There are other images from that day elsewhere on the site. Those are all done in a room which faced east, during a morning shoot. The bathroom is on the west side of her apartment, with the usual problems of a small window, narrow space, and poor light. I'd not yet invested in replacement supplemental lighting (an old strobe had died recently). We worked with what we had, using the bathroom incandescent light and hanging a white sheet behind and above my as a reflector.

Through March of 2004, none of the people who worked with me are professionals, quite the opposite in fact. Before the question was even asked, I'd determined that there are ways to help preserve some anonymity. It may seem difficult to conceive of this when we're talking about photographs which bare nearly everything. However, it is doable.

We met for the shoot a couple of times; she wanted to work in her own house for comfort levels, I wanted to see what time of day would provide the best light. This proved to be an afternoon shoot, with the best light in the living room. I brought along a wooden bi-fold door as a background, and we worked fairly close for composition. There are several images I felt pretty good about, and she suggested re-setting the camera and photographing her taking her shirt off, getting ready to do the examination. I decided to montage the three images together from that idea.

And, with more thought, I decided to include survivors without reconstructive surgery, if they are interested. This is one of the areas when, being a Registered Nurse as well as a photographer, multiple ideas come to play exploring ways to show self-image. I'm still looking for people for this part of the project. If you are interested in taking part in this project, please contact me at Mad Shutter-bug.

In May, 2002 I worked with another friend, who also asked for some anonymity. Her husband had built their house, and the entire interior is paneled in tongue-and-groove cypress. The master bath is quite large, and when they were starting to build the wing containing this room, I'd commented it was quite big enough for a large soaking tub (they'd initially only planned for a shower). There is also a skylight, and on a sunny day the room is quite well lit. Still, I provided some supplemental lighting with two incandescent photolamps, raised to the limits of their stands and set near to the skylight.

What is actually photographed at the time of a shoot may not be the final image visualized. There is a technique called "masking" which Jerry Ulesman has taken to a fabulous extreme. I'd visualized a somewhat simpler application of this technique, whereby an area is masked, the print made, and in this case the enlarger re-set. The print is then re-masked and a second exposure made on the previously masked segment, and et cetera.

I also fit a session in with another model in September, but must confess I'm not quite ready to show any of that work yet.

On Friday, we'd caught a shuttle-bus from the hotel where we were staying to visit a friend. We'd thought about possibly doing some work in Grant Park. My memories of Grant Park proved much out of date and blurred with other big city parks I've visited over the years. It's a very formal, structured park without much in the way of privacy areas (we'd been talking about doing some outdoor nudes). On top of that, the park hadn't woken up from its winter sleep yet, thus there were no private areas at all.

Still, riding that bus along Lakeshore Drive, as it turned toward Lake Michigan at the north end of Grant Park, we simultaneously spotted a sign and turned to each other, realizing we'd the same idea.

With the rain on Saturday, we postponed going to the Park until Sunday. We were up at oh-dark- thirty, a.k.a. 04:40 or so, and out the door by about 05:15. We arrived just in time for the sunrise, and a glorious sunrise it was, too. We spent just over an hour in the Cancer Survivor's Garden. By about 06:30 it was time to leave, get back to the hotel, warm B up. She's quite a dedicated, amateur model for going out into 28 degree Fahrenheit temperatures.

March, 2004

This month saw a session with another friend as well as photography colleague of mine, Zoe Wiseman. Zoe is both a photographer and a fine-art nude model; a self-portrait she'd done, wearing a mask, had piqued my interest in that idea.