Solstice Shoot with Rebecca Fae

Ice Flame Blue Chains

The day turned hot by mid-morning. Today I had my first shoot with Rebecca Fae, a lovely lady with a great smile and a love of fantasy and science fiction. In other words, a kindred spirit. She had just returned to modeling after a long hiatus so I planned an outdoor fantasy shoot for our first engagement. We planned to start at 10 am, and by the time we finished our shoot, the temperature hit the 80s. 

With a hot forecast for the next few days, many people were starting their weekend beach plans early. The beach had a few people ensconced already when we arrived, and by the time we completed shooting, there were many more sunbathers on the shore.

Red Djinn

That, of course, meant I could hardly set a scene without someone in the background or walking into the shot. This is one of the reasons I like to shoot earlier in the mornings and earlier in the week. Unfortunately, not everyone has a flexible schedule like mine, so I shoot when the model is available, not vice versa.

It took only a few minutes to see that Rebecca had modeling experience. She could move easily from pose to pose and could vary her expressions appropriately. She was well pleased by my choice of costumes and we made some fine art together.

Rebecca had a great attitude, was eager to please, and willingly collaborated with me on each concept we shot. I enjoyed talking to her throughout the shoot and afterward. We're planning to shoot again this summer and I'll need to come up with fresh concepts for our next shoot.

Galaxy Silk

Elf Princess

Rhinestone Beauty

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. 

A Throne in the Woods

Last December the photographer I was renting studio space from lost his lease when the building that contained his studio was sold and redesigned. After my last shoot in the space, I dropped by to pick up some props that he had been storing for me, and acquired this very heavy, metal throne that he had stored in one of his back rooms. I had used it a few times in my studio shoots, but I decided I would use it this summer for some outdoor shoots as well.  This past weekI finally got a chance to do so.

This is Lindsay and this is from our first shoot together at Dragonfly Landing.  I thought the throne worked rather well for this shot I've titled "Magic in the Glade." I've left it in place for now (covered by a tarp), and I hope to be using it for a couple of more shoots in the very near future. After that, I think my friend Mark has some rather wicked ideas to use with it for a bondage shoot.

Fierce

This is from my Sword & Chains series. This is the image most preferred by the model.

Megan with Kilgorin Sword

From Some Recent Shoots

Here's my latest model, Mollie, in her first shoot with me out at Dragonfly Landing. This is just a quick shot at random and a quick edit while the rest of her images were downloading:

Mollie at the Arsenal

This is from a fun shoot with Alija. She wanted to be an urban guerilla and I envision her as a punk soldier. Whatever you call her character here, it's definitely a fun image:

Alija the Punk Soldier

Finally, here's a glamorous shot of Kira, finishing the third shoot in the series of chain shoots I'm doing with several models. 

Kira at the Window

Wicked Kira

I particularly like this shot of Kira - her expression and stance make her look wickedly ready to take on anyone or anything that gets in her way.

Kira is ready for a fight.

The Arsenal

Here's the lovely Jen posing with a bevy of swords.  This is from a recent shoot. Prior to this, our last shoot together was back in November of last year. It was sure fun to work with Jen again.

Jen in Amira Steel Chains with Emerald Crystals

There are lots more images of Jen to come, but I'm still working on catching up and I have a few shoots planned while the weather is still good. Looks like I'll have plenty to work on this winter.

Audi in the Glade

Here's another image of the beautiful Audi posing in the glade at Dragonfly Landing. I'm way behind on post processing my images due to all the traveling I've been doing, but I hope to start catching up slowly but surely over the next few weeks.

Audi in Ice-Flame Dewdrop Chains

Back from Belize

Belize was great. We snorkeled with the sharks, snuba dived withe the sea turtles, climbed ancient Mayan temples, and drank copious quantities of the local rum and beer and ate our fill of seafood. After a few days home to rest, take care of some chores, and to play with two of our grandkids, we're off for a visit with our son and his family, including our little granddaughter, in Mesa Arizona. We'll take the fast route down, spend some time with them, then take a slow, scenic route back that will include the Grand Canyon, Historic Route 66, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Mono Lake, Carson City, Reno, and scenic views of the Sierra Nevadas and the Cascade Mountain Range. It should be a fun trip - especially the visit with the family.  In the meantime, you can enjoy these shots of Nicole taken a few weeks ago at Dragonfly Landing.

Preparation

Meditation

I'm off to Belize for a few days

In the meantime, I'll leave you in the capable hands of the beautiful Audi:

After the Fight

The Sorceress in the Glade

Flower Power

More of Kira

It's been a busy week both at work and at home this week, so I haven't done any new shoots or done much post processing of images from last week, but I did manage to get a few more images of Kira completed. Fortunately, I begin 8 weeks of sabbatical today and I'm looking forward to getting a lot more photography, processing and relaxing done during the rest of the summer. In the meantime, enjoy these shots of the lovely and expressive Kira:

Saturday's Shoot with Nicole

On Saturday I had another opportunity to shoot with Nicole.  I had previously shot with her last November and we hadn't had much contact since then, but fortunately I was able to reach her and we managed to put together a shoot for mid-morning. We even managed to grab some shots in a field of flowers toward the end of the session. So, without further ado, here's Nicole:

And in the flowers:

Friday's Shoot

Friday's shoot went quite well. Not much moving around to other locations for this one. Here are a couple of examples featuring the lovely Sivonna:

Three Quick & Dirty Edits from Today's Shoot with Kira

Tribal Spike Chains with Valdris Blades (Canon 135mm f/2.8 with Soft Focus)

Amira Silver with Emerald Beads, Avoloch Mithrodin Sword (Canon 135mm f/2.8 with Soft Focus)

Amira Silver with Emerald Beads, Avoloch Mithrodin Sword (Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro)

A New Project (sort of) and a New Model

I managed to get my 2nd shoot of the "summer" last weekend. Alija Whitebird Pure Spirit  and I connected on Model Mayhem and when I provided her the link to my current projects, she was eager to participate.  We had originally planned to shoot on Sunday, but other commitments proved to difficult to manage so we both bit the bullet and decided on a very early morning shoot at Dragonfly Landing with my new project, Sword & Chains, on Saturday morning.

Since it's a 45 minute drive to the shoot site and she had to be back home for another shoot before 1 pm, I met her at 7 am and we were off to shoot, arriving at Dragonfly Landing shortly before 8 am. Unfortunately, despite the weatherman's assertions to the contrary, it was cloudy at quite cool when we arrived. Despite that, Alija was more than willing to change into the very skimpy chains, grab a sword and walk with me down into a heavily canopied glade to take on the role of the Raven Warrior. Within minutes her teeth started to chatter and not long after that she began to shiver. Still game, however, she pressed on and only took breaks to wrap up in a thick robe when she could no longer control the shivering as she posed.

Fortunately, our gracious host and the property owner soon joined us as a photographer's assistant and he was able to provide Alija with a large cup of hot tea, which helped immensely. We shot for the better part of two hours in the cool and shadowy glade and made some amazing images. Alija has only recently started modeling, but she certainly pulled of some great poses and wonderfully expressive looks.

We had one other set of chains we definitely wanted use in a shoot, so we relocated to a different part of the property to get a different look for the background as well. We were going for a dreamier look in most of these shots, and once again the model pulled it off with grace and charm. Dragonfly Landing has many lovely little areas in which to shoot and I'm fortunate that the owner is such a good friend who allows me to shoot there with so many different lovely models.

For the dreamy look of these images, I used my Canon 135mm f/2.8 with Soft Focus lens. I was shooting wide open, and at the maximum softness settings I was getting some wonderfully dreamy images. One feature of this lens that works particularly well with these costumes and props is the way it renders the specular highlights from the metal chains and swords.

Alija was absolutely gorgeous in these lovely chains, and the background really contributed to the dreamy feel with its moss covered rocks and tiny white flowers. Alija happily climbed over the rocks, knelt on the damp ground, embraced the large trees, and let the long stemmed plants tickle her bare skin in order to get the shot. I was quite impressed with her willingness and enthusiasm during the entire shoot. She's informed me that she wants to be a part of my The Fae in Us All, my Sword & Sorcery, my Women in Chains, and my Barefoot Glamour projects as well. Sounds like a fun summer of shooting to me.

Since we had a bit of time left, Alija wanted to shoot in a final set of chains I had mentioned to her. I had hoped we would be able to shoot with this costume because I hadn't had much of an opportunity to use it in previous shoots. The heavy brass chains require a particular physique and skin tone to look right to me. I had used them once before on a model with pale skin and a softer build but the results disappointed me. The results with Alija did not.

The brass worked well with her skin tones and her smaller, harder physique made a better contrast with the larger pattern formed by the draping chains. I posed her on a small boulder between to very large trees, used a gold reflector to cast some sunlight onto her upper and used a large aperture to blur the background into a dappled pattern of light and shadows.

In all, the shoot more than met my expectations and as we left Dragonfly Landing I felt quite satisfied with both the new project and the new model.  Alija expressed her satisfaction as well and was as eager as I was to see the results from our shoot.

Here's a final image for your enjoyment. Alija sure enjoyed swinging the swords, and this Skull Katana fit her hands quite well.

Annotated Image (Model Floofie)

Finally, A Shoot (Outdoors)

Finally! The clouds and the rain stopped long enough and within an available period that I was could shoot an outdoor session with one of the models I've been working with for some of my projects. Cindy had posed for me earlier this year for my Women in Chains and Sword & Sorcery projects in the studio, and we've been trying to get an outdoor shoot completed for some time now. I think we scheduled and rescheduled the shoot at least five times before we were finally able to do it. Even then, while the morning was mostly sunny and dry, but the time I was able to wrap up my work week, pick her up at the bookstore, and travel to the shoot site (Dragonfly Landing), the clouds were already rolling in again and we only had about two hours of shooting time before we started to lose the light. As it was, I was shooting a larger apertures with moderately high ISO settings in order to keep my shutter speeds up.

Cindy was a real trooper though, willing to go into the brush with me, even though the ground was pretty soggy and there was no scarcity of biting insects. We shot mostly in a small clearing cut into the wooded area by the property's owner. The ground, though pretty wet, was reasonably firm and covered in small flowering plants. The small trees made a wonderful backdrop and when the sun broke through the clouds, we had some terrific lighting available, but those opportunities were few and far between. Still, it was great to be outside and shooting again. Usually, by this time of the year, I've done several outdoor glamour shoots, but certainly that hasn't been the case this year.

After shooting in the woods with swords, chains, and kukri knives, we moved out of the woods and onto a paved path near the lower part of the property. For this shoot, we used military style outfits and props and worked on creating some military pin-up type images. Cindy truly excelled at this type of imagery and we were able to get some great shots.

She worked hard on giving me some great expressions, and this shows quite well in the final images. I think she had a lot of fun with the pin-up shots and I know I had fun shooting them.

We're planning on shooting again in August when I return from a couple of trips to Belize and Mexico, and I think during our next shoot we're going to concentrate more on Barefoot Glamour style shoots with water and waterfalls and the settings. In the meantime, here are some images from our studio shoot earlier this year:

Dual Blades with Shadowpoint Chains

Shadowpoint Chains with Battle Axe

Statue with Skull Katana

Dual Blade Dance