Well, it’s time for another late night blog posting – my first posting in a week. Things have been busy and they’ll continue to be so (for a few more days, anyway). I was unable to write recently as I was just in Las Vegas for several days visiting family. Believe it or not, both the flights to and from Vegas left on time and arrived on time (the latter arriving early despite heavy fog here in New York). Do wonders never cease?

I was actually planning to be out tonight, attending a travel photo presentation at the Manhattan store of a travel company I’m thinking of going with next year, but after being away for several days I just have too many things to take care of right here at home. I also need to prepare some things for a two-day travel photography workshop I’ll be taking this weekend at the International Center of Photography. I think I have to pick five of my favorite travel images to bring with me, so choosing only five will not be easy.

I’m also still working on my calendar for 2008, consisting of 13 outdoor fine art nude images. After receiving the initial version last week, I saw that a few changes needed to be made. (I forgot to put my name on the calendar, for one thing!) I wasn’t sure if I should continue with a revision at this late date in the year, but I’ve come to the decision to go ahead and order up a second version. Hopefully this one will satisfy me enough to offer it to the public for purchase. The photo I’m posting here (made in Tuscany in 1998) is one of the photos included in the calendar.

As for Las Vegas, this is the first year that I have not photographed any models there since 2002. I didn’t spend as much time this year as in recent years (and getting hit by a car didn’t help) but I’ve also had trouble finding models to work with out there. In 2003 and 2004, I photographed Rhowena, who was visiting from Britain. In 2005 I worked with Jessica, who came from Oregon and has since moved back there. Then, last year, I photographed Carlotta from Florida, who happened to be in Las Vegas for a friend’s wedding. No models have been actually been long term Las Vegas residents.

This recent trip was too short to go out on a photo shoot. Besides, the weather’s too cold there now. (Yes, believe it or not, it does get cold in Las Vegas.) On the plus side, I did have the pleasure to once again get together with my friend Terrell Neasley. We met for dinner and then went to the MGM Grand to see the show Crazy Horse Paris, which comes from the famous Parisian nude cabaret (you guessed it), the Crazy Horse Saloon. I like to tell people that this is the best show in Las Vegas, and if you like art nudes, then it’s worth seeing. Definitely much more sophisticated and artistic than the typical Vegas showgirl production. It’s not the same experience as seeing the show in Paris but the Vegas version is much less expensive.

Hopefully I’ll be able to return to Nevada next year for a little longer so Terrell and I can go out into the desert with a couple of models to create some new images. Maybe the models will even be from Las Vegas!