FestX Baja Sur, Mexico

This is part nineteen in a series of blogs on my recent artistic adventures in Mexico.

Todos Santos Inn is a lovely place to live for a while. It’s a cozy, secluded and lush bit of paradise in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. I had been staying there for almost a week as part of the artists retreat group of ZoeFest and was really beginning to feel at home. Waking up to the sounds of birds and wind whispering through the giant palm trees above as I walked down my little garden path from my apartment to the main house where a cup of delicious coffee was always waiting for me.

But with the exception of the pool and some of the garden, I hadn’t really done too much photography at the inn itself. Sometimes it takes me a while to find the handle on a location. Todos Santos Inn was such a place for me creatively. Many lovely areas, a little library off of the main office and a nice bar as well. But after walking around it all for nearly a week, I still hadn’t quite decided how to work with it photographically.

It was the lush leather chairs that finally began to strike my creative muse. Chairs in the library and chairs in the bar. There was definitely something there.

After my Saturday morning shoot with the lovely Stephanie Anne, it was time for my shoot with the first of two gorgeous Australian models that were along for the ZoeFest ride.

Anoush Anou is based in Melbourne and a woman whose work I was familiar with before our Mexican meeting. Like a few of the models I was working with, I had been aware of her for years. And since the fine art photography world can be a small one, it’s usually only a matter of time before we would end up working together.

Anoush has a striking physical beauty about her. But there is also a haunting mystery to her in photographs. She has a completely emotive face. Sometimes somber. Sometimes sophisticated and sensual. Yet always revealing a story unfolding in your mind as you ponder what she has created.

But she is also joyful in person. Silly fun and wonderful to hear laugh. A model with great positive energy even when her creations are slightly somber.

My mind was still a bit preoccupied with my mother at home in Chicago, still recovering in the hospital and I knew I was slightly less prepared that I would have preferred for my shooting time with Anoush. And once again, with a model of her caliber, she met me more than half way. It took me a while to find the correct angle and set up in the library where I wanted to begin photographing Anoush. She patiently waited until I had found it, giving me the extra mental space to figure it out.

That was the beauty of ZoeFest. We all wanted to create incredible art while we were there. And as artists, we all knew that creativity is not a switch you throw on when the clock strikes one. Sometimes the muse arrives fashionably late and as long as everyone involves respects it, something wonderful does eventually happen.

Not wanting to make her wait on set until I was happy with my vision, I began by photographing an empty chair in the library. There was wonderful indirect light coming in from a nearby balcony door. Soft and delicate. The library was a small room and even with a 50mm normal prime lens on my camera, I determined the best angle to photograph Anoush from, was actually for me to be outside of the room itself. I could use the doorway to the library as a bit of a framing device, which I like to do sometimes. It adds a slight distance in mental perspective from my subject. Not exactly voyeuristic, but not quite as intimate. Found beauty.

By the time I brought Anoush into the library, she needed very little direction from me to find the moment. Like the other models at our retreat, she has a complete sense of who she is from the first click of my shutter. And I found a familiar sensation wash over me as you have when you finally have physical proximity to someone you’ve long been aware of from a distance.

Just posing while seated in the chair, she was lovely. Every limb a coordinated effort of beautiful flowing lines and curves. Every purposeful point of a foot or toe completing a perfect composition.

And then she turned the world upside down. Literally.

“How about I try some like this?” she asked with her lovely Aussie accent, as she laid her back on the seat of the chair, her long hair cascading toward the floor.

As I continued to photograph her, she began to rotate herself until only the small of her back was on the seat, completely inverted as if her support was no longer the chair, but a trapeze, or maybe thin air for that matter. Creating the most interesting compositions in my frame.

One of the great things about our arrangement with the four boutique hotels we were all calling home during our time in Todos Santos was that if we saw a room or area that felt particularly inspiring we could secure it for private shooting very easily. I had my eye on the bar ever since we had arrived and now it was time to utilize that space in whatever way we felt like.

A quick check in with the bartender and the bar was “temporarily closed” while the lovely and undressed Anoush followed me into the room. I knew I wanted to do something with the chairs that were group along a windowed wall of the bar. I quickly began redecorating by rearranging the chairs in a way that made no sense for would be bar patrons, but made so much sense from a visual photographic point of view. I also tried to remember I would need to reassemble everything the way I found it when we were done.

I only made a few dozen photographs in the bar because Anoush and I were on a roll and she quickly interpreted what I was looking for. The light coming in through the sheer curtains was perfect and in short order we had created what I was hoping for.

We thanked the barkeep and allowed the bar to reopen once again to the public and walked out back to the veranda, another area I had been looking at every day while having my morning coffee and daily photographic editing sessions one one of the many tables we would all congregate at during the day.

The brick arches of the veranda were visually interesting to me, although the low afternoon sunlight was creating a fairly severe contrast with the shade Anoush was posing in. We had to be careful to keep the harsh shadows off of her an that location and we found a spot for her in the first arch that had a bit less direct light.

