American Beauty Erotic

 

My first shoot of 2025 featured the lovely Jade Monett. I had hoped to shoot the concept before Valentine's Day to have the images ready to share on my Deviant Art account, but the timing simply didn't work and we had to shoot the week after the holiday. 

The concept played upon the poster for the movie American Beauty but with an erotic twist. Jade came to mind as the perfect model for my version of the concept, and he certainly made the concept work. 

To prepare for the shoot, I separated four thousand silk rose petals from compressed stacks of 100 petals each. As I peeled each petal from its stack, I dropped them into a large plastic trash bag so I could transport them for the shoot. At about three thousand petals, our new kitten decided to take a running leap onto the bag, then whoosh!, I had a rose petal volcano and petals flew everywhere. Despite the eruption, I managed to save all the petals and finish preps for the shoot.

In the studio, I set up a black velvet backdrop and positioned a dark red bedsheet on the floor for the petals. I used three lighting sources–a large octobox on the left, a large softbox on the right, and a small stripbox overhead on a boom. The window light was blocked with tarps, so the sole illumination came from the studio flashes.

I asked Jade to wear red lipstick and to bring heels with her for the shoot. I provided the rest of the costumes for the shoot. Those consisted of various body harnesses that I thought would work well for the concept. Jade exceeded my expectations. I think you can agree that she rocked the concept.

Studio Boudoir with Jade

Jade in Black

I haven't worked with Jade since the end of summer last year. I had hoped to use her as one of the models for my 2023 Xmas pinups, but unfortunately, she wasn't available. Earlier this spring, though, she sent me a message telling me she was interested in shooting with me again. It took a bit of planning, but we shot an erotic boudoir set yesterday evening.

We used Floofie's studio for the shoot. Jade lives nearby, and the studio had just the props I wanted to use for the shoot. I arrived about an hour before the shoot to prep the scene and set up the lighting.

Butterfly Mesh

For this shoot, I decided to use Neewer LED panels for the light. Although the panels don't produce as much light as studio strobes, I used a fast lens for the shoot with image stabilization in both the lens, a Canon 24-105 f/2.8L, and in the camera body, a Canon R5. This setup allowed me to easily visualize the lighting effects.

Jade arrived exactly on time and was ready to start within a couple of minutes. I had all the outfits ready to go and in the sequence, I wanted to shoot. Once we started, the shoot proceeded quickly as Jade smoothly progressed through her poses and outfit. She had obviously been practicing her poses and expression since we last shot. I loved her pinup poses and she nailed the expressions I requested. We had a great shoot and I'm looking forward to our next one.

Jade in Repose

New Model - Jade

Jade

 I contacted Jade on Instagram on a whim. I just liked her look and the images posted on her profile. To my surprise (because of my prior luck with IG models), she responded immediately and we set a date to shoot within the week. I messaged her on the 9th and we were shooting on the 15th. 

She let me know she would be bringing an escort with her, and I let her know that I had no issue with that. I've never really had a problem with escorts. Usually I can put them to work holding reflectors, which is a big help, or bringing me props. 

Sparkly Girl

Only on a couple of occasions have I had an escort interfere with a shoot. The first time was a female friend of the model who thought she knew better than me how to run a shoot––that ended quickly along with the shoot. The other time wasn't the escorts fault, but rather the model's as she kept using part of our shooting time to show the outfits off to her boyfriend.

That wasn't the case with Jade's friend. He helped with the reflector, but otherwise stayed out of my way and let Jade and me do our thing. 

Amira Chains

Once again, I chose the area around the Sauvie Spaceship for my shoot. I know, I know, I shoot there a lot, but the spot has a lot going for it. It's fairly close to one of the entrance gates. Most of the time, you can count on a wide area of beach, and the woods surrounding the spaceship offer a different backdrop from the water and sand. Then there's the spaceship itself, all covered in colorful graffiti art which changes constantly. 

Caribbean Silk

Jade worked out great for the shoot I had planned. She has the look of a blonde bombshell and posed like one too. She could be both seductive or innocent depending on the outfit. She seemed to really enjoy the shoot, and we managed to get a great many poses and costumes done before we had to wrap up the shoot. I'm hoping to shoot again with her in the near future. I think she'd be perfect for a Christmas pinup.