'You can't have Thanksgiving without turkey. That's like Fourth of July without apple pie, or Friday with no two pizzas.
Although his logic doesn't always make sense, you can't argue with Joey on this one. You can't have Thanksgiving without a turkey. Even if you're vegan, or a vegetarian, there's no denying the connection between the holiday and the big bird. Every holiday has it's animal connections. Christmas has the reindeer, Easter has the bunny, Halloween the black cat, and Thanksgiving, the gobbler. Almost all of us traced our hands on construction paper in art class, to create a turkey worthy of hanging on the kitchen fridge.
For this reason, I've always incorporate turkey's into my Thanksgiving posts. I always wanted to re-create some of the imagery from vintage Thanksgiving pin-ups that I'd seen on-line. They usually included some classic movie starlet posing with a turkey. Some of you may remember what was the Cluster Pluck of 2019. That was the year, I tired to coerce photographer Tom Nakielski into including a live turkey in his holiday shoot. (HERE:)
God love Tom, he tried. He found a farmer who was able to provide a turkey. Tom brought it home, had it ready in his studio, but sadly, in what only can be called an act of fowl play, the model had to cancel at the last minute. The model may have had an acute case of meleagrisphobia, but I am guessing he was more worried about possibility of having his pecker pecked. So Tom turkey ended up with a pardon, and the turkey shoot never transpired.
This year, I had another brilliant idea! It again, required a bit of coercion. I didn't want to stress out another live animal, especially with a long car ride with Tom's singing, but I was determined to still have a turkey. When you can't have the real thing, what do you do... create the next best thing! I sent Tom on an image of hot turkey costume I found on-line.
I didn't think Googling 'sexy male turkey costume' would bring back much, but there was one images of a wild turkey that beaked my attention. Like any good turkey dinner however, a lot of prep work was required. Instead of risking ordering the costume, Tom decided to try creating it himself. As you can see, he worked his magic!
'Your suggestion of a turkey costume at first struck me as weird. I imagined a silly K-Mart costume, but when I saw the sample you sent me, I was determine to make it work. I think you already know my search for turkey feathers and a cornucopia were a challenge. The biggest challenge was constructing the turkey tail Lots of cutting cardboard, tons of hot glue, painting some of the feathers and figuring out how to attach the getup to Tony.
I was apprehensive at first that the turkey tail would look cheap and silly but once Tony put them on I was excited to begin the session. Tony was all in with the concept. This is my third shoot with him and he is always willing to work with my ideas. Even better, he has his own suggestions . Once we got going, just one shot and a peek of the image on the back of the camera and I knew this would be a great session.'
Coercing Tom was one thing, but finding a model up to actually up for wearing a piece of tail was another. Although Tom reports the shoot went really well, and that Tony was up for the challenge and did a great job, he did draw the line... at wobbling and goggling like a turkey during the shoot. It didn't matter though, this sexy specimen was in full fan!
At the base of each turkey feather there are small muscles that provide the ability for the bird to move their feathers. Those muscles are connected to other very small muscles within the skin. When a turkey struts, it contracts the muscles that control feather position, causing the body feathers to stand erect.
Turkeys strut and fan their feathers only a few times a year, usually during breeding season. They're trying to display dominance, create a pecking order and to identify their intentions and needs to other receptive birds. Thankfully, we caught Tony at the height of his season!
'We managed to get the turkeys hots in 2 1/2 hours. A record for me. Tony was more than willing to help me with setting up. One he had on his feathers, he walked around nude the whole time. Even while helping me set up. He is comfortable being nude and we've developed a trust over the course of our three shoots together. Even when he had to use the restroom, he kept the turkey tail on even though he had to waddle down a public hall to reach his destination. '
1 comment:
That pecker could do some serious pecking
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