As a photographer I work around a lot of women, I know fashion and looking your best is a great concern among females both young and old.  I also think beauty and sex appeal is being taken way too far, and its a growing problem among our generation.

I recently read an article on Yahoo that said most schools are banning revealing, erotic and other dresses that are deemed “unfit” for the school proms.  This has caused quite an uproar with parents who bought the dresses and the girls who want to wear the dresses to the prom.  At first I thought, what gives the school the right to determine who wears what, especially at a prom, which is usually held off campus – then I saw the dresses.

One girl’s dress was completely see through.  They added extra padding just around her pelvis area and around the fullest part of the breast so you could see everything.  I WAS ASTOUNDED! I saw some that if the girl sat down at all, the dress would expose her up to her because the bottom of the dress was so short.  At full length, it barely touched the bottom of her butt cheek, which will expose some of her butt if she wore it as it was designed that way.  There were many other dresses that made these look tame.

Then I started thinking to myself, MY GOD, the schools are looking out for these children more than the parents are.

My jaw is still on the ground just thinking that parents would buy their 16 and 17 year old daughters these revealing dresses in the first place.  I know the more “progressive” America allows you to do what ever you want, but come on… think of the consequences.  You are allowing the world to see your daughter’s body almost completely exposed.  Until she’s 18, she’s a DAMN MINOR! Don’t parents care?

Parents are really upset with their daughters getting pregnant before wedlock or even before they graduate high school.  With dresses like these I can see why they are pregnant.  Testosterone is a fierce hormone.  Boys can be out of control sexually from the age of 15 to 23, until the hormone settles down a bit.  They already have sex on their brains 24/7, with these girls are wearing dresses that say “this is what you could have” will only make it worse for the guy and harder for the girl to avoid the subject.

These boys will say and do anything to have their way with these girls, why are parents adding fuel to the fire.  If you let your daughter wear these kinds of outfits, you better be prepared for your daughter to say she was raped or pregnant by her own will.

I’ve heard the rebuttals.

“It shouldn’t matter what a women wears, they should not be attacked and raped”  True I couldn’t agree more.  However that is in a perfect world where there are no wants or desires.  Some people who have these strong desires don’t care.  They rape women without revealing clothes.  So why would you allow your daughter to wear clothes that make it harder for these idots to resist temptation?  Why help your daughter flaunt her body?  Not that this will happen but why increase the odds?

“Its her decision, I can only support her wishes” GOD – am I sick of this modern parenting where we feel teens and children know what’s best for themselves.  If that was the case, our kids wouldn’t need parents, they wouldn’t need school and JDC would not exist!  Be a parent, don’t be afraid to tell your children NO!  When she is 18, she will have to live with the consequences of every decision she makes, just like all adults do.  If she wears those clothes, that would be her decision, and anything that comes from it, embarrassment, harassment, or nothing at all (which I hope that is the case), will be on her.

“I trust my daughter, I trust she will make the right decision and wait for sex” - Sure you can trust your daughter and you should!  A strong upbringing, mixed with good values is a start.  I hope she surprises you.  On the other hand, do you trust the boys she hanging around.  Do you realize how much peer pressure is on children these days.  Girls are sleeping around to be popular.  Haven’t you’ve seen these Lifetime movies where the girl is a perfect angel, dresses pristine then the moment she steps outside and goes to school she changes clothes and becomes a rebel.  This could be your daughter, and she isn’t going to say .. .”Yes mom and dad I do that!”

Boys are very persuasive and they know how to work on a developing girl’s emotions to get her into bed.  They will use their popularity, say they will spread rumors and more to get your daughter in bed.  Its horrible what goes on in school today.  So trust your daughter, don’t trust the others and therefore protect her by making her “goods” less visible and appealing – your good decisions will help her make good decisions as an example.

Females especially are more vulnerable to glamour, fashion and popularity related problems in school than anyone else.  I’ve seen first hand the drama they face day in and day out, in many cases its worse than being a cell mate to a serial killer who is psychotic in jail.

Parents need to be parents and make their children realize they are beautiful just they way they are.  They don’t need sex to be popular and anyone that says so has very low self esteem or confidence issues themselves.  No amount of popularity is worth giving yourself for, because its only temporary.  Instill into your daughters the true meaning of beauty, how to be proud of themselves and good values.  They will realize fast they don’t need revealing, provocative dresses to show the world and guys how beautiful they are, because they will see it just by looking at her face and how she carry herself.  People will want to be with them for who they are, and if it works out that they have a long term relationship that leads to marriage, then what’s under the clothes will be a bonus for both partners.

That’s my rant!

