Kira, Getting Started

Kira is a young, local college student & a part time model. Although I've been aware of her for a little while, it took me some time before I asked her to pose for me. Just before Thanksgiving, she comes by for a first sitting.

The objective for a first sitting with a new (to me) model is simply "get acquainted". It's funny -- although I often see photographs of new models before I meet them, I really don't get the sense that I know what they look like until I photograph them myself. I guess that's because I feel that much of the impact of a photograph comes from the interaction between the photographer & the model, and you never know what the chemistry will be like. I've been lucky -- I've had good chemistry with the vast majority of the models who pose for me (including Kira), but you never know.

Normally, I use these opportunities to provide a running commentary of the sitting, to walk you through the sitting image by image. I like to share what I was thinking at the time of the exposure, but I get the feeling that I'm going to go off on a wild tangent this time. So, before I do, I'll jump to the end & give you the overall impression & final assessment from this sitting:

Kira has a terrific figure, wonderful skin, and a lovely face -- in fact, she is one of the most beautiful models I've had the privilege to photograph.
Bonus! I really like her, I like being around her, and I like working with her. Normally, it's enough that the model & I get along well enough during the sitting, but in this case, I really enjoyed myself.
That being said, Kira was not having a good day, by her own admission. She didn't sleep well the night before, and at the moment, there were significant elements of chaos swirling around her. In many of these pictures, she looks tired or distracted. Chalk that up to a bad day. And as you will see, there was some good that came of it.
I definitely look forward to working with her again!

<<< Start of a long & rambling discourse >>>

I am not a big fan of so-called "reality TV" -- it just seems that most of them involve cruel & sadistic television producers exploiting people's greed for fame and/or money. I mean, what is "realistic" about people having worms poured all over them or being forced to eat gross substances. Why must everything be turned into a competition (for example, why is proposing marriage a competitive event)? Further, in most of these shows seem to feature people screwing their compardees in a win-at-all-cost basis. Fools! When people cooperate, the whole is often far greater than the sum of the parts. And why, oh why, are these shows so popular?

There is an exception to my disdain for "Reality TV": I have to admit that I like the progenitor of the genre -- MTV's The Real World. For those of you that don't know, the premise of The Real World is this: take 7 young people, aged 18 to 23 or so, put them together is a swank house in a cool town that is far away from their homes, families, and friends, get them a cool job where they have to work together, and film them day & night for four or so months. There is no narrator, no "challenge" for the week, no contests, no winners, no losers -- just young folk trying to learn to live together & get along.

There are a lot of reasons why I prefer this show to shows like "The Bachelor" or "Survivor" or "Big Brother".

There is no "winner" or "loser" -- no one is (typically) kicked out of the house. The team is expected to work together & succeed as a team.

But at its heart, I like this show because people of this age are going through a significant transition. For many of this age, they leave the unconditional love of their family, and they find they have to shed some of their self-absorbing habits to gain the more adult conditional love of peers. They have to learn how to be on their own, budgeting their time & money, keep self & habitat clean, becoming responsible for their actions. They have to learn how to resolve conflicts with others and without the judgment of a higher authority. They have to learn "real life" work habits.

And this show reminds me of something I've managed to forget -- how absolutely chaotic life can be for young people. Conflict abounds! Most of these folks stay up until 3:00 or 4:00am every night, and wonder why it's so impossible for them to show up to work on time at 9:00am. Many drink to excess. And if one of them is staying up late, all of them are staying up late, but one person can be noisy & rowdy enough to keep the whole house up.

For many people of this age, especially college students, cash flow always is an issue. College students often struggle with a challenging course load coupled with an unstructured living environment. Without a long work history, savings are typically non-existent. A sick day or two can put them terribly behind in their school work, and a car that breaks down can be a catastrophe.

I recently told a college student friend that she may think she is majoring in political science, but what she is really learning in college is how to manage her time & money on her own, and how to form adult relationships which do require some maintenance to stay strong. Her so-called "major" is secondary.

While I can envy young folks their youth, vitality, and freedom, I certainly don't envy the bedlam in their life.

Kira's life has elements of this kind of turmoil. It seemed to me that we would set up a date, only to have to reschedule for one reason or another. To Kira's credit, she was always conscientious about communicating these changes -- as long as a model doesn't waste my time (e.g. warns me before I tear apart my house to set up the studio), I'm perfectly happy to be flexible. (But if a model stands me up, it is unlikely that I'd ask her to pose for me again.) But Kira was always able to give me sufficient warning.

Unfortunately, when Kira did make it over, she did so after a poor night's sleep, and many of the issues in her life were distracting her. And I'm sure that you can see this in many of the images we made. (Then again, many of our images are wonderful, too).

But here's the thing: as I said, the objective of a first sitting is "get acquainted", and we did that. I am definitely interested in working with Kira again.

And in this case, I think having a difficult sitting was a good thing, at least for me. More of this on the next page.

Okay, you didn't get my normal commentary on this, the first page of images with a new model, but I've done this "getting started" setup before, where the model starts out in her street clothes & removes them for the camera.

Normally, I would describe my reactions to what I saw, I'd share my thinking, I'd explain the changes I make as I go along, and I'd offer a brief criticism of my work. As you can see, Kira has a terrific figure covered with smooth, clear skin. She moves well. She has a lovely, expressive face. Truth be told, I was so captivated by her figure that, at this time, I didn't immediately notice how tired she looked.

This sitting continues with Figure Studies.