'We have some orange, we have some black...Halloween is this month...Let's do this!'
Usually, when one chronicles a year or creates a calendar, the starting point is January. Although there are nine great months of story, and images of New Manhattan Studio's work with Bond (Bob Girardi), given today is Halloween, I thought it more appropriate to jump in a bit closer to the end of the journey, October.
New Manhattan Studio's Wesley is a bit of a tease. He first mentioned his work with Bond months ago, and I could feel his enthusiasm and excitement over the work they were creating together. Over the next few months Wesley dropped little tidbits about how incredible a specific shoot with Bond was, comments about a fun shoot with Bond and Alex on a farm. Bond's incredible growth or new look and how amazing the last set of images were. Wesley knew full well he was driving me crazy, knowing I was just waiting to see some of the finished images. Good things come to those who wait....
'It was Bond’s sixth photo session with us and I very much wanted to get some head shots in the studio with the longer hair he was now sporting. For the first half of the evening we worked on white paper, getting those and other fashion-oriented shots. The concluding head shots were taken with Bond in a bright orange shirt. He still had it on when we walked over to the black paper where we would be doing art nude work using a piece of sheer black fabric on a black paper background.'
'As he held the black fabric against his bright orange T-shirt, Bond joked that we were just in time for Halloween. I laughed, nodded, and continued tweaking the lights. He still had on the shirt when we did the test shots. Looking at the back of my camera I saw the bright orange shirt floating on a sea of black paper and loved the contrasting colors. When he undressed for the art nude work I asked him to leave the shirt on for the first few shots.'
'The shirt stayed on much longer than I had expected. I didn’t see the colors as restricting us to a Halloween theme and I loved the bright splash of orange it added to the photos. If I had one handy, I might have been tempted to hand him a pumpkin or a black cat but we weren’t doing a holiday calendar shot. And I’ll stand by my credo, less is more. Halloweenie or not, it’s a dramatic palette and I loved the resulting images. I’m happy that they’re making their debut on October 31st.'
'Of late, the studio’s stylist/production assistant, Alex Corso (who’s also a model) has been expanding his wings in the studio. He’s been shooting with a second camera at some of our recent sessions. I’m glad he was hard at work at Bond’s last session. Unbeknownst to me, I was having “issues” with my camera during the shoot and did not get a huge percentage of my shots during the last hour. If it hadn’t been for Alex, most of the orange and black work would have been lost. I’m happy to report both that a majority of the pictures in this posting are Alex’s and that I hope to be sharing more of his work in the future. He shows great potential on both sides of the camera.'
I instantly fell in love with Orange & Black, and not just because of Halloween. Bond looks incredible bathed in both colors, highlighting his great body, his beautiful hazel eyes and of course his incredible head of beautiful hair. Over the last nine months, Bond has gone through a few changes in front of the lens, not the least of which was his hair. Bond's engaging personality also comes through the camera, and his energy and enthusiasm for his look, his work and that work may be perceived is clearly visible, making his images that more enjoyable, and definitely hotter!
I am not usually a fan of the tease, but in this case I have to take a cue from Wesley. Given my love of story, I can't just share one chapter, especially chapter 6 which flows so far into the story. Check back Sunday, for the full story, including images and video, this time... starting at the beginning. It will be worth the wait. In the meantime, to continue to wet your appetite, check out Wesley's sexy and spooky video presentation featuring more of his and Alex's work with Bond HERE:
'During this last shoot in particular Wes and Alex really encouraged me to expose hidden sides of myself and I think it really turned out great!'
