First Shoot with Arya

Arya in Knit

 I had my first shoot with Arya yesterday. I've not had any shoots for the last three weeks, and I'll soon be wrapping up for the year and starting my seasonal editing. I mean, when it's wet and cold outside, it's much better to be editing than during the warm, dry months when I'd prefer to be shooting.

Anyway, I had previously contacted the first week of August, but we weren't able to schedule anything until this past week. Since the weather has turned for the season, by necessity our shoot was in my home studio. 

Spangles and Skin

For our first shoot, I chose to go with my On Black project which requires a simply three light setup (key, fill, and rim) and a black, light absorbing backdrop. 

For this project, I use various types of jewelry and body chains. I like the contrast of textures––shiny metal and jewels against the skin made to really pop by the light. In most cases, I use also use a table or ottoman on which the model can pose. This requires the model to use compact poses, but one look at Arya and I knew that wouldn't work. 

Arya is a lovely girl with long legs and arms and a torso to match. Given her height and frame, even with compact poses, keeping all of her and the background in frame would be tough without using a short focal length. A wide angle lens distorts the face when used close to the model, so I chose instead to use standing poses. 

Punk Metal Masks

Arya brought an escort with her, primarily because she doesn't drive. He mainly kept to himself and browsed his phone while we shot. Arya posed well and we kept up a nice conversation as we worked. I enjoyed working with her and we definitely got some good shots. She was the first model to pose with my new cyber-punk metal masks and made them look good. 

More Composites Featuring Merrique

Solid Gray Backdrop

The mottled gray backdrop worked well for the compositing with Floofie, but I wanted to see if a solid gray backdrop would be even better. Merrique came over to help me try it out, once again using the setup in my living room. I had already spent a full day driving down and back to shoot with Joey the day before, but Merrique was available and I had the time, so why not?

The backdrop material felt thicker than the previous backdrop. The wrinkles and seams stood out more prominently as well, but since the backdrop would be removed during the compositing process, I didn't worry about that. I definitely won't be using this backdrop for portraits, though, at least not without giving it a good steaming first. 

Forest Queen

Merrique and I shot sixteen outfits to use for my future photoshopping endeavors. The costumes ran a wide gamut of styles. They included fantasy tunics, Hawaiian shirts, metallic bikinis, and even a sweater. I can always count on Merrique to give me a great variety of poses and I took full advantage of her time to get as many variations as possible. 

Fun Look

After downloading the images and starting the editing process I noted that removing the backdrop didn't require significantly less effort than the previous version. Neither version had an advantage over the other, but the solid gray version was larger. That would make it better for landscape aspect shots or for a larger studio space allowing the photographer to be further from the model.  

The experiment yielded no surprises, but I did get to shoot with Merrique, so that's a win. 

On Holiday

Goddess Joey

Blue Goddess

I've been going to the Siuslaw Valley for a few years now, ever since Joey invited me down for a shoot. I was the first photographer to take her up on the offer, and I try to get down there at least once a year. The two of us have shot all over the valley and traveled to a few places outside the valley to shoot as well. Joey's charge is to find the locations while my responsibility lies with choosing the concept and bringing the costumes and props. 

I've been wanting to shoot a fall shoot in the valley and during our most recent shoot I had asked Joey to find us a new spot to shoot. So we set a date for early fall and I made the trip down earlier this week.

Sun Goddess

Joey had told me she had found a great new spot. True to her word, it made an excellent location for what I wanted to shoot. As a bonus, it wasn't far from her home. This time of year, before the rainy season has returned, the river runs shallow and warm so we managed to get some shots in the river as well. 

I had mentioned to Joey that I wanted to do a set of Celtic Goddess images with woad drawings on her face and body and she was excited to do something different like that. We also started later in the day that I normally shoot because I wanted to use the evening sun instead of morning light. That worked out well for us because the river ran to the west side of our location giving us light under the trees for the final part of our shoot. We didn't stop shooting until the light failed.

Celtic Warrior

Our shoot started without the woad designs though, since I wanted to shoot some unpainted goddess versions before she applied the hard-to-remove body paint. We began under the trees with sheer gowns and backlighting from the late afternoon sun. 

Despite being in a county park, the location stayed mostly deserted during our shoot. The first interruption occurred when a man and his dog came looking for a friend. We heard both of them long before they hiked up the trail to our spot. The guy accepted our word we hadn't seen his friend and off he went, pup in tow, back down the trail from whence he came.

Nude Goddess

Our second encounter didn't count as an interruption because no one came anywhere near us. A truck simply pulled into the area, a couple of guys jumped out, looked at the river, and left after just a few minutes. For the remainder of the shoot, no one bothered us. 

We shot for about 3 hours and got some great images. Joey looks great as a Celtic Goddess and warrior and she's much better at handling swords than 6 years ago during our first shoot.