The Blight

This past weekend saw two photoshoots at my studio in Oakland.


Calamity Lulu and the Settee of Contention [click for gallery]



Lil Miss Never for an aerial promo shoot for an upcoming fetish event [click for gallery]

Reposted from The Blight

Originally posted at The Blight.
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I've made a few recent exceptions to my event-photography hiatus (does this surprise anyone?) and you can take a peek below. You'll find Throbbing Gristle, Vau de Vire's "Sideshow" at Cellspace, Circus Metropolus's "Funhouse" at the Oakland Metro, and a special bonus vignette.



Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle at the SF Regency Ballroom

Throbbing Gristle -- the pioneers of noise as music and of shock theater (who are credited with the invention of industrial music, along with Cabaret Voltaire and Einstürzende Neubauten) -- who had broken up in 1981 (coincidentally after last playing Kezar Stadium in San Francisco) are back on tour. To quote Jon Longhi of NBC Bay Area (where my photos ran!) "Throbbing Gristle wasn’t just showing all these young techno kids that they could still do it, they were showing them how it’s done." See the photos here.



Illy of Circus Metropolus at Cellspace

Vau de Vire Society joined forces with the Eric McFadden Trio at Cellspace for some stellar performance and fantastic music. If you weren't there, you missed out. I have some portraits I shot here, including those of the chanteuse Jill Tracy and Andrea Zerilli (Oryx Incruentus).



Bad Unkl Sista at the Oakland Metro

Circus Metropolus -- joined by Bad Unkl Sista (pictured above), Dreamtime Circus and (obviously) Gooferman -- took over the Oakland Metro for a production called "Funhouse." I again took mostly portraits, though I did shoot Bad Unkl Sista's lovely butoh performance.



My grandfather's WWII / Korean War MB Jeep

Finally, for something a little out-of-the-ordinary, a very small gallery of my grandfather's WWII / Korean War MB Jeep. He's a veteran of the Merchant Marines, WWII (United States Army, German Theater), and the Korean War, where he was an MP and drove a jeep just like this one. I wish to thank him here for all that he's done (and show some nifty pictures of his toy!).
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Originally posted at The Blight.



White Witches -- Savannah, Raven. Touch to view large (and larger).


For the last few years, several times a week could you catch me at some event or another, camera in hand. (You may have noticed). Though I've picked up many a trick over time to get photos sorted, archived, edited and uploaded in as expedient a manner as possible, it's still a rather... large amount of work. And doing so has prevented me from experimenting with other avenues of photography, which I have wistfully lamented.

It's time for something different.



Lulu de la Calamité by midnight. Touch to view large (and larger).


Vignettes and glimmers will be my focus for a spell, shooting in my (brand-new!) studio or on location, working with (mostly) cooperative subjects, as opposed to performers on stage. And I'll be in control of the light for once. The above two photographs were shot Friday and Saturday night of this past weekend; I would call the experiment a success (if I may be so bold (and I am)).

This doesn't mean you won't see me out-and-about with some degree of regularity, like-as-not with camera in-hand -- but if you do, I don't want to hear an exclamation of incredulity on your part; for what else do I know how to do at an event, anyway? I just don't want to have the responsibility and requirement to cover every act and aspect of a show and editing hundreds of photos later. Maybe I'll get two shots instead, and perhaps they'll be something completely different than before. However they end up, though, they'll be on my terms, and I find that exciting (and a relief). Unless you want to hire me. In which case, we should talk.

So, do you have an idea that you'd like to turn into a shoot? Send me a note and give me your thoughts. I'm looking for models and locations and projects and what-have-you. (I reserve the right to be picky). I have a studio in Oakland and will work on-location anywhere in the Bay Area for the right project (or travel for the really right project).

In other news, I've updated my portfolio (with special higher-res versions).

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Spy on me on Twitter! Written last night while sipping San Francisco's own Old Potrero Rye.

