Page created April 3, 2006
Sitting date:  March 4, 2006

 

It ain't braggin' if it's true:  I get to see lots of beautiful women nude.  Pretty much all of them are confident & comfortable being nude in front of me -- Kira is especially comfortable & confident.  So somehow, I can easily forget that the model is nude as we talk casually, joke around, and try a few photographic ideas out.

So, a recurring question I ask myself is how can I recapture the excitement of nakedness?  Or, perhaps more to the point, how can I make a nude model appear even more nude?

  

   

So, how about this:  we'll photograph Kira partially clothed.  In particular, I asked Kira if she had any low cut slacks or jeans, and she brings a couple.  Kira is interested in getting a couple of images of herself in sports clothes, so we start with her wearing this top, too.

 

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But that lovely top of hers doesn't survive long.  Why?  Because I can.

And somehow, just because she is half nude, Kira appears to be more nude to me than when she was bare naked earlier. 

 

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Kira & I are well suited.  She looks best when given freedom to move, and I love to see movement in my photographs.  We are listening to a play list of some of my favorite songs in my collection -- these are not necessarily dance tunes, but they do have good positive energy, and Kira doesn't need much encouragement to move around.

I like that you can get a sense of Kira's smooth & lovely skin from this image.  There's something about her skin that invites a touch. 

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Here's a favorite of the sitting.

I like the chaos of hair, the jaunty hips, and the muscle tone.  This is a strong, powerful pose.  It's worth noting that I'm not overly interested in doing "naughty" images with Kira (nor do I think she's interested) -- with her wearing these jeans, we are both comfortable with poses that might make us uncomfortable if Kira was totally nude. 

 

A similar pose to that favorite above.  You can still see that Kira has lovely legs, despite the fact that they are covered.

I'm probably repeating this story, but here goes.  A few years ago, I had the pleasure of spending a day with Ruth Bernhard, one of the old masters of photography.  (If you don't know here, feel free to do an Internet search).  I asked her how many exposures she made during a sitting, and she replied, "Just the one".  That amazed me.  

My style is quite a bit different.  I have some general overall concepts in mind before the sitting, and once I set up the lights & explain the idea to the model, we simply try a few things out.  So, it takes us several tries & near-misses before we refine the concept. 

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I guess you can't keep someone as lovely as Kira clothed for the whole sitting.  We make a few last exposures with this setup. 

 

For a brief moment, we continue with the "less is more" concept.  But eventually, I decide to change the setup a bit. 

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You know, I'm beginning to become dissatisfied with my digital camera.  My first digital camera was a Canon Powershot G5, and I replaced it with a Nikon Coolpix 8400.  Here's a comparison:

Canon Powershot G5 Nikon Coolpix 8400
Pros:
  • Excellent color recording.
  • Images sharper than Nikon
  • Easier to use 
  • Better software
  • Did a better job at focusing
  • Pivoting LCD screen makes using unusual angles easy & fun.
  • Raw file format supported by my software.
Pros:
  • Extra wide angle lens (35mm equivalent: 24mm)
  • Reliably fires studio strobes
  • Pivoting LCD screen makes using unusual angles easy & fun.
Cons:
  • Did not fire studio strobes reliably.  That's the "deal breaker".
  • Wide angle lens not as wide as Nikon's.
Cons:
  • Focus unreliable.
  • Fair to poor color recording.
  • More difficult to use.
  • Raw file format not supported by my software.

Sadly, the digital camera I want does not exist.  So, we'll see.

This sitting concludes with No Background

 

(Remember -- feedback is always appreciated) 

All images (c) 2006 Looknsee Photography

Kira, Sixth Sitting Out Takes

70 more images from this sitting are available in the Out Takes Galleries.  These galleries are available to those who have made a donation to the upkeep of this web site.  See this FAQ question for more details.

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