July 1, 2014

I had someone read my previous blog for me and I'd like to say one thing. I want my damn house back. I just had to get that out of my systems. Bitter, party of One. Anyway, let's talk about photography.

I can't imagine starting out now. It's so different from when I was starting. Listen to me. I sound like an old fart. I don't know if it's the same, but when I was starting we had to go somewhere new like Europe or Australia. You know, somewhere different. If you worked hard enough and long enough someone eventually gives you a break. I still remember my break and the woman that gave me a break. It all built up from there. It all built up until my brain exploded. Ha! Anyway, now I deal with a new reality.

Sorry, I'm going off on a tangent here. I'll go back to starting out. I started out in Australia and then to moved to Paris. I thought, "Great, here I am in Paris. This is fantastic. Only one problem. I don't know any bloody french and my fridge doesn't work." Now, I learned all my french from watching Magnum PI and getting the fridge repaired was a whole other story. I had to look in the french/english dictionary and try and get a repairman. It was a joke. Eventually I just went out and bought a new fridge. The old one, the broken one, they wouldn't take it away so I used it to store my clothes. I felt like I was back in college.

I'm gonna have my friend here pick out a journal. I used to keep all my journals in cartoon form. I'll be right back.

I found an old book. Hope you enjoy it. Check out my other blog. Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

June 27, 2014

Hi everybody. Welcome to the past.  Those are things I talk about, things I thought about when I was lying on my back for years.  I just wanted to make a brief comment. I guess I'm talking shop a little bit. So if you want to click off, feel free to close this or stop here. Anyway, you know, I was thinking of the first photo I ever too. It was a photo of a fire alarm. Pretty exciting huh? But you see, my father was an artist and came out of the pop art generation so I grew up around him painting objects. You know, like a pack of cigarettes, or a beer can, or a cowboy boot. So that was always in my mind. So when I started taking photos I would just do what I know. I would take pictures of objects. Like a fire alarm. I would show the image to my teach and my teacher would just look at me blankly and say, "Well, that's a fire alarm." I guess people just didn't understand what I was trying to do. I would treat people as iconic images. You know, separate them from the background. Make them stand out alone. It was the 80's. Everyone was shooting with long lenses. The backgrounds were all fuzzy and the model would stand out. So that timing was perfect. I worked all the time. Maybe they gave me too much medication when I was in hospital, but those are the kind of things I would think about. Anyway, that was just one of the many things I would think about. You know, I'm really tired because my daughter was here for a visit. We had a great time. If you want to hear more about the present, go my other blog which is right here. In the meantime, if you want to see more, go to www.briannice.com. Have a good weekend. Love, B. Nice

June 17, 2014

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. You know, I said it before but I really believe all the stuff I have gone through has gotten me ready for what I'm going through now. Although, some things I believe have nothing to do with what I'm going through right now. For example, my assistants used to chat up the models and didn't pay attention to what was going on. One time this guy was chatting up a model and I fell into a giant orchestra pit. I was walking backwards following the model and I fell all the way down into a pit. Man, that hurt. My first instinct was to protect the camera. Maybe that's why I am the way I am right now.

Another time, we were in the Bahamas. I was shooting a job on a sandbar. We were heading home. My assistant said to me, "Can you please stop the boat. I'm going to get off here." We were in the middle of the freaking ocean. I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I'm gonna do some spear fishing," and he pulled out a spear gun, fins, a weight belt, a snorkel and mask, and then jumped overboard. My friend here said, "And you never saw him again." We laughed, but I did see him at the bar. He had a good story to tell. But you know what? I'm not going to tell anymore stories because my daughter is here and I'm gonna keep it short. I'm gonna include some pictures from the present. They are photos from my road trip. I hope you enjoy them.

Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

Chapter 137 - June 3, 2014

Welcome to the past. This is the blog where I talk about the past. I kind of fixed things up. I put in pictures from the past and I took the past blog and put in pictures from the present. Am I making sense? Anyway, I messed things up. But I'll go on. I'll talk about the past. Speaking of Past, I want to say hi to my friend Bugs and his wife and family. They're in Australia.

