Above:
Elliot by Jack Saul Photography
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Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Happy Birthday today March 26th
The Night Agent
Heroes Aren't Born. They Answer the Call.
I know I saw this all the time, but once again I'm late to the party. The party in this case is the Netflix series The Night Agent. I started the pilot last year, but lost interest half-way through. This year however, with all of the promotion about the release of season 2 earlier this year, I decided to give it another go.
I'm glad I did as I binged the first season in about two weeks, finishing the seasons first 10 episodes this past weekend. For those who haven't watched, it's a pretty fast paced show, with heart pounding, edge of your seat drama usually reserved for featured films. It also stars one of the hottest actors I've seen awhile. I was going to say 'new actors', but Gabriel Basso has been around for awhile, including being a regular on the 2010 Laura Linney series, The Big C.
Basso is incredibly hot, and so appetizingly masculine. I do struggle using the work 'masculine' these days, as like so many words, it's been politically corrupted. I hate toxic masculinity, the type modeled by the asshole in the White House and his X friend. Those two losers are simply toxic, with nothing remotely masculine about either one of them.
Masculinity to me is about owning who you are, and just like femininity is more about confidence and strength. Basso is so naturally masculine, without the ignorance and arrogance that have some how crept back into the word's definition. No matter how you present, or how you feel, if it's authentic, it's sexy and Basso is incredibly sexy.
So far, we've only got a few shirtless shots of Basso's agent Peter Sutherland, but there were two other hotties in the first season who grabbed my attention. One had a brief nude scene on the show, the other had many, many nude scenes in the previous television series he appeared on. Check them out on the NEXT PAGE HERE:
Koju Takeda: Leaning In
'Wresting is only gay when you make eye contact.'
Felipe Esparza
There are so many tropes about wrestlers and wrestling, one of the most common, concerning the homoerotic elements. It makes sense. I don't think there is any other sport which has as much physical contact between the competitors, and at the same time, have them wearing so little.
Some wrestlers try to break the stereotype, while others lean in. Japanese professional wrestler Koju Takeda certainly leans in, embracing the trope tightly. Some of Koju's matches are more erotic and sexually charged than your average Sean Cody video. Koju has a great behind, and as you can see, uses it to his advantage, showing it off, often throwing his opponents off of their game.
Progressive Lenses: Elliot by Jack Saul Photography
'I feel naked without mu glasses.'
There are so many tropes about people who wear glasses. Silly, and like most tropes, not usually fully accurate. They stick though, especially when we're young. How many of us cried when we were kids upon finding out we needed glasses. We knew we'd be called four-eyes, specs or optical wonder. I actually don't think I would have minded being called optical wonder...
These tropes unfortunately follow us into adulthood. People with glasses are seen as both smarter and nerdier, just look at superheroes. Both Clark Kent and Diana Prince wear glasses, fitting their cerebral jobs, Kent as a journalist, Prince as a museum curator. Their glasses are the first thing they fling off when it's time to transform into their tight, sexy, crime fighting alter egos.
In almost every visual medium, whenever a character is supposed to be nerdy or undesirable, they're put in glasses. Sometimes, if the person is really good looking, they're used to make them look smarter. Most often however, it's to make them look older, maybe a little mysterious. Rarely, is it as simple and practical as vision correction.
Glasses, much like photographers, use light to improve focus. Most photographers, do this through single vision images, shots where the viewer is meant to take the images in as a whole, as one complete visual. Other photographers, use the bifocal, or even trifocal method, aiming to ensure there isn't just one focal point, but multiple areas of interest they hope will draw the viewers attention.
Then of course, there are progressive lenses, these, provide the viewer with three area's or levels of focus. So why so much boring exposition about glasses, well for a couple of reasons. First off, when photographer Jack Saul initially sent on his work with the adorable Elliot, the first focal point for me, was his glasses.
Usually, models take their glasses off for a photo shoot, especially a nude shoot. When they keep them on, I usually assume it was a conscious decision, maybe because of how they look, or more likely, because of how they feel. For many people who wear glasses, they almost become a part of them, a piece of their personality and who they are. With Elliot, his glasses certainly felt like they belonged just where they were.
My second area of focus was of course on Elliot's face, eyes and his beautiful body. This initial focus was one of the reasons I wanted to start the piece by featuring some of Jack's portrait shots. When possible, I like introduce model's with shots of their face as not matter how hot and fit the rest of him may be, it's the face and eyes that usually first draw my attention.
The third area of focus drew my gaze beyond Elliot, and to the bed and the room where he and Jack were working. As a 'roaming' photographer, Jack often shoots in hotels and motels and always makes great use of what light and space is available. If your focus also included looking beyond the room, you'll notice they shot at night, meaning Jack couldn't utilize the natural light from the large windows he usually pulls in when it's available.
As hot as he looks in his glasses, it wasn't the only reason they became a focus and a theme. There was also something Jack shared when I asked about the shoot. In addition to sharing how great Elliot was to work with, he also used a few other adjectives that fit both the theme, and what I was seeing while enjoying the shots.
'Elliot was an interesting person to work with, He's Western European with a very progressive and libera attitude. He has a very strong Creative Arts background, so although he was easy going and laid back, he also had a lot more creative input into the shoot than most other models.'
Although his words didn't change my visual focus, they did alter just a little, how and what I was thinking about Elliot. I have always been a bit attracted to sexy nerds, although there really wasn't anything the least bit nerdy about Elliot.
Like Clark Kent and Diana Prince, there's something incredibly hot about the taking off of the glasses, and the ripping off of the clothes, especially of a cerebral crush. Since Jack's shoot with Elliot ended in the shower, we had, as they do in the comics and in the movies, the long anticipated glasses removal and reveal.
Jack Saul Photography on Instagram
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