Photoshoot with Kittysprite - 17th December 2012

A little behind with Christmas and spending quality time with family, though today having a quiet time catching up on things in the office, so thought I would get my blog completed for a shoot which was my last one of 2011 with Kittysprite.

When thinking of ideas for this shoot I wanted to incorporate candles in some of the images and experiment with lower shutter speeds so the flash did not make the flame from the candles disappear, while at the same time hand holding the camera and I thought a 25^th of a second would be enough to not have any camera shake as well as expose for the flash as well as the candle flame.

I suggested this idea to Kittysprite beforehand and she came up with some great ideas for the use of the candles, one of which made me think this would work really well by giving the images a Victorian feel and would give me the chance to shoot Kittysprite in some Victorian Bloomers I have and am a big fan of.

We had discussed beforehand if to do the shoot out on location or in the studio, but due to the time of year and weather on the day, went for the studio.

Kittysprite’s partner came along with her to the shoot and after looking through all the amazing things that she had brought along to the shoot we decided to shoot Kittysprite in this amazing Kimono she has, before moving onto the candle idea and incorporating Kittysprite’s partner into the shoot. We shot the Kimono with Kittysprite in various poses and incorporating a few props, I have included my favourite from this set below.

A friend of mine had made this amazing cross and let me borrow it for photoshoots and I decided to incorporate this in the next set of images where we at first kept Kittysprite in the Kimono, but undone so just around her waist and then took a series with her tied to the cross, before incorporating some candles, getting Kittysprite to have one in each hand as well as one in her mouth, before getting her partner to dribble some of the wax over her chest as well as using a cane to poke Kittysprite with. Though before using the wax we removed the Kimono from Kittysprite as it was very expensive and we didn’t want to damage it with candle wax.

We then decided to have Kittysprite sitting in front of the cross with her hands above her head tied to the cross, while arranging candles around her, being very careful to ensure the candles followed the lines of her legs etc. rather than just being place haphazardly.

Lastly after getting the wax off Kittysprite’s chest, we went with Kittysprite dressed in Victorian style bloomers, blouse and maids hat and then got her partner dressed up in formal wear with top hat and took a set where he is being the sinister cruel guy which I have to see he played the part of very well, in fact I think they both enjoyed it.

I have to say Kittysprite who has only shot with two other photographers before is a pure delight to work with and added so much creativity and ideas to the shoot. I will be arranging another shoot with her in the New Year that’s for sure.

Happy New Year to you all and watch this space for upcoming shoots in 2012.

Photoshoot with Clover - 12th December 2011

Last week I had another shoot with Clover who those who are regular readers of my blog will know is much more than a model to me but also a great friend of Karenza and myself.  When setting up this shoot we had discussed various ideas but all of them themed around artistic nude in dereliction. I have always been very keen on this theme, but was further encouraged to do more of this style of work due to getting some images published in a book titled ‘Derelict Nudes’ which is available to purchase via this Link.

We planned to go with this theme even though it was the middle of December and planned to do it whatever the weather on the day and I can’t thank Clover enough for agreeing to this. As it happens we were very lucky with the weather and while cold the sun was shining.

We went to my normal location and on parking the car at the entrance to the field we had to walk across to get to the old buildings we were confronted by four dead birds hanging from the trees around the entrance. It made us wonder if this was a warning not to enter or meant something else? as we have at previous times seen the odd dead bird hanging in various places around the location. If anyone knows why farmers do this I would be very interested to hear from you.
Ignoring the birds we went through the gate and across the field to the location containing various derelict building. Rather than use the buildings we had both shot in before we decided to try a new one which is an old massive barn, which was full of old farm machinery. In this building was an old flat bed truck so started with Clover nude posing on the back this. 
The sun was coming through a doorway throwing light in various patterns onto Clover’s body and we arranged the poses to work with this natural light and used a single flash as a fill in, to avoid dark shadows on Clover. During this session all the time I was looking for how the natural light was falling onto Clover and as the Sun was moving so Clover had to move to take full advantage of this light and where possible getting it to fall in such a way as to highlight the curves of Clovers body.

Once we had exhausted our pose book for the truck we moved onto another piece of machinery, which was in front of the truck. As soon as I started shooting I was not happy with the light I was getting, so turned off the flash and just went with the natural light flooding through the doorway.