I was searching the internet in a Paranormal Investigator forum and I  came across this photo of an abandoned hospital I believe.  The question at hand was, is there a spirit in this photo.

Most of them said yes, they can see something.  However I find this to be nothing more than matrixing.

What is Matrixing?  Its the phenomena between your brain and eyes.  When you see something that’s hard to understand the basic shape, our brain actually creates an image to make it understandable.  That’s what we do with clouds.

This photo is no doubt blurry and pixelated.  That is one major cause for the matrixing.  The second part of the equation is, if its a spirit you will still be able to see it, not just what “appears’ to be an eye, head etc..  There is no difference between the body and spirit in life and death.  You are still proportional, except you may not see the full apparitition.

The alleged ghost in this photo is standing by the right stair wall.  They actually had to circle it for me.  That’s another sign its probably fake.  See for yourself, click the thumbnail above to view the full picture.  I can’t see it.  I think its fake but top professional investigators say otherwise.

The place is creepy!  I’ll give them that.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the world is getting too obsessed with weight and beauty.  It’s getting to the point where lives are being risked in order to achieve what many believe to be the perfect body.  What we forget is that not one photo in any magazine is raw, meaning each one is so doctored that its not really the person they photographed.  It is, but its a computer and artists view of what they should look like.

Case in point, Dara-Lynn Weiss admitted to putting her 7 year old on a strict weight watchers diet which was glorified by Vogue Magazine.  Her child was deemed “clinically obese” by her pediatrician weighing 93 pounds.  Her mom became obsessed with her daughters weight and admitted using irrational weight-loss strategies imposed upon her young daughter all of which are truly disgusting. Some say Weiss was projecting her hatred of her own body onto her child throughout her year-long diet.

Here are some of Weiss’s own words:

“I once reproachfully deprived Bea of her dinner after learning that her observation of French Heritage Day at school involved nearly 800 calories of Brie, filet mignon, baguette, and chocolate. I stopped letting her enjoy Pizza Fridays when she admitted to adding a corn salad as a side dish one week. I dressed down a Starbucks barista when he professed ignorance of the nutrition content of the kids’ hot chocolate whose calories are listed as “120-210″ on the menu board: Well, which is it? When he couldn’t provide an answer, I dramatically grabbed the drink out of my daughter’s hands, poured it into the garbage, and stormed out.”

“I cringe when I recall the many times I had it out with Bea over a snack given to her by a friend’s parent or caregiver … rather than direct my irritation at the grown-up, I often derided Bea for not refusing the inappropriate snack. And there have been many awkward moments at parties, when Bea has wanted to eat, say, both cookies and cake, and I’ve engaged in a heated public discussion about why she can’t.”

Weiss admitted taking laxatives and appetite suppressants as a teen, and also admits she hated her own body.  This compulsive disorder seems now to be transpiring from her onto her child, who will now take the brunt of her mom’s disfigured outlook on weight.  This could cause her daughter Bea to suffer from the same mental traits as her mom as she gets older; being exposed to this behavior and learning from her mom’s example.

Sure her mom wasn’t always bad, she did reward her daughter with a new wardrobe when she lost enough weight but those clothes came at an extreme risk to her daughter’s health.  Had something happened to her daughter those clothes would be no comfort with the guilt she would eventually face.

Its one thing to help your child lose some weight if they are obsess, for their own health and to prevent diabetes and early signs of heart disease.  However there are good and bad ways to do this, and this mother chose one of the worst ways possible.

We really need to look at our perception of beauty and stop altering photos and distorting beauty to be something nobody can achieve.

Now look at the photo above and tell me, does the mother or daughter look so obese and ugly that they needed to undergo such horrific treatments to achieve beauty?  I think they already are beautiful!

Over the last few years I’ve received a lot of comments about my “Lost” series in “Dreams, Nightmares, Fears and Fantasy” Volume 2 collection.  They love the pictures, but they really don’t understand them.  To really understand this series, you must look at each picture in order because they tell a story.

What you see in the series is a princess who is stuck in the middle of the woods.  This is what confuses people, they tell me “Why would a Princess be in the Woods?”  Even though that confuses them, they actually are touching on the very point of the series.

How many times have you heard someone wish for something they don’t have and say “life would be so much better if….”.  Well that’s what this Princess did.  Like most children, she was spoiled rotten.  Her father who was of great power as a King set no limits or boundaries for his daughter.  She had the finest food, the finest clothes; heck anything she wanted she received with no questions asked.  Prolonged exposure to this kind of parenting was harmful for the King’s daughter because she grew spoiled and greedy.

