Posted by Henry Butz on July 15, 2005 at 13:12:13:
You may have noticed the addition of some annoying disclaimers in the nude and glamour areas. See my rant from June 1st, Land Of The Free, Home Of The Criminal Photographers. This is a fine example on how my photography has a mind of its own. You may think I'm sitting here, hiring models, and carefully composing images to display on this website. It doesn't work like that. It's actually like total chaos, running a website out of my messy 1-bedroom garden apartment, waiting for models to show up and shooting whomever, whatever passes in front of my lens.
But, I digress. One day, an extremely cold icy day in January, with snow piled to the bottom of my windowsill, an attractive co-ed followed me home from a photography class. We got drunk, the clothes came off, and (yada, yada, yada) I converted my bathroom into a darkroom to process the mountain of black and white film containing the impressions of her nude body. A few of the more kinky models who followed asked to be spanked. Being the gentleman that I am, I obliged and photographed some cherry red cheeks being subjected to a heavy leather paddle. In the years which followed, I found myself with images on the razor's edge of being sexually explicit, then crossed that line with glee. Along come The Feds trying to clean up the Internet (for some hidden addenda) and they turned hbutz.com (this website) into a lightning rod for a long list of felony charges. I hired a brilliant attorney who converted my amateur hobby into a sole proprietorship business to shield me from being locked away in prison for 45+ years (that's important). Now, I'm a professional photographer. But, gee; I don't feel any different (but, I sleep better at night).
The website now, however, has these stupid disclaimers. My own personal opinion is that I am doing nothing to contribute to the delinquency of minors; however, in the good 'ol US of A, we purveyors of nude images must take into consideration the most conservative and easily offended of people (you people in Utah know who you are). I have been asked by counsel not to just simply throw nude images at you without warning. I guess that's a legitimate request. In real life, I warn people before I break out the nude photographs. So, here come the disclaimers. Please read them, as you will be held legally responsible for its content. You won't find any disclaimers in New York City art galleries. But, then again, we're a bit more... what's the word? progressive in the "Big City."
So, what's the good news? The good news is, the Erotica Area is back! The bad news is that I took down the on-line archives aka "The Morgue." Under Title 18 Section 2257, I have to keep a freaking archive of everything which goes on the website, cross-referenced to every model by the last name, double-cross-referenced to every known alias. Well, a double-cross-reference to a cross-reference to an archive of archived images was a bit too... recursive for me. For now, I just yanked the old stuff. If and when the new laws are repealed, I'll open the door on The Morgue again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Oh. I added a bit of sophistication to my formmail script. You people really do love to double-click on buttons, or submit the same form over and over again a few times. Patience! Slow down. No need for all that superfluous clicking. (sigh) When you send email via the contact page or send a modeling application, you will get an automatic reply aka autoresponder. If you click twice, you get two. If you click three times, you get three. Sense a pattern? There are javascript applets which will disable a button once it's clicked, but what if you don't have javascript? My solution is to add some intelligence to the formmail script. Now, it remembers your name and the last time you clicked. It's instructed to send no more than one (1) response per day. That makes more sense. Click once, click twice, click and go nuts. I aim to please.
Finally - more landscape photographs. Besides some additions to the Erotica Area, be sure to check out my new color work. I have found the perfect balance between the digital realm and images crafted with silver halide crystals. I am shooting color slides and scanning them on an Epson flatbed scanner. There, I do my touch-up work to remove dust, lint, and hair with a minimum of digital enhancement. The results are spectacular. Film blows away my digital camera. But, I still have the advantage of digital processing and do not have to venture into the darkroom. It's wonderful. Be sure to check out the latest additions in my landscape section.
Enjoy!
hey - drop me a note and tell me that you appreciate me. You never write anymore.
Henry
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