After this we tried various other locations in the barn including laying Clover on some large blue bags of fertilizer. All through the shoot I was trying to use the highlights of the location from the skylights in the building to the beautiful texture of the back wall of the barn presumably caused by water damage.

After a few hours of shooting we decided that it was time to finish as I was very aware of how cold it was and while Clover was a complete trooper I didn’t want Clover to get to cold. Saying that though Clover and I have worked together so many times and are able to capture the right images very quickly as Clover knows the sort of thing I am looking for and how I work, with the same being true of myself knowing what works with Clover and was doesn’t.

Currently discussing with Clover plans for returning to this same building in the New Year together and do more images along this same theme.  

Derelict Nude Book now available

The book I have my work published in is now available for purchase, and if you purchase now you will have it in time for Christmas. Will make a great Christmas present or just treat yourself as it contains some amazing work photographs by some very talented people.

Here is the link directly to the website you can purchase from - Derelict Nudes Book where you can read which other photographer's have their work included.
Enjoy!

Reworked images of Clover & Karenza from 2009

I have been up to date with editing all my previous shoots for about a week now, and had the urge to have a look back through some previous images I had taken back in 2009. This was when I did my first ever photoshoot with Clover and thought I would share a few of the images from back then. Since those first shoots with Clover, she has become a very dear friend of Karenza and myself and we both look forward to her visits. A few of the images I revisited where of her and Karenza together and made me think it’s about time I arranged to shoot both of these beautiful ladies together again. So that will be on my New Years wish list.

I have done more photoshoots with Clover than anyone and in that time she has taught me a lot about my own photography and also encouraged me to experiment and not be afraid of getting it wrong as at the end of the day the mistakes is how you learn and improve.

Also in this time Clover has developed as a model in so many ways and become one of the most sought after models in the Fetish arena. Also she has become a brilliant photographer herself and her work as a photographer can be seen at Clover Photography

Although on reviewing these images I have to say my editing skills where not up to scratch so I have also reedited a few of them, mainly just adding more contrast to the images, which was lacking in my early photographs, which China Hamilton was very quick to point out to me on many occasions.

Now I am looking forward to shooting with Clover next week, so watch this space for some new images of Clover.

Book Derelict Nude's

I have just been told that I have two photographs published in a new book called Derelict Nudes. This is my first time actually having any of my images published, even though I have submitted work before and told they are going to be used in a book, for the books to never appear. So it’s a great feeling to see it now in actual print.

It’s a great book featuring various great photographers work so well worth your time taking a look at it.

Once book is released I will put up a link.

The two images I have published I have included below:

These images can also be purchased as prints from the Guild Of Erotic Photographers website, by just clicking on the required photograph:

Link to Purchase Prints

Photoshoot with Becky - 14th November 2011

We went to a friend’s house for a Halloween Party last month and our beautiful hostess Becky was looking great in her outfit and reminded me that it had been well over a year since I last shot with her. So striking when the iron is hot, we had a chat about it and she was also keen on having some images showing her more dominant side, which would be perfect in the outfit she was wearing.

So a few days and emails later we had a date booked and some other ideas to shoot. In the time between the shoot happening we had a further chat, as we had talked in the past of an idea  my wife had thought of  which we had never got around to doing which was based on the Spartacus Blood and Sand TV series as well as a new idea of my wife’s involving cherries.

On the day of the shoot my wife was not well with a migraine so we decided to just do the shoot with Becky on her own and maybe do the Cherry idea depending how my wife felt at the time, and put the Spartacus idea on hold for another day.

We did the shoot in the studio and I used a very simple lighting set-up with a large soft box to model left and a light from behind with a snoot to act as a hair light.  This worked perfectly for the first two outfits Becky was wearing and an example of each can be seen below:

Then we decided to do some nude shots of Becky with material hanging from the ceiling and Becky using the material to wrap around herself. To create some movement in the hair and the material I turned on a fan. I started this with the idea of using only one light but as the idea developed I added a light to the rear to have some light coming through the back of the material which worked really well. As the material was red I also added a red gel to this light, which gave me an idea of adding another light with a blue gel attached and I will let you all be the judge of whether this worked or not.

