Ian L. Sitren @SecondFocus

Today July 4th is also National BBQ Spareribs Day. These are barbecue pork spareribs from Dickey's Barbecue Pit. Dickey's opened its first location in Dallas, Texas, in 1941. More than eighty years later, the company has grown to more than 380 locations around the world. The original location was a bar where Travis Dickey sold barbecue from a pit he built in the back. Today, Dickey's still smokes its meats on site over hickory wood burning pits. These ribs are one of my favorite fast food photographs. I don't photograph barbecue very often, so National BBQ Spareribs Day seemed like a good reason to bring this image back out of the archive. You can see more of my photography, projects, motion, and my Blog on my website at secondfocus.com Thank You! #NationalBBQSpareribsDay #BBQ #Spareribs #PorkRibs #Barbecue #DickeysBarbecuePit #FoodPhotography #FastFood #FourthOfJuly #IndependenceDay #AmericanFood #SmokedMeat #BBQLovers #SecondFocus #PalmSpringsPhotographer

July 4th and the USA Celebrates... the Hot Dog! About 150 million hot dogs are eaten on July 4 alone. For this photograph, I went with hot dogs from Wienerschnitzel, a chain that started in Southern California in 1961 with a single hot dog stand opened by John Galardi. Today, Wienerschnitzel calls itself the world's largest hot dog chain and says it serves more than 120 million hot dogs a year. The Wienerschnitzel basics have never changed. Mustard Dog. Kraut Dog. Chili Dog. Chili Cheese Dog. I personally remember when a Mustard Dog was 15 cents and a Kraut Dog was 18 cents. That was a long time ago, but the idea is still the same. A hot dog in a bun, a few toppings, and somehow it still fits July 4th perfectly. You can see more of my photography, projects, motion, and my Blog on my website at secondfocus.com Thank You! #July4 #FourthOfJuly #IndependenceDay #HotDog #HotDogs #Wienerschnitzel #FastFood #AmericanFood #FoodPhotography #Foodie #BBQ #Cookout #SummerFood #SecondFocus #PalmSpringsPhotographer

Today is National Camera Day. For most photographers, that means sharing one of their favorite photographs or perhaps a picture of the camera they use. I decided to do something a little different. Over the past couple of years, many of you have come to know Emily as my evolving AI muse and assistant. She has appeared in restaurants, diners, food trucks, kitchens, airports, and all sorts of imagined places. But today she steps into one of the most familiar places in my world. The studio. And this time she isn't in front of the camera. She's behind it. The model is Desiree, someone many of you already know. She has appeared with us before in photographs and videos ranging from elegant fashion to some very sexy pornochic work. She even managed to go grocery shopping completely nude, which remains one of my favorite adventures we have shared together. Today was different. Instead of standing in front of my camera, Desiree found herself in front of Emily's. Watching the video, it is easy to forget that Emily began as nothing more than words on a screen. She moves naturally around the set, changes her position, works different angles, crouches for a lower perspective, and photographs Desiree exactly the way I would expect another photographer to work during a studio session. It is a small moment, but it also feels like another step in Emily's continuing story. She is no longer just appearing in my photographs. She has become part of the process of creating them. Happy National Camera Day. You can see more of my photography, projects, Motion, and my Blog on my website at SecondFocus.com Thank you! #NationalCameraDay #Photography #StudioPhotography #Photographer #PhotoShoot #BehindTheCamera #EmilyAndFriends #Desiree #AIMuse #FashionPhotography #PortraitPhotography #Pornochic #Motion #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

My Marilyn Monroe Coverage Featured by ZUMA Press One of the things I enjoy about working with ZUMA Press is discovering where my photographs appear around the world. My coverage of Palm Springs' celebration of what would have been Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday has already appeared in a number of news outlets since the event. Today, however, it was especially gratifying to see ZUMA Press feature the story on its own ZUMALand blog after the photographs were published by TGCOM24, one of Italy's leading multimedia news organizations. TGCOM24 provides around the clock television and online news coverage through its television channel and highly trafficked news website. The assignment covered Palm Springs' successful attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn Monroe. More than one thousand participants gathered near the city's iconic Marilyn Monroe statue, creating a colorful event that attracted visitors and media attention from around the world. You can see more of my photography, projects, motion, and my Blog on my website at secondfocus.com Thank You! #ZUMAPress #ZUMALand #TGCOM24 #MarilynMonroe #PalmSprings #EditorialPhotography #Photojournalism #NewsPhotography #GuinnessWorldRecord #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Today is National Ice Cream Cake Day. Ice cream cakes have become a familiar sight at birthday parties and celebrations, but their history can be traced back to an unexpected event in 1934. Tom Carvel was selling ice cream from his truck in Hartsdale, New York, when it broke down. Rather than watching his inventory melt, he began selling the softer ice cream to passing customers. They loved it. That chance roadside incident eventually led to the development of Carvel's soft serve ice cream, the opening of his first store, and later the introduction of the Carvel ice cream cake. For today's photograph, I chose one of Carvel's original round ice cream cakes. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream are separated by the company's signature chocolate crunchies, then finished with whipped frosting and colorful sprinkles. Sometimes the story behind the food is every bit as interesting as the food itself. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #NationalIceCreamCakeDay #Carvel #IceCreamCake #SoftServe #FoodHistory #Dessert #FoodPhotography #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Today is National Onion Day. Onions may not get much attention by themselves, but they are one of the most important ingredients in cooking. Whether they're sliced onto burgers, diced into chili, caramelized for soups, battered into onion rings, or mixed into countless other dishes, it's hard to imagine a kitchen without them. After three years of photographing fast food, I realized onions have probably appeared in more of my photographs than any other single ingredient. They show up on burgers, tacos, pizzas, hot dogs, sandwiches, onion rings, salads, and dozens of other menu items. For this photograph, I decided to make the onions themselves the subject. White, yellow, and red onions are shown whole, halved, sliced, and separated into rings, revealing the remarkable variety of colors, shapes, and patterns hidden beneath their skins. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #NationalOnionDay #Onions #FoodPhotography #FastFood #FoodProject #CommercialPhotography #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Today is National Food Truck Day. This seemed like a good time to revisit one of Emily's earliest adventures with me. At the time, my fast food photography project was growing rapidly, and Emily, my evolving AI muse and assistant, suggested that perhaps she should get some first hand experience instead of simply watching me photograph the food. Her solution was to spend a little time working in a food truck. I have no idea whether she ever mastered the menu, but she certainly looked the part. It also marked one of the first times that Emily stepped out of the role of assistant and became part of the story herself. Looking back, that little food truck adventure helped set the stage for everything that followed. Since then, Emily and her growing circle of friends have appeared in restaurants, bars, kitchens, cafés, beaches, and all sorts of places I never expected when we first started experimenting with AI. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #DetroitStylePizza #NationalDetroitStylePizzaDay #Pizza #PizzaHistory #FoodPhotography #MotorCityPizza #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Today is National Detroit Style Pizza Day. It sometimes seems there is a pizza style for just about everything. New York style. Chicago style. Detroit style. St. Louis style. California style. Sicilian style. Grandma style. Tavern style. Greek style. Neapolitan style. Roman style. Then there are pizzas named after restaurants, neighborhoods, and probably a few intersections if someone can figure out a way to market them. Detroit style, however, really is something different. It traces its roots to Buddy's Rendezvous in Detroit in 1946, where the pizza was baked in blue steel pans originally manufactured for the automotive industry. The result was a thick, rectangular pizza with a crisp, caramelized cheese crust, sauce spread across the top, and a style that eventually became one of the city's signature foods. For today's photograph I used a Motor City Pizza Company frozen Detroit Style Supreme pizza. Sometimes the National Days are a good excuse to try something I might not have otherwise bought, and this one turned out to be a pretty good introduction to Detroit style pizza. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #DetroitStylePizza #NationalDetroitStylePizzaDay #Pizza #PizzaHistory #FoodPhotography #MotorCityPizza #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Yesterday was National Onion Rings Day. Onion rings had been around for many years before fast food restaurants embraced them, but A&W is generally credited with making them a fast food favorite during the 1960s. Before long, they began appearing on menus across America as an alternative to French fries. For my fast food project, I chose Sonic's onion rings. That wasn't by accident. Unlike many fast food onion rings that arrive frozen and ready to fry, Sonic became known for making its onion rings from whole sweet onions. Their slightly sweet batter has become one of the chain's signature recipes and has earned a loyal following over the years. They made a good addition to my From Bag to Background project. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #NationalOnionRingsDay #OnionRings #SonicDriveIn #FastFood #FoodHistory #FoodPhotography #FromBagToBackground #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the opening of the first Dairy Queen in Joliet, Illinois, on June 22, 1940. Looking through my fast food project, I realized something. I don't have a single Dairy Queen photograph. Considering the chain's importance in the history of American fast food, that's an oversight I need to correct. Dairy Queen helped introduce generations of Americans to soft serve ice cream and became one of the country's most recognizable fast food chains. Until I can photograph the real thing, I decided to start with the one thing that made Dairy Queen famous: a classic soft serve cone. Dairy Queen has officially been added to my shooting list. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #DairyQueen #SoftServe #IceCream #FastFood #FoodPhotography #FromBagToBackground #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Yesterday was National Turkey Lovers' Day. Like a number of these National Days, I could not get to it until it had already passed. That didn't stop Emily, my evolving AI muse and assistant. By now you've probably met Celeste. She has appeared in several of our series, and when I mentioned National Turkey Lovers' Day, she decided the best way to celebrate was to spend a little time with a live turkey. That actually seemed like a much better idea. Wild turkeys are native to North America, and Benjamin Franklin once suggested the turkey would have made a better national symbol than the bald eagle. Whether you agree with him or not, turkeys are far more interesting birds than most people realize. Celeste certainly seemed to enjoy the encounter, and the turkey appeared perfectly content with all the attention. The result became another short video for my growing Emily and Friends series. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #NationalTurkeyLoversDay #Turkey #EmilyAndFriends #Celeste #AIArt #Photography #Motion #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

