CJ'S EXTREME CLOSEUP!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, just when I think it's time to hang up my hair and retire from the modeling business the phone rings and I'm off on another adventure. Although, this has been my best year ever in the business. I have a calendar out. Have done more covers than I can count and just made the cover of a magazine with an accompanying interview, so I really can't complain. But, still I do! I'm no spring chicken and have been thinking maybe it's time to let some of the young bucks take a turn. I also wanted to see if the camera and I, who have always been friends for so long were still on a first name basis.

So, when Annette Batista from the Between Your Sheets website called I was a bit apprehensive. They were putting together a calendar and were planning on shooting several romance cover models. The last model she photographed was 23 years old. I have been in the business for 25 years. You can do the math and see where I'm going with this. Actually, I did want to step out of my comfort zone and work with another photographer. I have been spoiled by the photos I get from a photographer here in Ohio and wanted to branch out a little.

Before I agreed to do the shoot with BYS, I insisted on a contract. They say with age comes wisdom, which would probably make me the wisest man on earth. My two and half decades in the business have taught me a thing or three. You can't really consider yourself a full-fledged model until someone has exploited your image for their own gain. The BYS company graciously worked with me on a contract the was amicable and beneficial to both of us.

Off to Tampa, Florida I went. The flight down was painless enough if I don't count the 2 screaming brats sitting behind me who continually kicked my seat.

Annette works full-time as a videographer for Fox television, but is also a gifted photographer. We shot the first night at the Fox studios. I was dressed in a black tuxedo to start with and posed like a 40's radio crooner.

Day 2 of the project we were off to the beach for a location shoot. We went to Fort DeSoto Beach. The beach was beautiful with it's white sand shore and gulf breeze. Little did I know that during the first few minutes of shoot I was posing barefoot standing directly in a fire ant hill. Ohio ants look very similar and I didn't think anything of it as the little bastards crawled all over my feet. Ohio ants don't bite either!!! It finally dawned on me that the ants were biting me over and over again when I felt the stings. I ran to the gulf to wash the insects off that refused to stop biting. The damage had been done.

Being the trooper that I am, I continued with the shoot. Annette suggested we try the mango grove more inland. I begrudgingly waded into a stream that was inhabited with fish, crabs and other sea-life that nipped at my legs. Having seen enough horror movies ("Anaconda" comes to mind!) in my lifetime and my previous experience with the ants I was very skeptical. I won't even mention stingrays. Shirtless, I went farther into the stream as the water rose to my waist. Innocently, Annette asked "CJ, can you go deeper....." I laughingly replied "Annette, I can go longer, faster and maybe harder....but I can't go any deeper!"

Shooting hundreds of photos on the beach, I suggested some pix in the ocean. I didn't bring a bathing suit, so I went in my boxer shorts. I pulled them down as far as I could for optimum flesh exposure. Annette commented that she could see the boxers in the shot. I said "Well, if I pull them down any further you're going to see something else!"

We had to wait for early evening so we could get some incredible sunset shots. I, once again suggested some semi-nude shots in the gulf during the last seconds of the shoot before we lost sun. Annette gallantly walked into the water for the second time that day to get the shots. I kept 2 hands on my "business" because I didn't want a shark mistaking it for a Big Mac or better yet a Whopper! After we finished Annette said "CJ, that's the second time today you made my pants wet!" I couldn't let that go and replied "You said that like it's a bad thing! I hear that a lot actually..."

Then, it was back to the hotel to change for more shots. As I was changing and combing the seaweed out of my hair, I noticed my feet were covered with dozens of raised red welts and blisters. The ants had left me a painful reminder. Before the shoot, I had dinner with my webmistress Kelli Salkin, who also lives in Tampa. She accompanied us on the last leg of our location shoot doing some behind the scenes shots.

As I raced through the hotel lobby in my tuxedo I was stopped by a guest who obviously thought I worked for Best Western. "Can you tell me how to get to the 3d floor?" Without missing a beat I directed him to the elevator and told him to enjoy his stay with us. (When was the last time you stayed at a Best Western hotel where they wore tuxedos?)

We finished the shoot in downtown Tampa at an historic hotel and local landmark. The last shots were taken right before midnight.

From day one Annette took a lot of close-ups of me. I was a tad weary thinking maybe the sands of time which are running out on my cover model career might show up on film. At one point, she said she could see the contacts in my eyes in some shots. I cringed. But, she showed me the digital pictures as soon as she took them and put my fears to rest...for now, anyway. So, I guess I will do this for a little while longer. As long as they keep calling, that is. Although, I did check out some retirement villages while I was in Florida. A man has to plan......

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