March 29, 2016

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. When I was in hospital so long, I would think about things from the past.

When I was living in Australia, I wanted to get portfolios made up. I brought a portfolio from New York to a book binder in Australia, Sydney. Australia. The bookbinder said, "Well, the first thing you have to do is pick out a skin." I didn't know what the hell he was talking about until he brought out various animal skins. I felt like a neanderthal picking out my dinner. It was unreal. He had ostrich skins, kangaroo skins, snake skins. I finally chose water buffalo to make my portfolios. It was a nice leather. Apparently they had to cull the water buffalo population because their hard hoofs damage the natural vegetation. So, I guess I was helping out in a way. I still have the books. They're pretty nice. I also made some books out of kangaroo hide. Nice leather.

The cool thing about being a photographer was it brought you to some wild places. The bookbinder above brought me to a real dodgey area of Sydney, Australia. It was right by my lab where I processed all my film. The guy at the lab had an AK-47 behind the counter (you know, for job security).

You know, that's why I liked living in Australia, cause it brought you to places you would never normally visit if you lived in New York. My friend here says, there are some pretty dodgey places in New York as well, and I agree. But, I did go to some amazing locations, locations you would never go to if you lived in New York. It was a cool experience. I could go on and on about it. Actually, look at some older blogs. There are some locations there. Check out my other blog where I talk about the present. Here's the link.

And, oh yeah! Don't forget about my movie I did with Team Hall and my friends. Here's the link for that!

March 15, 2016

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past.

I lay in bed for months, always thinking about things I did. This one time I was in the studio, on an editorial shoot. Digital photography just came out. I had an operator, you know, doing all the digital stuff. And a new digital camera. It was all brand new. I didn't know what to expect. It was pretty wild though, going from analog to digital. Way different though, I'll tell you. Everything I knew went out the window. For example, I used to meter the subject right down to the tenth of a second. I also used different light sources, like tungsten light, to create a sunlight look. Now, with digital, they just readjusted everything in post production. It was quite the adjustment. I was shooting for something like Seventeen or Cosmo. I can't remember. But, it was a bit annoying because the art director kept telling me to do this and that. The art director was looking at a monitor. She can see exactly what I was shooting. I felt like handing the freaking camera to her. I guess I'm just "Old School." I do miss those days though. It was cool getting the film back a day later. The only way you knew what you were getting was through polaroids. Like my friend said here, those were the good old days.

I'm feeling kind of sentimental so I'm gonna stop it there. I'll talk to you guys next week, Love, B. Nice

P.S. Here's my link to my other blog. Hope you had a good Pi day yesterday. Figure that one out. It was 3.14. And don't worry if you don't get it. I won't hold it against you.

March 8, 2015

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. When I lived in Australia, a makeup artist friend of mine introduced me to a French photographer. The makeup artist asked me if I wouldn't mind showing the French photographer around. I said, "Sure, no problem. Have the French guy meet me at a certain cafe on the beach at Bondi." Well, I went to the cafe thinking, how'm I gonna pick this guy out? I didn't ask what he looked like. You know, I think I told you guys this story before, but I love it. I walked into the cafe. It was packed. There were people with board shorts on from surfing, girls in their bathing suits and sarongs. You know, real beachy. Then I look in the corner and there was this guy in the corner drinking an espresso at 4 pm. He had on a black t-shirt, black pants, black boots, a pony tail and black sunglasses. I was like, ah ha! French photographer, and ever since then, we've been great friends.

That's all I'm gonna talk about for this week. Check out my other blog. It'll direct you to the documentary I made with Team Hall, that's showing on April 29th. Hope to see you there.

P.S. The reason why I told the above story is because my makeup artist friend is meeting my photographer friend in Paris right now. My photographer friend opened up a new hotel called Les Bains. I'll put the link in here. It's pretty cool.

February 16, 2016

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. I'm gonna talk about my hospital visit. That's the past, right? The recent past. Oh yeah, I forgot. This blog will be called: Going Long, A Scar, and You Animal.

Let's start with the Scar. I was in the hospital right after surgery. You know, the ICU, which is Intensive Care Unit. I woke up to a nurse giving me a sponge bath. She said, "I'm sorry, what's this?" She was pointing to my scar on my stomach (they had to gain access to a main artery). Well, I thought she was talking about my private parts. So, OK, remember, between the brain injury, the operation, and all the drugs, you're a bit out of it. So I said, "That? Oh, that's where my brain is. That's my dick. Apparently, my brain is in my dick based on the girls I dated." Remember, you're totally out of it. She said, "No honey, your brain is up here," and she touched my head. I thought I was being funny. You know, when you're in a serious situation, you'll have different ways of dealing with things. I always joked around.