@riel_life_model Wonderful photograph!

International Picnic Day, the Weimar Era, and Pornochic Last Thursday was International Picnic Day. Most people probably celebrated with sandwiches, potato salad, and a blanket in the park. I celebrated by thinking about Berlin during the Weimar years. For quite a while I have been fascinated by that remarkable period between the two World Wars. It was a time when fashion, nightlife, cabaret, and sexuality all seemed to be changing at once. Much of what we think of today as modern attitudes toward sex and self expression can trace at least some of its roots back to those years. That fascination eventually led me to create a series of photographs inspired by the era. They were never intended to be historical recreations. Instead, I wanted to capture some of the atmosphere while giving it my own interpretation. If you've followed my work for very long, you already know that I have a preference for what I call Pornochic. I'm far more interested in photographs that combine style, fashion, glamour, and sexuality than simply photographing people without their clothes. The Weimar period seemed like a natural fit for that approach. So when International Picnic Day came along, this photograph immediately came to mind. There is much more to see on my website, including my photography galleries, my blog, and my growing Motion page. Visit secondfocus.com #InternationalPicnicDay #Weimar #WeimarBerlin #Pornochic #EroticPhotography #FashionPhotography #Photography #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

@DeltaofVenusbyV Love this photo!

International Sushi Day | Grab and Go Fast Food Last Thursday was International Sushi Day. There seem to have been a lot of "National" and "International" food days lately, and I simply couldn't keep up with all of them. So here we are a few days late. This photograph is one of the few in my fast food project where I left the food in its original container. Normally everything comes out of the packaging and onto a black background, but this one deserved an exception. The deep purple tray, the neat arrangement, and the bright colors of the salmon, tuna, shrimp, avocado, and pickled ginger are all part of what catches your eye in the grocery store. To me, this is fast food in a different form. It is freshly prepared, packaged, refrigerated, and ready to grab on your way home for lunch or dinner. No drive through required. Not all that long ago, finding sushi usually meant visiting a Japanese restaurant or a specialty market. Today it has become a common sight in grocery stores, where fresh rolls are made throughout the day and sold alongside sandwiches, salads, and other grab and go meals. There is a lot more food to tempt you on my website, along with my other photography projects, my Motion page, and my blog, which is updated almost daily. Visit secondfocus.com #InternationalSushiDay #Sushi #GroceryStoreSushi #FastFood #GrabAndGo #ConvenienceFood #FoodPhotography #CommercialPhotography #SecondFocus #IanLSitren

Meet Roxanne Yesterday was World Tapas Day. I was looking forward to photographing Roxanne with a table full of Spanish tapas. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, as anyone who spends much time working with AI knows, prompts occasionally get interpreted a little differently than intended. Apparently Roxanne thought I had asked for topless instead of tapas. By the time she arrived at the studio, the misunderstanding had become fairly obvious. I explained that World Topless Day isn't until August, but by then everyone agreed there wasn't much point in changing anything. Besides, it fit my Pornochic photography a lot better than a plate of olives and Manchego cheese. The tapas can wait for another day. In the meantime, I'd like you to meet Roxanne. She is one of Emily's ever growing circle of AI friends and muses, and I suspect you'll be seeing quite a bit more of her in the months ahead. As always, you'll find more photography, my blog, and my growing Motion page at secondfocus.com #Roxanne #EmilyAndFriends #AIArt #AIPhotography #PromptEngineering #WorldTapasDay #Pornochic #StudioPhotography #Photography #SecondFocus

