just a couple days to go. i've still got one more print to frame up, some beer and wine to buy, get together a long playlist of music on my iPod to rock out to while we're all there. and yet i'm sitting here watching the documentary, in the shadow of the moon which just has fantastic interviews of the men who went to the moon and some amazing launch footage!! its been a long day photographing a corporate event and i just need to relax for now.

i am very pleased to announce details of my first gallery show. i've worked really hard to find a venue that i thought would represent not only my work very well, but also the works for four of my dear friends and fellow photographers. if you live in the area, please come out to support the arts!

thanks,
scott

The Illuminated Figure
a gallery show featuring works by 5 contemporary photographers:

Bill Earle - showing selected works representing expression, emotion, beauty and passion.
Billy Monday - Frederick, MD based photographer showing work from his 2007-8 series, Mannequins
Marcus Ranum - showing works from his series, Women on Pedestals
Scott Nichol - showing selected works from the summer 2007 series, in the still air
Ken Volpe - showing works from his series, Rope Tricks

Artist's Reception: June 14, 2008, 8pm
Art-n-Soul Studios
516 West Hamilton Street
Allentown, PA

so, we live in an interesting time. its bad enough that we blog in real time about events from hotel wifi connections while we nurse the sunburn and mosquito bites from earlier in the day. but when you're teasing your contemporaries with incredible shots like the one of Zinn here, its just plain abuse of technology!

zinn and i started planning this trip down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina a couple months ago and i really wanted another photographer, billy monday to come along with us. the chance to collaborate with other photographers always proves to be inspirational. and billy probably would have brought another model with him that i was really looking forward to working with. but alas, for various different reasons, billy couldn't make it and i was disappointed, to say the least.

however he asked us to keep him informed on how things were going and said he would have to experience the trip vicariously through us. so, we continued to goad him to come down by sending him shots like this:

[link]
[link]

his only response was, "Man, that hurts...those shots are beautiful! Have a beer for me, but don't stay up too late..." we laughed with the delight of getting such great stuff and rubbing it in without him. but the goal was really to encourage him to drop everything and join us, regardless of the obstacles. these photos are obviously fully edited on my laptop while sitting in our cozy efficiency in Cape Hatteras, NC. its a wonderful place, really, to shoot art nudes. you can find seclusion if you really look for it. and surrounding yourself with new environments really keeps the creativity flowing.

but the real-time feed back provided by all this technology is amazing. we're posting completely edited photos of our work here to community sites before we even get back. getting the satisfaction of sharing the amazing adventures we're on long before we even get back home. so, we'll see you all when we get back home, but you'll already know where we've been.

enjoy,
scott

yesterday when i left my alter-ego-day-job thingy, i checked my phone to see if there were any new emails. there was a new one from Julie at Serbin Communications. they are the publishers of a few, small, niche magazines, one of which i like in particular called Photographer's Forum its a magazine focused on photographers with layouts that showcase their works. the layouts are simple and uncluttered with single images per page. they don't talk about gear or software, they just present photos and allow their readers to absorb them as art.

well, a couple weeks ago i barely squeezed in to make the deadline for submissions for their portfolio issue where they feature several photographers and their portfolios. the email i received yesterday was to tell me that, "We have completed our annual portfolio review. After considering many excellent submissions, we are pleased to inform you that we have decided to publish your work in the portfolio section of the February 2009 issue of Photographer’s Forum magazine."

wow. i mean, WOW!! i was floored. i let out a hoot and yelled, "fuckin-a yeah!" then i realized i didn't believe it and had to re-read the email again to make sure i'd really read it right. it was true, but then i realized that i really shouldn't be driving and trying to read emails. i put down the phone, picked it back up again and called stephanie, candace, ken (voice mail), and olaf to share this great news.

i'm excited, really, for the models who will also have their works published. its not clear which photos they will use, i think i submitted 15. but hopefully they will tell me soon i will pass the information along here.

this is exciting!

I will be giving a talk at the Lehigh Valley Photography Club on Thursday night. I will be discussing the production of my book, in the still air. the talk will take place at their next regular meeting on Thursday, May 15 from 7pm to 9pm in the Banko Room at the Banana Factory, 25 W. 3rd Street, Bethlehem, PA. if you're in the area, please stop by!

here's a press release that should be going out later on today...

Scott Nichol is a professional, published photographer whose works have appeared in American Photo and Photographer's Forum magazines and is a regular contributor to Lehigh Valley Living Magazine. Scott's fine art photography focuses on figurative work studied mostly in formal studio environments. Last summer, Scott took a step to move his figure photography into the great wide open. It was an adventure that found him in remote forests, lakes, and beaches seeking the seclusion of early mornings when the quality of light was good and onlookers were scarce.

From this series of photographs, Scott has produced a limited edition hard cover book of this work. The book will be produced in an edition of 50 signed and numbered copies. Pricing for this edition will be $125. Selected original signed prints from this series will also be available for $40 each. Orders for the book and prints are being taken at [link]

Scott will speak Thursday night about the process of producing the book from a photographer's point of view. He will discuss details of how the how the page layouts were created, how the printer was chosen, and show slides of selected plates from the book.

i am making a growing selection of my prints available for sale now through my web site. if you're interested to purchase signed original prints, you can take a look right now at my gallery of collections.

the prints are all produced by me in my studio using an archival inkjet process. some people call this process a glicee process. this is really an invented term, but basically is a process of using archival fine art papers such as the cotton rag papers from Hahnemuehle, Crane, or Ilford combined with pigmented inkjet inks.

my weapons of choice for making my fine art prints are the Epson K3 inks in advanced black and white mode. this prints using pure carbon pigmented inks which have a longevity of 100+ years with no visible fading. the papers i use are Hahnemuehle Photo Rag for matte finish prints and Crane Museo Silver Rag for semi-gloss prints. the Photo Rag paper is 100% cotton rag and has a slightly textured almost watercolor-like paper look and feel to it. the Silver Rag has a semigloss finish that has more than a passing resemblance to traditional silver gelatin black and white prints. both papers produce excellent image quality and make a fine addition to any serious art collector's gallery.

two collections are available right now and more images and collections will be available as time goes on. if you're interested to purchase some of these prints, links to the collection are here:

White Series 2008
Summer Series 2007


thanks!
scott