Happy May Day! The summer is officially on its way. I can't wait to be able to hop into the pool here at work on a sizzling day. You may have seen my comrads indulging in yesterday's Daily Word. Unfortunately, I was a little too busy with helping on the May issue to partake. Nonetheless, I'm sure it was worth it because I think members are going to really appreciate the upcoming content. Within...

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A long time ago (when the dinosaurs ruled the earth) I bought my first camera and completely fell in love with photography. The first pictures I took were in the mountains of Colorado and with no more than about 100 presses of my shutter I was soon to be addicted for life. Like Steve Martin discovering sex in the Jerk, I really and truly found my ‘special purpose’. I look back on all the years (decades) and feel so amazingly blessed to have found what I loved so early in life.

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first of all... hola amigos-viva el cinco de mayo!!! Not too long ago I wrote a daily word about my favorite models and meggan appeared on that short list…I hadn’t seen or heard from her since our shoot last fall—oh where oh where is maggan I wondered…to my surprise she came and visited us yesterday! looking a bit different- beautiful all the same, but different – first of all her hair was solid brown which makes her green eyes look even more mezmorizing- but more notab...

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To each his own, to be sure, but as a group certain preferences are inevitable. As a result, our Top Rated Models page (members only) is always an interesting place to look. It's got a finger on the pulse of our members, and having looked at for a while I thought I'd share those girls our members judge to be the best of the best. First up, as always is Shay Laren, followed closely by Kyla Cole and Cassia Riley. They'...

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I wrote last month about meeting a neighbor who told me a story about having to position his auto on the soft slope of the mountain side in order to improve his wireless signal. And the reason he did this in the first place was to get a look at one of our updates featuring a former school mate, Dakota Rae. Well yesterday afternoon we took him up on his offer to come on up to his ranch and shoot. Not only did he help me unload the gear from my pick-up, he for some reason offered to...

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Whats up guys- So this week has been a great week but also a tough week. Three days of production is awesome, but a lot of man power goes into it. At the end of the day, looking and hangout with some of the hottest girls is all worth it. Tuesday was a great day, the production team went across the mountain range and Stephen went at it shooting this amazing model named Meggan Mallone. It was pretty sweet to be working outside in the mountain range at this house that b...

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Throughout these many years of shooting I've cycled through various shooting locales-my first (daylight) studio in West L.A., beaches in Baja Mexico, the coast of Australia, houses in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Palm Springs and other assorted Southern Cal homes, our Simi house (which we owned for less than two years) and now our new Ranch location. At these various places I've shot with natural light, strobe light, tungsten light and fluorescent light. Some days it's challenging, s...

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Morgan dayne is a fire cracker- I know I havent been shooting that long, but in my short career, ive never met a more sexually charged/ friendly/outgoing girl…she hung all over the crew and I all day…literally…im sure one of the behind the scene photos of her on my back will appear some how some way- yeah—she just jumped on during a card change out---by the end of the day I didn’t even flinch when she mounted up for a piggy back ride… besides that there were blown kisses, winks, tongue tricks, l...

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Time for your initial preview of the June issue of Digital Desire. It features as always some enhanced reposts of some classic Hicks photography work as well as some new wonderful additions. The Covergirl will be another quick turnaround set. The Meggan Mallone still set and video shot at the burned out building discussed in Johnny's Daily Word last week cannot be denied. Awesome work by the team and Stephen can't wait to share the end result. Check out these other previe...

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About a year after I completed college, a former photography classmate of mine invited me to assist her on a job on the island of St. Martin. Flying to St. Martin meant boarding a puddle jumper in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the short hop to this Virgin Isle paradise. As would have it, our flight from Miami to San Juan was delayed and we missed the last prop plane to our final destination. As most of you flyers know, when an airline cannot make their connection a good deal of free...

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Heather Vandeven has made quite a name for herself in the small amount of time she has been in the industry. She has been most notably featured in Penthouse magazine as Penthouse Pet of the Year 2007. She had no trouble learning how to shine, being born in Hollywood, CA. Heather stands 5'8, with an über-athletic body. She was in the US Army for 2 and a half years, where she worked in food ...

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In light of the recent natural disasters that have just transpired in China and Myanmar I’ve noticed the heavy hearts worn by many of the women around me. My wife in particular is having a very hard time with making sense of it all. With earthquakes, cyclones, a nation wide recession, a war in Iraq that makes no sense, world hunger, genocide in Africa and seemingly so much pain around the globe it’s hard for her to claim her joy. This morning at the breakfast table this pho...

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Id like to introduce you to cassandra cruz if you don’t already know/know of her---this south american was born in new jersey and is as speecy spicy as they get… Cassandra is instantly an eye catcher because of her exotic good looks- she has beautiful rich skin, which I couldn’t help matching up with white cotton sheets-to me it doesn’t get much sexier than a gorgeous girl, with tan skin, lying on white cotton sheets damn it--- mr hicks turned me onto this look long ago, and am I e...

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Hello to all of you: Man Oh Man summer is here. The weather in southern California is the best around this time. The sky is blue, the mountains are green, the waves are crashing and all of all the ladies are out and about in bathing suits. LOVING IT. Back there at the Hicks ranch is a ...

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One of my responsibilities here at the ranch involves dealing with people. As contractors and delivery folk visit the ranch smiles abound and light conversation is common. Yes, here on the ranch everything and everyone, for the most part, is fine. I believe each and every one of us is thankful for each of our days. And it is what we project. Over yonder, in the outside world beyond the fencepost and gate, I am often shown that it is another chapter. In fact it’s a whole other book.

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The blog is dead, and has been for some time. We used to run a blog here, at http://blog.digitaldesire.com, but it's been defunct for almost a year now. It had a good run though, and I, as its tireless champion have decided to run a tribute to some of my favorite blog posts. If you have an opinion about this btw, please post it on the brand new forum at the thread for this post:

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Heres the scoop—meet tori paige—she was just in the office for an interview---shes a photo virgin from what I understand---although I see here on her info sheet that she has done a point of view video, simply entitled “pov vol. 28”—havent seen that one, but im sure it’s a real piece of art, yes… She seems like a sweet girl for only knowing her 10 minutes—originally from new york.. tori’s been traveling pretty extensively lately---at the moment I think she calls the Carolinas her hom...

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Good Monday and Memorial Day Morning!!! I want to start by sharing a beautiful image from the coming June issue of the Digital Desire online publication--- I find Natalia Cruze(aka Sophia Santi) the epitome of sex incarnate. I love how you can barely start to see her back tattoo starting to peek around her side in this shot. I have read on the boards and in emails the distaste...

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No matter what your reality sometimes it’s just good to ‘get out of Dodge’. I’ve got a great life back home—a loving wife and family, a talented and committed staff at the Ranch, and of course a job I truly enjoy. But indeed, sometimes I’ve just got to get away—you know, go somewhere else and just have a completely different routine—the pause that refreshes (hopefully).

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My office becomes the model’s room during our production days. Suitcases and clothing occupy every inch of horizontal surface. Here everything from make-up, hair styling, and wardrobe changes take place. And yes—I love the last one on the list even though the distractions can be a little too much sometimes. Take last Thursday….. Charlie Lane is a model who has brought us consistently great images through the four or five years that we have been working with her. In the early d...

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Screw Beckham and Posh Spice, today we were all enamored by the UK for sending over Nikki Jayne. This girl's eyes are gorgeous, not to mention her tall voluptuous figure. The sun was out, the weather was fine, and Nikki was in top-form. Shout-out to Manchester! Most of these shots I snuck at lunch while ...

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From my earliest days of being involved in photography I can remember how often I experienced photographers as being smug, conceited and arrogant. This wasn’t easy in my early days. Having competed with fellow ‘shutter bugs’ at the University of Colorado, later Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara and then professionally once my career began, I was constantly subjected to that ‘my shit don’t stink’ attitude. Naturally I was elated when I met successful talented lensmen wh...

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