A Kodachrome Moment with Tonisha Mills One of the things I enjoy most about collecting photographs is finding original pieces that represent a particular moment in the history of photography. This Kodachrome transparency of model Tonisha Mills is one of those photographs. Unlike many vintage photographs that circulate today as digital scans or magazine reproductions, this is the original 35mm color transparency. It still carries its Kodak processing marks along with the handwritten filing numbers that were added when it became part of a photographer's or studio's working archive. Tonisha Mills was one of the best known models to appear in men's magazines during the 1990s, a period when this style of photography was changing. As magazines became more competitive, photographers gradually moved beyond the traditional pin up style that had dominated earlier decades. That's what first caught my attention about this slide. When I first looked at it, I immediately thought about where it fit in that progression. By the 1990s, photographs revealing what lay between a model's legs were becoming increasingly common, but they were still usually presented with some restraint. Looking back now, this transparency represents an interesting point in the evolution of men's magazine photography before completely explicit images became commonplace. The Kodachrome film adds another layer of interest. By the time this photograph was made, digital photography was beginning to appear on the horizon, but professional photographers were still relying heavily on color transparencies for publication and reproduction. Looking at this original slide on a light table is much the same experience the photographer, editor, or magazine art director would have had when deciding whether it was the image they wanted. That connection to the photographic process is one of the reasons I enjoy collecting original transparencies. They are more than just pictures. They are the original photographs that passed through the hands of the people who created and published them. If you enjoy discovering unusual pieces of photographic history, take a look through my From My Collections gallery. While you're there, you'll also find my editorial, aviation, food, fashion, and fine art photography, my growing Motionpage, and regularly updated Blog. Everything is available at secondfocus.com #TonishaMills #Kodachrome #FilmPhotography #VintagePhotography #PhotographyHistory #NudePhotography #EroticPhotography #MensMagazines #35mm #FromMyCollections #SecondFocus

The Photograph That Forgot Its Name I bought this 35mm color slide simply because it interested me. It came mounted in an ordinary cardboard slide carrier with absolutely no identifying information. There is no photographer's name, no date, no studio stamp, no model identification, and not even a handwritten note to suggest where it came from. What remains is the photograph itself. The image shows an unidentified blonde model seated on what appears to be a Louis XV-style stool in a carefully lit studio. The hairstyle, lighting, and the fact that it is a color transparency all suggest it was probably photographed sometime during the 1950s or early 1960s, although without any documentation that can only be an educated guess. One of the things that attracted me is that it represents a period when glamour photography was changing. Earlier artistic nudes were often presented in black and white, while color transparency film was becoming practical enough for professional photographers and serious amateurs willing to invest in it. Every exposure had to count. There was no instant review, no deleting mistakes, and no Photoshop waiting at the end of the process. We'll probably never know whether this was made by a commercial glamour photographer, a camera club member, or simply someone who enjoyed creating carefully crafted studio photographs. Photography has produced millions, perhaps even billions, of images over the years, but surprisingly few remain connected to the people who created them. Slides become separated from their boxes, handwritten notes disappear, studios close, and estates are dispersed. Eventually an image survives while everything that once explained it is gone. This transparency is one of those survivors. If you enjoy discovering unusual pieces of photographic history, take a look through my From My Collections gallery. While you're there, you'll also find my editorial, aviation, food, fashion, and fine art photography, my growing Motion page, and regularly updated Blog. Everything is available at secondfocus.com #Photography #VintagePhotography #FilmPhotography #ColorSlide #35mm #GlamourPhotography #PhotographyCollection #PhotoHistory #VintageCollectibles #FromMyCollections #SecondFocus

Yesterday was National Bourbon Day. I had every intention of posting this last night. However I was… celebrating. Fortunately, someone remembered to keep the camera rolling. The scene looked something like this. A long chrome-and-glass bar, glasses of bourbon lined up from one end to the other, and what appeared to be an endless row of identical redheads in little black dresses. They all seemed perfectly content to sit there, sip their bourbon, and look directly at the camera. I have no explanation for why they all looked exactly alike. It may have been the bourbon. The video is only about twelve seconds long, but I thought it deserved a little extra time, so I looped it a few times. If you’re going to celebrate National Bourbon Day, you might as well do it properly. Emily and her ever-growing circle of AI Muses have once again demonstrated that reality is optional. If you’d like to see more of my photography, explore my Motion page, and read the stories behind many of these projects, you’ll find it all at secondfocus.com #NationalBourbonDay #Bourbon #Whiskey #BourbonBar #CocktailBar #Nightlife #AIArt #AIVideo #Cinematic #Motion #Redheads #LuxuryBar #Satire #Humor #SecondFocus #IanLSitren