There is definitely a incredibly sexy vibe surrounding boys with guitars. The mind drifts instantly to the many well known wild, crazy rockers often photographed holding their instrument. The life of a rock star is well documented; on the road, frenzied nights on stage, the groupies, the drugs, and of course the sex.
24 year old Austin musician Michael does spend a lot of time on stage, in fact he reports this time on stage actually helps him with his comfortably in front of the camera when modeling. Michael's life on stage however, isn't as wild and free as that of a typical musician. In Michael's case the guitar, and the music he plays, is classical. With Classical guitar, movements are less frenzied, and the player must ensure their finger movement are precise. Plucking replaces strumming, and timing is crucial. The reach of notes is far greater than that of a typical pop or rock song. Skill becomes as important as passion within performance.
Photographer Dennis Nauert has been shooting the male form for only about a year, but precise is a word I would use to describe both his work and this shoot with Michael. Although the male form is a relatively new focus, Dennis has been taking photographs for as long as he can remember and six years ago moved to the world of digital. Until recently, most of his work was travel related with shots taken in Austin and the surrounding area. Dennis felt however that his portfolio was lacking something, a subject he felt one of the hardest to shoot, that being subjects of the human form.
'I joined a Meet-Up group here that photographed the male model. Robert San Roma is the leader and has helped find our group some of the best models. I was hooked after the first photoshoot and knew this was the direction I wanted to take. So far we have had the pleasure to work with over 50 models. I have learned so much from these workshops from how to convey my ideas to the model to setting up lighting.'
Dennis Nauert
Included in the 50 models Dennis has shot so far have been a couple of FH favorites including Quinn Christopher Jaxon and Hunter Steel Cherry. Dennis clearly has a skill at bringing out the unique characteristics of the models he shoots. I love how he, not only shot Michael with his guitar, but with his sheet music. The poses, lines and position of the instrument create a seamless symmetry between image and the model within them.
'Michael's shoot was one of the first at my home studio with my new strobe lights. Michael had said he was a classical guitarist so I worked off of that to create a theme for the shoot. He was great to work with and played a few pieces for us during the shoot. It was a real treat! The only bad thing was that he had scheduled a shoot for the next week that required him to remove all body hair and he had done a full body shave before our shoot. He had quite a few bumps but Photo Shop will take care of almost anything.'
3 comments:
Tye, you somehow ALWAYS manage to find the most beautiful asses to post on your blog and Dennis Nauert's butt is awesome! Well done.
Thanks as always David but the butt is Michael's! :)
Look forward to checking out your coverage of the event last night.
Tye
As always, Awesome write up, Tye...and beautiful pictures.
When I saw this post yesterday, my initial reaction to reading the quote about Photoshopping the bumps was: what a cool insight to what happens behind the scenes! But this morning, I can't help but wonder if that was over-share on the part of the photographer.
In another post you mention that photographers are, in some ways, like priests: the keepers of people's secrets and flaws. Would Michael be okay sharing that bit of info about the shoot? I have no way of knowing, but it probably wouldn't sit so well with me because it'd be something I was already self-conscious about on the day of shoot.
So, I was wondering, do you have an opinion on what's appropriate to share about a shoot and what isn't? Maybe it would be bad form to reply here on the page dedicated to showcase the photographer (perhaps it was bad form for me to comment this way), so if you're more comfortable blogging about the subject another day, that's totally cool and understandable.
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