Fresh Model in March

I had a great shoot this week with a lovely model that I hadn't had the pleasure of working with before. Isobel came to my home studio for my "On Black" series and we seemed to hit it off right away. Once I explained the concept I wanted to shoot, we got right to work and I could easily tell she was well-experienced as a model and quite comfortable with her body and nudity.

We shot a variety of jewelry pieces and I have to say Isabel has a huge repertoire of poses, She has an exotic look and a lean, fit body that lends itself well to art nude poses. 

I have shot several models for the "On Black" series, and I expect to shoot several more before I complete the series. I enjoy shooting a variety of skin and hair tones against a black backdrop. It's also interesting to see the poses the models can provide me in the confined space that I use for the concept. They are posing on a small table against a black backdrop that is only eight feet tall by seven feet wide. That means the poses have to be compact and yet still remain elegant. Some models are better at this than others.

I hope to use Isabel for a few more shoots this year. So, you'll see more of her in the coming months. She does, however, travel quite a lot. In fact, she's quite the world traveler so it might be tougher to schedule with her than with others, but I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, enjoy these shots.

February Fun

 I had three shoots this past month. Two shoots were with new models, local to my area, and the other was with one of my favorite models, Joey Darke. The first two shoots were a continuation of my "In Black" project and the last was an iteration of my "On Black" theme. And, when I say new models, I mean that I hadn't shot with them before, but they were both experienced and needed little to no direction during the shoots. 

Sunnie was the first model of February. Tall and slender, she primarily had worked as an alternative model and she cultured that look well. I planned to use her images for composites as well, but for this shoot I wanted t to create some dual-use images. I wanted images to use just as they were with a normal background, but then I also planned to extract the subject from that background to create composites. So this shoot was an experiment of sorts. And, it worked. 

Sunnie in Black

Composite Shot

Two days later, Joey arrived in town and the experiment continued. This time, I decided to shoot the model against a neutral background–light gray for this shoot. My thought was that the neutral tones would be easier to remove for compositing, but also provide a nice backdrop for unaltered images. This worked quite well, although my compositing skills still need a lot of work.

Joey in Vinyl

Vamp Hunter

The final shoot for February was with Olga Hersh. Olga is a vivacious blonde with a great attitude about art nude photography. She was quite comfortable with her body and came to the shoot ready to get started. She was attentive to the details of her makeup and hair and she was most adept with her poses. 

Due to her skin and hair tone, I planned to shoot here as part of the "On Black" series as I knew the contrast would work well.  With that in mind, I chose exotic jewelry and pearls as the sub-theme for the shoot. The jewelry I provided included torso chains, chainmaille jewelry, and gold chains that draped across her torso. 

Olga - Dewdrop Chains

Olga - Pearls

And that was that for February. I have only one shoot scheduled for March, with another new model to me. I haven't completely decided on the theme and props, but given the portfolio I've seen from the model, I think whatever I decide it will be a fun and productive shoot.