I normally go for very simple lighting in the studio, but sometimes it is nice to just experiment when there are no pressures to get great images and I find working with friends allows me to do this much more than working with a model for the first time, where as a photographer you are expected to get her images she can use in her portfolio. I have been very lucky over the last few years and a lot of the models I have worked with have also become friends and are more than willing to let me experiment when the mood takes me.

My wife was felling a little better so we decided to try the cherry idea that she had, which was basically Becky and her both biting on cherries at the same time. I wanted to use this theme to try and get an image where the faces were silhouettes and just the Cherries are correctly lit. To do this I used a large soft box as the background and then used a front light with a snoot to highlight the cherries. This though still gave me too much light on the faces, so I taped over the snoot to give just a pin prick of light. Once the lighting was set-up we then tied the cherries using some catgut and suspended them from a stick with Becky’s husband Trevor holding them so they dangled between Becky and Karenza’s mouths and then just played with different ideas and positions of the cherries, adjusting the lighting in various ways as things developed. This was a very slow process but in the end we captured the image I envisaged before the shoot.

It was a very enjoyable and relaxed shoot with the opportunity to try different things and now I need to arrange another date to get Becky and Karenza together to do the Spartacus Blood and Sand idea we have.

Private Commission - 13th November 2011

I was approached by a couple recently who wanted to commission me for some private images of them both, where they wanted some fetish type images as well as some erotic shots of themselves as a couple. Shoot was arranged with lots of discussions beforehand to ensure we exactly got the type of images they wanted.

I have to say they were a lovely couple and I really enjoyed photographing them and they are very happy with the final results.

I have included one image from this shoot which the couple have allowed me to post online as it doesn’t show their identities.

If you are interested in commissioning me, I offer a very discrete and secure service for all your fetish/erotic photographic needs, and can be contacted via my website contact page.

Photoshoot Sarah - 7th November 2011

Just finished editing some photographs from a shoot with Sarah which I did the other week and thought it was about time I updated my blog. Things have been very hectic just lately and I have got behind with everything and my list of things to do on my office desk seems to be growing at an exorbitant rate. I have some Annual Leave left to take before Christmas so think I will take some time off the day job to try and catch up and clear the backlog before Christmas.

Anyway less of my ramblings and back to the shoot in question. Sarah it turns out only lives about 10 minutes away from me and after some initial discussions discovered she wanted to try something along the Sin City line as in the film. I had done a couple of images before in this style and in my collection of props I have some guns and swords which we could use.  Sarah wanted to wear a Black PVC catsuit for these images which I thought could work well, but advised her we needed to include red somewhere in the clothing else the whole Sin City theme would not work. So Sarah turned up for the shoot with a red scarf and gloves which I believe she had purchased just for the shoot.

I used a very simple set-up for these shots against a black background, and one light to the side of Sarah with a large octagonal softbox with a grid on it to ensure the light only fell where I wanted it to. Also I had a fan going to get some movement in the hair.

We very quickly got the shots we needed to take into post production and then did a few other sets to create some images Sarah could use in her modelling portfolio.

In post production I did my normal tidying up of the images removing any skin blemishes, sharpening of the eyes etc. I try not to over edit the skin of the models as very quickly it can look very false and sometimes not even look like the model anymore so I like to try and keep it very natural.  Once this stage was complete I went through my large collection of images I use for backgrounds as it was important for this to work for the background to be buildings as if the image was taken outside on the street. Once I had added the background I selected the red elements of the image as in the gloves and scarf and jumped these onto a separate layer to bring back into the image later.

I then turned the whole image black and white, for this I use the Nik Silver Efex Pro filter in Photoshop which is the best Black & White conversion filter I have come across. It has massive flexibility in the conversion process and even allows selective editing of parts of the image by adding control points. I had previously created a preset for this Sin City type look which is very much like a Film Noir look and used this as my starting place and then just did some minor adjustments.

Once the image was looking right in black and white I then copied the layer with the gloves and scarf above this layer and then just did some minor contrast adjustments.

Now Blog complete it’s back to more editing before going off to the Cinema this evening to watch the new Twilight Film which my wife is a massive fan of.

