douglasfur365

[douglasfur365]

Sionna, 2024

I made this playlist for the shoot, a carefully curated 4 hour 12 minute jam fest of 70’s funk, soul, and disco, with a few modern vibrations thrown in for good measure (see my Reel from the shoot featuring Forget Me Not by Say She She). The selection process for this shoot was brutal and when all else failed if I could turn off my playlist and look at an image and hear the music just from the visuals than it was a keeper. I love how I can see Sienna’s movements and the music in these images.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #photography #Dico #disco ball #70’s #Fuji xt3 #fujifilm #Arizona photographer #Tucson photographer #Tucson model

[douglasfur365]

Nica, 2024

When it came to wardrobe, I styled this shoot with thrifted clothes that had a 70’s feel to them. The temptation was to go with anything that had sequins or sparkle, or metallic shine because that’s what you typically see in disco shoots. However I knew that I wanted to play with the roller disco look and the very first piece I thought of was this blue blue baseball jacket I had circa 1979, it’s a Mariner’s jacket which I edited out. It was the only true vintage wardrobe piece but it informed my decision to shy away from sequins and instead explore other fabrics I think of when I think of the 70’s, satin, velvet, velour, and use colors over sparkle. But it all started with this jacket and Nica rocked it like a champ.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #photography #disco #roller girl #roller disco #1970’s #Tucson photographer #Tucson model #Arizona photographer #Fuji #Fuji xt3

[douglasfur365]

Cherry, 2024

I’ve put so much more planning into my shoots the last few years, time spent on wardrobe, props, location, poses, at times I’ve used an actual shot list. Generally with so much preplanning I feel like the end result is what I’d planned for, any extra surprise is that it actually did turn out as good as I’d planned. I didn’t know for sure the next thing I really wanted to focus on was more Roller disco, but when I saw the space at Floor Polish I knew I could fill in the rest and get the look I’d dreamed of. After the first couple of shots with Cherry I took a look and immediately I knew we had it, better than I’d imagined I could do. If there was anything missing, anything I’d have added, it might have been a fog machine, but really that’s just perfectionism talking.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #disco #roller disco #fujixt3 #fujifilm #Tucson photographer #Tucson model #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

Jenny O. 2017

I don’t know, but I suspect that many of you weren’t around in 2017 when most of my posts were music photography related. So it would make sense that many or most maybe even all of you have no idea that before I did whatever it is I do now that I spent many years running a music blog out of Seattle called Secretly-Important. I’m not a musical, I was just a guy who loved the music that was being made in the early 2010’s and because I obsessively researched it I thought it was worth sharing with others. That led me to photographing shows, and soon after photographing the musicians I interviewed. This one here with Jenny O is probably my favorite, between September of 2012 and this interview her first album Automechanic quietly became one of my favorite albums. In that time I’d become awed by her songwriting, and fascinated by her as a person. I unceremoniously let the blog die a year later, a mixture of life with two kids and my increasing dedication to photography left me with too little time to devote to keeping up with the latest in music. There was perhaps a little part of me however that felt very satisfied with what I’d done over the years, and that Jenny O was perhaps as good as my blog would ever get.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #35mm #canonetql17giii #Jenny o #music

[douglasfur365]

@desertfreak_ 2024

Let me start here, if you haven’t already been down to &gallery to see the Food Fight show get on it! There’s some really amazing work on display there. I bring that up because I did this shoot for that show, and I was working within a short time frame. I am extremely grateful that there are people who I can reach out to, say ‘this is what I’m doing and I need to do it like ASAP’ and they are right there with enthusiasm. Why Honeydew? Honestly, it was affordable and I was going to need 9 of them. Also I had this pink backdrop and I wanted something that would contrast with that. The pastel pink of the backdrop and the subtle green of the honeydew worked perfectly together.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #photography #fujifilm #fujixt3 #Tucson model #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer #fuit

[douglasfur365]

Desertfreak & Silverwilddesigns

When everything for this project came together it affected me in a profound way. These remnants of the cholla, of once living sea creatures, of mineral, of metal, placed with the soft and very living flesh of people.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #photography #fujifilm #fuji xt3 #Tucson #tanque verde #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

Alissa, 2017

Going way back into my Time Machine today.

I’ve always loved this picture, I didn’t plan this or anticipate it, but this picture looks like a Renaissance painting. That pose, the soft lighting, and the colors make it feel like a Botticelli to me.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #35mm #portra 400 #canonetql17 #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer #Seattle model #sandro botticelli #boudoir #lingerie boudoir

[douglasfur365]

Florence, 2018

Dipping into the past, which I said I was going to do regularly when I wiped my feed a year ago… but then never did.

I remember being very frustrated by this shoot after the fact, not by Florence, but with my many technical failings. I missed focus on too many shots, which kicked off a year long obsession of finding the perfect camera to alleviate my chronic difficulty in nailing focus. I also felt shame for my ignorance of metering for people with darker skin, an important skill that rarely gets discussed. Lastly I look at the poses and wonder why I didn’t suggest this or that pose. Florence approached me about shooting and continued that go-get-em confident attitude right into our shoot. I think I went on auto-pilot and let her fully dictate the flow without much input from myself. But having said all that, when I look at all the keepers from the shoot, they’re really special. How many shots should be really good out of 50, 100, 150? I don’t know. Why didn’t I shoot any black and white? Why did I shoot so much of this with a 28mm lens? All these questions I’ve asked myself and not spending enough time really appreciating the excellent work that did came out of this.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #35mm #portra 400 #Nikon fe #hasselblad 500 c/m #kodak colorplus 200 #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 9 @desertfreak and @silverwilddesigns

In so many ways 2023 was all about working up to this shoot. There are so many layers to what makes this shoot so special, not the least of which was working with both @desertfreak and @silverwilddesigns together. This was a perfect Tucson fall day. And this was the emotional peak of my feelings of fear, curiosity, and acceptance of my own mortality. This shoot is about death, it’s about what is left behind, but what surprised me is the tenderness that came through in the end.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #pentax67 #tmax 100 #fujifilm #fujixt3 #tanqueverde #tucsonmodel #tucsonphotographer #arizonaphotographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 8 @Slut4horchata 2023

Over the years I’ve been asked about doing some Halloween shoots and being totally honest they just don’t appeal to me. But when @slut4horchata posted a reel from a few years back looking to do something similar I reached out. I was inspired. Within just a couple of days we were meeting up in downtown Tucson. Overall this was mostly a video shoot, where we came up with interesting shots and then filmed it with the hope that we would have enough interesting material to put a couple of reels together. It was so much fun shooting this laughing, and just doing whatever goofy or interesting idea came into our heads. In general I’ve learned when I’ve shot enough or when I need just a bit more. That shot with the candles was the result of a really amazing gentleman from the Historic Bates Manor who saw us shooting in the parking lot and was gracious enough to let us briefly crash a wedding the was occurring inside, if I hadn’t felt I needed maybe one or two more shots we never would have got this.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #portraits #ghosts #Halloween #Tucson model #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer #fuji xt3 #fujifilm

[douglasfur365]

No. 7 @desertfreak and @hannie_o with makeup by Des

The strangest turn that 2023 took for me was this. While editing my previous shoot with @desertfreak I started putting together this story in my head that we’d kind of worked on in the moment, but it led to some frustration that I hadn’t taken that concept further. I began thinking about how for this shoot I could really lean into that idea, scrapping what I’d planned out previous and take it in a new direction. As I planned shots I wondered if this would all be better as a video, my recent acquisition of a Fujifilm Xt3 made it possible to shoot this as I envisioned, and so I began story boarding. I owe big thanks to both @desertfreak and @hannie_o for being game for this change and going for it with me. We shot it all in one night and it has inspired me to work on new video projects in 2024. When can you see it? I’m submitting to some festivals while I work out how to find a permanent home for it to be seen.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #fujifilm #Fuji xt3 #monsoon season #Tucson model #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 6 desertfreak 2023

