shoot Archives - Page 16 of 19

The Fall and Winter 2011 Continued – The Erotic Nude

December 29, 2011September 13, 2012 bill Leave a comment

Continuing to catch up on shoots I didn’t cover in the last few months of 2011. I’m developing a renewed interest in the erotic nude. I’ve shot erotic in the past, but focused more on outdoor and artistic nudes much of the year. In August I did my first erotic focused shoot in a while with Hannah and Jordana. I’ve worked with Hannah several times before, but this was the first time I’d worked with Jordana. The two models have worked together before and that comfort shows in their photos. A few wonderful sensual images from the shoot. Nothing fancy here, just playing with the erotic with two female models. You can probably tell I’m a big fan of the sensuality of eye contact.

Had an erotic shoot scheduled for today, but unfortunately she got sick and canceled. So this is the only erotic for now. Still I expect I’ll be exploring the idea a bit more in the future.

Catching up on Fall Shoots – The Last Outdoor Shoots of the Year

December 26, 2011September 13, 2012 bill 1 Comment

I’ve not posted on a shoot since Keira Grant at the end of September. Most of my writing time since then was devoted to my eBook. So now I can actually go back and catch up on those shoots. Instead of going through them by time or by model, I’m going to go by theme.

So first I’ll share a few images from my final two outdoor shoots of the year. I met Melissa Troutt in mid October to work on an outdoor shoot in a nice later October day. Weather was a little cool, but not bad for shooting outdoors. In fact it was so nice that everyone seemed to be out that day. We had trouble finding a spot with the isolation to shoot nudes as everyone seemed to be outside enjoying the beautiful late fall day. We did a few shots at one amazing spot were Melissa posed in some trees over a stream, but it was just a little too exposed. We finally ended up in a nice valley with some interesting rocks and overhangs for most of our shoot. We were at higher elevations so there were plenty of leaves already on the ground, but still a lot on the trees. Made for some nice mix of posing her among the leaves and still putting nice greenery around her. Some wonderful shots from the day.

My last fall shoot of the year came with Adrina Lynn. Last fall she and I had tried an outdoor nude shoot in November, but it was just too damn cold that day. We gave up after less than an hour. The lesson learned for me was valuable though in that I’ve learned to be much more careful about the weather. When Adrina came through in late October we had cool, but usable weather. We got an early start on a cool October morning and the two of us headed out to a new location. We worked further up the same stream and trails where I shot with Melissa, Keira, and Hannah back in June. I hadn’t scouted most of the area so it was a nice exploration along with the shoot. It turned out to be a very nice and isolated spot where we had time to really work. The water was too cold to get her in, but we could work along the rocks and trees around the water. Adrina really enjoyed the sun that day though as you can in the photos.

One last photo of Adrina, more a peek behind the scenes. Here you can see the big, happy smile on her face as I sat down in a puddle of water. Think of it as model’s revenge.

September Shoot with Keira

October 29, 2011July 12, 2012 bill Leave a comment

As September turns to October here, outdoor shoots become a bit more rare. It’s not that the weather isn’t still warm, it’s that it becomes unpredictable. Cool days become more common, the streams and waterfalls become colder, and damp, rainy days become more common. As October passes by I usually try to work in a few last shoots as the weather allows and this October I was fortunate that the weather cooperated on three shoots. First up I shot with Keira Grant on the last day of September on a bit chilly, but very workable day. Just to show how varied the weather can be this time of year the same area saw snow flurries the next night.

We started a bit later than I’d hoped because of a delay on my part, but the weather cooperated and we had great light for the shoot. Keira and I worked in an area I’ve shot several times over the last couple of years. While it’s one of my favorites, I feel that I’m going to take a break from shooting there for a while. I think I’ve shot there too many times in the last two years and feel some time away will let me come back with fresher eyes perhaps late next year.

The best feature of this area is a wonderful waterfall along with a huge rock formation that provides many nooks and crevices for shooting which Keria took full advantage of. An unexpected find was a tree that had fallen over during the summer and provided a new location. It made for along and productive day of shooting. My only disappointment came in the amazingly low water levels. The streams around falls were lower than I’ve ever seen it in the three years I’ve been going there for hiking and photography. Still some wonderful stuff and some examples below.

Multiple Exposures

September 21, 2011September 13, 2012 bill 4 Comments

Early this year I decided to play around with the idea of multiple exposures. The idea is to take several images of the same scene moving the model (or really anything in the photo, but with me it’s going to be a model) and then combining them into a single photo. I first tried this in a shoot with Nyxon early this year (other photo from shoot here). I made some mistakes that meant I never could get the results that I wanted from the shoots, but learned a lot to help the next time I tried the idea.

The warm weather started pulling me outdoors and I never got back to the idea and had decided to look at again when cooler weather returned. Then in early August Melissa Troutt and I discussed doing a shoot around exposures and met up in mid August to do that. Definitely felt that I’d learned from that first try and the results were much better this time. I’d purchased a film SLR earlier in the month so for part of the shoot we played around with the concept of the model photographing herself. I still learned some things that I’ll work next time I play with this idea this coming weekend, but this time got some great images out of the shoot.

A couple photos form the shoot. Some other photos from the same shoot, but a different concept coming soon.

July Outdoor Shoot

September 14, 2011September 13, 2012 bill 5 Comments

A few photos from from a late July shoot. First time I’d worked with her and quite enjoyable to work with. We did an outdoor shoot again and we made it to a waterfall that is one of my favorite spots. You’ve seen the location before in my shoot last fall with Melissa and Katlyn and I often shoot in the same area when not at the falls. The falls is very dependent on water flow and this day it just wasn’t there in spite of some decent rain in the days before.

