'Every year, like clockwork, there was certain gift that she had had forgotten to put under the tree. Some gift, that was so well hidden in her closet, in the attic or in the basement furnace room, that she did not come upon while placing gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve.'
Last year, in a post right after Christmas featuring Carl Proctor's work with Brad, I wrote about the Bonus Gift. The bonus gift is one many of us are familiar with. It's that gift that either, someone forgot to give you, or an unexpected gift from someone that you're surprised to be given any time after December 25th.
One of the bonus gifts I received last year, was the return of featuring the work of msbimages. FH readers are familiar with the Dallas photographer Michal Boothe and my love of his imagery. If you check out any of my past pieces on Michal's work, (HERE:) you'll know why. Not that it really takes reading anything that I written, just spending time taking in Michal's work tells a very straightforward and clean, yet beautifully detailed and complete visual story.
Due to a career change and some of life's inevitable obstacles, Michal wasn't able to shoot as much as he would have liked. After last featuring his work back in 2013, Michal got in touch this past summer to let me know he was shooting again. It was a welcome return as I had been missing the purity and beauty which Michal so perfectly and consistently captured.
I quickly Michal a list of some of my favorite models, shoots, themes and images from his port. Over the past few months, have featured Michal's images of Saul, Chris, Jeremy and Guy Triche. I have not posted every model on the list, as I wanted to ensure not to rush through too quickly. Patience is not one of my best qualities, especially when it involves work that inspires me. But... I did decided think that lull between Christmas and New Year's was the perfect time to pull out a bonus gift, this time, Michal's work with Dale.
Boy next door
'Dale was somewhat of a chameleon in the images. There are certain angles where he looks like a completely different person (from boyish to movie star) which I think you will notice. And one of the things I loved about him was the blond hair on his arms and that his eyebrows were half brown and half blond. It was just too bad we were not able to do more shoots.'
Movie Star
The two shots above are perfectly marked examples of what Michal meant by chameleon. When I was first going through the shots Michal sent on, I initially wondered if he included another model my mistake. The pose and angle's captured beautifully illustrate the boyish to movie star transformation. Even Dale's facial structure looks different from shot to shot with slight changes in Dale's hair, facial expression and Michal's shooting angle and position. Dale's eye's also seem to visually transform from sweet and naive to sultry and ready, and as Michal pointed out, Dale's half brown and blond eye brows are incredibly striking.
Some of that nativity.... came naturally. Michal connected with Dale via a non Model Mayhem site about scheduling a shoot. Dale was on board, but let him know that he had never modeled nude before. Although he was motivated, he admitted being nervous, especially about assuming he would have to shave off all of his body hair, something he thought was a requirement for most nude shoots.
Michal was able to remove one of Dale's worries by assuring him he certainly didn't need to do any shaving. In fact, a requirement for Michal, was that his models actually don't shave, and have their own natural body hair. The shoot went smoothly, with Dale open minded about any creative idea's Michal through at him and was very talkative with a caustic wit that came out throughout the shooting process. I hope you all enjoyed unwrapping your bonus gift as much as I enjoyed receiving it from Michal. Rest assured, you won't have to wait until next Christmas to open another.