What this created was a monster.  She had no sense of value, she figured everything would be handed to her when ever she needed it.  As a Princess that’s probably what would have happened.

However one day, she asks her father for something, and her father shocked her by saying NO.  Most children today even the ones from middle to lower class despises the word no, and will throw a tantrum; usually the parents will give in feeding their ungrateful behavior.  They even tend to do this to be “their friend” and not their parent.  They don’t want their kids to hate them so they give them everything they want, and by giving them anything they want parents don’t teach their children anything and they lose the respect of their children.

In this case that exact thing happened.  The King would not back down on his decision.  The Princess had a tantrum and threatened to run away as punishment for her father’s ridiculous decision to deny her wants.  The penalty for the King would be that he would not see his beloved daughter again and she would make sure of it.  The King called her bluff, and she ran away.

What she didn’t know was that leading a sheltered life, she had no survival skills.  After leaving the safety of the castle she is now at the mercy of the world.  She quickly loses all sense of direction and finds herself lost in an overgrown, deadly forest full of animals and thieves.  She is wearing high heals, a shoe that is not ideal for walking through the brush.  The shoes eventually blister her feet and make moving through the jungle impossible.

She ran away to what she thought was greener pastures but what she realized was how well she had it back home.  By the King calling her bluff, he actually taught his daughter a valuable lesson.  The lesson was being thankful for what you have.  While she was out in the forest she realized all the wonderful things she had, and may not ever see.  She is vulnerable, and realized how her father kept her safe.  She realized things weren’t as bad as she thought, really she was better off than most.  She also realized she could die and may never see her father again – so by punishing her father she actually harmed herself as well.

A tantrum is only temporary – everyone will get over it, some will learn a lesson. 

Being lost was one of the greatest things that could have happened to her because she also found her will to survive, she found determination and she realized she can’t depend on anyone but herself.  These are qualities that make a strong human being, one capable of accomplishing anything.  When she put these characteristics to the test, she was able to find her way home and live happily ever after.

The moral of this series is this; sometimes its best to teach your children a lesson.  You should not be their friend, you should be their parent.  Teach them what they need to know, they will thank you for it later on down the road and you’ll go to bed easier knowing they can survive against anything the world throws at them.  It also teaches you that sometimes tough love is the best love of all and sometimes the word NO is actually the best gift you can give.  Another moral is, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side; be thankful for what you have, appreciate what resources you have and you will be blessed in many ways.

Growing up I was exposed to a lot of haunted places and a lot of amazing tales that would be told around a campfire – you know the ones that were meant to scare you permanently awake.  One of those tales was “Bloody Mary”.  Legend has it that if you go in front of a mirror at midnight and say “Bloody Mary” as many times as you can, she will appear in the mirror and brutalize you.

I’ve never tried the legend myself nor do I know anyone that has.  I’m sure people throughout the years have tempted their fate with this legend, but I haven’t run into them.  Blessed with extremely bad luck, I decided not to tempt my fate; because if it was real it would surely wreak havoc on me.  That was my inspiration behind this series.

I wanted to portray the legend differently.  See when the incident happens, it happens one time.  If you are lucky enough to survive, then consider yourself blessed because it won’t happen again unless you are stupid enough to try it again.  I took it a bit further and said, what if it isn’t a one time thing.  What if you release the evil that lies within the mirror like a Ouija Board would do.

What I came up with is a bunch of girls tempting their fate with the legend, only to find out it was real.  The series has 4 pictures, the initial summoning of this beast, then the continued haunting throughout a few weeks.  One has her re-appearing face to face with the girl as she innocently gets ready for bed.  Another has the hand coming out of the mirror to choke the life out of her, while she does her makeup. The third one has Bloody Mary waiting for her next move and the girl has no idea she’s there.

The shoot was very difficult.  Originally we were supposed to have a few girls there to make it look like a slumber party.  The day of the shoot, the girls cancelled forcing me to take another angle. Instead I decided to make the primary model a twin.  I shot one picture of her reacting to Bloody Mary at the mirror; for the other shot I had her change into different pajamas and play her own twin sister.

The next task was even more difficult because I didn’t have a Bloody Mary.  I posted for weeks to find someone willing to play the damned spirit but without any luck.  After I shot the primary model, I measured and took angles, lighting measurements and more – recorded them in my book and left.  It took 3 months before I found my Bloody Mary.  Then I had to find out how accurate my measurements were, and to my surprise they were dead on!

What I got was an amazing set of photos that have a 3D effect.

You can see the series by viewing Volume 2 of my “Dreams, Nightmares, Fears and Fantasy” collection slide show below.

