A New Me

There's a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song, Almost Cut My Hair, that begins, "Almost cut my hair. It happened just the other day..." Well, in my case, it didn't "almost" happen the other day. It happened.

For most people, hair cuts aren't a big deal but, for me, it is and always has been. I've spent a large chunk of my adult life with long hair. Sure, there's been times when, for varying reasons, I rolled with short hair: Servitude in the military, while employed by a Fortune 200 corporation, and a few other times. For the most part, however, I've been a long-haired type; pony-tail-half-way-down-the-back long. I guess I've never been able to let go of the 60s and, as that joke goes, I don't remember much of the 60s. That's how they were for me.

Yep. I've spent most of my life, as David Crosby says, "Letting my freak flag fly."

Since shearing my locks the other day, people have already told me I look at least ten years younger and that it actually appears like I have more hair. Cool! I'm definitely less scary-looking and more presentable. A friend and client, Biohazard's Evan Seinfeld, (who was also a co-star on HBO's hit series, "Oz") recently told me I look like a roadie for Uriah Heep. If you don't know who Uriah Heep is... was... they made some cool music back in the day. But to me, now that I've shed the UH roadie look, I now look like a middle-aged insurance salesman... except when I'm on my Harley. Now, when riding, I look like a middle-aged insurance salesman on a Harley.

So why did I cut my hair and what does that have to do with photography? As I attempt to move into other photo genres, I figured it might be in my interest to present a more respectable initial impression, you know, a cleaner-cut impression. It has always irked me the way many people judge the cover and not the book but that is what it is and I'm done fighting it.

The long hair hasn't ever been a problem shooting pretty girls. With many of the girls I shoot, I could have a swastika, a la Charles Manson, carved into my forehead and they would barely notice. But for the types of clients I'm now trying to get in with, long hair probably won't help my goals much, even without a forehead-carved swastika.

I only hope that, like Samson losing his hair at the hands of Delilah, I don't lose any of my photographic Kung Fu. Assuming, that is, that my photo-Kung Fu is strong enough to achieve some of the things I'm hoping to achieve.

The image at the top is Cindy from a year or so ago. I shot the pic in my studio against a black BG with three lights and a fan positioned at her feet and pointed straight up.