Hello Friends and Family,

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Unfinished Business


In my Travel and Stock Photography class, we were given a team assignment — to come up with a concept then compose a photograph to illustrate the concept. That brought to mind something I saw on my previous trip to the Santa Fe Workshops. One morning I was leaving my room to go to breakfast and I noticed someone outside sitting on a bail of hay meditating. And that grew into our concept of "Solitude". With a complete team effort, we worked the idea, the location and the model until we felt we had something really good. Then we turned the camera duty over to the truly gifted photographer in the entire class, Robert Shaw (remember that name — you will hear from him photographically some day in the not-to-distant future). This week Robert sent each of the team members the final picture.


The day I returned to Phoenix from Santa Fe, I was waiting in the airport for my chauffeur (Mizuki) to arrive and I noticed the newspaper stand containing the current newspaper with a very simple headline — "118 Degrees!" Now that's hot. But it's a dry heat.

But you have to understand that the odd thing was that usually by mid-July, we have entered our monsoon season when the prevailing winds shift to the south and southeast drawing moisture from the Sea of Cortéz (also known as the Gulf of California) and the Gulf of Mexico. This results in higher humidity (typically 40%-45%) and the possibility of late afternoon and evening thundershowers. So what happened to the monsoon?

A couple days later I got my answer. It's here. Clouds came in and we recorded two inches of rain overnight. Mother Nature was just teasing us and making us think that the monsoon would not come. However, now it has gotten even stranger — we are experiencing clouds during the day. For those of you from wetter parts of the country, that may not be shocking but in bone-dry Phoenix, that is most unusual during our summer months. So now we're stuck in this cloudy weather trend which is putting a damper on my golf game.

 


Well, at least Mizuki had an idea of what I could do while waiting for the return of Phoenix weather — I could take pictures for her next auction. Actually, it was kind of fun. We had purchased new studio lights with a built-in defuser (to soften the light) and reflectors and backdrops. I was actually quite pleased with the results. Here are a few samples.

This is a Louis Vuitton Monogram Canvas Purse, model LOOPING MM. It retails for $800 or so.


This is an HERMÈS Gold Medor Bracelet which is no longer available at retail.


And here is an HERMÈS Clic Clac Bangle in gold with cloisonné.


Last but not least is a CHANEL Gold Premiére Watch.

 

Life is good.

Aloha,
B. David

P. S., All photos and text © B. David Cathell Photography, Inc. — www.bdavidcathell.com