Ansel would tell you to not wait to retire, but to shoot between jobs/work.

Ansel Adams, Moon Rise, Hernandez New Mexico, 1940.

Have done it all, but doing necked ladies most of all, (typical boy!).

I once joked with Ansel about a 'filler 'image in one of his books that showed an 'S' curving road with car on it, Similar car almost the same spot on the same road. I joked about bad days shoot trying to make images, later sent a copy of mine to him and he sent back the copy from the book, signed. Both shots were 'turkey's', don't know what I did with it...fun times.

Pretty esoteric stuff not found in the usual main stream literature. René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz (Fr.)
and the Sumerian scholar Zecharia Sitchin are both sources on the subject.

Both have finally been recognized for their contributions to studies in ancient civilizations.

Nice try, the Centurion in charge of Golgotha did what centurions were instructed to do, his terminated the individual by driving a lance into the beating heart. There is much detail in this story to explain all of this, you can look it up or go find a Domical Catholic Priest and they will explain the finer details of Roman Catholic faith/stories/myth. The story becomes quite complex with future mythic aspects. Have fun.

Starena, a vary sensual/erotic woman.

She looks mid 30's but is in fact in her late 40's,what a Babe-A-Luscious!

In 2023 Serena spent 8 months in India studying medical techniques and music.

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I can't help but make a comment, there is an emergence of this new nutria 1% gray ( Zone five (V) ) for automobiles, now that tone on antique cars is interesting.

I have a contention with regards your statement, "I considered how we use nude life drawing in our learning of drawing and painting and how that's also influenced photography" I believe you are putting the cart before the horse here. I do believe that it is photography that has influenced the learning of drawing and painting in our era. I see a photograph posted here and no single image made by an artist's hand in a studio.

Further, this quant notion that photography is painting and/or drawing with light does not serve the strength of photography as an artistic form of expression. One of the primal elements that sets photography apart from the other fine art images is TIME.

I'm with 14K, but the problem with the add as shown is cutting off the size of the thread, but there is enough to speculate it to be a 1/4 20 bolt. The Asian's need to understand that the universal thread the world around is not metric but the old Imperial 1/4 20 bolt and nut. Like that hole on the bottom of all cameras using a threaded mount (like a tri pod). So much for metric being 'King'.

It is a person who has studied medicine in the traditions of the area that is generally identified as in the area of the Pacific Ocean/Asia, but is not entirely limited to that region. The doctors of this area of medicine differ from those of Western Medicine in that they practice prevention. The best and simplest difference between the two is that if you break a bone, need a pace maker, have a surgery for a raptured colon and such, then that is what western medicine is good at.

Eastern medicine is good at prevention, as example, eating a good balanced diet will prevent diabetes. I suffered from a fugal infection of the toes, confirmed by a podiatrists. Noting seemed to work in getting rid of it. Doctor Gabriel put me on a diet with oregano, Black Walnut oil, and application of Tee Tree oil applied to the toes nails. Gone in three weeks. My podiatrists acknowledged that the Tee Tree oil and was surprised with the inclusion of oregano but said he would try it out on a patent he was seeing with the same problem. I was told that the Black Wall nut was necessary to help build a natural immunity to keep the fungus reemerging later. In addition I was told that elevated humidity, heat, and animal leather close toed shoos set up conditions for fungal growth.

Serena Gabriel is licensed in Arizona to practice and does also work with the VA treating veterans.

Back to the photographs. I tend to work with the same woman over and over. Here is Dr. Serena Gabriel, I call her Starena. I have known Serena for close on thirty years. The top image of her with her feline mate Muffin is typical of her. In that image she is 47 years old, no make p, but she does do a beauty treatment of placing about 17 accu puncture needles, each morning after she gets up. She is a doctor of Easter Medicine and vary accomplished. And like many women she is vain and aware of her beauty and is focused on her appearance.

She is also extremely spiritual and vary sexually motivated. She is a trained dancer, a musician, fashions instruments by hand to produce her music. She loves to refer to herself as 'a temple whore' in the vary old traditions of India. She is one of the most amazing women to work with doing nude modeling. There are times that she actually leaves her conscious state (as the person Serena) and channels animal forms and other states of consciousness. She is amazing to work with. To put no fine point on it, she is vary centered. There are times after a photography session that she does not remember doing the session and sometimes does not recognizer herself as the subject in the images.