Photoshoot Jo - 5th November 2011

I had my 3^rd shoot this year with Jo or Lexi to most people and as the day was cold and looking like it was going to pour down with rain at any time, we decided this time to do the shoot in the studio. This made a change for Jo, as the last 2 times we have shot together we went out on location to a derelict building.

We did not have any set plans for this shoot, so once Jo arrived and we went through what outfits she had brought along with her, we decided to use a few of the outfits, one of which was a short leopard print dress, which I know my wife would have wanted if she had seen itJ Also Jo brought along an old pair of stockings with lots of ladders in them as she knows I like. So after making a few more holes and ladders in them we decided Jo would wear them for all the images we were going to do together.

I used mainly just a single light set-up in the studio with a large octagonal softbox which has a grid on it. I like using the grid on the softbox as I find it directs the light exactly where I want it to go and doesn’t spill onto the background which, when I am using black paper I try to avoid as I prefer it to be pure black.

After the Leopard Print dress we went to a black PVC dress and did some shots with that, one of which can be seen below.

Once we had done those two outfits in a more sexy dark fashion type look, we decided to try some fetish images with Jo in just the ripped stockings and a under bust corset.  I can’t remember why we got on to the subjects of masks but we did and seems Jo is a big fan and I have a large collection of different masks so we decided to incorporate one into the fetish shoot.  Also we added a collar I have which has nipple clamps attached so Jo put this on as well and the outfit was complete. We did a few different poses with this, some with Jo in manacles and some without, before progressing to an idea I had of Jo topless with barbed wire wrapped around her and fake blood.

I have to say though it is false barbed wire that I purchased off Ebay a long time ago but it does look very realistic in the final images.  The images from this session though to be honest just did not work for me even after editing, so think I am going to have to try this idea at another time, and hopefully Jo will come up again soon to try it, as I have a few more ideas now on how to make it work better.

Photoshoot with Karenza & Simon 29th October 2011

I had another shoot with the wife, this time including our friend Simon who had come up to see us for the day so my wife could take some photographs of him. Yes my wife is a photographer as well! That is when she is not in front of the camera. She though tends to mainly photograph the male form although she also specialises in baby photography.

Once Karenza had finished doing the images she and Simon wanted, they asked me to take some photographs of them together with the idea of just having a bit of fun in the studio and not taking things to serious. Karenza had this mad idea of the two of them looking like they were fighting with mad hair and makeup. As Simon was going to lose most of the fights we also wrapped some pvc tape on his arms and legs etc.

The shoot was a lot of fun and we had a good laugh while doing it. Also it allowed me to experiment in post production to add in different backgrounds etc. which allows me to get away from my normal post production workflow which I use on my normal style of images.

I got into experimenting more with Photoshop while doing my degree in photography and a lot of those skills I learnt I now infrequently use. I don’t profess to be an expert in Digital Art but it can be a lot of fun experimenting in Photoshop although at the same time burning lots of hours.

I am going to stop rambling on now as I have a backlog of editing to catch up on as well as a few shoots planned in the next week, which I need to prepare for.

Photoshoot Karenza 27th October 2011

I had been collecting a few ideas for a shoot with my wife and we arranged to try them in the studio. One of the ideas involved digging out her wedding dress and the other involved the use of some flowers.

We went to the local florists and just bought a couple of single stems of two flowers I wanted to use and got the wedding dress out of the wardrobe and we were all set, well so I thought.

It became very clear early on that my idea needed a wedding dress with a very long zip extending low down on the back and the one we had just didn’t undo enough for the shot in mind. As they say best laid plans and all that, so after a quick rethink we took some photographs of the wife in the wedding dress, although I wasn’t getting an image I really liked so while I was having a think the wife started to just swing around and then I saw the shot and tried to capture the movement in the dress, which can be seen below.

We then went on to do the portrait shots idea I had using the flowers and these can be seen below.

It’s funny but just recently I have not been totally happy with the work I am creating and am struggling to work out why. The only thing I can think of is the fact that due to the winter coming on us, I am in the studio and not in my usual locations of derelict buildings and not getting the same inspiration in the sterile environment of the studio. Hopefully as I will be potentially be stuck in the studio until Spring I will become more inspired and improve the work I am doing in the studio.  

