I met Neil “FrizzyCube” Nakahara in 2005 when Myspace was still an acceptable form of social networking. Before the website got filled with creepy stalkers, I befriended Neil through some pleasant exchanges, and we set up a shoot. We chatted on the phone and talked for hours–I had not done that since junior high, back when I loved to prank call people and obviously before *67 and *69. Neil explained his “Toasty Hot” photo shoot concept to me and scooped me up for a shoot shortly thereafter.

Neil’s assistant at the time had full access to this amazing steel factory outside of Manhattan. After a few hours of set-up and shooting, I noticed that the strobes kept moving. One time I looked over, the softbox slowly slid from one side to the other. No drafts, no A/C…just an empty, dark, cold and creepy steel mill. I pointed it out to Neil, and as we both watched the light move from left to right, he said the light had moved five or six meters away from where he originally placed it. Zoiks!

Neil mentioned this experience in the latest issue of Flavour Magazine, this really fabulous e-zine based in the UK. With printed magazines going out of business left and right, it looks like e-zines represent the wave of our future–and Flavour easily takes the cake as a pioneer. Check out the cool interface. I enjoyed sitting in front of my computer, flipping through its pages.

I got the warm fuzzies AND cold chills when I read pp. 68-69. First of all, how cool is it to get a shout-out by one of the most sought-after digital artists/photographers out there? I have some of his big-wow PSD’s sitting on my desktop, and I marvel at the level of skill, time and effort he puts into one single piece of artwork. Any Photoshop geek would appreciate the layers upon layers of tips and tricks in a single FrizzyCube PSD file.

Neil spent countless hours teaching me Photoshop. Every time I get stumped with a retouching problem, he comes up with an easy fix. I want to start something new on my blog next year where I interview photographers that have greatly influenced my work. If you have any interview questions for Neil, please post them in the comment section below. In the meantime, take a gander at FrizzyCube’s dreamy photos (www.frizzycube.com) and show some love!