I have lived a vary charmed life of that I'm certain. Where do I find these women, frankly I don't, they find me. How do I keep them returning? By touching the world lightly, just as women touch the world. It is not easy to refuse the male view of the way the world works, but the feminine way is a lot more fun; and they know this and enjoy men who react to the world with a strong feminine touch. It is why I prefer to work with women it is simply more rewarding and a lot more fun to be in their world. When I get them into the sensual clothing, fine lingerie it tell them how absolutely jealous of them I feel, but I live the vicarious life of the voyeur. Then they ask why I don't try the fun stuff/clothes, my answer is that I can't, at heart I'm a lingerie slut but I'm still pretty much straight so it would never work for me, I just like girls too much and being a Scorpio that makes it impassable! Besides, girls are so easy! Their down fall is shoes. Show them shoes and watch witch one the go crazy over and then give them to her. She is forever under your spell and hers! I then get to be master of ceremonies in playing their number one vulnerability, dress up/pretty-pretty princess. Every woman knows this from her early child hood! Roll play is a powerful game.

Serena with her kitty Muffin.

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Serena in my garden with one of her flutes.


Serena being erotic in my library Mission Road Studio.

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Selfie, Serena sent nudie images of her in a pair of heels in her home in Arizona.


Starena wearing an old timey corset from the 1940s.

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Starena cooling off after her exercise run in a hot Texas afternoon in a kiddy pool in the secret garden.

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My sources are academic and are well documented. Without all the detail and as an over view of basic information of a historic nature we have the following.

King Solomon placed the relic Arc of the Contract/Covenant into the Great Temple he built along with other critical documents many of the documents are now held in the Vatican Archives in the Vatican City/State. Solomon had a visit from the Queen of Sheba, she returned to the place we now refer to as Ethiopia, pregnant. She bore a son, who traveled to Solomon and there was taught many things including the secrets of the arch. That son returned to his Kingdome in Ethiopia as it's leader with the Arc, he was now referred to as the Emperor of the Universe (the last in the line was Haile Selassie, who had lost the knowledge of the Arc because with the power of the Arc he should have easily defeated the invasion of Fascist Italy during their invasion).

Fast forward to the Christen Crusades. The Knights Templar was primarily a form of archeologists, their main focus was to unearth the writings of King Solomon. They were completely successful and indeed did discover the writings. One proof of this is the complete transformation of building construction in a period of ten years of all major building construction in Europe from wood to stone. The other item on the agenda was to 'contain' the Arc in a small stone structure in Axon in Ethiopia so as to control it's power through the use of magic symbols.

Another item of focus was the retrieval of the Lance of Lungengloria, now housed completely unprotected (as required) in the Hapsburg Armory Museum in Austria. In the cycles of the world history or so it is believed) this is the focus of Good verses Evil among men.

This brings us to a rather important point about "FACTS". Reading the Bible and understanding what you are reading are two entirely different things. A classic scam long ago was to dupe drunks into facts. "Who cut the hair of Sampson and so caused his demise?" The wrong answer was the Jewish woman Delilah, she was a devout Jew and devout Jewish women were NOT allowed to cut even touch a man's hair (the source of his religious strength), Delilah had her woman servant cut Samson's hair at her instruction. Thus you win the bet as a drunk poser that other drunks bet that they know their Bible.

So now the question, who killed Jesus, rather, how did Jesus die. Jesus was killed by the Centurion Lungengloria who drove a standard lance point up and into Jesses side piercing his lung and heart with the lances point, thus facilitating his rapid death. Many will say incorrectly that he died from crucifixion, but this is not correct.

The truth is most often much more interesting than the general story.

Here is what my grasp of all this biblical renderings are. That old testament writings can also be found in other cultural writings from the same time frame. Any reference to morality is so far removed from our time frame it has only a legitimate value as a reference to those cultures and should not be taken out of context.

debating these historic facts in our time is so often absurd and of no real value except with in the limits of that historic reference. I find vary little in old testament writings of importance to modern day moral structures.

A classic is the so called Arch of the Covenant. The object in question was originally so termed as a "contract" and existed long before the Hebrew nation absconded it and renamed it. Now in Axon in Ethiopia, it was so poorly understood by most Hebrews that one of their tribes (Levitz) were completely decimated by it. That is what I have found in reading the historic information without all the 'religious take' on the subject.

I also do not subscribe to the rhetoric of terms like 'pornography'. As has been stated over and over, if you don't like viewing something stop looking and move on. And as an important point, child pornography is under some control as is bestiality, by some vary smart individuals, so don't go there, save it for the attic where this nonsense belongs.

Most of mine are in old metal 2 pound coffee cans on the counter top that are spay painted different bright colors. I put the plastic lids on the bottom of the cans to protect the counter top.

Loads of information for you to read and be thrilled about, fun to read but much of it in the words of the period of this camera's creation, "Pure Guff".

Film. It would take either glass plate or sheet film. Your photo shows both. The film "size". This 'film' size is referred to as Lantern Size. Tis referred to the pre- photography era when images (not photographic) were projections of glass plate images projected by a device referred to as a Magic Lantern, illumination was by a candle or a liquid with a wick. Fast forward to post WW II, Edwin Land adopted this size for his early Polaroid cameras and later gave the film a name calling it as Pack Size films. Today, Fuji makes the same size film to fit into the backs of the old Polaroid cameras and holders tat use Pack Size films. In science, as a glass plate vary slow emulsion (slower than modern photographic print paper) is still available in this size called AR Plates (Auto Radiograph Plates, two types, with and with out contrast).

The camera body was made both as the size you give and as a 4X5 inch film/plate. It is referred to as a folding camera because it folds up flat.

Obscure literary reference, The Handbook of Photography has probably the most detailed and accurate reference source of lenses and shutters ever published. Assembled by the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, this was the primary text produced by the university as a text book for all levels of photography. ne f it's editors is the famous Dr. Mees, director of the research arm of Eastman Kodak and the brains and force behind Eastman Kodak Co. The many other editors reads like a who's who of photography between the two Word Wars and into modern times. The book details all aspects of photography, including chemistry, flash, artificial light and shutters and lenses. The review on optics and optical development is extensive and accrue.

The lens you have is the Plano Anastigmat. meaning that it is a well designed lens that is corrected for the red region but being of an Anastigmat design it is mainly corrected for the green region. It is of the original Zeiss Tessar design, vary typical of that period.

The shutter is the best for environmental (and scape) work design. It is referred to as a pneumatic piston design. One places the camera (shutter/lens) into the environment and let it acclimate to temperature and humidity. After tis te shutter is set for One Second. The shutter is cocked and the moving brass cylinder is allowed to move easily in the steel tube that it is housed in. After a second or so the shutter is released. The travel time is then observed, if it is traveled the one second (second hand watch is necessary) that the shutter selector is set to all is ready. If the time is slower or faster there is a small flat blade screw on the front of the shutter, usually to the left of the lens outer ring and close to another screw that anchors the lens closed. This screw will easily turn right or left allowing resistance f the shutter to be adjusted faster or slower. The brass travel cylinder needs to be allowed proper time to travel through the steel cylinder so that it settles and an accurate travel will occur. The beauty and power of this type f shutter is that regardless of temperature AND humidity conditions the shutter can be adjust to produce accurate timed exposures in 130F to -50F, The other great advantage is the lack of any vibration from the shutter. The user can 'repair' a fault cylinder by dis-assembling the shutter and use extremely fine emery cloth (600 to 900 grip) polish the brass plunger and wiping the wear particles out of the steel travel cylinder, then re-assembling the shutter (this of course is a last resort necessity done only rarely).

Watch the bellows, they are old and fragile. The value of museum quality gear is that it is original. Keep the camera partly open, but never fully extended to insure the best for the old leather.

I do not subscribe to the notion that there is or is any differences between male and female nudes. The nude form is just that a form of expression.

If one chooses to cast the nude form with an eye to exhibit some idea of the form as what many call the 'classical' form of presentation, then you get just that, the classical form of presentation. The problem occurs when culture collides with the social preconceived notions of viewers.

The artist Serena Gabriel in the upper meadow of Colorado National Forest is a classical presentation of the body placed in the natural landscape. Then, the same artist (woman) doing physical exercises before an audience of male photographers in a photo club like setting, and be aware that wearing a T-Back genital covering this same artist woman dances in a Gentlemen's Club. She will dance the classical Middle Eastern Dance Forms and will draw an audience into the action first working the women into her approval and then teaching by actions both male and female children, then finally preform with humor with the adult males. All a part of the classical Gypsy form of belly dance(note: There are vastly more male bely dancers in the traditional Middle Eastern belly dance tradition).

One can argue that it is the context, yet other than some legalistic notion placed there due to the prevailing social and political context, there is no difference. (Note: It is illegal in a Federal Park or Forest to uncover ones breasts or not have 'proper' coverage of the genital areas of a woman).

And I will concede that there is much to unpack with regards to the notion f The Nude. But that discussion is about sexuality and our social notions regarding that contextual structure. The Nude in the context of just The Nude is a fine but vary limited notion of the human body. If you are looking for the details of this view of the subject the author Kenneth Clark has a book titled The Nude that presents this view on the subject perfectly. This form has little to do what that notion of the nude. That is why the term NSFW (Not Safe For Work)is in the banner.

Upper Meadow, Colorado National Forest.


Starena (Serena Gabriel), yes she has a tat, Tibetan symbol of protection.

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