Leashed

I'm really sorry to be devoting a significant portion of my verbiage to my digital camera woes, but the frustration associated with unreliable equipment has been putting me "on tilt" during the sitting. I find that if I put a finger on top of the hot shoe accessory & press it into the camera body a bit, I can get it to work for now. Of course, my hand is contorted, and holding the camera is uncomfortable, but I am so happy to get the camera working again that I make a lot of digital exposures of this next setup. Normally, I switch between the digital & the film camera, but for this page, I make a lot of digital exposures.

We move to the floor, lose the panties (because we can), swap in the bigger "posture" collar, and add a leather leash.
I particularly like the low angle perspective. The digital camera's zoom lens is set at a wide angle, but because of the lack of details in the foreground & background, there isn't much distortion.

Take the leash -- it's right there within your reach.

Now that the digital camera is working, I was able to make minor/subtle adjustments to the lighting. The hot spot on the wall on the right side of the image is softer & less intrusive, but it is sufficient to provide a tonal separation from Victoria's shadowed side.

I like the sheen to Victoria's hair. And I'm sure you'll note with me that Victoria looks great in any position from any angle.

Victoria looks particularly sexy for these pictures, and for this entire sitting for that matter. For me, these mild bondage images are all about consensual surrender.

I like the "leash within the viewer's reach" aspect of these pictures. I also like the contrast of textures -- skin, leather, canvas backdrop, velour floor covering.

When I look at my images, I am constantly assessing them. Although there's much to like about these images, I'm not sure I'm doing the products justice. From this far away, it's difficult to see the thick collar -- it gets lost a bit in the shadow. I like the sheen of the leather leash between Victoria's breasts, but it almost gets lost down lower by her thigh. I do like the concept of these images, though -- I suspect that there might be a better way to light it.

(The Spartacus Leathers folks are quite happy with these images, however. In fact, they licensed an image from the "Surrender, Ashton" set for the cover of their newest lingerie catalog, and they just licensed a few of the images from Lydia's last sitting, too. They are looking to select about a dozen more. Every little bit helps.)

Here's a favorite from this setup and from this sitting. It's a little surprising that I like it, because I typically prefer perfect or even exaggerated posture. Despite that, I like the tonality throughout the image -- there is sufficient tonal separation from Victoria's hair & the background, and I like how the sheen of the leather leash makes it stand out from the shadows on her thigh. I like Victoria's unusual shape -- this isn't a standard "stock" pose. I like how Victoria's lean & muscular body is emphasized. I also like the expression on Victoria's face -- she awaits your next move.

One last image, for the foot fetishists out there!

I love the distortions that you can get with wide angle lenses. Many people get a telephoto lens for their second lens, but for my money, a wide angle lens can't be beat. You can always crop a normal lens image, but you just can't fake a wide angle lens. So, if you do interiors or studio photography, I suggest you consider a wide angle lens.

Cute toes, Victoria!

It was our intention to devote only a small part of our sitting to fetish product photography. After this setup, we put away the Spartacus Leathers products & work on some other ideas. Somehow, I like the second, third, and fourth sittings with a model more than the first sitting. The first sitting is always exciting, getting to know a new person & seeing a beautiful woman nude for the first time -- these are wonderful experiences. But after a couple of sittings, I feel more empowered to try new things.

For example: I feel I do a better job photographing models who are standing or sitting than I do with models who are lying down. If I could tell you why, I'm sure I'd do a better job at photographing horizontal models. But I don't know why. During my last sitting with Kristin, we tried a few horizontal images, which I liked quite a bit, but Kristin wasn't feeling all that well, and when I asked her to lie down, she had uncontrollable coughing fits. So, I decide to try to pick up where Kristin & I left off -- I ask Victoria to help me with some horizontal pictures.

This sitting continues with Victoria Gets Horizontal

Thanks again to Spartacus Leathers!