TucsonTied Blog

Muses.  So, what exactly IS a muse?  A couple of quick web definitions:

1. Greek Mythology Any of the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom presided over a different art or science.2. muse a. A guiding spirit.b. A source of inspiration.

Let me add a third…a “Tony-definition”: “Musing”: strictly in photography, the situation that results for a photographer when he finds a specific model who inspires him to greater heights than even HE thinks he’s capable of.  “Musing” describes his state of mind.  “The photographer has been shooting that girl for 9 months straight…he’s definitely musing on her.”

I coined that phrase myself (at least I THINK I did…lol) after it really sank in that Stacie Snow is a definite “muse” for me; our latest shoot just proved it.

“Mistress” Stacie Snow

An amazing gal, let me tell ya.  Y’know, folks constantly tell me how good I am at the photography stuff, but in my own opinion, I’m a bit of a fraud…lol.  No, that doesn’t mean I do a lot of photoshopping to polish crap into gems of pics, but simply that 90% of what I do is because of the models.  I provide the setting, the camera equipment, the rope and the tying skill, but they provide the magic!  They all inspire me to do the work that I do…without them, well, let’s be honest, I’d be tying up bowls of fruit and how exciting would THAT be?  The inspiration that comes into the work and makes it as magical as it can be all comes from the model I’m working with…when I’m working with the best, I BECOME my best;  which is one of the main reasons I work with Stacie so much.

More than one photographer has noticed that I’m at my best when I work with her…I’ve been given more than one compliment saying that I do my absolute greatest work we shoot.  I don’t know what it is, really…all I know is that when she’s in front of my lens, magic ensues.  Is there any wonder why I enjoy shooting with her?  Heck, even when we’re clowning, I get GREAT stuff…

Goofing off. No, the pull on the crotch rope isn’t for real…we were clowning. 😉 Stacie Snow…and Dave Annis’ hand yanking on the rope. 😉

That was a magical night, to be sure.  Even more interesting was the riot that ensued in the middle of it all…lol.  We were taking a break during shooting, standing outside while Stacie was grabbing a smoke.  Suddenly, chaos ensues, as some fool goes walking by at the other end of the complex.  He was later seen by us (and a crowd of onlookers) being ARRESTED by the Police!  Never found out what the deal was, but the kid was obviously high as a kite.  He kept on resisting arrest…the two police there were finally forced to call in for backup…and what seemed like half of TPD showed up…lol. After some more wrestling (and a judicious amount of pepper spray), he was finally whisked off into the night.   Now…while all this drama’s going on, you wanna know what my biggest concern was?  “Ok, folks…let’s see some ID’s, please,” coming from the police when they asked us for witness statements.  “Well, it’s back at the apartment, officer…” which leads to them following me there…which leads to a door opening revealing ropes and gags spewed about on my carpeted floor…and photography lights blaring.  I can just imagine looking the poor cop in the eye and saying, “What?”  😉  We shot some more…I did a quick frog tie on Stacie:

Frog Tied Stacie Snow

then called it a night.  Well, a MORNING, actually, as we wrapped around 1 am.   Imagine having to go to work 9 hours after wrapping a shoot, and there’s no possibility of sleep in sight!  I think I finally crashed somewhere around 3 am…and went to work at 10!   I was still bright eyed and full of fire and pep, tho…that’s just how great I feel after shooting with this gal.

“Musing”.  Yup, that’d be me.  😉

Tolstoy