Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on
You just call on me brother when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
– lyrics by Bill Withers, from his 1972 album “Still Bill”
PHOTO: Two good friends, Erin and Devon, dancing ...
2023-07-25 20:29:30 +0000 UTC
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City of the angels, spread your wings for me
I've been other places looking for my dream
Eastern cities move too fast
Southern ones too slow
I can't go back to my past
And I need someplace to grow
City of the Angels
Clear your cloudy skies for me
I heard you got some places that I oughta see
Heard you got a Disneyland not too far away
When it rains I understand the skies are clear all day
– Bill Withers
PHOTO: H...
2023-07-25 20:27:18 +0000 UTC
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Inga doing a scorpion yoga pose, and making it look easy. Called Vrischikasana in Sanskrit, it combines a forearm balance and backbend. It takes strength to get into the pose, but it is finding a sense of balance that allows one to stay in it.
2023-07-25 20:24:19 +0000 UTC
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Daily yoga can transform our life. It is as much a mental exercise, as it is a physical one. Vinyasa is the most popular form, combining rhythmic repetitive yoga with breath and movement. After a while the poses become automatic and the mind starts to sink into a calm meditative state.
PHOTO: I met Kel at a yoga teacher training program. When she arrived at my studio I let her flow through her practice as I photographed her.
2023-07-25 20:23:12 +0000 UTC
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Karina had just come from a workout when she arrived at my studio. She wanted to shower before we started our shoot.
We were conversing through the open bathroom door as she rinsed off, and she started to dance to the music that was playing in my studio. Watching her gyrate I thought it would be fun to get some shots of her in the shower.
I had just used a large red cloth for another shoot, and decided to hang it in the shower. Then I cranked up the music and let her be her ...
2023-07-25 20:20:56 +0000 UTC
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Sounds of the seas grow fainter,
Sounds of the sands have sped;
The sweep of gales,
The far white sails,
Are silent, spent and dead.
Sounds of the days of summer
Murmur and die away,
And distance hides
The long, low tides,
As night shuts out the day.
– a poem by Emily Pauline Johnson (1861–1913)
PHOTO: Blair is a skilled trapeze artist. I met her at the Santa Monica beach where she was teaching at a trapeze schoo...
2023-07-25 20:19:20 +0000 UTC
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I had been invited to exhibit my “The Body as Temple” art nudes at a Pilates Conference. I met Leah at that conference. She came to the show and told me how much she loved seeing art nudes of athletic muscular yogis and dancers.
She said she did not have anything against sexual nudes, but that it was refreshing to see nudes that focused on strength and form instead.
Like a lot of Pilates teachers, she had a strong background in dance. After we chatted for while she asked...
2023-07-01 15:14:53 +0000 UTC
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THOUGH the day of my destiny’s over,
And the star of my fate hath declined,
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find.
Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted,
It shrunk not to share it with me,
And the love which my spirit hath painted
It never hath found but in thee.
From the wreck of the past, which hath perish’d,
Thus much I at least may recall,
It hath taught me that what I most cherish’d
Deserved to...
2023-05-28 20:11:05 +0000 UTC
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She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's torment
– from a poem by William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
2023-05-28 20:09:26 +0000 UTC
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“Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”
– Pablo Neruda
PHOTO: Another image that celebrates the supple back of a dancer.
2023-05-28 20:06:36 +0000 UTC
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Vasisthasana, or Side Plank, provides a wonderful side stretch, but it is a challenging yoga asana. It requires strength and balance. Most yogis need to build up to it, by doing variations that provide a little support, such as “knee down”, or “kickstand” versions. But once the body is strong enough to get into it and hold it, it is time to have fun and do variations like the ones shown here.
As a yoga photographer, I love how Vasisthasana accentuates back muscles, and make them...
2023-05-28 20:05:15 +0000 UTC
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Could I from this valley drear,
Where the mist hangs heavily,
Soar to some more blissful sphere,
Ah! how happy should I be!
Distant hills enchant my sight,
Ever young and ever fair;
To those hills I'd take my flight
Had I wings to scale the air.
– from a poem by Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)
_
PHOTO: Shautia is a sassy, talented, energetic model I had the pleasure of shooting with several years ago. She...
2023-05-28 20:03:56 +0000 UTC
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When in the morning’s misty hour,
When the sun beams gently o’er each flower;
When thou dost cease to smile benign,
And think each heart responds with thine,
When seeking rest among divine,
Forget me not.
When the last rays of twilight fall,
And thou art pacing yonder hall;
When mists are gathering on the hill,
Nor sound is heard save mountain rill,
When all around bids peace be still,
Forget me not.
– from a poem by Ann Pl...
2023-05-28 20:02:15 +0000 UTC
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Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
– Robert Frost (1874–1963)
PHOTO: Experimenting with gold paint on my model's skin. I was curious to see how it would come out in the images.