Serpentine bellydance from Portland, Oregon

With Saturday's passage came too the end of Orbis Nex, one of the bastions of Bay Area underground venues. Though the reasons were different than budget and economy, it follows a long list of other recently closed venues that will also be missed: the Xenodrome, the first underground I called a second home; Ace Auto, where Death Guild set up Thunderdome and Cookie Mongoloid growled out his ode to cookies; and the Parkway, which I only recently rediscovered several months ago after first being dragged to a Rocky Horror Picture Show there some five years prior.



Final rites at Orbis Nex

Being the last night of a space so infused with the heart and soul of its curators, it was steeped with ritual and ceremony. And from Portland, the world-class Tuvan throat-singer Enriqué, performing as Soriah and joined by Serpentine delivered a staggering performance.



The Tuvan throat-singer Soriah

Orbis Nes is dead and buried, and she will be missed.

Please find a small gallery of the final turn of Orbis Nex here.

Orbis Nex was fronted by Patricia Cram of the darkly beautiful Vial Magizine.

Originally posted at theblight.net

Gravity Plays Favorites at Bohemian Carnival

Photos from February's Bohemian Carnival and Hubba Hubba Revue Mardi Gras are online!



Madame Chartreuse at Hubba Hubba Revue

You may have noticed by now that a very large portion of my photo galleries come from events at the DNA Lounge, the staple of independent underground performance and live music in San Francisco's SoMa district. You also may have noticed that they recently received an all-ages license, which is important as concert-goers are usually in the age group of 16-25, a large portion of whom are under 21. The DNA Lounge was originally denied the license, but won it on appeal. That's when the funny business started.

The DNA Lounge has been accused of running a "disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals," and are trying to permanently revoke their liquor license (essentially shutting them down). Besides the obvious "wtf?" such a statement should elicit from any thinking individual ("what right do they have legislating and enforcing morals," I hear you ask) it appears they're doing so not only in retaliation for appealing and winning the all-ages permit, but doing so by specifically targeting the gay and lesbian club nights.

From the DNA Lounge blog :

• Though it is clear to me that ABC's investigation of our gay events is retaliation for our successful conversion to an all-ages venue, the events they are citing us for were 21+ events.


• The majority of the offenses they are charging us with were dancers flashing for just a few seconds. We're talking about some guy mooning the audience for three seconds. That's the level of these offenses.


• The people doing these things were not DNA employees.


• The ABC considers "several" fully clothed pelvic thrusts, as a part of a comedy routine, to be an illegal "simulated sex act". There's hardly a music video in the world that would pass their standard.

posted by Jamie Zawinski, owner. Read the full post to learn more.

The DNA Lounge employs people, and is a second-home for many of us. This petulant gesture by the ABC reeks of discrimination and retaliation, and is an utter waste of our tax dollars.

What you can do.

( Read below for people to contact )

There exist in my archives a very large number of images never seen by anyone -- a quick estimate puts the number at over 100,000. The vast majority of these are the duplicates, the blurry, the over/under-exposed, the ill-composed; you would be most disappointed to see them, I wager. I have heard it said anyone can be considered a good photographer if they only choose the right photos to post, but I digress: I'm not here to talk about the mountain of bad photos I have sitting here, and I'm not here to tell you the various trite reasons the ones worth posting remain languishing in the dark. No, I'm here to ask: why bother doing it at all?

I have always tried to put my work on display, even when it (frequently) was not worthy of it. My goal was not the criticism and critique of others, for I am and have always been my own harshest critic, and am never satisfied but for a moment with anything I have done. For if I cannot find flaw in a creation, it means either that it is perfect (which is utterly impossible) or that, instead, I'm not yet skilled enough to identify what is wrong. And, if so, I should not rest until I can do so. Nor did I (do I?) present and showcase for the (undeserved) praise that I sometimes received. Instead, all I wanted was acknowledgment. "Look, I did this, and I am proud of it for a moment." A nod would be more than sufficient.

To not share is to be unfulfilled: it's akin to laughing at a joke in an empty room. You turn and cast about, hoping to share it with someone -- anyone -- and thereby expand your own experience and joy, but no one's there and you sigh and carry on. It's like filling your mouth with fine wine and not swallowing.

