Beauty, Glamour and Fetish Photography

I have wanted to shoot with Liz Ashley for quite a while, but she usually shoots in Texas, her home base, or the West coast. We have traded messages before and I told her to keep me in mnd if she decided to travel to the East Coast.

She gave me some dates, and I picked one that worked for me. We had discussed concepts and MU and she assured me that she was an accomplishe MUA.

It’s amazing how ordinary most models look when they first arrive. The generally come with no MU and after we decide what we will shoot, they  go to work. Liz does have natural beauty, but when she came out with the first look, I was really impressed. We had decided to shoot some lingerie on silver satin sheets and I experimented with some portable flash units rather than the larger strobes. Everything worked quite well and than we switched out to the main shooting area for some latex shots.

Since she hadn’t shot in latex before, I had to help her into several outfits. She has a wonderful figure and looked great in the skin tight latex.

One of the models I started shooting with in April is scheduled to move to NY for a year while attending FIT for fashion merchandising. I had scheduled a shoot with her and a really good MUA that both of us like for a Sunday morning at the beginning of August.

Carrie arrived a few minutes early and we talked and laughed while waiting for Crystal. 10:00 came and went with no Crystal. We tried texting and calling but she wasn’t answering or returning messages. After about an hour we gave up because Carrie hadn’t brought any MU and I don’t stock any. Neither of us have heard from Crystal in over three weeks although she has been on her myspace page since then.

Fortunately, Carrie really wanted to do the shoot, and managed to move another shoot around to give us another Sunday morning to work. I asked my friend Kim to come and do MU and hair and fortunately, she was available.

We started out with some swimsuits, and Carrie looks really cute. I’m not crazy about them, I guess I’m spoiled by shooting swimsuits in the Carri bean. It’s difficult to make them seem great in a studio.

Then we shot is a silver outfit I had gotten from another model and some designer hologram leggings. Carrie looked great in 4″ platform heels.

Last we shot in a small, purple latex dress with some black heels and then white ballet heel boots. The last ones had to be done sitting down as it’s almost impossible to walk in those heels.

A model who I have exchanged messages with for over a year finally decided to make a short tour of DC and NY. Engel is six feet tall and slender, with short hair and a great face. Since she isn’t any good with MU, I had my friend Kim come over and help us out.

Since she is tall, I wanted to try shooting my posture collar that wound up being too tall for Steph to wear. Kim did an interesting little design on Engel’s cheek and we shot a few like that. The collar fit beautifully and she looked great. Then we tried a few in my only real corset, and combined it with a KVO Designs necklace and a red latex skirt. The straps proved a little short, but gave an interesting look off her shoulders.

I have an interesting red and white fabric collar that we tried too, but I’m not as happy with that look. We switched out of that one pretty quickly and used  my green latex collar from France and the pasties that came with it. Engel is primarily an art/nude model, so I warned her that we wouldn’t be shooting anything past this style.

Lastly, I had an idea for a SteamPunk style shot. I have a cool pair of goggles and an interesting old electronic tester that I paired with my iPod earphones. a cute little white ruffled blouse completed the look. We decided to try some different face MU and Engel suggest some gears. We showed Kim a picture and she drew some beautiful gears on Engel’s face in silver and gold.

Altogether it was a rewarding shoot.

I’ve been so busy shooting that I haven’t posted in a while, so I have new images to post.

When I shot Victoria, Steph was here too and we shot till late that night, even after my MUA, Kim, had gone home. It turned out that a couple of outfits didn’t fir Steph well and we had to scramble to find things that worked.

Kim did a really good job with the MU and we shot a latex posture collar firs. It was a small sixe, but it was still a bit too tall for Steph’s neck. Then we shot with a reall, steel boned corset. Unfortunatel, I didn’t shoot enough full lenth shots to really show off her curves, more next time.

Then we grabbed the latex bra and panty from my favorite designer, HMS Latex in Paris, and Steph looke awesome in it. With the lighting and post processing, the plum color came out looking like a candy apple.

Recently, Victoria came back to DC for a second time to work with some local photographers that missed her on her last visit. She is always a fun house guest and has a spreadsheet of her shoots and times all mapped out when she arrives.