Talland Bay, Cornwall Weekend 15th October 2011

When I started this blog my intention was to use it to document all of my photoshoots, but I have decided to include other activities where I have my camera with me and am able to take photographs and I think the tales will interest my readers.

We have some friends living in Dorset and as they had just moved house we decided to have a long weekend with them. One night staying at their new house and then driving down to Cornwall to stay a few nights in Talland Bay.

When we go away I don’t tend to take all my photographic kit as I never have time to wander on my own and find locations for doing landscape photography. I enjoy Landscape photography a lot, but like to have time to just explore and find locations and the right light, before setting up the camera on a tripod. I find this most relaxing and will as winter comes upon us go out and do a few shoots in my local location. So I just took my Canon G9 which is a great very portable camera, which allows me to shoot in RAW format.

We stayed in the Talland Bay Hotel which was an amazing hotel, with amazing views out over the sea. Also the people that own the hotel are massive collectors and have their collections all around the hotel, which consists of everything from stuffed, china & paintings of cats, at the same time having this great collection of erotic art on the walls around the hotel. We had a great time just wandering the corridors of the hotel looking at all the paintings and strange ornaments dotted around. In the grounds you find brass sculptors of fairies hanging in the tree’s and even a sculptor of a tramp asleep under a tree.

I have included an image, not very good I must say of a painting and I wonder if any one has any idea of the artist’s name? As the owners where away when we stayed at the hotel and none of the staff there could tell me.

I grew up in Devon and spent a lot of time touring Cornwall on Motorbikes and it’s an area I love, so it was a joy for me to visit places with lots of childhood and teenage memories. We had a trip wandering around Looe where I spent many Sunny days as a child as my parents took us to the beach there more times than I can remember.

We also walked along the coastal route from Talland Bay to Polperro, which is a lovely fishing village, and spent a lot of time wandering around the art shops and even bought a painting by a local artist, that will soon be on display in our home, once we have found the right frame for it.

All in all it was a great weekend away with great weather for October and made me want to spend much more time in Cornwall, maybe next time with the whole idea of exploring and taking Landscape Photographs. Below is a photograph of Polperro Harbour I took as we walked down the coastal path to it.

Photoshoot with Cheryl 12th October 2011

Cheryl and I have been discussing doing a shoot together for what must be two years, but with so much distance between us it has been difficult to arrange. We finally managed it though and here are the results.

Cheryl had booked herself into a local hotel and so we decided to use the hotel room to start with and then move onto do some shots in a local wood.

This was the first time I had done a shoot in a hotel room, but I used my normal technique of under exposing the background and using one strobe as fill in light. While shooting I noticed that the wall lights and experimented with them on behind Cheryl’s head which gave of a sort of halo effect. Don’t think Cheryl is an angel thoughJ. I tried various shots using these lights with various different poses and below is a few of the resulting images.

We then went off to the woods with no plan in place for what we were going to do. I had previously noticed while looking at Cheryl’s portfolio that she had very few art nude shots. So we discussed and agreed to try some utilising the trees as a backdrop. Again underexposing the background slightly so as not to burn out the detail in the images created by the Sun coming through the branches.

I really must shoot more images like this in woods as it throws up so many possibilities.

Photoshoot with Juliet & Nick 8th October 2011

I did a shoot with Juliet & Nick April this year and can't believe it has taken us so long to arrange another shoot, but we finally managed it.

All the ideas for this shoot came from Juliet & Nick and it was down to me to capture their ideas. The whole theme was around Beauty and the Beast, with Juliet doing all the makeup on Nick and I have to say she did an amazing job.

We wanted the images to have a background of dereliction so used one of my heavily frequented locations and I am very pleased with how it all worked out.

All the images are captured with my normal set-up on location of using natural light and one strobe for fill in.

I was very pleased with the final results and was it very interesting taking someone else’s ideas and trying to capture it in a way that they would be happy with. Most of my shoots start off with an idea or theme I have and then just develop as the shoot progress's rather than having very specific images in mind before the start of the shoot and almost shooting to a menu.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the images and thanks again to Juliet & Nick for their amazing efforts on this shoot.

Photoshoot with Leanne 3rd October 2011

I had an email from a young lady who was looking to try modelling after having a couple of kids and was very body conscious due to this. Funny as request was through Purestorm where I have had very few requests from in the past.