Actually, I'm not gonna talk about the hospital visits anymore. They're kind of depressing. Let's talk about Going Long. A photographer I worked for in the '80's always shot with long lenses. He had three particular lenses he really liked. Two of them were in big leather cases. The other one was a huge lens, and in was in a metal case. I was in charge of the lens in the metal case. The other assistant was in charge of the leather case lenses. Well, as we were getting off the plane in Africa, my friend, the assistant, grabbed the two leather lenses and stood up. He almost took a kid's head off. I went to grab him and help him and my lens, the one in the metal case, slid off my shoulder and clocked the guy next to me. Remember, I told you, I was the worst assistant. I think I almost killed the guy. I can't begin to describe the sound a metal case makes when it hits a human skull. The guy wasn't happy.

One time I dropped a lens out of a helicopter, but that's a whole other story that no one knows about.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was You Animal You. For some reason, animals are always attracted to me. It can be a bit of a problem when I'm shooting. One time I was photographing a model in the south of France. We were under a big tree. The model was doing a yoga pose. All of a sudden a cat came out of nowhere and started hanging out with the model. I thought it was cute, but then I said, "All right, All right. Move the cat out of the picture." The model then sat down in a Lotus pose. The freaking cat climbed into her lap and went to sleep.

Another time I was shooting on a ranch. The rancher raised Lamas. The damn lamas kept following me around. Have you ever been followed by a pack of lamas? It's kind of weird. Every picture I took, there was a lama in the background staring into the lens. Oh, and by the way, Lamas spit. Did you know that?

But the best animal story of all was my dog Buster and the Harry Winston necklace. I think I told you this story before. The model was wearing a beautiful Harry Winston diamond necklace. The necklace even came with an armed guard. Well the model was proudly wearing the necklace for a cover shot when my dog walked into the photo. I thought, well, let's put the necklace on the dog, and I did. I put the necklace on my dog and that was the cover shot. The model was pissed off. I tried to get my dog to run home real quick and hoped the armed guard wasn't a good shot. (Just kidding.)

That's all for this week. I hope you guys had a good Valentine's Day. Check out my other blog. You know, the blog about the present.

February 9, 2016

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about my past. The blog is good for my memory. While I was in the hospital I would  recall things that I've done in my life.

Let's call this blog "A Volcano; The Coconut Man; Some Curry; and A Breast.

Let's start with the Volcano. You know, when I traveled, I went through some amazing places. One place I really loved was the big island of Hawaii. One of my favorite places was on top of the island. You drive all the way to the top, to an extinct volcano. It was surreal up there. It was kind of cool cause you'd be in this like moon-scape and you would look down at where you were going to surf. It was pretty cool, but I definitely felt the pressure on my brain. When I was going up to the volcano, I felt something strange going on. I didn't know then what I had. So I ignored it and ended up going surfing, thinking that would clear my head.

Now let's talk about the coconut man. In Hawaii, in the lava fields there was this guy they called the coconut man. He was probably a retired ad man from Madison Avenue. He was a guy that, well, totally lost it. This guy, the coconut man, basically lived in the lava fields. He relied on people dropping off food and water to survive. The guy was totally bonkers. I got a photo of him as we drove past. The guy was totally dressed in coconut shells and coconut leaves. Other than that, he looked totally normal. He didn't look like a street person at all.

Now, let's talk about the Curry. When I loved in Australia, Bondi Beach, to be precise, there were some friends who lived above an Indian Spice store. Their whole apartment smelled like curry, but I guess they got used to it. They were kind of nose-blind to the smell. But every time I smell curry now, I think of their apartment. Boy, did we have fun, great dinners. That leads me to my next story. A Breast.

Now, my friend, if you're out there, maybe you can clarify this for me, but I seem to remember having a dinner party. My friend showed up with another couple. We were at the table chatting, the kids were playing, you know normal regular stuff. I started serving the dinner, some pasta, when one of the kids came over and said, "Mom, I'm hungry." Well, Mom, not my friend, but the other woman whipped out her breast and started feeding the kid. Well, I was just having conversation with the kid earlier. I mean, I was about to offer him a beer. I thought to myself, maybe I should skip dinner and offer everyone coffee. I thought the kid was gonna ask me for my car keys. It was all kind of strange and freaked me out.

I'm gonna leave it at that. Have a good week. Love you guys, B. Nice

P.S. Check out my other blog about the Present and see the art there for my daughter.