I did something really fun yesterday. I held a party for Single in the Cities at my new house. It was a combination BBQ / photo shoot. The idea was to get photos for people who needed them for updating their meetup, facebook, match.com, etc photos. I primed everyone to come and be playful, and they totally responded.

I got some amazing photos of people. This is the first time I've really spent serious time with my digital camera. I bought the Nikon D40 last year and have used it, but I think I shot more yesterday than I had since buying it.

For me, photography is a very aesthetic experience. It starts first and foremost with the camera in my hands. I hate point and click cameras. They just feel wrong. They sound wrong. The image is wrong. The focal lengths are always wrong. Then you need the right lenses. Good lenses that you can swap out for the setting. Yesterday I used a fairly short lens -- 35 to 85 mm -- because I was shooting entirely indoors.

Finally, you need people who loosen up. Most people get all tense as soon as you point a camera at them. I'm the worst offender of that, by the way. There are ways to deal with this, but all of them require first and foremost the subject relaxing.

Well yesterday, people relaxed. They had fun. And as soon as I realized that was happening, I really started to have fun. And they let me. I got smiles, I got frowns. I got grimaces and giggles. I got one guy whose mind went deep deep into the gutter and almost died from embarrassment.

Here are some of my favorites:

This first one is Michelle, the organizer for Single in the Cities.



Michele told me in advance that she wouldn't be able to relax. So I decided to push her deep out of her box and grabbed my motorcycle jacket, knowing she'd drown in it. She practically died from embarrassment, saying "no no no no no" for the next several minutes while I continued to shoot photos. This one is a priceless photo of her giggling.

Then we have Deena and Yen Ly.

They're both young and stunning. I took several of the two of them, but this is my favorite. Deena was the first person I really got into though. She has that amazing hair, and she let me play.

Here we have Brooke.



Brooke was a challenge. Young and attractive. Very cute. She was wearing a top that was just the wrong color and shape, and none of the photos were doing her justice. So I handed her one of Lili's backdrops and said, "This is a shawl". We fussed at it a bit, and then I got this photo. I love this shot.

Jennifer was fun to shoot.



Another young and cute lady. Jennifer was a challenge because without the camera, I could see what I wanted, but none of the photos were right. It was the expressions. I was right on the edge of really getting what I wanted. Then we moved to the stairs. This is a very informal, relaxed photo, and I'm quite pleased. Very cute girl next door sort of photo.

Here's Phil.



Yes, I know, 4 photos of cute women and 1 photo of a guy. Hey, what can I say? I like the ladies. I got fabulous photos of several guys, but this is the only one I'm showing you today. I would never have expected Phil's shots to be so amazing. That black shirt he had on was just so amazingly informal, and then to add my black fedora. But I got several shots of Phil that are priceless.

When I was taking shots of Phil, Michelle was standing behind him, heckling him. Thinking that she was deserving a little retribution for her teasing, I told him, "Just imagine what you're going to do to Michelle." Well, his mind (and Michelle's I might point out) went in a completely different direction than mine did. I thought he was about to die from embarrassment. The resulting photos I'm saving for blackmail.