We did the shoot in the evening so used the my home studio and I have to say for her first time Leanne did brilliant and got even better as the shoot progressed and her confidence increased. I hope the shoot helped her feel better about herself anyway.

I found myself while editing the images getting carried and playing with adding different backgrounds into one of the images so rather than spending my normal 10 minutes editing each image I spent 3 hours and even then I am not sure it completely works. So I thought I would let you all be the judge by showing the edited image without background and the one with.



Anyway I hope to work with Leanne again in the near future as I really enjoy working with models that are just starting out and helping them learn as well as gain the confidence that’s required to really make something of modelling.

Photoshoot with Satine 28th September

Satine and I have been trying to arrange another shoot together for ages, and luckily we managed to find a date we could both make. I have done two previous shoots with Satine, her very first Photoshoot back in 2008 and then again last year and we had been trying to sort another one ever since then.

Rather than go to my normal location of derelict building we decided to go to the lakes and woods located just at the back of my house in Thrapston.

We did not really have any plans for the shoot, but as Satine had brought along a Red Riding Hood outfit which she had never used we decided to go with that to start with. We used the woods and a large tree as the backdrop. I wanted to underexpose the background to give the images the feeling that they were took at night time and then used my strobe with a beauty dish attached to light Satine.

While we were shooting a van drove up through the woods and stopped and a warden (well I assume he was some sort of warden) got out and came over and asked us what we were doing. I would have thought it was obvious as I had a camera in hand and light all set up on a tripod. Anyway I told him we were just taking pictures to which he replied “you do know this is private property”. No was my response having used this location many times in the past and never seeing any signs saying it was private. He then enlightened me that the path which was 2 feet from us was the Nene Way so public and everything on this side to the lake which was another 2 feet away was private property.

Anyway he then seemed to have second thoughts and told us to carry on but remember that people walked past here, as it was the Nene Way. I did giggle to myself at this, as I have used this same location for lots of art nude shots before, but today it was mostly clothed..lol

Anyway after that interruption to our shoot, we carried on and after he had left the area we did some lingerie shots and topless, before moving to another location a short distance away to do a few art nude shots.

All in all it was a productive shoot and it was nice to do something a bit different to my normal erotic/fetish work.

Photoshoot with Clover 27th Augst 2011

Last Saturday I did a Shoot with Clover, who I must have worked with well over 20 times over the last few years and she has become a very good friend in that time of both me and the wife.

As always with Clover we set out with a plan for the shoot, and as per normal we seem to end up with something completely different than we set out to capture. The weather on the day of the shoot was forecast to be pouring rain and both of us had always wanted to do a rain shoot, so went to a group of derelict buildings which have become my regular haunt. As with all plans involving the weather the day was overcast but no rain. So we decided to start the shoot inside one of the building and do some art nude shots against the background of this collapsed roof.

Then a first for me at this location we just decided to take the camera and one strobe and wander around the field of derelict buildings and came across a very collapsed building with just one part of the wall left and decided to try some shots against the wall.

 The sky though was amazing and I wanted to make sure I captured the sky which looked very stormy. So I exposed the camera for the sky and used my strobe as a fill light on Clover, which gave an almost night time feel to the images, as well as adding lots of drama to the final images. I was pleased how the sky came out as I have a pet hate of images with over exposed skies with no detail.

We progressed on from this location to an old hay barn and to take advantage of the sky, we did a lot of art nude shots with Clover leaning against on the of iron pillars holding up the barn roof. Again exposing for the sky and using the one strobe as a fill light on Clover. I think these are my favourite images from the whole shoot.

Of course as we were in a hay barn we had to do some images with Clover rolling in the hay, but this got interrupted as the rain started. So in a rush Clover ran out into the rain naked and we started taking pictures.  This was fun as I was trying not to get rain on the camera although my strobe got soaked, but doesn’t seem to have done it any harm. The rain was a bit hit and miss as it kept stopping and starting, but in the end we did get a very heavy shower which allowed us to capture the image we wanted.

At this point with Clover soaking wet and freezing cold, we decided to just do a few more shots that we had planned inside one of the buildings before heading home for a very welcome cup of tea.

Now we are busy thinking of ideas for next shoot with Clover which we are determined to be sooner rather than later.