'No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.'
Hal Borland
Regular FH readers know how much I love celebrating holidays, especially with images featuring the male form. I've been honoring the holidays on the site for many years. It began with Christmas and Halloween with other holidays slowly being added over the years. Groundhog Day wasn't really on my radar until a few years ago when photographer Tom Nakielski (Lights On Studio) had a fun idea.
Benjamin
We were talking about featuring model Michael Moody (first two images above) in a possible Valentine shoot. Now, I'm not sure who brought up Groundhog Day first, Tom or myself but it began innocently enough, with a few possible shots, maybe featuring Michael seeing his shadow on the studio wall. The next thing I know, Tom e-mails me that he's put out a call on Facebook looking for a groundhog to use in the shoot.
I shouldn't have really been surprised, Tom's animal instincts are keen and various critters have been included in several of his shoots. Tom's included bunnies and baby chicks at Easter, and even picked up a live turkey from a farm for a Thanksgiving shoot. Now... I have to own the turkey idea, but looking for a live, (or taxidermy) groundhog all stemmed from Tom's uniquely fun, festive and creative conscious.
So in 2019 our randy rodent made his first appearance, using his teeth to tear the tux off of our hot toastmaster Michael. (HERE:) Unlike that poor turkey, and our Easter bunny and chicks, Randy, couldn't be returned to the farm. Randy, now belongs to Tom, and has made his home in Tom's Michigan studio.
For most of the year, Tom reports Randy's a pretty good studio mascot, and fairly easy to take care. He's usually sitting or laying quietly at the back of the studio, coming out for the occasional treat and bit of attention. As groundhog day approaches however, the rodent gets.... increasingly more randy... The male models who work with Tom in late January are all told the risks, and even sign a rodent waiver ensuring law suits will not be filed.
Around Groundhog day, our rodent gets raunchy, insisting on interacting with all of the models shooting in the studio. Now Randy's not really aggressive, he's more insistent. He's like that dog or cat who demands their owners attention, insisting on belly rubs even when their owner is busy or not giving their pet their full attention.
Randy is actually quite easily satisfied. Usually, it only takes calling him a 'good boy' and then a few neck and back scratches. The only hitch though, is that Randy is only fully satisfied with his scratches, when the male models giving the scratches have their pants off. Given Randy lives in Tom's studio however, this thankfully isn't usually an issue.
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