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This web site
has been around for over 15 years, and it has grown to contain
around 10,000 images. Because of this, I'm getting
to be known in the amateur fine art nude photography circles.
In addition, I work hard to nurture a local artistic community,
and I participate on some of the better known modeling web
sites. I also look at lots & lots of fine art
photographs of the nude.
Through
these activities, some of the top traveling figure models
have become known to me. Models appear on the scene,
become in great demand for a few years, and eventually fade
away & move on. In addition, some photographers,
producing the top quality images in the genre, become well
known. I love visiting the profiles, portfolios, and
web sites of these top photographers & models.
Keira has newly arrived as one of the top traveling
figure models. Her figure is legendary, her face is
lovely, and she is highly skilled and witty at posing &
moving. She is confident & energetic. She
is well organized, reliable, & professional. She
is adventurous. She is warm, articulate, & intelligent.
In short, she is the complete package -- she has everything
one needs to be highly successful as a figure model.
And it
shows. She has posed for some of the best figure photographers
around, and has participated in the creation of many exquisite
images. She travels a lot, and when I heard that she
was coming to town, I jumped at the chance to work with
her. I was very happy when she agreed.
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'Tain't braggin' if it's true: I've had
the pleasure of working with many of these top
traveling figure models multiple times when
they come through town. These include
(but are not limited to) the following:
Ashton,
Betcee,
Carlotta,
Victoria,
Yulia, and many more.
Some of these models are still very active;
others not so much; and some are not active
at all. I wonder what they are doing --
drop me a line, why don't you?
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The Good News:
It is a pleasure working with experienced models -- they
are prepared & organized; they know how to present themselves.
Perhaps most importantly, they are confident.
The Bad News: It is a little intimidating working
with these top models. They've worked with excellent photographers,
most of whom are better than I am. The things I might
ask her to do are not new to her, and I have to resist the
temptation of trying to reproduce the wonderful images that
have already been made. Because Keira is always traveling,
I won't get to work with her as often as I'd like.
That means that I feel a little more pressure to make this
session "count", and that in turn means that I'm
inclined to play it safe.
Overall,
I still prefer working with experienced models. I
tell myself that
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I'm not going to be doing everything in this one session.
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If she enjoys the city, she'll return.
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There is no better time for taking risks.
But still,
I'm nervous.
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I got to tell you a story. Our session
lasted for 3 hours, ending in the shower (as
you'll soon see). That necessitated us
taking a break in the middle of our session,
before jumping into the shower so that we can
feed Keira's parking meter.
What you see here is what Keira wore to my door,
and this is what she wore when we fed the parking
meter. As we were walking in front of
my house, we walked past a couple of sidewalk
queens -- ladies who were hanging out on the
sidewalk, smoking cigarettes, and gabbing away
at each other. I see these folks often,
but we've never interacted -- at most, we might
give each other a friendly nod.
Not this time. As we walked past, one
of these ladies stopped Keira and told her, "Honey,
you have a lovely figure, but I've got to tell
you that I can see everything".
(To Be Continued)
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(How
I did these effects.)
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(Continuing the story...)
As we walked past, one of these ladies stopped
Keira and told her, "Honey, you have a
lovely figure, but I've got to tell you that
I can see everything".
At this point, all four of us looked at Keira's
chest. I kept quiet; I really didn't know
what to say. Keira shrugged her shoulders,
said "thank you, but I'm comfortable with
what I'm wearing", and we walked back to
my house. Of course, we went back inside,
and 30 seconds later, Keira was walking around
totally nude. I mean, if Keira was uncomfortable
showing off her figure, then she's in the wrong
business.
The story doesn't end there. After feeding
the parking meter, Keira & I worked in the
shower, and we got her soaking wet. We
ended our photo session there. There's
a little flurry of activity at the end of a
photo sitting -- I like to put away the delicate
electronics (because otherwise, I'll knock them
over), and the model pulls together all her
stuff into her traveling bags. Keira's
hair was still wet, so she put on only her shorts
and was topless while she was packing up.
I looked over at her & said, "Y'know
-- that top really is see-through".
Well, I thought it was funny.
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What
do you think of this presentation of the artistic effect
images (roll mouse over the above image)? |
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I love doing
these "Getting Started" setups, where I photograph
the model in the clothes she wears to the door & continue
to photograph her as she removes them. For the record,
these models are aware that I'm going to do this long before
the sitting date -- I give them advance notice so that they
can think about what they want to be wearing as we do this.
This
is one of Keira's favorite tops. In fact, if only
it was a little bit longer, she'd wear it as a dress, without
the shorts.
Some
additional observations:
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I do these "Getting Started" setups a lot,
and I would guess that >90% of the models choose
to remove their tops before they remove their bottoms.
Keira removed her shorts first.
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With Keira standing in front of the window like this,
if her top was ever going to be see-through, it would
be in situations like this.
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I kinda think that perhaps all of Keira's clothes are
see-through to a certain extent. I assume she
likes it that way.
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Lots of the more experienced models show up not wearing
constrictive clothing or underclothing (underwear);
tight clothes leave marks on the skin & slows things
down. Keira was two bad hands away from losing
the strip poker tournament.
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Okay, that's
more than a little see-though. But then again, Keira
has untied to cords at the back that held the bodice tight.
From
a technical perspective:
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I love all the diagonal angles in this corner.
I like how the mirror compliments the window, and how
the patch of sunlight on the wall flows into the floor.
The low perspective is important to create these angles.
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The camera is set at a wide angle setting, but I minimize
distortion by keeping the lens axis parallel to the
floor (cropping as necessary).
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Being backlit like this create challenges to find the
proper exposure. I don't mind things becoming
indistinct, but you want enough details in the shadows
so that you can appreciate the expression on Keira's
face.
From a personal perspective, I've been having troubles
with my eyesight these past few years. I can still
see out of my right eye fairly well -- I can still drive
a car, for example, but overall my eyesight isn't as sharp
as it used to be, and I can't see details. This is
impacting my photography -- my images tend to feature light &
shadow, shape & form, and I am becoming unconcerned
when there is a loss of detail. In the past, it might
have bothered me that Keira's lovely face is in shadow here,
but nowadays, it's fine.
Keira has untied the ties at the back of her top, and
she is preparing to remove it.
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I try
to be objective & constructive. I've also had
the pleasure of photographing dozens of beautiful women
in my home.
But I
find Keira's figure to be absolutely breathtaking.
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