We planned to shoot on Friday evening, but I didn’t have a specific theme in mind. I asked her what she would like to shoot and she replied that she wanted some lingerie glamour shots for her portfolio. It seems that most other photographers wat to shoot nudes with her, but she wanted some diversity in her on line portfolio.

We found a cute little bra and thong in a green color that looked great on her. Some gold satin sheets and we were ready to roll. I like to play around with lighting, and we got what we both think are pretty good shots. Her hair is longer since her last visit and really looked good.

I recently connected with a young girl who has only recently started modeling. She shot with Anna, a photographer friend, and has a great look. She is enthusiastic and really like to play in front of the camera.

Our first shoot was jsut okay, but I wasn’t really happy with my performance, so I asked her to come back for a latex shoot.  I also convinced a local MUA to come and work with us.  Crystal does an amazing job on MU and hair, and both of them were laughing when they were dressing Barbie. Getting into a latex dress is different than putting on anything else.

When Barbie came out, the look was just what I want to have. The colors in the dress and her MU were perfectly complimentary and the finished look in the dress, collar and mits was great. We played around with some head shots, some 3/4 shots with a beaded curtain, and my favorite, shots with an old Shure ‘Elvis’ microphone.

Then we switched MU and a different hairstyle to do some headshots with a mirror and a latex collar.

Last year I joined an organization of photographers, models, MUAs and Wardrobe stylists. It was started by a woman photographer in PA. but most of the get togethers are held in NJ. Unfortunately for me, the big party/shoot functions are on Thursday nights and it’s a four hour drive for me. Last month however, they held a special shoot on a Sunday.

Sharon, one of my favorite models was going to be there, and another NJ based model I’ve always admired was also in the line up. I sent Mayte a message and she was agreeable to shoot with me. I left early in the morning for the long drive and found the studio, on the second floor of an old warehouse easily. I introduced myself to a few of the other attendees, spoke with a MUA I know and set up my lights.

Sharon was the first to arrive and we mapped out the sets to use and her wardrobe.  As usual, Sharon does a great job on her own MU and hair and looked awesome. We shot some latex from Ego Assasin in Canada and also anoutfit from Sophie in Paris. Shoots went fine and Sharon moved on to work with some other photographers.

Mayte showed up, and is even more beautiful in person. She is an Egyptian/Mexican mix and has a wonderful exotic look with great, long black hair. I shot her in a latex ensemble from Sophie and I am really pleased with the results. Unfortunately, I had little time left before I started the long drive home, but Mayte has agreed to shoot more with me at a later date. Hard to believe that she was a Rodeo Champion and later served in The Marines.

I met Erin last spring when I started shooting at the Criswell Honda Motorcycle  Dealer’s  Wednesday night Bike Nites. A promotion by the dealer to attract more traffic, sometimes there would be almost 300 bikes there. They would have a DJ, a Wheelie Machine, food and gales and four or five girls from the local Hootes handing out hot wings. Erin was the most outgoing of the Hooters girls, with a great smile and attitude.

She asked me if I would take some pictures for her portfolio and I agreed, hoping I might get a paying connection with other girls from Hooters.

She brought a few dresses and a black pantsuit that was pretty nice, I supplied some shoes and a prop microphone.

She has a really pretty face and a great smile.

I have shot Alexis before and she is a lot of fun. She called about doing a shoot for The Swollen Skateboard Company, I think they are in Baltimore. She also had some clothes from a designer she knows that she wanted to shoot. I had the most fun with the skateboard shots, his design  on the board is interesting and colorful.

A model I had met a few years ago, but never shot with had moved to Texas shortly after I met her. She has been working with a very good photographer in Texas and has a really good portfolio now, and she poses very well. She came into town to visit some relatives and I took the opportunity to get in a small shoot with her.

She is a very small woman and I had a great Armani jacket I wanted her to wear, along with a necklace I got from a designer friend, Karen Von Oppen.

I’m very happy with how the images came out, although the jacket didn’t show up quite as well as I had hoped it would.