Brant

This is one of my favorite photos that I’ve taken lately. I love it.

See more photos of Brant on my website.

Dinner

On Tuesday, Jay and I had dinner at Sandra Rice and Noodle with Jared (our roommate) and David (my personal trainer and one of my models). Here’s Jared with his dinner . . .

And David . . .

. . . both of whom ordered their food based on my recommendations.

And here’s the two of them with Jay after dinner. . . three of my favorite people.

I also took a photo of Sang and Ha, the brother/sister co-owners and cook/server at the place. I wanted to like this photo well enough to place it in my American People collection, but I’m just not sure it’s good enough. I don’t know though, I’ve been especially critical of my work this week. I think that’s a good thing though, the opposite of which could be complacency.

Sunset

The sunset over my neighborhood was unusually pretty the other day.

Of course, it would have been considerably more meaningful had my neighbors not been polluting the whole community by blaring Midnight Star’s, “No Parking (On the Dance Floor).”

Click the photo to see a larger version.

Lyle

I took a this portrait of my father a couple of years ago, at his kitchen table on a Sunday morning. I’ve always liked the photo because it feels honest and authentic — to me, this captures “him” better than other photos do, or better than most photos I take of anyone.

It didn’t occur to me until recently that I should place this in my American People series. But it really does fit, perfectly.

Andy Whitfield, RIP

I started watching the first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Netflix because I like Roman history. I kept watching it because of its homoeroticism, gay characters, beautiful cinematography, and ample male (as well as female) nudity. I thought in some ways it seemed pretty authentic. I could have done without the Animae-style special effects though.

By the time I started watching, lead actor Andy Whitfield had already been diagnosed with lymphoma. If I remember accurately, he went into remission and started preparing to film the second season, when his cancer returned. He died on Sunday. He was only 39.

In January, the Starz network announced that another Australian actor, Liam McIntyre, had replaced Andy. I’ll miss him.

Dustin

I photographed Dustin a few weeks ago for The Connection in Louisville, so they could use some of his shots in promo material.

What I found was a sweet southern kid, who’s enjoying college and finding his way though life. He doesn’t have a car (he’s a college student after all), but I’d love to find a way to get him to my studio. I’d like to work with him more.

You can see both full sets of his portraits here and here. If you want to see the posted that Connection used, click the More link. It shows a little more skin.

Jason, in Drifters + Wanderers

Jason came by to pose for my Drifters series. The second photo, as always, is not safe for work, so don’t scroll down if that’s a problem.

As always, you can see both photos together on both of my websites, SBarnesPhotography and Vir Impudicus.

Love Is Love

From their website:

The goal of the Purple Hat Project is to highlight the universality of love in all its incarnations, excluding the constraints of ethnicity, sexual orientation, or socio-economic standing, in an effort to provide an avenue to broaden minds and open hearts.

A few weeks ago, the organization hosted its second “Love is Love” photo shoot (I posted about it, here). Jay and I, and our roommate Jared, decided to go. We live in the same house — but more than that, we take care of each other — and yes we are a family.

Here’s our photo.

Katie Moon was the photographer — who I adore and respect more than just about any other Indiana-based photographer you can name. And because I like the series, and her work, here are a couple more images from the day.

Here’s the cute couple that posed just after us, with their pet rat.

And here is our good friend, Sara, with her son.

It was a fun afternoon.

All photos in this post copyright, Katie Moon for the Purple Hat Project.

Kevin

As my friend Kevin and I were talking towards a new Mexican restaurant we wanted to try (Revolucion), we stopped at a small alcove in one of the buildings and I took his photograph.

This shouldn’t be newsworthy, but it is — which is sad. For a photographer, you’d be surprised at how few photos I have of my own friends. I need to fix this, especially since we might move away from here one of these days.

Kevin is always hard on himself, which makes it mean even more to me that he likes this photo.

Side note: I found Revolucion to be particularly underwhelming.

Brant, Rhiannon, + Chase

These are a handful of the photos from one of my recent shoots/photo series, which for now remains untitled. It might stay that way. Before you scroll down, note that one of the photos below is not safe for work.

These three work together at my favorite bar. It was a fun shoot. See my main website for the whole series.