directing a shoot (with many intuitive habits that have served me well ever since). We got many adorable and/or sexy shots, and three that became works of art in 2003: May All Your Irritants Begone (probably out of print forever), tremorseismic (hopefully to debut in print someday), and The Dilemma Every Day. (You can also see a little web-only image called The Light Is Out There in my OMP gallery.) Someday, I really hope to complete another manipulation from that shoot called Mystery Achievement, a 30" that I slaved over years ago, but it required her hair to be re-shot.

That Spring, I got my 4 megapixel Canon S45, and took it all up a notch. After a couple of fabulous shoots with my second model, Lauren, I lined up another with Robin in July. We were pretty casual about it (and I've always regret that she wore flats), but that day's work produced five finished works: BACK, yes, you, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Glass Half Full, and Height of the Summer (definitely slated to return as a remastered 30" print). At least one more glorious manipulation is due from this shoot too, Reach for the Stars (currently waiting on some technical advice from Jessie Ngaio).

In spring of 2004, I was juggling a lot of variables, planning to finally step up to an dSLR and proper glass. But I had a lot on my plate, IRS troubles slamming into me even as I was mounting my first show in Lexington, all while moving upstairs from a tiny efficiency into a much more spacious apartment that would provide a studio setting for photography. At the opening, Robin came and we caught up for the first time in a while. And the most drastic news was that she was leaving Lexington, probably never to return! And thus began my race against time to shoot as much of her as possible before she left.

In July, I scheduled a week's vacation from work, and ordered my Canon 10D and 50mm f1.4 lens with just a few days to break it in before getting to work with Robin. (I'd also broken in my crude studio and lighting gear with Lauren just a couple of weeks earlier, but that was an S45 shoot.) As our marathon session neared, I realized at the last minute that I'd need some wider glass for head-to-toe work, and ordered my first 24mm f2.8. Squeezed for money, squeezed for time, but this last shot with Robin was the overriding priority.

Ultimately, we shot together for four days: two full outfits in my studio on the first day (which has already produced We Can Work It Out, which should debut in print someday soon, and will someday yield Tried and True, a manipulation so ambitious that it trashed two hard drives in 2006); two different bikinis in my studio on the second day (which produced Left of the Summer and Untitled, certainly long overdue for print); six different outfits in five different (mostly outdoor) settings on the third day (which so far has only spat out Yet to Scale, but from which many more are in the pipe, including my all-time greatest work, Even In My Dreams), and four different outfits at her home on the fourth day (which produced some incredibly sexy work but nothing that has quite inspired any art yet, though the hair finally did get re-shot for Mystery Achievement).

Honestly, by that fourth day, we were both exhausted and somewhat going through the motions. I'd also received my 24mm on the morning of our second day of shooting and had broken its focus ring by that afternoon, so a lot of the prettiest pictures from day 4 had botched focus. Fortunately, even then as now, my 50 is my workhorse for shooting models.

The funny thing is that despite all the time spent working together, no one could call Robin and I "friends" (unlike Lauren and I, who have become incredibly dear over the years). But Robin (still) has an incredible resolve in her character, and given an "assignment," she stepped up to the plate, over and over again, and just kept delivering for me, despite my rather ridiculous expectations. (It's a good thing she was eighteen by then, or else I probably would have been breaking child labor laws!) In hindsight too, I've noticing what a bang job she did on varying her hair and makeup along with her wardrobe changes.

In short, I've worked with about a dozen girls over the years (I'm very picky), and at least half of those were fundamentally very talented as models, but Robin was just the best. Despite being only five feet tall, and rather diminutive in person, she just towers before a lens, has a wonderful range of expressions (including an adorable smile on demand), and a confidence with her physicality that translates marvelously into static images. If I was simply a pretty/sexy girl photographer, I could release hundreds of marvelous shots from my archives (especially if I'd been more adept with lighting then).

And be sure that many more are coming, not simply "hot chick" shots, but those rare ones that really inspire me to feel like an artist as I develop them.

Of which this new one above is a most outstanding example. I think it's among the finest model prints that I'll ever do. I was practically shuddering while I worked on it, feeling like an artist, feeling like part of a tradition much much bigger than just me. Because I hope all my facial expressions portray something universal in the human condition, but this one moreso than any I've ever done before? I think so.

So, obviously, any model work I do is by implication dedicated to the subject, but this one deserves saying so. Robin's generosity with her talent and time was essential to my own development as a model photographer, and I cannot thank her enough.

So I hope this image expresses something deep and dear and beautiful to anyone who will view it, but most of all to its subject.