The Winter Fae

 

My second shoot of the year was a culmination of a years-long project. The Winter Fae has been the one concept in my Fae in Us all series that has eluded me for years. I purchased the custom wings for the shoot over a decade ago, along with boots, a tiara, and many other items I planned to use. Unfortunately, weather and locations, as well as road conditions, didn't cooperate. 

This year, I made plans to shoot it yet again. Kira told me of a location she had recently used for a snow shoot. It was at a high enough elevation that we'd have a good chance of snow, but it was also right off the highway so we wouldn't have trouble getting to the spot. Unfortunately, despite our plans, the mid-winter weather didn't cooperate, and a warm front moved through a couple of days before the shoot, erasing the snow with a cold rain. 

Determined to finally get the shoot, I suggested to Kira that we move the shoot to her studio and use one of the backdrops I had previously used for my Winter Pinup series. She agreed, and here are a couple of the results. 

Kira was also my Summer Fae, so having her as the Winter Fae created a nice bookend to the project.

 

I just finished my fourth shoot with Jade. This shoot differed from the previous three in that we focused on a warrior motif. This included the Sword & Chains theme, my Military Glamour (pinup) project, and Animal Print pinups. I asked Jade to go wilder with her eye makeup and to keep her hair to a more casual style consistent with the themes. 

For the location, I used a spot that has worked well for previous shoots with a similar theme. We shot in the early afternoon since these early days are now shorter. Fortunately, we had nice weather. Our shoot started with cool temperatures, but it warmed up nicely after the first hour of our shoot. 

After a bit of instruction on how to hold the swords and other weapon props, Jade's poses easily met and exceeded my expectations. She wore several sets of chains and wielded several swords, as well posing as an elven archer before we moved on to the military pinups. 

I brought along a portable Bluetooth speaker so we had music during our shoot. I like to have music during my shoots, and my models seem to appreciate it as well. Jade certainly liked my playlist and asked for a copy or a list of the songs I used. 

At the end of our shoot, I had a quick scare as my car's battery seemed to have died. Once I returned from asking the property owner for a jump though, it started right up (without a jump) and we headed home. 

Magical Vauntastic

Shooting with Nicole is a blast. For my second shoot with this beautiful lady, I chose a magical theme as we both have an interest in the fantastical. We picked a late afternoon shoot time to take advantage of backlighting from the sun for the outfits and the foliage behind the model. I had several concepts in mind that needed that style of lighting and the timing worked great for those shots.

Nicole had perfect makeup and hair for the shoot because we collaborated on the planning and I shared examples of what I wanted to shoot with her well ahead of the shoot. She's a very experienced and versatile model, so I expected no less. The property where we were shooting worked well for the concepts too, and we took full advantage of the backgrounds it provided. 

Nicole suggested several ideas we incorporated into the shoot. I love it when models give me suggestions and make the shoot a collaborative, rather than a directive process. Also, shooting with Nicole is just plain fun. 

Warrior Queen

Amira Chain and Mithroden Sword

I haven't shot the Sword & Chains concept for several years. I love the concept. It combines fantasy art, eroticism, pinup, and glamour with the idea of a strong, warrior woman. Inspired by the art of Boris Vallejo, Frank Franzetta, Luis Royo, Julie Bell, and others, I conceived the concept when I found beautiful chainmaille jewelry for sale by a company located in New England. The concept further gelled when I purchased several Kit Rae designer swords from an online company that specializes in the sale of swords and knives. Chainmaille & More provides the fantastical jewelry in my images, while BUDK.com provides the designer swords and other weapons flourished by my models.

Nicole V. inspired me to recreate the concept. A well-known model from my area, Nicole has a body well able to convey the idea of a strong, beautiful warrior.  Besides, when I approached her with the concept, she took to it immediately. A fan of fantasy art and writing like me, we both found the collaboration intriguing. 

Dewdrop Chains with Dual Swords

We had great weather for our shoot, and a great location too. We used Nicole and her partner's property which contained a large field, a wooded area abutting a creek, and a a couple of small groups of trees that provided excellent backdrops for our shots.

Nicole helped me greatly by conveying the heavy swords across the slippery rocks of the creek, leaving me free to carefully make my way without falling on my ass. I pre-staged the remaining chainmaille outfits and swords in the other areas where I planned to shoot (I had previously mapped out the shoot location), so we wouldn't have to go back and forth for props and outfits.

