Merry Christmas and Happy Yule! This is a photo I took of Punzo the other night. When I uploaded it to Google Plus, they applied an Auto Awesome filter that made it twinkle. You can see the original image by visiting my Flickr Photostream or by clicking here.
Only a couple weeks have passed since my last post and in that short time New Mexico and Utah managed to legalize same-sex marriage via high court rulings. Marriage licenses have already been issued as anxious couples attended early morning openings at various county clerk offices. This will make for some happy couples this holiday season. There is clearly momentum gaining fast for marriage equality and where I initially thought it may take 5-10 years to get every state on board, I now think that we won’t have to wait any longer than 2015.
The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia are going to be very interesting. Several national leaders and celebrities are boycotting the event due to Russia’s newly implemented anti-gay policies. Three openly gay olympians – Caitlin Cahow, Billie Jean King, and Brian Boitano – have been selected for the official U.S. presidential delegation to represent the United States. I think it’s exciting to see this level of international involvement and I expect to see many visible pro-GLBT messages at this year’s events. The Olympics are about people coming together in a spirit of international unity, friendly competition, and a celebration of diversity.
Summer’s here and we’re finally getting through the rainy season that hit us and threatened to wreck my garden. My family and I got to Monhegan Island over the weekend, which is just as beautiful as ever. I highly recommend it. I got some awesome photos that I posted in a Google Plus album: Monhegan Island 2012 As I said I probably would, I also posted the album that played at my grandfather’s funeral. Here is the link for the online album Memorial Album of Harland Nickerson
My hair’s longer than it’s ever been. I tried putting it down the other day and everyone says they like it better longer, though it’s a real pain to deal with. I posted pics in my Google Plus profile and Flickr. I might cut it, IDK. I love how my highlights came out and I don’t want to lose those.
June 5th was the once-in-a-lifetime Venus transit across the Sun. Despite the overcast sky here in Maine, there were several breaks that allowed me to get a clear shot of the Sun. I put the telephoto lens on my Canon EOS, added an IR filter, and set the shutter speed to 1/4000 of a second. I got some beautiful photos of Venus silhouetted against the Sun and one of the best ones is right here:
I’m really excited, too, because my garden, greenhouse, and indoor plants are coming along really well. My Tricyrtis (toad lily, which looks a lot like an orchid), which I grew from seed, just bloomed. I’ve got some red bell peppers growing inside – I never knew that green, red, and yellow peppers are all the same plant, just different maturation times. Tons of stuff in my garden coming up. And perhaps most exciting is that I succeeded in pollinating my Encyclia orchid from Florida – it’s now developing seed pods!
I’ve been thinking about getting back into modeling again. I did some test shots last night and I was quite happy with the results. I always enjoyed modeling for the most part, getting to travel, working with photographers – almost everything I know about photography is stuff I picked up while modeling. At some point I thought I should focus on school and all, but there’s really no need to choose between them. I’m not enrolled in classes this semester, so I’ve had some extra time on my hands. I’ve mostly been working on building iPhone Apps as part of my Seashore Design company, along with some graphic and web design work, but I thought I’d take a short break the other night and have some fun. I think what got me thinking was seeing David Beckham’s new underwear commercial during the Super Bowl – I’ve always admired his modeling and his body. Madonna’s performance was amazing, by the way!!! If you haven’t yet watched the halftime show, look it up online! I’ve already pre-ordered Madonna’s newest album, MDNA, which will be released in late March. Madonna has always been my favorite musical artist.
If you are a photographer and would like to work with me, drop me a line. If you’re already modeling and want someone to work with, I’m pretty much up for anything. It’s art, it’s fun. I do have a ModelMayhem account, though I haven’t used it much lately (I also just made a Tumblr account, but I have no idea what to do with it, haha). Maybe I will breath some life back into MM with my recent test shots. Some of them are below. I haven’t had time to Photoshop them and to be honest, I kind of like the raw photos. I typically don’t do a lot of post-processing in the photos of myself other than maybe white balance. I like the natural look and so I refuse to wear makeup, too (I’ve always hated makeup, even on Halloween, hehe). Photographs emphasizing the male body should be straightforward and organic, in my opinion. It can be fun to do really artsy stuff, even body paint, but that’s not the intention of these test shots.
I’ve really been wanting to do some water surface and underwater shots, though I’ve got some waiting to do if I take them in Maine – we’re still in the thick of winter here, though it’s been very mild. Today managed to reach the low 50’s, amazingly. I was just in California last month and it was so much better there (in more ways than temperature, lol), but not as hot as Florida, my second home <3 I want to tone my body a bit more, too. I've lost over 20 pounds since this time last year, now down to 138 with a goal weight of 125. That will give me the best muscle definition while also maintaining the minimum healthy weight for my height. Anyway, feel free to comment or drop me a line if you're interested in working with me. I'm pretty easy going and fun to work with.
This one is just for fun – me & Punzo. Punzo’s two little sisters are doing wonderfully, by the way, and we are looking for good homes for them when the time comes. Seven pomeranians (and a sheltie who thinks she’s a pomeranian) is way too many dogs for us, not to mention the rest of the zoo we keep at home.