When I was young, I mean REAL young, I had this reoccurring dream starting at the age of 6.  It was a dream that would continue to haunt my subconscious mind until I was 31 years old.  It’s a dream I would never forget because of how real it was; honestly I can’t say it didn’t happen because there is no way a 6 year old should know what that dream entailed.

This dream started like I said when I was 6 years old. I would always wake up in a cold sweat every time I experienced the dream. The dream never changed it was the same every time,it only intensified in the sensual aspects. The smells, the sounds, the feelings grew stronger and stronger almost as if you lived it in real life.

The nightmare started when I wake up in a casket. I am startled by the sound of dirt being thrown in my lonely grave, making a loud thud then rustling sound on the aluminum top to my casket as the dirt would roll off. I try to see where I am but the darkness is so black it feels like even a flame could not penetrate it, but I could feel the pillow and surrounding linen that lines the coffin.  That’s how I knew where I was.

I try to wale my arms, but the box is so cramped I can barely put my arms to my side. The top of the lid is just inches from my face, and the fear of claustrophobia starts to set in.

As the dirt fills up over the coffin, you start to hear the sound of the dirt become more and more faint, till soon you don’t hear the dirt being thrown on you anymore at all. You can only wonder if they are done filling the grave in.

Finally dirt surrounds my box of rest, the silence becomes eerily stagnant. Its an unusual and uneasy quiet, and the silk lining of my casket insulates the sound even more. I start to panic because I want to sit up, but I can’t since the lid of the casket is inches from my head.

I scream for help, begging those above to stop because I’m alive. Sadly my efforts are futile, they can not hear me.

I pound on the sides of the casket only to hurt my hands, so I decide to claw my way out, giving hope to one last effort of escape. Failing, the lining of the casket now lies on my belly, I begin to panic even worse, till tears roll down my face. I see my own mortality start to set in, my life passes before my face and worse of all, I know what my casket will look like because I’m in it.

As time passes, the casket grows cold as the moist dirt snuggles the casket. The weight of the soil starts to cave the lid in.

Within 12 hours its getting harder to breathe because I’ve used up more than half the oxygen and the area is being filled with Carbon dioxide. I can smell the moisture of the ground around me, and the moisture starts to cause condensation on the casket walls.

Before long, breathing is near impossible. I start to see stars and I feel very weak and faint. I start to hallucinate, and insanity starts to set in, causing me to laugh at nothing. After 18 hours of burial, I took my last breath. The last thing I saw was the ripped lining of my casket which represented the last hope of survival, as I look around at my final resting place; something I should never see in life.

That was my dream, and that is the reason I don’t want to be buried when I die. It also caused me to distrust doctors. It’s because of this dream I don’t want an autopsy upon my death, I want to be buried with all my blood and organs in tact as I had died. Once an autopsy is performed, if the doctors were wrong and you were not dead, they have now killed you for real.

As you can see there is no way a 6 year old should know what death was like. I learned as I grew older about past lives, but according to my religion, this was impossible. So if past lives are impossible, what other explanation was there?

This series “Trapped but not Dead” takes that dream and brings it to life, out of my head, and onto paper.  In doing so the dream stopped; I haven’t been haunted by the dream since 2009 when I made the picture.  Now why I chose a female for the picture… that is something for you to think about because it has a significant impact of my life, something I didn’t know at the time I made this photo.  If you can guess the meaning, comment on this… I’ll tell you if you are right.

As a professional photographer I constantly looking for ways to give my clients the best possible product I can give.  When it comes to photography output, I truly believe in quality paper that provides great color and black and white processing.

Unlike most photographers, I don’t like to use ink jet printing if I don’t have to.  Sure the processes have come leaps and bounds since it was first introduced, but I still like the emulsified processing.

As a photo restoration specialist and photo conservator, I look for products that can withstand the test of time.  I want my photos to look as good as they did when I print them, 100 years later – provided good care is given to them.

When it comes to things like this there was only one company I truly trusted with my photos, that was Kodak.  Last week the company filed for bankruptcy and will soon be a distant memory.

For more than 60 years Kodak’s innovation has changed the face of photography forever, in terms of processing images.  They were the leaders in color photo technology, taking us out of the black and white era; yet their black and white processing is legendary in its own right.

Thanks to them, photography has evolved to what it is today.  The hard part is imagining my profession without them.

There are other competitors that pushed Kodak to be the company it is, like Epson and Fuji.  They will now have to set the standards for generations to come.

I can’t thank Kodak enough, thanks to them I will forever have a quality product to give to my customers, and they helped my work shine, looking its best whether it was in a museum or on somones desk.