Arched

Next to the Stream

Across the Bridge

A Shoot with Brynn Cook

September 5, 2011September 13, 2012 bill 2 Comments

Been a bit busy. A downside of working in education is that mid August through Labor Day are chaos and leave little time to do anything else. Not many shoots of late because of that as work combined with starting back on my graduate classes after a welcome summer off from being a student. I did get the chance to catch up with processing photos from some recent shoots. Here are a few photos from my July shoot with Brynn Cook, a wonderful model out of the Washington DC area. We did some work with fabrics and I like the results. As always click on an image to see the full size version.

Ten Days on the Road

August 9, 2011September 13, 2012 bill Leave a comment

I’ve not been able to shoot much of late. I’ve been travelling most of the last couple weeks for either work or fun with no time to shoot along the way. Two separate trips to Nashville and then a long road trip that stretched from Michigan to North Carolina. Just about every day began with getting up early before I was on the go all day and ending by going to bed late. The next day I’d repeat. I think I’ve had a taste of the life of some of the travelling models that I work with. Enjoyed the chance to see a lot of friends I don’t get to see that often along the way and spend a few days with a friend since college.

Over the weekend I did get a chance to do some flea market and yard sale shopping where I picked up some props for coming shoots. Along with the usual hats, coats, and belts I also ran into a great price on a Canon AE-1 film SLR with lenses and flash. Not looking to get into shooting film at the moment, but that might make a nice winter project when outdoor shooting goes away for a few months. Already have a plan to use the camera in a shoot later this week. Also have a shoot coming up on Sunday along with a couple last month to catch up on so expect more posts soon.

Speaking of outdoor shoots above is an interesting photos from a shoot with Bree Addams right before I started travelling. Posting with very little processing to show the interesting lighting effect on her at that moment. It almost looks like I’ve pasted her into the photo, but that’s how it came out of the camera.

Sometimes It Just Doesn’t Work

July 12, 2011September 13, 2012 bill Leave a comment

A recent shoot reminded me of an important lesson that sometimes a shoot concept just doesn’t work. I would expect this occasionally with an inexperienced model or when I’m working with a new model. In this case I was working with an experienced model that I’ve shot with many times before and always with great results. One of the concepts that I brought to shoot just didn’t work. The model couldn’t feel it and get into the right mindset. We tried for a while and she did get close a few times, but in the end she just never felt it and the shots just aren’t there.

My mistake came when I kept working on the idea even after it became obvious to me that she couldn’t get her mind into the right place. It’s true that she wanted to keep trying, but at some point I should have moved to another concept that held more promise. The reminder comes to adapt your shoot to the situation that you’re in and not being afraid to abandon a concept that isn’t working. You can always try it again another day or with another model. Here we didn’t have time for one concept and if I’d moved to that and left the other concept behind I think we’d had a more successful shoot.

An Outdoor Experiment in Three Parts–Keira Grant, Hannah Perez, and Melissa Troutt

July 8, 2011January 6, 2014 bill 1 Comment

After working with Keria Grant in mid May we discussed shooting again when she came back through the area in late June. As we finalized the date for the next shoot, I developed the idea of pairing her with another model in an outdoor setting. I’d taken two models on an outdoor shoot before with Melissa and Katlyn last fall with wonderful results, but felt I’d been too cautious and reserved in directing the shoot and not gotten all I could have out of such great models. I got some great images from that shoot, but always felt that I could have done more and if I’d been a bit more daring I could have gotten even better images.

I’ve mentioned my plans to experiment more this summer and as part of that plan I began to consider adding a third model to the shoot. I’ve worked with two models several times, but never three. I knew that adding another model would make things more difficult, but liked the additional possibilities it would add.

After lining up Melissa Troutt for the second model I also brought in a third model that I’ve worked with before in Hannah Perez. The biggest challenge I face getting ready for the shoot came in finding the correct location. I wanted a scenic outdoor location, but also needed a private one so three nude models could work for several hours without being concerned about onlookers. Several possible locations wouldn’t work due to storm damage or just not meeting my needs. I ended up deciding to use on one of the first locations that I scouted for the shoot back in early June while on another shoot.

The weather forecast the morning of the shoot was just a bit menacing, but the rain held off and we had an amazing shoot. Working with three talented models turned out to be a wonderful experience and almost every photo is great. In fact the most difficult task in editing these images came in picking the best photos out of the those taken. I honestly can say that I’ve not found myself with a greater ratio of great photos at the end of a shoot than this one.

Overall a lot of time and energy went into getting this shoot together and it’s not something I’d do every day in spite of the enjoyment and success. It surprised me how much mental energy it took to direct the shoot and keep things moving. This still was one of the most enjoyable shoots that I’ve ever done and worth all the effort put into it and I think the photos speak to that.

Shoot with Melissa

July 4, 2011September 13, 2012 bill 2 Comments

I kept busy last week with a couple shoots worked around some summer vacation. I’ve also spent a significant bit of time the last couple weeks pursuing an interesting and unexpected opportunity. I expect to know if that will come to pass something later this week and if so will make the next couple months very interesting.

A few days after working with Katlyn I went back to Asheville for a wonderful shoot with Melissa Troutt. We created some very nice images with three distinct looking sets all shot with a few dozen feet of each other. We also had an exciting moment where the ceiling fan in the room we were shooting in broke loose from its mount and only the wiring prevented it from falling down on top of us. We were able to get it shut off and taken down without injury and while I enjoy exciting shoots, that’s a bit more excitement than I’m usually looking for. Above is a nice image from the shoot.

The location had an amazing bathtub that we played with doing some more glamour images in addition to the artistic styled work we normally do together. An image I really like the to the right taken in that tub with Melissa forming a great arch with her body with the edge of the tub.

Happy July 4th to everyone and take a moment today to remember all those things it stands for.