I am not some artist laboring in obscurity to fill some void, some need in my psyche, only to have my work discovered posthumously -- I cannot claim that dignified a goal. It is a performer whose traits I share, the desire for an audience. Though instead of even a quiet, polite applause, I instead satisfy myself with pageviews and bandwidth (oh woe is me). Ours is work to appreciate after the fact, for though we and the performers are plying our trade at the same moment, their act is the moment, and my photos will be up tomorrow.

Periodically someone will ask why do I bother? Why do I spend all this money and time and effort and go through the stress and pain and sleepless nights to do this? (For, perhaps you do not know, but I do not do this for a living. In fact, it barely -- if at all -- pays for itself. It depends on how I do my books). And I will not offer up some asininely banal reason such as "I enjoy it." I can do better than that, and will explore that topic in a future post.

Ultimately, the answer here is that there is no point whatsoever for me to shoot something if no one ever sees it. There's your tree-in-the-forest solution; did anyone hear it? Yes? No? Irrelevant.

All this was a very fancy (read: longwinded) way of saying "Oh hi, look, I didn't post these last year for various reasons, but I am now. You should look (and thus validate their existence and my effort). Kthxbai." And so, without further ado, I present you with a very small gallery of "studio-esque" -- that is, contrived and posed and planned to some degree, and not a live performance -- photos of miss Erica Mulkey, aka Unwoman, from a shoot she hired me for mid last year. She has not made use of them yet, but I have her permission to publish them -- go here for the full gallery.

...wherein I made a surprise appearance on stage (as a photographer, I'll have you know) and got my tasty brainmeats eaten by a zombie (the lovely and aptly-named miss Calamity Lulu). Of course we botched our routine (almost entirely my fault since hey, that's why I'm usually on the other side of the camera). Oh well, I hope it was entertaining. That's all we're really going for, right? My mistakes included missing queues and moving too quickly (must delay more!) and laughing too hard to assist in the tasteful undressing of hot zombie girl; she forgot to unclip her garters and ended up slipping on the fake blood (I hear she bounced when she hit, too). Hah!

Pictured above is the aforementioned Calamity Lulu after I shot her in the head (with a cap gun, people) and actually took photos while on stage during the routine (what do you expect?). See the photos here.

Having not yet recovered from the tiredness built up from last weekend, Friday night I embarked on a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles with my good friends Nifer and Slim to do it all over again: the first-ever Edwardian Ball in those hot southron lands at the delightfully decrepit and partially restored Tower Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Being familiar with the otherworld couture of the cocktail costume party that is the Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball that takes place yearly in Hollywood, I was curious to see how the LA installment of the Edwardian Ball and the costumes thereof would compare: I was not disappointed.

The weekend itself was a blur of fantastic things: we arrived late in the night and crashed at the Brewery, and then spent Saturday afternoon on a well-planned and better-executed thrift-store shock-and-awe campaign which resulted in bags and bags of magnificent wearable bits of awesome (my favorite score, found and suggested by Slim: a vintage tuxedo jacket with tails so old it's literally falling apart, a perfect match for the Tower Theater). At the Ball I got to spend some time with Nadya and Meredith of Coilhouse, though we never found Zoetica for the group photo; I met many really great people, and this time -- for once -- shot no performance on stage (with the notable exception of Jill and Paul), eleccting instead to focus solely on my portraits which I felt much more important for an event like this where it is the attention to detail in each individuals' costume, not something on stage necessarily, that makes the event what it is. I delight in the attendee-wide participation.

Sunday was simply the long-haul back up the 5, and was proceeding without incident until just before the Grapevine when I got a phone call from Paul Mercer whom, with Jill and Evil Sarah, I had just passed. Their thought was "Mr. Nightshade should have that license plate ... oh wait, he does!" We stopped for coffee and gas in some desolate tourist trap (after a long dearth of nothing, there's always a gas station with INCREDIBLY over-inflated prices for gas in the midst of absolutely nothing, so in desperation, you pay for it; a scant few miles up the road is a veritable oasis with a whole town and trees and restaurants and gas stations charging the state average price for gas. It's really annoying.), and then off on our separate ways went.

