October 30, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. I'm currently talking to you from my bed. I awoke from my nap and, well, I feel like shit. You see, some days are great, and some days, not so great. For example: today, I shake a lot. For some reason I shake a lot. A friend of mine came over and he was talking to me. He said, "What's with the shaking?" I said, "Well, if some doctors drilled into your spine, drained the fluid from your spine and skull and then drilled into your skull and operated on your brain, why, you'd shake too." But, that's a whole nother story. Let's talk about the past. We'll call this blog: Noah's Ark, Three Models, and My Favorite Bar. And, oh yes, some kangaroo skin.

OK, I'll talk about Noah's Ark. A producer friend of mine was laughing at me because she called my set, Noah's Ark. You see, you have to get your Photo under any conditions. Even if it means it's  really rainy and really windy, there's no excuses. So I had a little trick. I would build a box around the model and shoot toward the  water with a long lens. The photo always looked like the background was sunny and blue. (This is an old photographer's trick, well before Photoshop.) Anyway, we were having lunch and the tide came in and took away my set. It just floated out to see. It was kind of funny. We went to the movies for the rest of the day.

The Three Models, well, every time I got on the plane going to my location, I would sit next to the model, to get to know her. I mean, I'd be working with her for the next week, so it's good to get to know them. The three girls I'm referring to that stick out in my mind. One girl I started talking to her, just broke up with her fiancé. Oh my gosh. She was a mess. I thought , Great, I gotta work with her for a week. The girl looked like a deer in the headlights for every shot. Another girl I worked with was tough. I mean, she was like hardcore. There was some guy that sat down next to her, tried to chat her up. She was having nothing to do with it. She looked at him and just put up her hand and said, "Yo, I know where you're going with this, but you're wasting your time. I'm here talking with my friend, so don't talk to me." I thought it was a bit extreme, but it worked. I also asked her if I could hire her out. I could use that kind of language sometimes. Another girl that I didn't work with, but who sat with me, was a model for Playboy. The guy on the aisle she was by was my hair dresser. He kept talking to her. She introduced herself to us as Miss June. I talked to you about this before. Anyway, my hairdresser got so drunk at our destination, he just kept yelling "June June" and was following her everywhere, because she was staying where we were staying. One night he got so drunk, our model from our shoot showed up at his room for hair & make up. He opened the door, said you look great, and slammed the door shut. When she showed up at the shoot, I said to her, "What's with your hair? What didn't happen to your hair."

I shot in the Bahamas a lot. In fact, there was one particular island I would go to all the time. I went there so much, even the locals who lived there thought I had a house there. Anyway, there was always great light in the end of the day on this one particular street I knew. My favorite bar just happened to be on that street as well. Toward the end of the day, I would say to my client, "Hey! I know that bar, they have great pina colada's. Let's finish the shoot around there." Hey, it kept everyone happy. There was great reggae music, great pina colada and really good fish tacos. A great way to end the day. Oh yeah, and there was a parrott there too, who could talk. Maybe too much.

Now I'll talk about the kangaroo skin. You see, I used to live in Australia. When I lived there it was hard to get a lot of photographing things I needed. For example, I needed to get some new portfolios made. There was nowhere they could make the type of portfolios I needed, so I had to start from scratch and show a bookmaker how to do it. Well, the first thing I needed to do was to get some leather. I ended up in some old warehouse that sold leather skins. They brought me out all sorts of skins like kangaroo, cow, water buffalo, ostrich, emu, it was all a bit strange, but I learned a lot about leather. I actually ended up with water buffalo skin. It's actually great leather. Who would ever imagine.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Here's my link where I talk about the present. This is B. Nice signing off.

Love, B. Nice

P.S. Oh yeah, I wanted to give you guys the link I have for the film I did with Adam and Erin Hall. It will be showing at the Alexandria Film Festival in Alexandria, VA. Here are the details. Go if you can.

October 20, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. I would always think about things when I was lying on my back for so long. Ok, now, check this out:

So I kind of got myself in a little trouble. A friend of mine had a house at the beach and he was going away with his family. He offered the house to me for a weekend. I said, "Yeah, I'd love to stay at the house." I also invited my girlfriend at the time, who I worked a lot with. She was a model. She also invited her friend who was a model. So, of course, the first night, we went out and got absolutely ripped. We came home and we thought it would be funny to do polaroids (does that date me or what?). The two girls, you know, silly pictures, they were photos of like, the girls tying each other up. Wearing sun dresses, force drinking tequila to another girl. You know, silly stuff like that. Well, we decided it would be funny to leave the photos by the stereo for my friend. Well, the plan kind of back fired because my friend's wife found the photos. He got in a lot of trouble. She thought he was doing silly things while she was away. He is still my friend though, even though he yelled at me.

