snousle

All these are candid shots of strangers, taken with the 500 mm reflector telephoto. For many of them, I'm using a "shoot through" method, where I appear to be taking photos of exciting things like burnouts or girls in wet teeshirts, but instead I'm actually capturing the expressions of men as they watch such things. I consider this a form of wildlife photography, if you'll pardon the pun, and approach it accordingly. Most of these were taken from about 100 feet back.

This series has pleased me very much. This is probably the best, most sustained set of portraits I've managed to get. Some aren't as crisp as I'd like, but focusing this thing accurately is so difficult that what you see here has taken a lot of practice.

These photos feel like being there. The light, the sense of space, the confusion and awe - that's what it's really like. It's an intensely beautiful experience. I hate to sound like such a hound dog all the time, but the men of northern California are just stupefyingly gorgeous creatures, and capturing that beauty seems like an artistic imperative.

I've long felt that I've been skirting the edge of reasonable photographic etiquitte. After trying several approaches, I work totally in the open, not sneaking around or anything, and the big lens makes me stick out in what is generally a crowd-watching crowd. Everybody can see I'm taking pictures. But the field of view is only about as big as the full moon, so it's not at all obvious to onlookers exactly where it's pointing. The subject can see the flash of the mirror when the camera's pointed straight at him, though I'm not sure how many of them notice. And I don't linger - if I can't get a photo within a few seconds, I move on.

Reading about the subject on the net suggests that I'm about as far away from being an asshole as a photographer can be. The thing is, these photos can be really intimate. The camera captures fleeting expressions that aren't so visible in real life. You'd be amazed at how many men look like they're about to burst into tears. It makes me wonder whether the camera is misleading, or whether it is so penetrating as to uncover a more truthful representation of the subject's emotional state. I consider these photos to be private things and would never show them to anyone.

When it gets down to it, I think it's in no way disrespectful to point out that someone is hot. And I bet some of these guys don't hear that very often. This is not entirely a theoretical concern, because the north counties are small places and there is every reason to believe that some day someone in these photos will be all pissed off when they discover that they've got gay boys getting all hot and sweaty over them. But you know, that's just too freaking bad. Don't hate us because you're beautiful.