BTS With Dani

While many of our friends were tuning their high-power optics to the Great Sun Eclipse of 2012, your truly was busy shooting another model :-)
I took a few BTS/setup frames, so I thought I'd share...

#1: As it has been said many times by many people (including myself, on more than one occasion), you can turn any purely black (not white!) BG into any color you want by training some gelled lights onto it.
I have two gel packs from Alien Bees. They cost only like $20 each. By mixing them I can produce virtually any color imaginable.
Since Dani was sporting a pair of beautiful blue eyes (complete with long blond hair and pale white skin), we started with royal blue:

#2: Remember, it was blue? Not anymore (and you can see it just black up front:-)

#3: Usually I don't allow male escorts, especially boyfriends.
Not that the guys would interfere. They very rarely do.
In fact, in my entire history I had just one case of such interference.
Granted, that BF came uninvited (and hence unvetted by me) with a second model, who came with the primary one on an extremely short notice.
I was kinda put on a spot, and since they came a long way I didn't have a heart to tell him off. I wish I did: the shoot was pretty much ruined...:-(
Few other cases when I ended up having a BF on set, they'd just sit quietly in a corner and would read a book or surf the net on his laptop.
Most just follow their GFs the same way they would follow them shoes or dress shopping.
They'd really prefer to do something else and to be somewhere else, but they had no choice :-).

So it's not the BFs themselves, per se.
It is the models that behave differently in their presence.
Most just can't tune BFs out. Meaning me and my camera get less attention than we need.

After being exposed to this behavior a few times I made it a very strict rule (see above:-)

But yesterday outdoors part of the shoot was a different story.
I had some extra gear to carry. Besides, I was expecting more company on that rocky outcrop due to the eclipse anyway, and I was right - there were a couple of Nikon shooters there.
Moreover, I have already "broken in" my model during the studio part (where he was not allowed), and in the outdoors attention game is different anyway, so we ended up having BF to tag alone for the sunset.

Every time I end up having escorts (male or female) on my set I try to use them whenever possible (free assistants, yay!)

Voice-Activated Self-Propelling Human-Shaped Scrim Holder:

#4: If you stare at this image for 5 min or more you may notice a guy (camera left) holding a golden reflector:

#5: As I said I had some extra gear on this outing.
Namely, two my old trusted 10' light stands (one of my very first studio gear purchases almost 10 years ago), 2 brand new Speedlites 600EX-RT and, last but not least, "commander" unit ST-E3-RT. All radio, purchased along with my first 5D3 from the good people of Tallyn's.
While I found speedlights to be less powerful than my old "potato-masher" Sunpacks (sunpacks use 6xAA, speedlites 4xAA) and taking a longer time to recycle at full power, the convenience of having HSS (high speed syncing) and ability to control the power from the commander unit, i.e. without constantly running to the flash units and back is definitely a winner. And the nice gel holders are awesome addition!

Two CTO-gelled speedlights in rim configuration:

Enjoy!

Why

Before we begin our - hopefully, interesting and entertaining - journey, I'd like to answer another question, which I seem to be asked almost as frequently as the one about the blog . The question have been phrased differently by different people, but it always boils down to this: why do I shoot artistic nudity?

Unlike the blog question, however, I have always had numerous good reasons for this one.

It's a classic art. 

Since the dawn of our civilization endless (some very good and famous) artists were trying to capture the beauty of a naked female body on all sorts of media: cave walls, frescoes, paintings, marble - the list goes on and on. I kinda like the company.

Model: Anais. Studio: PhotoSoCal

It's beautiful.

I honestly don't know any other subjects that I would love to see and work with (as a photographer, at least) as much as I love to see and work with a beautiful naked woman. Her body becomes my canvas - sometimes even literally!

Model: Lury. Studio: PhotoSoCal

It's (extremely) challenging.

I hear snorts and giggles at this one. "Yeah, right. You've got a naked chick (or even several) at your command, obediently following your every word, assuming any pose you tell her/them to,  how difficult can it be to snap a decent picture of her/them?"

Models: Tessa, Alexis, Gabriel. Studio: PhotoSoCal 

Well, you can go ahead and try. The challenges are staggering to say the least. And I'm not even talking about the most basic one: finding a model. That - simplest - task, if failed, kinda stops you dead in your tracks.

Once you actually have a willing subject prepped and ready, the real challenges begin.

Yes, you're in complete control, but that also means you're responsible for everything. Unlike shooting a landscape or a wildlife, where you're always playing a game of chance with the factors you have almost zero level of control (clouds pattern, sun/moon position, target behavior, etc.), it's all your decision. It's up to you to make it or break it. Which means you have to know what you're going to get before you push your trigger, not in the aftermath.

Next, your subject is nude. Naked. Bare. All out. Which means - you don't have anything else. No pretty outfits to help you. Nothing to conceal a patch of cellulite, some old scar or a fresh mosquito bite with. Nothing to hide a less-than-perfect tummy behind. All you have to work with is posing and lighting. Maybe some basic props.

• Side note: Why not fancy props/clothing? Why not elaborate makeup?
  To me, the answer is simple. When your see a result of any "commercial" shoot, you know there are dozens of people involved in the production. Somebody designed and constructed an outfit, somebody has chosen a location, somebody provided props, makeup, hair, etc., etc. The role of a model is almost diminished to the one of a (voice-controlled) mannequin. And the role of a photographer, sadly, is diminished to a role of a button-pusher - all the important decisions are already made. You have to operate within an extremely tight set of boundaries, which basically dictate the rest. The impact of both model and photographer is diluted so much, it's almost impossible to get a solid credit for it: it's a team work, and you and your models are no more essential than a hair stylist or a caterer (we all have to eat, no)?
  To avoid this "dilution of efforts" I'm trying to minimize any non-necessary objects and roles, so there is only a bare (pun intended) minimum of  parties who are responsible for the final result, namely me and my models.

Last but not least: I'm a straight male. Happily married, with two beautiful daughters, but a straight male nonetheless. Watching a beautiful naked female body curled into the most alluring/seductive/appealing positions (and not just generically alluring - it's YOUR shoot, remember? So it is YOU who actually direct the said pose to be specifically the most alluring/seductive/appealing for you) for extended periods of time (my shoots often  last several hours in a row), sometimes with its most tender, oh, what the hell, erotic parts being just a few inches away, WHILE paying attention to the seemingly "inconsequential" details, like a camera angle, ISO/DOF/SS/FL (and the whole set of utterly important camera settings), lights angles/ratio/quality, light spill on the background, flare coming from the rim, askew necklace on that long thin neck, a speck of mascara on that gentle cheek, a rogue hair strand, etc.  -  is not an exercise for a weak-minded.

Oh well. I hope I answered the question. