BH Neely's Photography

Adespota & Flower Bed, Thessaloniki, Greece

Usually when I'm photographing the adespota, I don't feel a great deal of pity. It isn't that I'm heartless, it's just that they usually look pretty healthy and relaxed about their situation. But this one, with the matted fur on his haunches and the sort of pinched look of his eyes made me feel badly for him.

Adespota & Electra Palace Hotel, Thessaloniki, Greece

The air temperature was about 35F, but the sun was nice and warm, and I imagine the grassy plot in front of the 5-star Electra Palace Hotel was quite comfortable.

Vase Still Life, Athens, Greece

The guests were late arriving to a recent event, leaving me to stand around with the service staff. I wandered around the venue looking at things, and I found this beautiful still life. I made a few frames and went back to waiting for guests.

Flowers, Studio, Athens, Greece

I think I must be getting soft. Not that I was ever all that edgy. I've started studying flowers. I don't care much about their names and their upkeep, I just study the way light interacts with them. I claim that these were shot in the studio, but in fact, they are from the bathroom.
We have southeastern windows in the bathroom, so I get brilliant light from about 8:30 to about noon, and I can control it quite a bit with the frosted glass of the window and the white, moderately translucent shower curtain. It's like having a two-stage softbox. In this case, though, they were sitting in direct sunlight.

Adespota at Night, Athens, Greece

One evening waiting to meet someone at the Syntagma Metro station, I saw this dog watching the world roll by.

Stella's Eye, Studio, Athens, Greece

This is the last one of Stella that I'll "make" you look at. I wanted that hyper-intimate feeling you get when staring into each other eyes, and I feel pretty sure I captured that.

Vampire Porn, Studio, Athens, Greece

As I was working on the photos from my shoot with Stella, I kept coming back to this one. It makes me uncomfortable in a number of ways. There's something very naked and trusting in the pose. I might put it in the Aphrodite's Hair set, even though it isn't strictly about hair. Or even a little bit about hair. Maybe it'll just be a piece of abstract art.

Flags, Athens, Greece

My day job, if you can call it that, since it's either 35 hours in a week or just a couple, provides me with opportunities to visit places that most of us never get to see. In Greece's MFA, you'll find them fully ready for meetings with reps from a couple dozen countries. If you should notice that there's no US flag in the stand, that's 'cause it's in use at the moment.

Old Shutters!, Athens, Greece

It's like an illness with me or something. I find it very difficult to walk past broken shutters, cracked terra cotta tiles or other bits of decaying works of man. In fact, I'm going to have to go back to this one, because I didn't have my tripod along, so the shot's a little blurry. Not too bad for a blog, but not good enough for cards or prints. And you know the world doesn't have enough urban decay cards and prints.

Gate, Pnyx Hill, Athens, Greece

There's something about roads that fade to an end in a stand of trees or a gate with no fence that makes me stop and wonder. Who did that? What were they protecting? Where were they going? Why did they stop protecting it? Why did they stop going that way?

View from Pnyx Hill, Athens, Greece

As you walk up Apostolou Paulou from the Thissio Metro station to the Acropolis, there's a hill to your right, partially hidden by a large church and trees. I decided one afternoon to walk around behind the church to see what was there. I found this incredible view, made more incredible by subsequent reading. This spot is the birthplace of democracy. The Athenian ekklesia (assembly), made up of free men, met to govern the city-state. Right here.

For a quick read that seems mostly pretty decent, the Wikipedia page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pnyx_Hill

Victoria III (Aphrodite), Studio, Athens, Greece

No long-winded explanations. Just enjoy the beauty.

Victoria II (Aphrodite), Studio, Athens, Greece

One of things I'm really enjoying about Aphrodite's Hair is the ideas that my models have come up with as we shoot. Usually it's related to how they like to wear their hair, as when Victoria asked if I had something to put through her hair, like pens, to hold it into a loose bun. Chopsticks!

I'm not completely satisfied with my processing of this one yet, but it's been a few days and a "daily" blog should have stuff more often than every few days. Sorry about that. I've been working on www.bpsphoto.com and got a little obsessed and forgetful of everything else.

In a completely unrelated note (hell, it isn't even about photography), if you like "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel, and you're a metal fan, you really ought to check out Nevermore's Dead Heart in a Dead World album. Not only does it have their classic "The Heart Collector," it has an absolutely incredible version of the S&G classic. I think even if you're not necessarily a metal fan, you'll appreciate their treatment of the song.

Twisty Adespota, Athens, Greece

In redoing the Adespota (homeless dogs & cats) section of www.bpsphoto.com, I came across this one. I had previously rejected the photo as being worthy of the site, but I've always liked the shape he makes, so I worked with the photo a lot and came up with something I like quite a bit. So later today, once I've finished the reworking of that section, he'll be there.

Aphrodite (Victoria), Studio, Athens, Greece

As a photographer, I often see women whom I find strikingly beautiful and whose portraits I would love to make. Victoria is one such person. I was very happy when she agreed to be a model for my Aphrodite's Hair series. Though she looks vaguely like Kate Winslet from Titanic in this particular pose, they look nothing alike. You'll see.

Garbage Can, Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Something I had never noticed before, because the Acropolis is usually so crowded, is that the garbage cans echo the columns. I don't know if this is deliberate, but I choose to believe so.

By the way, I really hope to be sleeping right now, having seen the Cardinals beat the Steelers. The game will have ended around 5 am here, thus the sleeping.

Portrait (Stella), Studio, Athens, Greece

When Stella and I looked at this one on the back of the camera, we both had the immediate reaction that it would do better as a color portrait than a black & white. I still think so. Because in black & white the backdrop is a straight dark charcoal gray with none of the barest hint of blue that the color version gives, the curves of her lower body disappear completely.