The King of Staves is, to put it one way, the kind of person who carpes the fuck out of that diem. There is no mountain too tall, no river too wide, no quest too risky, and no task too intimidating. Nothing keeps this king down, any obstacle put in his path is either gone over, under, around, or simply obliterated.

King of Staves 1.3

Really, when this project is over, we should make a donation to the Berkeley parks department- we’ve used a wide selection of them so far, and we’re only just past halfway (in shooting). This particular photo was shot in Live Oak park, at a good bonfire pit we knew Stephanie could get in and on.

King of Staves 2.1

It was a rather small fire, as we knew we wouldn’t be shooting for that long, and we didn’t want to waste a lot of wood and have to lug a lot of water to put a big blaze out- still, I think it worked out just fine. It burned bright and hot while it went, and yet was still small enough that Stephanie could get right down next to it with no immediate ill-effect.

King of Staves 3.2

This was another one of those photos (the staves seemed to have a lot of these!) where I ended up having to do a lot of background editing that I didn’t notice in the moment. Part of growing as a photographer is learning to be aware not only if your background is aesthetically pleasing and properly situated, but also if there are any little benches, sprinklers, pedestrians, street lights, or small signs that are going to have to be taken out later. I’m sure that before we make these into a finished deck, I’m going to be going back through and removing even more items I didn’t notice on the first pass.

King of Staves 4.2

Number four here is my personal favorite- it was pure chance, as the best photos often are- Stephanie was trying to get her hair out of her face without breaking her pose, and it ended up with an image that looks as though it should be on the cover of the best kind of bodice-ripper. Which, frankly, is the perfect look for the King of Staves.

King of Staves 5.2

Steph’s take can be seen here, and the full Flickr group is here, as usual.