I hope you enjoy the photos. I had a great time making them.

With the final installment of the Sunday Gorey Sunday gallery, pictures from all three days of the 9th annual San Francisco Edwardian Ball are now online. Sunday took place in the wood and red velvet room at the top floor of the Regency Ballroom, and was a decidedly more intimate (and dimly lit) affair. Performances included those by Oryx Incruentus (Andrea Zerilli, guest Paul Mercer) performing to the 1911 silent film "L'Inferno," The Ghosts Project (Paul Mercer, Minka, Davis, and guests Jill Tracy, Nathaniel, Erica) with Finn from Abney Park dancing, Shovelman, Lee Presson, Alison Lovejoy, and Agent Ribbons. Non-musical acts included Finn from Abney Park dancing to the Ghosts Project, Evil Sarah (burlesque), Helios Jive (the buffoon clown), Fou Fou Ha!, and several vignettes from the Vau de Vire Society (like the incredibly-difficult-to-photograph swinging-'round-the-room rope act pictured above).

Tonight, via horseless carriage, I do depart for the arid southron lands of the City of Lost Angels for their installment of our grand affair at the historic Tower Theater tomorrow night. Go here for details.

Eva, aka Miss Never -- click for Saturday's photo gallery

It is one of the "only in San Francisco" sort of affairs in which we love to indulge, with thousands of people decking themselves out to the nines for three days of decadence in the extravagant and recently beautifully renovated Regency Ballroom center (Mike Vau de Vire told me they were pulling the blue painter's tape off on Friday during setup). Having moved from the Great American Music Hall, where the Ball has been held in prior years, there was some concern as to whether the much larger Regency Ballroom could be filled; after three days of packed halls, that question has been answered.



The Ballroom Saturday night -- click for Saturday's photos

Saturday was the main night of the ball, with the headliner and chanteuse Jill Tracy playing with the Malcontent Orchestra, and later the hosts Rosin Coven, accompanied with performances by Cirque Berzerk and Vau de Vire Society.



These may be my favorite costumes of Friday night -- click here for the gallery.

Friday night was steampunk-themed (though not explicitly advertised as such so as to avoid offending us purists), but brass and goggles and steam-powered contraptions were certainly donned by many an attendee, and those self-ascribed purveyors of steampop Abney Park definitely put on a great show. Rounding out the lineup musically were those corseted and quirky Rasputina, of whom I am a fan (what's not to like? women playing cello, corsets, songs of nonsense and tomfoolery sung with a straight face? Indeed).

Sunday's gallery is coming as soon as I finish editing the 1,000+ photos I shot for it. Check back Thursday night -- they had better be up by then, for the next eve I depart for an additional fix of hats and corsets at the Los Angeles edition of the Edwardian Ball at the Tower Theater. (You should go).

And did you know I added a "prints" section?

It's off to the third night of the extravagant gala that is the Edwardian Ball, and though I had delusions about getting Saturday's photos up before I left, and though they're nearly finished, they shall sadly have to wait until tomorrow. I have but one thing to offer you as a stop-gap measure before you begin hounding me for imagery of this fantastic affair, and so I present you Meredith Yayanos, violin player and thereminist extraordinaire, as well as editor at the love letter to alternative culture that is the dark and beautiful Coilhouse Magazine.



Meredith Yayanos with her Penny Farthing at the Edwardian Ball 2009

Come back and look for photos from all three days of the Edwardian Ball online here starting tomorrow evening. And now, it's off to see the Ghosts Project in the red velvet upstairs of the Regency Ballroom.

*** UPDATE ***

Saturday's photos are now online -- See them here.

I shall continue where I left off in Part the First, no less tired this time around, but a scant few hours before my self-imposed bedtime -- and if I don't finish it now, then when? Indeed.

