How did I get here?

I always find it interesting how people get to my website or blog. Some come directly here and some arrive via another website. But often people get here via search engine searches. Here are some of the more interesting ways people found my website and blog:

i get naked but girlfriend doesnt
how to forget your girlfriend
post your girlfriend
why girlfriend doesn’t want pictures taken
how to become a maxim photographer
how to look charming to your girlfriend
forget girlfriend
photographing nude
naked workshop
dirty photo very funny picture happy christmas
you suck maxim
bel biv devoe (are people really still searching for them?)
alone with her nude
nude chilly
high school nudes (disturbing to say the least)
assignment photography self nude shy portrait
make my pictures look cool
stop junk mail from playboy
entry into locations other tourists can’t get into, photography
what singers ever get naked on the internet
40 year old woman naked
how to photograph a woman naked
how woman feel about having there picture taken while naked
dirty christmas cards
I DONT WANT TO BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND
san francisco undercover cop
PEOPLE LOOKING COOL
“tail end” “magazine”" ass”
jeffs naked girlfriend

And, just today I found my favorite:
naked girl duck hunters

I’m surprised I didn’t see this one in the list:
Jeff Singer is a complete hack

I get over 600 different search phrases a month. Since I don’t feel like going through the whole list, this list was only from the last few months .

Of course, by now everyone knows that search engines index websites based on the words found on the site. So, I’m going to seed this post with some words to see what other interesting search phases I’ll find in the future… here we go:
I’m often excited by
horses
impregnate
my next door neighbor’s
mexican brothel
best way to
how to tell parents
my boss is a
unrelenting itch
red bumps on my

That’ll do… can’t wait to see what I find.

FS: 2004 BMW X3

FS: 2004 BMW X3. Low miles, slight wear, air bags never deployed.

Some more pics from the tow yard.

Merry Christmas…. Look out!!!!

Unfortunately for my friend Jennifer (hey, this is her second blog entry in a row), she asked me to pick her up from her family’s Christmas to take her home… I say Unfortunately because on the way home, while driving along on the highway, we were greeted by an out of control car… The other car suddenly lost control and veered right into us. I had no time to react beyond a quick (and apparently futile) attempt to avoid the car. I’m not sure what things looked like on the outside, but on the inside we had a long and terrifying ride, most of it upside down. According to a very kind witness who stopped to help, we flipped 3-4 times. I can tell you that whatever was going on, it seemed like it lasted forever.

Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt… But as you can see by the pictures, my car didn’t fare so well. Even the firemen were amazed we just got out and walked away.

Some other nice people, possibly feeling the Christmas spirit, helped by stopping and gathering all of our things that were scattered about the freeway.

Needless to say I feel very grateful that Jennifer and I were not more seriously hurt than we were. After many hours in the ER getting patched up and after a brain scan (with which the doctors could find no conclusive evidence of my having one) they let us leave the hospital. Head and neck pain and some cuts are what we are left with today and hopefully that will pass soon.

Here is the fine print for you lawyers and insurance adjusters out there: (please read in very fast unintelligible legal disclaimer voice) I am in no way stating that we have no permanent life altering injuries. I am not a medical professional and have no way of knowing the true extent of our injuries. I am in no way relinquishing any claims for any damages caused by or because of the wreck. . Odds of winning are 1 in 3,000,000,000. No participation necessary. May cause dizziness, headache or leaky bowels. Offer not valid in Ohio or Maine

I figure i had to say something like that because you know lawyers and insurance people would just jump at the chance to use this entry as an admission of some sort.

Anyway, I hope everyone else had a good (and safe) Christmas… Here is to a great new year.

