Saturday, February 12, 2011

The best kind of family bonding

A few months ago I got a message from an old friend of mine. Her family would all be getting together this winter. Her mom and older brother still live here but she'd be coming in from Seattle and her younger brother would be in from Korea. I practically grew up with these guys. My sister & I went to school with them and they lived just down the street from our grandparents.

While they were all together they wanted to get together for a family portrait, but that's not all she wanted. During this visit they would all be getting their first tattoo. Matching family tattoos. She asked if I would document the occasion and I was more than happy to.

[Carol's wrist bird]


There was a little miscommunication and Dale (the oldest) had never intended to get a tattoo of anything ever. He did show up to watch but just the other three actually got the ink.

The tattoo artist asked everyone where they wanted theirs, and when Jan said her neck we all stopped what we were doing and said "your neck?" He said if you get a neck tattoo your street cred will go up about 20 points. I guess we all pictured it up front somewhere. Where she actually got it, on the back lower part of her neck, it's not as hard core looking as we thought but still pretty tough.

(The bird comes from the design on a necklace Jan's mom used to wear a lot when she was younger.)

The next week we were pounded with snow and ice so when we got together for the group session I thought it may not have mattered where we went because everything seemed to look the same and was equally dangerous to try and walk on. We had a good time though, and it warmed up a bit that day which I appreciated.


These four get very silly. I think most of the photos have some sort of funny face or light hearted posing going on. Then when we were done they couldn't help but indulge in a snowball fight.


Oh yeah, and here are the tattoos, almost all healed:
(tattoos were done at All American Tattoo in Florissant MO)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Randy Dandies

In an earlier post I mentioned and showed you Mimi Le Yu and Swifty Deeds. After that show I ran into them at an event at the Mad Art Gallery. They told me about an upcoming show with their comedy burlesque group, the Randy Dandies. It sounded like such a good time that even though mother nature has seemed set on trying to keep me from getting out of my driveway we ventured out to Off Broadway to check it out.

The show was based on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. The audience were given clues and won prizes if they were the first to yell out the correct answer. The prizes were even related to the destination. It's obvious they put a lot of thought and work into the show.

Where's Waldo hosted and each performance was related to the place where the clues lead.

[Gretta Garter in China & Roxy Red Rockets in Australia]

Carmen Dandiego had been mustashioing landmarks in each of the locations. In the end she tried to mustashio the moon but Dora the Explorer came to the rescue. They fought, tore off each others clothes, and Carmen, as always, ended up behind bars.


Keep an eye on what the Randy Dandies are doing and check out a show. I can't imagine you'd be disappointed.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Group Shoot at the Lemp Brewery

The other day I was invited to join several other photographers & models on a shoot with no real agenda but to get together, meet people and make pictures.

The studio space is an entire floor on one building of the old Lemp Brewery in St. Louis. It's an incredible place shadowed by what it once was. There are people using sections of the now "business park" but it still felt very empty.
There were lighting set-ups spaced all around the floor. I used them some but found myself more interested in all of the fantastic natural light spilling in through the large windows and focused mainly on that. 
A lot of the girls brought bikinis and lingerie for their photos, which I got some of but for the most part wasn't too inspired by. Not this day at least. What I did love is that Meredith brought her guns. Pretty women with guns is a combination like tattoos & babies for me. I think it's just great.