You know, when I was shooting in the past I used to pay close attention to light. It's so important to look at your subject. I mean take a step back and really look. Lighting is so important. So many people just go on shooting without really looking. Anyway, that's my opinion. I used to do that all the time, look at the light and the subject. I guess I still do. It's automatic. I remember, I used to get up really early to get sunrise then I'd take a long break in the middle of the day (which used to piss off the client) and then I'd go back to work in the evening to get the good light. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I would sometimes go windsurfing in the middle of the day. But we won't talk about that. (That would really really piss off the client.) The point I'm getting at is, you've got to shoot with really good light if you want to make a really good picture. It adds another element to the photograph.

The other thing I used to think about was location. Remember, location, location, location. It's actually really important. It sets the mood for the whole photo. At least that was my excuse to go to the Bahamas. But really, it's important to shoot in a magical place where everyone is happy. A place where someone looks at the photo and wishes they were there. You sure as hell can't get that from a studio shot.

My friend here was reading back to me what I wrote, and I forgot to mention something. I was in New Mexico shooting a commercial job. We got up at 4 am to drive an hour and a half to the location for sunrise. I got the feeling I was a bit extreme when the creative director came out and said to me, "This is insane! What are we doing here?" We kept doing that for about a week. We even called room service on the way back after sunset. Maybe it was extreme. Good photos though.

I feel like an old fart talking about the past. But one other thing that's so important about creating a good photo. You have to pay attention to hair and makeup. It can make or break a fashion photo. Especially hair. You have to have a good hair dresser. But you know what? keep it simple. Anyway, I'm gonna leave it there. I'm gonna include some pictures on my trip I did across America. They are recent photos. I don't do fashion anymore. I don't think anyone would understand me right now. I could do comedy shoots. Anyway, here are some photos and here's a link to my blog where I talk about the present. The drawings are from the past. Everything is mixed up, but you know what? What isn't these days. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

Chapter 136 - May 27, 2014

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. You know, things I thought of when I was in a bad way. You know, it was Memorial Day weekend this past weekend. One year I had to work on Memorial Day weekend. We were in Jacksonville, Florida. I had rented a house right on the beach. It was great. I was looking through the lens and I saw the model mouth, "Oh my God!" I looked over in back of me and there was a Blue Angel F-18 right above the beach. We were right next to the air show for Memorial Day. What an afternoon. We hardly got anything done because we had the best seats in the best house watching the air show. The planes were right next to us all day long. What a day. It was loud but it was a great day. It was amazing.

You know, one of my favorite places to shoot was Hawaii. I loved getting jobs in Hawaii. I didn't care what we were doing as long as I could bring my surf board. It was a beautiful place to visit. I remember one day though. I was shooting at a house right on the beach. It's hard to describe but it felt sad there. The people that worked at the house seemed sad to me. I was like, "Why are you guys so sad? It's got a weird vibe here," and the cook at the house told me, "Well, the owner of the house used to swim back and forth in front of the house every morning. Every morning until she got eaten by a tiger shark." I thought, well, that's a good reason to be sad. I've got tons of stories like that, but all in all, Hawaii was a great place to shoot.

There was one area on the big Island I loved. You could duplicate Fall really easy. The location was way up high on the volcano. The clouds would come in and we were just below the clouds. It was beautiful. The owner of the home told me something funny. The owner spent a lot of money to bring his father over to Hawaii. The owner was from Scotland. When the father got there he said, in a scottish accent, "You fuckin brought me halfway round the world to be in the same place!"

I did want to mention one thing. It's really strange leaving the house. When you're out of your element. you know, your day to day routine, it throws you for a loop. I went to my old neighborhood the other day and it has totally changed. It's as if I've been in a time machine. I still feel like my first operation was a couple of months ago, but it was like five years ago. I guess it's a good reason for behaving like a young idiot. My friend here, who's writing this for me said I've been using that excuse forever. Anyway, I don't really feel like blogging more so we'll leave it at that. I'll include some photos I've been doing. They're not from the past, but the present. Have a good week. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

P.S. Here's a link to my blog about the present.