Once again, the full gallery of my Year in Review photographs can be seen here -- I have selected one photo per thousand I shot all year (45,000 in all), picking ones I thought particularly interesting in the story they told, amusing somehow, or just a personal favorite.



The first image is Magdelene Veen, formerly of Abney Park, at the Emerging Illusions Fashion show with Creatureform Designs; she reposted several of these photos titled "I am some sort of demon crow." Her act was that of a ballerina; and this shot, though backstage, reminds me of the same flow and movement (though I'm not sure she even knew I took this).



We of course love the Dresden Dolls, those purveyors of punk cabaret and one of the first mainstream underground (yes, I'm aware of the contradiction) acts to combine musical and non-musical performance acts on their stage -- for, in 2005, as a fan of the Dresden Dolls, how else would I have been introduced to Vau de Vire Society but by seeing them perform onstage alongside a favorite band? The rest is history. Pictured here is Brian Viglione at the Fillmore, where I was brought in to shoot the show (and I had dinner with Brian, Amanda and Meredith Yayanos beforehand: they're all amazing sweethearts).



Hiding 'neath the swirl of the skirt here is Leila Bazzani of Black and Blue Burlesque, performing with the Yard Dogs Roadshow at Lightning in a Bottle 2008. You may notice a similarity to a certain other photo of mine, which just so happens to be her partner in crime, Tuesday Blue.

Please see the rest after the cut (even if it's just to browse the photos...).

( Read more... )

With 2008 growing colder by the day in the grave, it's time to pay our last respects and take a quick look at the events that transpired during that time. It was a momentous year for me: I spent my first time ever without a plan, being homeless on a clown's couch for two months whilst much rockstardom was had, until I got a call out of the blue and a job offer fell into my lap (after a technical phone screening and a grueling six-hour interview with some of the brightest engineers I've ever met). Some have said good riddance; I heard the same about 2007. Not so, here -- 2007 was the year I hit my stride with photography, and saw extensive growth technically and in my relationships with performers, and ended with my graduation from University and my move to San Francisco (finally). 2008 continued the upward momentum, and every month it seems I can look back at the one prior and think, "Really? That's the best I could do?"

The only fitting and proper (and believable) way I could discuss 2008 is through the use of photos. Briefly: in 2008 I shot 85 events spanning 104 days, totaling 45,000 photos. This summary contains one photograph per 1,000 images I took last year, with a brief vignette as to why I thought it pertinent or amusing. Everything is in chronological order. You can click here for the full gallery of images.



I ended 2007 and started 2008 I had the past several years, at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center with Anon Salon for Sea of Dreams. This year I was hired by Vau de Vire Society to work the show with them. I have something of a tradition of getting photos of myself in whatever mirror I can find, primarily through necessity: if I don't get one, it's likely no documentation will exist (people always forget to get pictures of meeee).



The Hot Couture fashion show marks the last event I'll ever work for the Crucible as long as Michael Sturtz is running the show: on one occasion alone (at the Fire Arts Festival in 2007) he treated me more rudely than every other person at every other event I've ever worked has treated me (and that wasn't the only event where it happened!). Other than him, I think the Crucible is great and does marvelous things for the community. I look forward to working with them again, either via a change in heart or a change in leadership.

Please see much, much more below (Really. I wrote a lot. At least skim the pictures?)
( Read more... )

Coming up this month --

The San Francisco and the Los Angeles Edwardian Ball! I'm delighted to be the official photographer for this extravagant event, and am honored to share the bill with some of my favorite and most talented artists (including Jill Tracy, Paul Mercer, and Rasputina).

Friday is for you steampunk ninnies (and Rasputina!),

Saturday for the belle of the ball, the villainesse Jill Tracy,

and Sunday if you want the luxury of the red carpet and the ethereal soundscapes of the Ghosts Project.

You should go so that I might take your photo. It will be my job (though you're still welcomed (and encouraged) to buy me a drink. Really.). And I can't tell you which to use, but if you enter "belle" or "hubba" as a discount code, you'll get $5 off your ticket price (I'm not special enough to have my own discount code).

And, in recent photo galleries, we have...