We were supposed to shoot something else on this day, plans got delayed and I reached out to Desertfreak and Desi who did the makeup to see if they were still down to shoot, if not the original plan, something else. Right before we started shooting I felt my confidence and inspiration completely drain from me, I secretly begged for everyone to cancel, I cursed myself for having pushed ahead with a shoot. Once we started shooting however I found that we were putting some great stuff together, for not having a strong plan I felt like this work made on the fly was really stunning. This shoot led us to what we did next together and as it turned out we’d shoot together three of my last four shoots this year.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #Pentax 67 #trix-400 #fujifilm #Fuji xt3 #Tucson model #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 5 @gracemotel 2023

Have you ever watched the behind the scenes of a movie that was supposed to take place in the winter but shot in the middle of summer, so all the actors are walking around in parkas with gloves and hats but it’s also 95°. Well this shoot looked hot and it was hot, though maybe not as hot as it actually was. What I have learned is that when inspiration really strikes me if I don’t act on it I maybe never will, so when it occurred to me that @gracemotel was perhaps the perfect person to Hustle to Disco in the desert we made it happen, 100° temps plus be dammed. For anyone else silly enough to attempt the same here’s a short list of what I brought to make this bearable: 1) Lots of water 2) An umbrella 3) small cooler w/ ice packs 4) a wet and frozen towel.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #35mm #Nikon d7000 #Pentax 67 #tmax 100 #disco #desert #Tucson photographer #Tucson model #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 4 Roxanna, 2023

It only five shoots in Barrio Viejo but I finally had fun. It’s not uncommon for me to wake up the morning of a shoot and feel awful and unmotivated, all the worst emotions and thoughts seem to come out right before I’m about to shoot. Maybe it was my familiarity with Viejo, maybe it was the rapport I had with Sam at this point or the casual confidence that Roxanna displayed, but this shoot was fun and quick.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #hasselblad 500cm #Nikon d7000 #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 3 Anissa, 2023

The middle part of my year was dedicated to this Barrio Viejo Project. I don’t want to speak for other people but I can say that this project has resonated with a lot of people, I’ve encountered at least a few people who didn’t know me, but knew these pictures. And on the other side while shooting nudes in public like this can be nerve wracking, and exposing, I’ve heard that it ultimately feels freeing and powerful. Poor Anissa, this was probably the most difficulty I’ve had finding quite streets, there had been at least three National/International publications talking up Barrio Viejo and between the locals and the tourists we were interrupted numerous times.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #Hasselblad 500cm #Nikon d7000 #tmax 100 #barrio viejo #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer #Tucson model

[douglasfur365]

No. 2 Sam, 2023

I don’t remember exactly when we started planning this but I do remember there was a desire to include Latinas in my Barrio Viejo series, which is something I very much wanted as well. So I want to give a lot of credit to Sam for coordinating and recruiting people to pose for this series. An unusually cold winter pushed us back a number of times before we got this amazing day with intermittent rain. This shoot took place at a time when Viejo was getting a lot of national attention and so it felt very timely. I have a special place in my heart for everyone who has worked on this project with me, I’ve always known that I was asking a lot of the people who posed for this, and so a big thank you to everyone who’s been willing to take that risk. I’m hoping to shoot for this again if you or anyone you know would be interested. You know how to reach me.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #Ektar 100 #Tmax 100 #hasselblad 500cm #Pentax 67 #barrio viejo #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer

[douglasfur365]

No. 1 Seraphina, 2023

Every year in December I like to go back through every shoot I did that year, it’s a way to say thank you to everyone I worked with as well as something that keeps me motivated as I move into a new year. This shoot with Seraphina is one of my all time favorites, in part because everything seemed to work so perfectly. The space was exactly what I wanted, the lighting, we got like three very different locations all in one tiny hotel room. Emotionally I feel like this one hits just right, I was able to squeeze a lot of how I was and had been feeling into a shoot in a way I hadn’t in a long time. But then also Seraphina was such a wonderful collaborator, I felt like she got the concept and was able to perfectly embody the feeling I was going for.

#douglasfur365 #portrait photographer #film #film is alive #analog #analog photography #photography #medium format #portra 400 #hasselblad 500cm #Olympus pen ft #half frame #35mm #sf model #San Francisco model #Tucson photographer #Arizona photographer