I Feel Naked

I’ve never really done nudes before. Once back in school they had us do a nude assignment. The school provided us with models to use for our shoots. My girlfriend at the time refused to let me photograph another woman naked. And yet, at the same time she refused to let me photograph her naked. Knowing that I had to complete the assignment she eventually caved. I guess the thought of me photographing another woman naked left a worse taste in her mouth than posing for the assignment herself.At a workshop I recently attended we were given a model to photograph. Everyone in the workshop proceeded to photograph her naked. Each photographer had a few minutes with the model and they did their thing. With 15 people in the workshop, the poor model was poked and prodded as if she was a piece of cattle on the way to slaughter. It was now my turn. I don’t really like to be watched by a lot of people when I take pictures (if I can help it, which often times, I can’t) so I went last. As I walked up to the model I said to her “Ok, I’m going to ask you to do something really weird.” The model had a horrified look on her face as if I was about to ask her to do something even Larry Flint would blush at. Instead, I set her mind at ease by asking “would you mind putting your clothes back on?” She laughed and obliged my not-so-deviant request. Everyone else in the room thought I was some sort of weirdo for having the naked woman put her clothes back on.So why nudes now? I’m not quite sure… My assistant Emily does nudes, so maybe rather than my style rubbing off on her as is often the case with photographers and their assistants, it is her that is rubbing off on me. Either way, I had been thinking about exploring nude photography for the last few months, so when given the opportunity I decided to give it a shot. And what better opportunity than when my friend, the lovely and beautiful Jennifer, despite her reservations (something about the pictures ending up on the internet… which I assured her would never happen), let me photograph her one chilly morning last week.Jennifer isn’t a model so having her photo taken isn’t exactly a routine event for her… let alone having her photo taken while undressed. Despite feeling a bit uneasy at first, she did a great job and quickly became relaxed in front of the camera.I do realize these aren’t technically nudes since Jen is covered up for the most part. I didn’t really do anything different than what I would do shooting a clothed woman. I guess thats a good place to start until I figure out what it is I want to do. Maybe next time I’ll try something outside my comfort zone. That’s what this personal work stuff is all about after all… trying something new and different.

Can I Get Some Assistants

It seems like talking about assisting on your blog is all the rage right now. It started over on “A Photo Editor’s” blog and now has continued over on “Whats the Jackanory.”I never really did much assisting. A few years ago I got a late start in photography after many years in the tech field. I was 32 at the time and I felt like I was too old to be assisting and didn’t really want to do it. Not because I thought it was beneath me, but rather, I felt the need to get to work on my own career having had such a late start. It surely wasn’t because I felt like I had all the knowledge and skills and was ready to be a professional photographer… quite the contrary. I mean, at the time I had literally only been using a camera for little more than a year. What the hell did I know?I assisted a few San Francisco advertising and editorial photographers on a few shoots but soon discovered that I was a.) really bad at assisting and b.) really didn’t like it. So, partly due to my own stubbornness and largely due to my own ignorance I stopped trying to get assisting work and decided to focus on my own photography. Another reason for my decision not to assisist (aside from nobody hiring me) came on one of my last attempts at working as an assistant. I emailed Timothy Archibald, another great blogger, to see if he needed an assistant. Thankfully, rather than hiring me, he gave me some encouraging words. I hope he doesn’t mind my quoting his response (which I can only imagine having been made while highly intoxicated):

I just got a chance to visit your site, your work is wonderfull. the portraits are very human and introspective, important qualities that are hard to find together in one shot.that said, i would discourage you from trying to find work from me. you clearly should be supporting yourself being a photographer! currently i am not in need of anyone as an assistant, but i will keep you in mind. tho i’m quite sure you will be on your way as a photographer by the time i’d ever get around to giving you a ring. ha.keep up the good work and do not sell yourself short.

Now, maybe this was his way of politely blowing off someone who would clearly be a horrible assistant, but the joke was on him because I took his comments seriously and it helped my push to do my own work.There are some aspects of the photography process that I feel I missed out on by not assisting. Andrew, over at “Whats The Jackanory” pinpointed exactly what it is I feel I missed. Here is what Andrew had to say:

I learnt so much [from assisting], but in the end I was more interested in the process then the technicalities, I enjoyed watching how people worked, their relationship with their subject whether it be alive or still didn’t matter. Everyone has a different approach and it always fascinated me especially my first time out with someone new, how did they tackle things differently from the others; were they calm, nervous, high energy, a talker, quiet, shy, did they like music, silence, were they a screamer, a shouter or were they in total control, was it all an act, a means to an end, or were they for real, what you saw was what you got, how did they interact with the client, the models etc etc.

Since I did little assisting I’ve never really worked with or watched other photographers at work. I always had this feeling in my mind that maybe I’m doing something wrong. Maybe the way I’m interacting with the subject isn’t right. “How would ‘so and so’ do this?” Is everyone looking at me and thinking “this guy has no idea what is going on!!!!” Do I need to be more talkative, do I need to be more outgoing, do I need to shut up, do I need to be funnier, do I need to be more serious, and on and on and on.Over time this has passed, but I will admit to having the thoughts pop in my head every once in a while. I’m finally getting to the point where I realize that I just need to do what I do and go about my business. Its when you start trying to be like someone else or do things the way another shooter would, rather than the way you would do it that the results aren’t as good as they could be. If you were hired to do a shoot its because they liked YOUR work, so don’t try to be someone else, just do your thing and the results will be good.I’m still fascinated by how other photographers work, so any chance I get to hang out on a shoot and watch another photographer working I take it. But now I’m there as a peer rather than an assistant… which means, when they have me take in their dry cleaning after the shoot, I know no starch on the collars.