In the Woods with C'est La Vie

I worked with K for the first time last summer. We had been planning to meet at Rooster Rock State Park this year for her to show me some new spots for shooting glamour. She had both modeled and shot there (she's also a photographer) and it lies equidistant from both our homes. It seemed like every time we planned to meet, the weather changed for the worse.  Last Friday, though the weather wasn't the best, we finally decided to just do it. 

I met her at the east end of the parking lot and gave her one last chance to avoid the chill, but she declined in favor of the shoot. We walked across the field and into the wooded area above the nude beach where she showed me a few of her favorite spots to shoot. She indicated that there were other spots in the area as well, and though we might encounter hikers, they would undoubtedly just pass on by. In fact, that did happen twice. K simply covered up and stepped to the side of the trail.

We started with some clothed shots until the morning chill eased, then shot some simple nudes at the end. The area is a decent alternative to Collins Beach. It offers an altogether different feel to the images that are more reflective of the Pacific NW forests. I have some ideas about what to shoot there this summer, but I'll need to do a bit more planning.

I've got one, possibly two shoots planned for this week. One is completely weather-dependent with a model I haven't had the opportunity to shoot with yet. I'm eager to work with her as I've been discussing the shoot with her husband and he's shown me some great examples of her work.

The other is with Jade. I shot with her last year on the beach. This time we're planning on a boudoir shoot in the studio. I'm interested to see her boudoir poses.

Two Days, Two Shoots Redux

C'est La Vie

I do enjoy landscapes, but glamour photography is my forté, so I was glad to get back to it. K, modeling as C'est La Vie, was my first shoot of the week. Petite K has a charming smile and easily kept up the conversation as we segued through the costumes I had picked for our shoot. 

When I had shot with Jessa last month, she had brought a couple of her own costume items that gave me an idea for a new concept: goddesses of nature. Based on that, I put together this shoot thinking to expand on the idea. I did a little shopping on Amazon, got a few new props, combined them with some existing outfits and materials I had in my inventory and created something new to shoot. 

Wicked Goddess

Since it was the first time shooting this concept, not everything came together as I had hoped, but that was entirely my fault and certainly not the models. K did an excellent job, but at some point we had a loder gentleman that started watching us closely from a distance and even followed us around to watch K pose. That made her so uncomfortable, I had to speak with the man and politely ask him to leave us be. Fortunately, he got the message and wandered off. There are drawbacks to shooting glamour outside even on a nude beach. Unless you're on private property, and sometimes even then, you can't be sure you don't have an audience.

After I got rid of our audience, we continued the rest of the shoot without incident. I think the shoot went pretty well, all things considered, and I thanked K for her patience and persistence when the shoot was complete. Since she was a photographer herself, we discussed other places to shoot as well, and made plans to shoot again.

When I arrived home,  I set the images to downloading and started setting up for the next days shoot. Fortunately, I'd done most of the prep before leaving for Banff so it was simply a matter of printing the release, loading the costumes and props, and swapping out the batteries in the cameras and flash. 

Nanci on the Shore

Early the next day I picked up Nanci W (@ndu1 on IG) at her hotel. We'd been chatting for a while prior to the shoot and we had discussed using lots of colors in our shoot. I did my best to make that happen. We had a fun conversation on our way to the shoot, and I have to say she's one of the nicest and most cheerful model's I've ever had the pleasure to shoot. 

We had an absolutely fun shoot. Nanci is very experienced and it showed in both her poses and her expressions. She has a great smile, but she can provide both a serious and sensual look when asked.  

Graffiti Girl

I picked a spot near the Sauvie Spaceship for our shoot so we could use the colorful graffiti as a backdrop. Nanci really liked the ship as well as most of the costumes and props. There are too many great shots to share here, but I put a lot of the tamer ones up on my Instagram page and I have many more to share there and on my Deviant Art account. When our shoot ended, I told Nanci what a great time I had shooting with her and I promised we'd try to shoot again when she came back to my area. 

Have a couple of more images on me: