Yesterday I had the pleasure of shooting with Verronica Kirei after a five-year delay. We last shot together a few months before the pandemic shutdown. Verronica has helped me with several of my new projects while we were routinely shooting. She has modeled for my Sword & Chains, Military Pinup, Light Painting, and Barefoot Glamour projects and several others. For our first shoot, way back in December of 2011, she modeled for my Xmas Pinup series and has been a reliable model for any project I've requested.

For this latest shoot, I used her for my Goddess project. We shot several variations of the theme. We started in the early morning to beat the heat and to use the morning cloud cover for softer light. We timed it well because we finished our shoot just as the clouds started to part. The heat waves this summer have made early morning shoots a requirement. By late morning the temperatures make it uncomfortable to shoot and the sand on the beach gets almost too hot to bear.

The spot I chose for the shoot had several large driftwood logs and Verronica made use of them for many of her poses. The logs and the many small trees and bushes provided excellent backdrops for the images and when the cloud cover started to break up we had some interesting skies to add to the scene.

I hope to shoot with Verronica again before the end of the year. I'll probably use her for a boudoir shoot or perhaps a Halloween-themed shoot, since that's one of the few projects she hasn't yet modeled. Whichever I choose, I know I'll get some great images with her.

Rachel Leigh at Sauvie

Goddess of Green

Rachel and I had our first shoot today. We'd been planning to shoot for several weeks, and the weather and our schedules finally coincided. The morning dawned cool and clear with no rain in the forecast, a near-perfect day to shoot despite the morning chill. 

I met Rachel and her husband, J, at the Tri-met lot on the island and they followed me to the shoot site on the northwest side of the island. Getting my usual fall out of the way on the trail between the road and the beach, we quickly got set up for the shoot, a mix of fantasy and glamour. I started the shoot with outfits that provided more coverage, saving the skimpiest items for later in the morning when it warmed up.

J assisted Rachel with donning the costumes and provided assistance to me by handling the Photoflex reflector I brought along knowing I'd have his help. The river flowed high this morning. During my last shoot on the island with Daniel, it had been several feet lower. This necessitated shooting closer to the tree line, but we still had plenty of sandy beaches left for the shoot.

Rachel's experience as a model was evidenced by her poses and expressions. We quickly knocked out a series of poses with the first outfit. Rachel quickly became accustomed to my shooting style and by mid-shoot, she could anticipate my different pose requests. The two-hour shoot passed swiftly while we shot almost every outfit I had brought (I tend to overplan).  

While we were shooting, the day quickly warmed and the beach began to fill with folks anticipating a hot afternoon sunbathing nude on the beach. Some beachgoers provided positive comments, but we were otherwise ignored. An excellent shoot, with a fun model and her helpful husband, made for a delightful photo adventure. 

Crystal Goddess

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.

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. 

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: