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| Back
in 2002, when I was just getting started doing photography in my
new Oregon home, I met Leona (remember her?). Over the
years, Leona & I worked together many times, but in that
very first sitting, we made some pictures on my dining room
table. See?
I thought
Leona was incredibly sexy in general, but she was especially
sexy here. I thought I'd see how Inna looked in the same
spot.
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It's
strange to look at a five year old photo side-by-side with a two
month old photo. What a difference! The image of
Leona is film based, and the image of Inna is digital.
Also, I've adopted adding the warm toning to my images
nowadays. Lately, I've embraced more wide angle images --
like this one: I use my zoom lens to move in close or out
wide at will. Finally, I think I'm quite a bit better at
editing digital or scanned images.
This is
natural light with room lights. Afternoon sunlight is
bouncing off that neighbor building, not 10 feet away from the
three large windows off the left side of the image, and the
ceiling lights (including that chandelier) gives Inna some nice
highlights, especially in her hair.
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| Nice light!
That's a core value of my "process": I first
look for nice light, I imagine naked women in that nice light, I
find a naked woman willing to be in that nice light, and
finally, I make photographs.
Living in this house is terrific. It is interesting,
however, that the pockets of nice light are seasonal. This
dining room gets this nice light only on clear, late summer
afternoons. You've got to be observant, and you've got to
remember.
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| Remember:
Inna was interested in some images that were a little more erotically
sensuous than the typical fine art fare. I can't claim to be an
expert in the genre, but here's some of the elements I was
trying: a real environment, an open (wide knees) pose, the
enticing position of Inna's right hand, and most of all, the almost
predatory look on Inna's face. This image does it for me. |
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| Okay,
it's time to talk about the elephant in the room: Inna has
lovely, large breasts, and to date, my typical model is less endowed
than Inna. This is just coincidence & not indicative of a
personal choice. I just like breasts to be natural, regardless
of size -- artificially enhanced breasts just don't appeal to me. |
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Anyhow,
it is both a treat & a challenge for me to work with a woman
with such nice & large breasts. I'm finding that some
poses work really well; similarly, some lighting schemes also
enhance the visuals.
While we are
all staring at Inna's breasts, take a moment to appreciate her
clear skin. I am particularly gratified that these images
achieve good skin tones.
Now,
drag your eyes away from Inna for a moment. I really like
that art on the back wall behind Inna -- it's a collage of
feathers & shells. But in this context, it is
distracting, especially the glare coming off the glass.
That's easily remedied...
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| See the difference? That collage wasn't
contributing anything but a distraction -- now we can appreciate
Inna's beauty more. I'm particularly happy with the light
-- look how the highlights at the top of her hair pops, and I'm
particularly pleased with the gentle shadows all across her
figure.
I've got to admit that I am distracted by the tiny little
splash of light past the archway over Inna's left shoulder --
that's a light on in the kitchen. I should have shut that
light off. Yes, I could have photo edited that light out,
but I decided to leave it in there, as a reminder to myself that
I've got to take responsibility for every single blessed pixel
in all my images.
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This
happens every once in a while: Inna has been rolling
around on my dining room table for a while, and I think she's
running out of ideas about how to show me something new &
interesting. On the other hand, I'm still interested &
captivated. Just removing that collage made everything new
to me. And the light is still yummy.
What to do in
situations like this? Well, if you are the photographer,
you need to give the model continuous feedback on what you are
seeing & what you are liking, and you have to be prepared to
give the model more direction, suggesting specific poses.
Just look at
that face, those eyes! I love the messed up hair.
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| So, I
suggest that we take a look at how things look when Inna is on
her back. For some reason, I didn't like these, so we got
Inna up once again. Now, with the sun going down &
with the collage off the wall, we made some of the best dining
room images.
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The
super-observant folks visiting here will have noticed that in
the background of the Leona image is a table lamp that matches
the light fixture above the dining room table -- that light
isn't present in the dining room images of Inna. That's
because it was set up here, in the "Close
Canyon" area of the back stairs. I like to plan
out a handful of concepts, and to the extent possible, I set up
those areas before the model arrives -- that saves time.
So, in this case, I put that lamp on a little side table,
nestled in the little blank space at the back of the
house. (The back stairs start behind that left wall, goes
up four steps, turns & goes up four more steps behind that
back wall, turns again & goes up 9 steps behind that right
wall).
This is such
a strange setup for a strange little space -- I like it.
I'm using the light from the lamp as the primary light, and I
like how this image looks. We make a few more
exposures. |
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