OK, now I'll be more serious. When I was a fashion photographer, I also started up some other businesses. I started up a company that rented out grip equipment, like reflectors, stands. Stuff like that. I would charge the client and make money on the rental. There was an initial outlay to buy the equipment. It was cool though, cause I could keep track of the quality of the equipment. I would charge the client and make a little money on the mark up. I also did this with film and camera equipment. You know, it was a business. I just thought I'd share that with other people cause there might be some photographers out there who think it's a good idea. It was all good for the client too because they were assured of getting quality stuff.

I'm gonna leave it there for this week. I'll have some other stories next week. Talk to you soon. Love, B. Nice

Here's the link to the blog where I talk about the present.

October 9, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. You know, stuff that kind of influences the way I live now.

I spent a large portion of my photographic career pounding the pavement. I had a great set up. 71st street in Manhattan. I'd take the subway all the way downtown and walk back, knocking on the doors of people I wanted to work for. I would walk everywhere. I did the same thing in Paris and London. Pounding the pavement. Ironic, because right now I can't even take one step.

The reason why I'm bringing this up is because a friend came for a visit. He is from Paris, you know, where I lived for a couple years. I'm gonna have you go over to the blog where I talk about the present because we're kind of crossing over here. Here's a link where I talk about the present. 

September 22, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. When I was in hospital, man, I had so many tubes in me, I couldn't move. Plus, I couldn't move.

Anyway, while I was lying there staring at the ceiling, I would think of things like the following items. I would make up poems. Really bad poems, but here we go anyway:

I was looking for an apartment in New york City. I didn't know where to begin. My photo assistant Finn was nice enough to take me in.

Finn had a sunny street level apartment that shared a tall brick wall with a night club, Webster Hall.

There was music and bass throughout. It was noisy as hell no doubt.

People would get out at 3 or 4. It was noisy as hell outside my bedroom door.

(I slept in the closet. Finn said it was a bedroom, but I still say it was a closet. ) Anyway, back to my wonderful poem.

One bass-full night, Finn was sitting on the toilet naked reading the New York Post when all of a sudden, from behind the toilet, there came a New York City rat bigger than most.

Finn dove out the bathroom door and landed on the apartment floor. The apartment that shared the tall brick wall with Webster Hall.

Finn stood up and said, "I know what I'll do with that rat! I'll get Buster my cat." He ran up the stairs naked, which is a frightening thought, and came downstairs with Buster.

(I have to make a side note here: if you don't mind, I'm gonna give my friend Finn a hard time.)

Now, I'm sure the cat was thinking, "Why is this naked man, armed with a New York Post, holding me?" And then I'm sure the cat thought, "Well, he is like, it's been said, from New Zealand where men are men and sheep are nervous."

But, anyway, back to my poem:

My friend, Finn, threw the cat in the bathroom onto the floor. Finn quickly shut the bathroom door. There was silence.

All of a sudden you heard a hiss, a screech and a roar. He slightly opened the bathroom door, and there was Buster the cat, standing tall against the wall on the ledge, the tiny ledge of the bathtub. He was like an Egyptian heiroglypic figure.

Finn opened the door further and there was a rat on the bathroom floor, standing up, smelling the air. Finn pushed open the bathroom door and the rat ran across the floor. The rat grabbed a soiled piece of toilet paper and jumped into a hole in the wall. This all happened in an apartment that shared a tall brick wall with a nightclub, Webster Hall, in New York City.

The other thing that drove me crazy was a missing film. I don't know why, but I lost some of the best rolls. I remember finally what the images were. Like, for example, I was sitting around a campfire with a bunch of kangaroos. This is in Australia. I took out a wide angle lens and just hung out with them. I'm sure the images were great. The roll disappeared. Another time, I was in Japan. It was during the Cherry Blossom season. I went to a cemetery and there were families around tombstones, crying, laughing, drinking, having picnics, all the time the cherry blossoms were falling. It was surreal. Like a dream. I have a couple of other situations where film went missing, but I always remember those moments.

The last thing that always drove me crazy, I think I talked about it before, it's a whole conflict I've had about friends and modeling. I finally came to the conclusion that if it's your dream, go for it, but just be careful because stepping into that world can be a hazard. It's very competitive. But, it can open some doors. I know some people who have gone on to be world famous actors, great in business, they've done great TV shows (well, some people think they're great). The point is, it can open new doors.

That's it for this week. My other blog is at this link. There I talk about the present.

Have a good week. This is B. Nice signing off.

P.S. People always say, "Brian, how can you remember all your old stories?" It's very simple. It's all the truth. The truth is the easiest thing to remember.

September 11, 2015

I was surfing that day, fourteen years ago. Big waves. A lot of guys played hookie from work. Their lives were saved because of surfing. They worked at the World Trade Center.