2023-05-20 19:06:51 +0000 UTC
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And suddenly my thoughts then turned to you
Who came to me upon a winter’s night,
When snow-sprites round my attic window flew,
Your hair disheveled, eyes aglow with light.
My heart was like the weather when you came,
The wanton winds were blowing loud and long;
But you, with joy and passion all aflame,
You danced and sang a lilting summer song.
– from a poem by Claude McKay (1889–1948)
PHOTO: It w...
2023-05-20 19:03:55 +0000 UTC
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Desire naked, linked with Passion,
Goes trutting by in brazen fashion;
From playhouse, cabaret and inn
The rainbow lights of Broadway blaze
All gay without, all glad within;
As in a dream I stand and gaze
At Broadway, shining Broadway — only
My heart, my heart is lonely.
– from a poem by Claude McKay (1889–1948)
2023-05-20 18:54:35 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes I wonder, sweetest love, if you
Were a mere dream in a long winter night,
A dream of spring-days, and of golden light
Which sheds its rays upon a frozen heart;
A dream of wine that fills the drunken eye.
– Rumi translated by Annemarie Schimmel
PHOTO: Sienna was the sister. She showed up at my studio when I was shooting a model for a magazine. Both sisters loved the art prints hanging on my walls. So they came again sever...
2023-05-20 18:52:44 +0000 UTC
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Tonight the night
brings no sleep
tossing and turning
mind churning
visions of you
filling my sight
Allow me some rest
I pray to my heart
give up your pining
give up your behest
There is no tomorrow
that you yearn for
only the empty hours
and the ticking clock
– Sierra Williams
2023-05-08 20:13:54 +0000 UTC
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I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart
For the joys of the multitude.
And I would not have the tears that sadness makes
To flow from my every part turn into laughter.
I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.
A tear to purify my heart and give me understanding
Of life's secrets and hidden things.
A smile to draw me nigh to the sons of my kind and
To be a symbol of my glorification of the gods.
A tear to unite me with those of broken heart;
A...
2023-05-04 23:04:21 +0000 UTC
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The flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow dies;
All that we wish to stay
Tempts and then flies.
What is this world's delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
Brief even as bright.
– from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
2023-05-04 22:59:43 +0000 UTC
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The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?—
See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all...
2023-05-04 22:58:27 +0000 UTC
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Was she of spirit race, or was she one
Of earth's least earthly daughters, one to whom
A gift of loveliness and soul is given,
Only to make them wretched?
O lute of mine, that I shall wake no more!
Such tearful music, linger on thy strings,
Consecrate unto sorrow and to love;
Thy truth, thy tenderness, be all thy fame!
– from a poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838)
_
PHOTO: Portland based dancer and circus performer Luna LaBe...
2023-05-04 22:56:16 +0000 UTC
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Come now, and let me dream it truth,
And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
And say, My love why sufferest thou?
Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.
– from a poem by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
2023-05-04 22:52:37 +0000 UTC
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The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semi-tone,
Bright eyes, accomplish’d shape, and lang’rous waist!
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise –
Vanish’d unseasonably at shut of eve,
When the dusk holiday – or holinight
Of f...
2023-04-30 19:19:15 +0000 UTC
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When you and I behind the veil are past,
Oh, but a long, long while the world shall last,
Which of our coming and departure heeds
As the sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.
–– Omar Khayyam
_
PHOTO: A testament to the timelessness of art nudes; from a shoot I did at my old studio, more than a decade ago.
2023-04-30 19:16:28 +0000 UTC
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When its hard to rise from slumber
think of the love that awaits
think of the sunlight
and the butterflies that yearn for nectar
think of the roots that thirst for water
think of the tendrils
that yearn for Spring
we live not just for us
we live for those too
that yearn for the sunlight
they hope we may bring
– Pardesi Pyara
2023-04-30 19:14:15 +0000 UTC
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Like sunlight kissing a flower
your selfless love
your unwavering faith in me
unfurls my soul
–– Pardesi Pyara
_
PHOTO: From an old shoot with Silvia. Ballerinas turn the simplest of movements into poetry.
2023-04-30 19:10:11 +0000 UTC
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Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
– from a poem by Robert Frost (1874–1938)
_
PHOTO: Mariah visited my California studio for this shoot many years ago. She became intrigued by yoga photos she saw on my walls. I told her about the many wonderful yoga teachers I had phot...
2023-04-22 23:11:59 +0000 UTC
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“Pull the thorns from your heart. Then you will see the rose gardens within you.”
— Rumi
PHOTO: Grace was stretching and warming up before our shoot, and I loved the shapes and feelings she evoked. I quickly threw up a couple of lights and started the shoot.
2023-04-22 23:09:33 +0000 UTC
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Never forget who you are
Little star
Shining brighter than all the stars in the sky
Never forget how to dream
Butterfly
Never forget where you come from
From love
– Lyrics by Madonna and Rick Nowels, 1998
2023-04-22 23:07:08 +0000 UTC
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