May 23, 2015

Hi you guys. This is the blog where I talk about the past. I used to think about the past when I was in the hospital. It passed the time.

A lot of places I went to, I would location scout as to where I wanted to shoot. Some places were evidently wrong for what I wanted to do, but I went along on the location scout out of curiosity. For example, I was on an island off the Australian coast. On this island was a prison where they kept the worst of the worst inmates. They kept a real bad bunch there. I went to the prison because I heard it was haunted and the place did have a weird vibe to it. It was kind of scary. I would never shoot there, but it was wild to check out. Another place was in Tunisia. I was location scouting and I was in the middle of the desert when I looked up and I saw a single big tree in the middle of the desert. It was like at a 45 degree angle. It was surreal. I told our driver to stop because I was curious as to why the tree was growing at a 45 degree angle. I opened the door and I found out why the tree was like this. The winds were like 60 miles an hour. It almost ripped the door out of my hand. There was a constant flow of sand. I felt like I was in a blast furnace.

Another time I was in the Canadian Rockies. I heard of an area where the bear would sit around and eat flowers. I asked our guide to take us up there to have a look. We found a few bear. They were huge. Just hanging out. We obviously stayed in the car.

But one of the scariest and most dangerous things I've ever done was I went out at night with my cousin. (Now I say this with sarcasm and loving affection. We are now fathers.) We went to a few bars in Santa Barbara. I survived. I'll attach a drawing. I used to keep my journals in cartoon form.

That's it for now. I hope you guys have a great Memorial Day weekend. Love, B. Cuz

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

May 12, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about my past. You know, being like this, the way I am, I can't do much of anything. The only time I do anything is in my dreams. I dream about windsurfing a lot. I used to love windsurfing. When you're windsurfing you go fast. You know, like the speed of a jet ski full on out. But it was cool because I could get into areas you would never get into in a boat or, for example, there's this small island off the south fork of Long Island. I windsurfed over there and there was a huge colony of water birds. It was amazing. It was great even though I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock film. I've never seen so many birds in my life. I've come across old fishing cabins, you know, like from the 1800's. I've come across giant sea turtles. That was in Hawaii. Giant flock of fairy penguins in Australia. Sharks, just about everywhere. One time I was going fast and I went right in the middle of a flock of birds. They separated like a zipper on a coat. It was pretty cool. One of the best times was there were a bunch of dolphins in some waves I was riding. That was real cool. I miss all that stuff. Now I just watch my dog lick his balls. Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll talk to you guys next week. This is B. Nice signing off. Love, B. Nice

Here's the link to the blog about the present.

May 8, 2015 - Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. Here's a link to my blog where I talk about my Mom.

April 14, 2015

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

You know, I have a sordid past. I used to drink a lot. Now I don't drink at all. I'll explain why. 1.) because I'm not supposed to drink with the medication I'm taking and 2.) I choose not to drink for self preservation reasons. I'll explain what I mean.

One time I was at my house in Montauk, NY. I had had a few beers and some wine, and god knows what else. Anyway, I was on my deck and I looked through the trees and there was a disk of light in the sky. I thought, 'Oh my god, it's a UFO.' So I went and got my camera with a telephoto lens. Then I realized that there would be a lot of camera shake, so I got my tripod. I focused on the disk. It didn't move much, it was still in the same area so I slowly trained my lens onto the disk. I focused on it. It still didn't move. Then I realized, I was moving. And I also realized the disk through the trees in the  sky was in fact my neighbor's chimney.

Another reason why I don't drink is because, well, the drawing above. I had had a few drinks one night and walked right into the screen door. I did it many times. I finally, for economic reasons, I finally always checked to make sure there was no screen door there.

I'm gonna leave it at that because I'm a little embarrassed to tell more. I hope you have a good week. And watch out for those screen doors. They kind of hurt. Check out my other blog where I talk about the present.

Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

March 31, 2015

Hi everyone.  Welcome to the blog where I talk about my past. I can't believe I still have stories to tell you. We always had great places to go and exciting people to meet. That's what I really miss. One time we were in a house in Napa Valley. It was a really amazing house. I don't know why people with a lot of money rent out their house. Maybe it's a tax break. I don't know, but this house was amazing. Anyway, I was standing there looking for a place to shoot when I noticed an amazing photograph above the fireplace. It was a photograph of a computer chip. It was really well done. I asked the owner about the photo, and he said, "Well, that's the first computer chip every made." And I said, "Really? Tell me more about it." And it turns out the guy was partners with a guy named Bill Gates. He designed the first computer chip with Bill Gates. Pretty cool, huh?

Another time I was in the Pacific, near Guam There was an amazing ship in port. The model came out in a retro '70s swimsuit. She looked amazing. So I asked her to go over and yell up to the captain. She asked if we could do a photo on the ship. Well, it turns out the captain also owned the ship. He brought us all aboard and took us out on a cruise. Open bar and everything. It was a great day.

So you see what I mean? It was always an adventure. We would always go with the flow. I have a couple of disasters but we won't talk about them.

It was always interesting meeting new people. One time I had a test photoshoot with a catalogue (they tested me out to see if they wanted to work with me). Anyway, I did the shoot. All went good, then I got a phone call from the creative director. I went to the catalogue main office and met the creative director. He had all my film laid out on his light box. He was going through the film. He turned to me and he said, "Why did you shoot when the girl's eyes were closed. Only shoot when she is not blinking." I said, "Oh yeah, OK, I'll shoot in between when she takes a breath too." I thought the guy was joking around. He just looked at me with a blank stare. The guy was freaking serious. You see what I gotta put up with? People I worked with for the most part were really cool, but this guy was a real tool.

I'll tell you one other story. I was shooting in a house in the Hamptons in New York. I was looking for a place to shoot. Now imagine this: on a photoshoot when the models are getting their hair and makeup done, there's a lot of gossip going around. You know they're talking about food, people, jobs, life. You know, gossip. Anyway, let's go back to me scouting, looking around for a place to shoot. I really liked the light in the hallway of this house we were working at. But I noticed I had to move a table that was in the way. I looked down at the table and there was a silver box and around the box there were photos. Family photos and I looked closer and the whole 6 foot table was filled with photographs. And they had one thing in common: It was one guy. At the end I looked at the box and lifted the cover and there was the guy. It was all ashes and bone. It kind of freaked me out. So I carefully shut the box and ran into the van and said, "You guys, you can't believe what I just saw." I told them and then the ashes became the topic of the day. We didn't shoot in the hall, but we shot in other rooms around the house. After lunch, we decided to shoot outside. Well, I set the model up to shoot, then I said to everyone, "Excuse me, I have to use the bathroom." so I left the set, went into the house, went to the fireplace I saw previously, grabbed some ashes out of the fireplace, put them in my hand and closed my hand. I went outside and stood behind the model and looked for a good position where I would be backlit into a dark background so I would have maximum effect, and I said, "Why don't we shoot over here," and pointed my finger and opened my hand and all the ashes fell out of my hand and all over the model. She freaked out and stood behind the hair dresser screaming. The hairdresser said, "Oh my god, you didn't." I got in trouble. Hey, I thought it was funny. I was sure the guy in the box would have thought it was funny. He had an impish grin in all the photos.

That's it for today. I hope you guys have a good week. Here's my link to the blog about the present. Love, B. Nice

P.S. Hey Sharon, out there, next time should I tell the story about the cat and the sports bag? Remember that?