The last day of the 2008 Dickens Fair ~



Pictured is Andrea Zerilli of Oryx Incruentus (who, incidentally, will be playing at the Edwardian Ball) playing a harp in one of the shops -- she claims she had no idea the chair had wings.

Next, from Sea of Dreams, we have my friends the Mutaytor:



I could have shot (considerably) more, since it was a great party (selling over 8,000 tickets, the rumor went), but due to budget concerns, I was not hired by Anon Salon (though they gave me free tickets) and so I instead elected to shoot only those folk who did ply me with free drinks (these things go far, people). Next year, however, I suspect I will elect for something markedly more quiet (though we'll see if I keep -that- promise).

Finally, Danger Ranger (Michael Michael) and the Cacophony Society bring you the 20th Annual Post-Yule Pyre,



...wherein everyone coincidentally showed up with a dried-up dilapidated Christmas tree in tow... and then proceeded to place them in a large pile where they spontaneously combusted. Honest to God, officer.

Each of the two shows for the Storytime Festival were divided into two halves -- the first was akin to an international dance competition, featuring troupes from all over in vastly different styles, while Vau de Vire filled the second half. The afternoon show was Vau de Vire's first "kid-friendly" and theater-style performance, as well as the largest venue at which we have performed (two sold-out shows of 1,000 people each, and the stage itself was as big as the DNA Lounge). The first show was a bit rocky, in terms of practice and other technical aspects (sound, etc.) details I'm delighted not to be privy to nor involved with (a classic example of "not my job!" and I'd only be in the way anyway).

The first photo above shows one of our lovely Vau de Vire girls doing a front-flip over a flaming rope, and the second is my favorite shot I've ever gotten of Angelo Rodriguez flying above the audience -- I last saw this in February at the Super Bowl show we did with 944 Magazine, but the circular nature of his path makes autofocus nearly impossible. I managed to capture it this time. Go see the full gallery here.



Hubba Hubba Reuve Christmas Special took place the day before the Storytime Festival (and Dickens Fair the day after) making last weekend one of the longest in recent memory. If you've ever wondered why you occasionally find black-and-white photos scattered throughout my image galleries, it's not because I'm trying to be artistic. No, let me tell you a secret: It's because I couldn't fix the color balance or the lighting was awful. The gentleman responsible for lighting Hubba Hubba Revue likes to wash the stage in a single color (never good) and is a huge fan of pink, of all colors (even worse). The vast majority of my post-processing time I spend on Hubba Hubba Revue photos is just trying to fix the color to make skin look like, well, skin and to provide my viewers with something other than a blasted pink landscape of pasties and pretty girls. See below for a few examples of before-and-after:



Before and after, showing post-processing



Before and after, showing post-processing

As you can see, the original images on the left were lit with pink (blue and red) lights, full-on and direct, with the backgrounds largely ignored. I'm no theatre lighting expert (ask Mr. Devon aka Baconmonkey for a separate rant regarding this if you want more detail) but I know that the DNA Lounge has some excellent lighting rigs, and they're responsible for making a show look as good as it can possibly look. And in terms of photos, while you might not notice a particular color wash when you're watching the show, a gallery of pictures that are all lit the same become monotonous and it's difficult to differentiate between the various acts (or even tell what color their costumes were). From a photographic standpoint, the performers themselves need to be lit with pure white light, with colors supporting the sides and background. Or at least give me a white spotlight or throw a few white lights in the mix? A camera's sensor is a mix of red, green and blue filters, so if you only use one or two colors to light the stage, my camera can only use a fraction of its light-capturing capability, and image quality suffers heavily.

Go see the full gallery of HHR's Christmas Special here.

Coming up on Friday the 19th of this month is Hubba Hubba Revue -- Christmas Special. I shall be your photographer for the evening.

Then, on Saturday, December 20th, your favorite circus troupe Vau de Vire Society, joined by the buffoons of Fou Fou Ha! and the goofballs of Gooferman will entertain you with not one but two (2!) shows at the decadent Palace of Fine Art in San Francisco. The first show is family-friendly (shocking, I know) and the second a bit more like you're used to (similar to Cirque du Soleil meets burlesque with a two-drink minimum). Get your tickets here: www.storytimefestival.org. I'm the official photographer for this event.

And, coming up in January is the inimitable and fabulous Edwardian Ball, about which I'm sure you've heard so much. Three days of yesteryear decadence are yours for the taking, and tickets are available here: www.edwardianball.com. I am most delighted to be the official photographer for this event as well (an honor, indeed).

Also upcoming is the Sea of Dreams New Years Eve bash by Anon Salon, at which they've asked be to be a photographer (but negotiations are yet underway). It's very likely you'll see me there, joining my friends The Mutaytor from Los Angeles.

All jam-packed in this extra-special bonus post! Separate descriptions and writeups coming soon.



GWAR, Kingdom of Sorrow, Terror, and Toxic Holocaust at the San Francisco Regency Center Ballroom in November.



Bohemian Carnival at the DNA Lounge, at which my 24-70 2.8 Zeiss was knocked down and broken.



Hubba Hubba Revue's Girl Gang at the DNA Lounge.



Black Rock Art Foundation's (BRAF) Artumnal Gathering at the Bentley Reserve, at which I ran a portrait station the entire evening.



5 & Diamond's 1-Year Anniversary party at Supperclub San Francisco.

This Saturday saw the second installation of the Crazy Hay Maze party in Half Moon Bay by Circus Metropolus and Anon Salon. The Nexus party the week at the same location a scant week earlier stole much of the thunder this this party, for people were fairly wrecked after the first (or so I've heard). I ran a photo studio tucked into one of the rooms in the maze; pictured above is Star St. Germain.



Last week at the DNA Lounge was a show with Bloodline, Claire Voyant, and Stripmall Architecture (sometimes Halou) and they played music. And it was good. All three of them. Fans of Halou are still raving about the show. Click image above or here for the gallery.

UPCOMING ~

And now, for some upcoming events at which I'm shooting (or you could just check the calendar):

TONIGHT: GWAR at the SF Regency. I've been hired to shoot them. I find this hilarious. (Monster costumed thrash metal? Oh yeah). Going to have to watch out for the sprays of fake blood, however.

TOMORROW: Hubba Hubba Revue at the DNA Lounge.

SATURDAY: The Black Rock Art Foundation's Artumnal Gathering at the Bentley Reserve; my photos will be on display, and I'm running a small on-location studio for portraits.

SUNDAY: Five and Diamond's 1-year anniversary party at Supperclub San Francisco.

I'd first like to introduce you to my shared Google Calendar, which has events at which I'll be shooting as I get booked (and it's only about 1/2 a mirror of the DNA Lounge's calendar). Let me know what you think, or if you have any improvements; it is, after all, an experiment.

Secondly, I'm shooting at the Black Rock Art's Foundation Artumnal Gathering -- I'm running a portrait booth. It's at the Bentley Reserve in San Francisco; get your tickets here. There will be a small gallery of my Burning Man photos on display as well (perhaps 10 pieces).

And speaking of photo booths, at the Crazy Hay Maze party coming up this Saturday (not to be confused with the fake one that took place this past Friday, hosted by Nexus) I will again be running a portrait station (studio-style) where portraits can be had for the low low introductory price and one-time deal of $5! Step right up, ladies and gentlemen.

Upcoming events in the next month at which I will be shooting ~

• Thursday November 13th: Stripmall Architecture (and Claire Voyant + Bloodwire) at the DNA Lounge.


• Saturday November 15th: The Crazy Hay Maze in Half Moon Bay -- www.crazymaze.us ; last year's photos are here.


• Friday November 21st: Hubba Hubba Revue "Girl Gang" at the DNA Lounge.


• Saturday November 29th: Bohemian Carnival! With Vau de Vire Society and Gooferman.

And then in December, still up in the air ~

• Saturday December 20th: The Storytime Festival with Vau de Vire Society at the Palace of Fine Arts.