Ice Flame Blue Chains

We began our four-hour shoot in the wooded area starting with the Amira chains then worked our way through the Dewdrop, Raven, and Ice-Flame Blue sets. We shot the Ice-Flame Blue set and the accompanying blue sword with Nicole standing then kneeling in the shimmering blue waters of the creek. Each chainmaille outfit had a corresponding sword to go with it, and I think Nicole had great fun posing in each outfit.

We took a break after the woodland area shoot (mainly for me to rest) to hydrate, and then started shooting around a group of trees set near the west end of the field.  The remaining hours passed quickly. Nicole did an outstanding job with each set of chains and sword, and we rapidly completed shooting chainmaille sets. Nicole was in her element with the battle axe and Valkyrie chainmaille, but she also enjoyed all the chains with little bells that jingled.

Valkyrie Chains with Battle Axe

We had time left to shoot a couple of barefoot glamour and pinup concepts I had hoped to shoot and Nicole provided wonderful poses for those concepts as well.  During the entire 4 hours of shooting, Nicole made great suggestions and we had a wonderfully collaborative process. The images have turned out beautifully, and the shoot was one of the best so far this year. 

Joey in Space

 Okay, one more time with the Space concept. This time with Joey. I can always count on Joey's enthusiasm during a shoot; she was in rare form for this shoot. I'm not going to write much about it. I'll let the photos speak instead.

Morning with Danielle

Danielle - Blue Goddess

The last time I shot with Danielle we had to take full Covid precautions. We drove to the shooting site in separate cars and stayed 6 feet apart while shooting. For this shoot, we could be more relaxed. This shoot came together with some scheduling work. Initially, we were supposed to shoot in mid-April while Danielle was here for business. Her trip got rescheduled, but I had my own trip to Georgia planned during that time. Luckily, Danielle could stay in the area until the day after I returned from my trip. The weather cooperated and we had a delightful shoot the morning before she left.

Huntress

Danielle loves the outdoors and it shows. She has a lithe, toned body sculpted by her athletic lifestyle, as you can well see by these photos. I enjoy conversing with her too. She always has some new adventure to relate or something new planned. She and her significant other have been working on creating an Expedition Touring Vehicle and plan on traveling the world with it. The plans include shipping it to Africa and New Zealand for the overland adventures. 

We shot for a couple of hours on the beach. We started early so Danielle could be on her way quickly after our shoot. Despite the cool morning, Danielle eagerly posed in each outfit I provided. The open shade chilled her, but there was no wind, and I gave her a thick towel to wrap around her when she got too chilly. Standing in the morning sun helped too, and she only needed a few short breaks.

The two hours we planned for the shoot passed quickly and Danielle was off to her next adventure. I'm not sure when I'll get to shoot with her again, but I'd be delighted to work with her in the future.

Compositing with Floofie

Athena Before

I've been trying my hand at compositing images lately, but the issues I've run into are the backgrounds. While green and blue screens are great for video compositing, they suck for still photography. The light bouncing off the backdrop creates color contamination around the outlines of the model that is difficult to remove during the editing process. Black is better, but then you have the problem of dark hair or clothes blending into the background causing problems with selecting just the model. White could work with very controlled lighting and distance, but is a real pain to set-up. So, I decided to experiment with a couple of different gray backdrops that I have in my inventory. 

Athena After

I started with Floofie using a patterned gray portrait backdrop. Since I'm still working on improving the goddess concept, I chose the costumes and props for that inspiration and added some new items I thought would add to the fantasy. I shot this is my home studio (basically my living room where I set up the backdrops and lights withing the confines of the room's furniture). It's not ideal due to the space constraints, but hey, you've got to work with what you've got. 

After having Floofie play dress up for a couple of hours while I took a few hundred shots of her poses, the more challenging work began. Now, I've been working with Photoshop since version 6.0 was released 23 years ago, and I've taken quite a few lessons and attended several seminars. I don't consider myself an expert, but I mostly know my way around the program and I can usually get decent results. Selecting images and compositing them into a coherent and harmonious final shot requires more complex conceptualizations than simply editing an image.

Celtic Witch Before

When compositing, not only must you separate the initial image from the background, you also must consider the angle of the light hitting the subject, the color of the light source, the density of the shadows, and any reflections in the subject. Once you've chosen the background, you then have to match the perspectives and then harmonize the colors between the background and the subject. I'm definitely still learning, but I think my results are much better than my original attempts a couple of years ago.  

Celtic Witch After

The images you see here are simple composites, though. I'm certainly not to the skill level required to add multiple elements to the composite. I'll need to get much better before I attempt that. Anyway, you can see my results in the images posted. 

Bohemian Beach

Neon Green

Joey is always fun to shoot. She enjoys modeling all the different outfits I bring to our shoots. She's enthusiastic, fun, and generally just a happy person. So, for our first summer shoot, I planned a shoot that would put her in lots of fun outfits. We shot at the beach, so I used costumes that fit with environment while providing a carefree yet sexy feel.

Red Djinn

A few low clouds floated across the morning sky, but the sun soon burned them a way and we had a clear morning for our shoot. We started our shoot with Joey wearing a neon green bikini and progressed through all the outfits I brought for the shoot. The shoot ran the gamut from glamour to art nudes to fantasy. A summer morning shooting a happy model on a nude beach just can't be beat.

I'm sure I'll be working with Joey again this year. I usually try to make at least one trip a year down to her part of Oregon to shoot with her in the Siuslaw River Valley and its surroundings. She told me that she's looking for new places in the valley for us to shoot and I promised to bring new concepts and outfits to shoot with her.

Happy Model

Backlit

Bikinis and Genies - Floofie Shoot #45

Floofie - Purple Slingshot

In 2019 I shot several different concepts for Merrique for Patreon site. One concept featured her as a djinn in the desert sands. At the time, she coordinated her shoots with the release of movies or tv shows, and the live-action version of Disney's Aladdin had just been released. I found the genie concept compelling and had planned to shoot it again with a couple of different models. The remainder of 2019 was exceptionally busy with other shoots, so I didn't get a chance to recreate the concept that year. Then in 2020, virtually all shooting halted. The concept faded from my intentions, and it wasn't until this year that I recalled the genie shoot and decided to recreate it with a different feel and model. Since I decided to shoot it in the sands of the beach, the "bikinis and genies" plan came together.

Ready for the 4th

In the summer, the Sauvie Island beaches fill up on the weekends. On weekday mornings, however, arriving early can yield a mostly empty beach. This is my preferred time to shoot as well, as the sun is lower in the sky and provides better light into the tree line and along the shore. It can, however, be chilly for the model, so I always take a thick oversized towel or a blanket to wrap the model between costume variations. Fortunately, Floofie and I had a decent morning for the shoot with cool, but not chilly air that quickly warmed as the morning progressed. 

Silver Metallic Bikini

We started the shoot with a variety of bikinis and slingshot swimsuits. I think my favorite was the metallic silver bikini, but the abstract flag bikini we shot for the upcoming 4th of was nice too. Since we have worked together so many times, Floofie and I have a pretty good rapport and can get a lot of different poses and images done in a short period. We very quickly completed all the swimsuit shots and moved on to shoot the djinn images.

I chose to do two colors for the djinn. When shooting, I like to do at least a couple of variations on theme––more if possible. This provides me with the flexibility to use the images for a variety of different purposes. These shots will be used and sold via a couple of different online channels. 

After we completed the djinn shoots, I had one final outfit I wanted Floofie to model. I've used it with several different models and it's one of my favorites because of the vibrant colors and the style. 

Shooting in the Trail of Two Forests

The last few weeks have been quite wet, but with the good weather returning this past week, I decided to take Joey up to the Trail of Two Forests near Mount St. Helens for a lengthy outdoor shoot in a place I call The Shire. For those who don't know, Mount St. Helens is an ancient, but active volcano. The Trail of Two Forests spreads out from the mountain's base and contains the remnants of previous lava flows. Lava tubes,  tree molds, and small caves are scattered throughout the landscape of the forest. The Shire is simply a large mound of deteriorating lava rock covered in deep, soft moss. During the spring rains, the moss thickens, greens, and forms a thick, soft cushion over the crumbled mound of rocks.  It's perfect for an outdoor glamour shoot.

A few trails meander through the forest, but the Shire lies a bit off the normal trails, and during the weekdays it's seldom disturbed. The mound forms three levels from its top to the forest floor. The forest surrounding the Shire provides a wonderful backdrop for images. The light filtering through the canopy, softened by the leaves, illuminates the mound with dappled beams perfect for backlighting.

I had three concepts in mind for the three hours we shot at the Shire. The first concept we shot was Woodland Glamour. For this, the model wore several different sheer or lace outfits that worked well with the dappled light. We shot this concept mainly on the forest floor and on the flat top of the moss-covered mound. Despite a recent, unfortunate brush with poison oak, Joey performed wonderfully, providing me with many lovely images. Her red hair contrasted well with the green of the mound and the forest backdrop and I was well pleased with the images.

Butterflies and Skin

The second concept included butterflies––lots of butterflies. We shot these images on, or perhaps, in the middle level of the Shire allowing Joey to lean back against the soft moss while I walked around her shooting from different angles. The multi-hued butterflies strategically covered her body while a leafy crown adorned her brow. The dappled light completed the illusion and the soft moss allowed Joey to remain comfortably reposed throughout the shoot. 

The final concept for this area featured a Forest Fae, a concept I had shot in a different form and forest years ago. I wanted to give it another go with a different model and location. For this shoot, we moved to a different area of the forest that provided a wilder, more primeval look. The outfit featured ornamental chains of silver and green, a leaf-covered thong, a circlet and fairy ears, and wings of leaves, moss, and twisted branches. Excepting the crown and jeweled pasties, all were custom-made. 

Forest Fae

Enamored of the outfit and the costume, Joey took videos of herself while I shot some behind-the-scenes images. The poses she provided were elegant and her expressions worked well for the concept. The forest provided the perfect backdrop for the concept, the old trees towering over us and the moss-covered logs and green undergrowth spreading across the forest floor.

During the entire three hours of shooting, we heard hikers only twice, saw distant hikers only once,  and were otherwise undisturbed. No one saw us, nor came close to where we were shooting. During the summer months, I expect there would be more hikers, but I would hesitate to shoot here then, and I have done so in previous years. 

Should you choose to visit the Trail of Two Forests for a hike or a shoot, be aware that you'll need a Northwest Forest Pass to be able to park in the lot near the interpretive trail. 

Mermaids and Bikinis

Home renovations took up most of my time for the remainder of June and all of July. My 2nd shoot of 2022 didn't happen until the early August when I managed to get away for a day long shoot with my friend and fellow artist, Joey. I traveled south to her lovely stomping grounds along the Siuslaw River and she proposed we shoot with her mermaid outfit. I agreed and we traveled to a lovely little spot where cascading water and deep, dark pools abounded. The trek from the small parking lot wasn't bad, but there was a steep set of steps that descended to the actual falls. Not good for my bad knee, but hey, you gotta go where you gotta go.

There was a small group of swimmers downstream, but they paid little attention to us as settled our bags on the rocks. I suggested we start with some bikini shots and as Joey changed I evaluated the location and the light. I determined the best place to start and very quickly we were shooting. Joey, as always, gave me some great poses and expressions and we even found an isolated area where she felt comfortable shooting some nudes. 

After about an hour of shooting bikinis and nudes, we walked back over to the base of the stairs and Joey donned the upper half of her outfit. The lower half was a realistic mermaid tail made of silicone and fabric. She took to the water with the tail, swam over to the opposite side of the pool, and donned her lower half. She moved carefully and her poses were lovely. She moved along the far side of the pool from log to rocky outcrop to mossy boulder with ease. After a while, she swam back to my side of the pool and took off her tail. 

We were, however, not completely done. I had noticed one of the young swimmers from downstream of us, move around the fish ladder and go over to the cascading falls and I thought Joey could do it as well. Knowing that it would make for some great shots, she agreed to give it a shot. You can see the results below.

Afterwards, we searched for a place to eat and eventually managed to find a small cafe where I grabbed a burger and some fries and Joey had a hot sandwich (a Philly cheesesteak if I recall correctly). With bellies full and our spirits fortified, we headed off for a few more hours of shooting. More wonderful poses at beautiful spots ensued and when the day was done we relaxed with a cold drink then said our goodbyes for the day. I can't think of a better way for a photographer to spend a day.  

A few more shots from the day: