In the Park with Krisa

Cathedral Park, in northwest Portland, spans the area below the St. Johns bridge. I've shot in the park many times over the years with different models and returned there this morning with my friend and model Krisa. We had last shot on Sauvie Island during the past summer. 

The park has always been a beautiful place to shoot. Well landscaped with the magnificent bridge high above and the Columbia River flowing past, it's always provided me with wonderful settings for my lovely models. Two of my favorite locations in the park are on the stairs under the bridge and under the large willow tree between two supporting columns. Alas, the stairs and most of the area under the bridge were roped off for maintenance, and even worse, the willow was gone, cut down to a stump.

Tropical Joey

I have used the willow often. With the model posed within its fronds, it provides an almost tropical atmosphere. Put the model in a bikini and a sarong, and it completes the illusion. That illusion will no longer exist.

Despite all that, we had a productive shoot. A large mural on one of the buildings adjacent to the park made a nice backdrop for a couple of the dresses Krisa brought. A walk through the park led us to some newly landscaped areas where we also got a few shots. 

Krisa Koture - Beach Babe and More

I've been shooting with Krisa off and on for about fifteen years. I first started working with her as part of my "Fae in Us All" project back in 2008. I know it was her first nude photo shoot, and it may have even been her first photo shoot ever. Despite having never posed nude before, she did a fine job as the Dance Fae and we've been shooting projects together ever since, many of which I've written about in this blog. Krisa became a mom a couple of years after we started shooting, so there have been some breaks from shooting over the years, but we always seem to pull back together for new shoots from time to time. 

Our previous shoot had been way back in the summer of 2019. The pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 had kept most of us from shooting and in 2022 I had done only a handful of shoots due to other commitments. Krisa hadn't been feeling great of late, so I wanted to make this shoot kind of fun and special for her. I planned a beach site shoot with some fun outfits––a little bit of California, a little bit of Arabia, and a whole lot of sexy. 

Pacific NW winters are cool and very wet, but our summers are dry and we sometimes get extreme temperatures that last for days. Late July through August and sometimes into early October can be nearly cloudless. When shooting on a river beach, that means the sand can get hot enough to burn bare feet and skin. That's another reason for shooting in the mornings before the sun gets too high. 

For this shoot, I picked an area of the beach with easy access to the woods and plenty of shade. The spot included a nice view of a wide stretch of the beach and river. We could also easily step into the wooded areas or use the adjacent grassy spots for standing or kneeling shots. 

The morning of the shoot was pleasantly warm with not much wind and luckily, mosquito free. I always take repellent just in case (a lesson learned the hard way), but we remained unmolested without the bug spray. Despite not having worked together for three years, everything clicked and we had a smooth and leisurely shoot. I think Krisa really enjoyed herself, and I certainly enjoyed working with her again. And we both enjoyed the great summer morning on the shore. 

I'm So Ready for Spring and Summer

Krisa as the Combat Fairy

This is the 5th wettest March on record for Oregon. The ground is so soggy that I can't mow my lawn for fear of sinking to my ankles in the soil. I'm so ready for warm and dry weather - I need to be able to shoot outside again. I hope to be shooting more landscapes and nature this year, but I'm also working on helping a couple of models get started on Zivity, so I do have a few glamour shoots planned for the warm weather.

One shoot I've got planned is a variation of the military glamour shoot with Krisa. We had a great time shooting the Combat Fairy, but I haven't shot her strictly for military glamour and I think that will be a great shoot. Although I've shot at least twice in the studio this winter, I really haven't been doing much photography at all. It's definitely time to get creative again. With any luck I'll get my wife in front of the camera for a couple of shoots as well.

I have a couple of other ideas planned as well, but I think I'll primarily be shooting landscapes this year. I haven't given up glamour and nudes totally, but I do need to stretch my horizons and this seems like a good way to do so.

Time for Shooting

Forest Sorceress

These days it seems I have to almost take vacation to get any photography done. Fortunately, we had a 4 day weekend for the 4th of July holiday, and I was able to take the remaining three days of the work week off for vacation for a little leisure time and some photography. Again, fortunately, there were several models available and ready to work with me that week and I took advantage of their availability by shooting with all of them as the opportunity (weather) permitted.

The first couple of days of the holiday were spent playing with the grandkids, and shooting with the Northwest Glamour Photography Group. The kids and I went to the coast for some fun at the beach, and the next day I went to a different kind of beach for a photo shoot with the Unchained Girls at Scream at the Beach in Jantzen Beach.

Snake Girl

Scream at the Beach is a horror house with multiple sets including a dungeon and a number caves. The group had arranged for a number of models from the Unchained Girls, a promotion group, to pose for us, and for airbrush artists to provide body painting for the girls. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the entire shoot, so I didn't get to shoot with all the models in all the settings, but I had fun shooting with the ones I did get to work with during the day.

In addition to the models and airbrush artists, there were several large snakes used during the shoot. Adding the snakes provided some excellent shots, but made the shoot technically more difficult since the snakes often moved their heads in and out of the depth of field. Also, the tight locations where we were shooting limited the placement of the strobes, so the setups were the best we could do for the situation given the lack of room for large light modifiers such as light boxes. Still, we made it work .

Queen of the Glade

Later in the week, I primarily shot at Dragonfly Landing focusing on my Swords & Chains project wrapping that series arc up with a couple of models. I also did a Barefoot Glamour shoot with Floofie using three themes - Bathing Beauty, Nude Artist, and Military Glamour. We had a perfect day for shooting those and the model was great - but very happy when the Bathing Beauty shoot was over as the water wasn't nearly as warm as we had hoped for when I planned the shoot.

I wrapped up the week acting as a photographer's assistant for my friend, Mark, and even brought him a model to shoot. The model had engaged me to shoot her as the Rain Fairy and since I planned to do it at Dragonfly Landing, I suggested they both take advantage of the opportunity to shoot together and I must say they put together some fine shots. I think she was a lot more comfortable shooting for him in the warm sunshine than she was shoot for me in the cold water coming from the oscillating sprinkler I used to simulate the rain.

I'll probably get a handful more shoots done this summer, but they'll have to be in my spare time in the evenings or on the weekends, as I'm saving the rest of my vacation time for a trip to Arizona to visit my family there and for the December holidays.

Jenn's First Time with a Sword

Bathing Beauty

Jenn's Magic Ball

The Rain Fairy