Long time, no see

It’s been awhile. Since my last post, I’ve gone thru a lot of changes in my personal life. One of those is moving out of downtown Seattle and another is setting up my photography business. Details can be found at studiomk1.com. Finally, changes in my personal life has allowed me to get back into competitive shooting, as I used to compete in trap/skeet/sporting clays as well as IPSC/USPSA/IDPA and am slowly working myself back into competitive shape to try Steel Challenge and 3-Gun. Despite all of this, I found some time to create some of my concepts.

So, I made a new friend last summer. Hailey is another local photographer I was introduced to via a mutual friend who felt I had a lot to offer her in the realm of more advanced photographic techniques. So far, I’ve introduced her to strobing, modifying and light trails. Also, I’ve helped her get up to speed with the tools in Photoshop and Lightroom. Now we’re trying to find time to work on action via panning and locked down, astrophotography, long exposure, light painting and cinematography. Watching her grow has been an absolute joy; viewing her older photos with ones she’s produced recently observes a marked improvement. However, it’s not a one-way trade here; her ability to direct models and create compositions is something I have difficulty with. Plus, as you can see, she’s multi-talented and easy on the eyes, volunteering to model for me in return for my teaching. Since we began working together, we’ve also found our individual talents mesh well together; a few times I’ve been able to provide advanced correction and adjustments in post-processing her photos as well as step in for a wedding she was unable to make due to COVID-19.

Here’s a headshot from the first session with Hailey. She said she wasn’t a model so I took that as a challenge as I knew otherwise. If anything, I knew she would be perfect for some of my projects. So, I mentioned “multi-talented,” and she is… she was an Olympic-level gymnast who specialized in floor exercise. She’s under 5ft tall but is extremely powerful and regarded as a “power gymnast,” and is built like Simone Biles. One project we’re working on will be a simulated “nude” silhouette shoot to really emphasize her musculature. Another will be a juxtaposed firearms editorial, combining cosplay with guns. She’s also a correction’s officer, and excellent photographer and quite a gun nut.

In addition to Hailey, I’ve been able to get Kelsey’s boudoir shoot done over the spring. We’ve still yet to do a flight line shoot of her with one of her aircraft. Yes, Kelsey’s a pilot in her spare time and a stylist with her own salon.

So, it’s been a busy year so far and there’s still so much more to do. Currently trying to transition from one commercial site provider to another that’s more photography oriented to make my life a little easier. I still have more projects I’m hoping to complete by the end of the year.

More importantly, I’m hoping to regain a bit more consistency with updating my blog. We’ll see how persistent I am with that as I’m also working on a book (fiction, speculative future), so we’ll see how much typing I’ll want to do with my blog.

Anyways, thank you to the few of you who return to read my mind droppings.

P.S. If you have any ideas for reviews, posts, in-depth looks, etc., please feel free to drop them in the comments or message me directly!

P.P.S. Come check out my Instagram pages if you haven’t already: @jetcityninja and @depressedshutter. Thanks!