We began with her standing and using her strong fingertips to hold difficult balancing poses that looked more effortless than they certainly must have been. I was still fighting the contrast of the bright arches behind her, not really satisfied with my composition even though Anoush was holding up her end of the collaboration bargain spectacularly.

We changed to her sitting instead of standing and it created a slightly more relaxed feel. Her compacted shape also allowed me to compose a bit tighter which helped my slightly too bright sunlight issue with my composition. She began to emote something a little more somber as well in her facial character, which I really liked.

When our time was up, I felt very good about what we had created. One of those shoots where you can’t wait to get back to the computer to see what you have. Working with the various chairs at the inn and the natural light really was all I was hoping it would be and more with Anoush’s beautiful collaboration. She really brought what I felt was a classic beauty to the images and we had a great time while creating them.

A perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon in paradise.

As always, more to come.

A few photos taken around the Hotelito with Brooke Lynne and Rebecca. Thank you ladies!

A few extras I’ve processed recently.

Strange is the title to this post, as Merrique was the second shoot during my time there at the gathering.

A lot of our work was concentrated on a square opening at Jennie’s place at the Hotelito. This theme (which is the first stuff posted) will become a themed series like a bunch of other previous submission. Though there is a lot of material and hence it has become the finale of the individual postings. I am amazed by the dynamics and creativity that Merrique brought to this, so I am very ecstatic with the results. Here are a couple of samples…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well, we accomplished some other perspectives, and again, simply amazed.

Merci beaucoup, Merrique!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

—

Stephanie Anne brings it as usual. Good ‘ol Steph.

Brooke and I have been in some sort of contact on and off for a long period of time. We both have been wanting to work together, but as usual, distance and geography were the achilles heal.

Thanks to the power of “Z”, and her efforts to create this gathering, we were finally able to collaborate. Brooke was my first shoot during this gathering and I am thankful for her professionalism and awesomeness which helped in making some creative imagery.

Thank you Zoe and Brooke.

Using the static exterior wall of my patio at the Hotelito as a backdrop, as well a marble table from my room used as a pedestal, we made an extensive amount of imagery which presented the fantastic, sculpture-like posing which Brooke is so known for. I was amazed at what she could do. Yay to the creative being!!

Here are some examples…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a very entertaining and creative afternoon with Emma exchanging photo and modeling time at the Dracula during the festival. I am also adding a couple photos of her I took poolside at the Hotelito. Here are the resulting images.

Thank you Emma!

Finally… going to the beach!!

As stated in previous posts, I had limited my shoots to the Hotelito corridors, for the most part. Finally the thought to take to nature and take advantage of the spectacular surroundings of the beach was eminent. Meghan and I were to collaborate there.

As for the title, ‘A Lesson Learned’, is a two part ordeal. First lesson, and it is one I am familiar with, is crowd control. The concept to capture there was to shoot waves coming in in various states of  shutter speed. We were able to do so, but only one roll, as I hoped to take advantage of more. We were there before sunrise and all was good, but there were early morning beach walkers about which hindered the process. Enough so as to change the scene and game plan .

The second lesson with that roll happened once I got home and started developing film. The developing tank I had used, has a tendency to hang spools up on the shaft out of the fluid height. That said, the one roll taken on the beach had full development on 2/3rds of every image and partial on the remainder. With those, I played farmer and cropped (thanks JR for the great quote). They do still display evidence of negative damage. Here are examples…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From that point on we went to a different location made took advantage of the natural shrubbery. I am so used to rainforest that this different look was a blessing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the Hotelito for one last hurrah, and have a tea party. Set the table and chairs but something was missing… a secondary participant. Just so happened that Brooke was walking to Mick’s suite to do a session with him, but was a bit early. She had time to help out and all of us made tea party magic. Again, this will become a series look so a couple of examples in the individual form. That said… Enjoy the tea!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……

 

 

With Keira, Candace and Rebecca, shot with the hand made bendy lens.

Once again I decided to get out of the confines of the Hotelito and experience the rustic glory that is the Casa Dracula. Such a great space full of character and spirit. I could have spent much more time there.

Claudine and I took advantage to work there. Prior to shooting Claudine showed me some things she brought and one of them was a roll of cheesecloth. Immediately I had a vision to capture with it, so was very excited to execute this.

Along with the majority of the shoot at ZfestX, the visions will eventually end up in series but for now I am displaying individual posts.

The first series explores void and a time past. When life seems empty, we move on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second series I set the camera up to view straight through a bunch of rooms. The camera stayed on one spot throughout and shot in the various locations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third series was utilizing the cheesecloth. Its properties and uses were endless. ‘Cocoon’ was a vision I had when seeing the material and I was extremely happy with what was created. Claudine, as most know, is awesome and she worked wonders with all the themes.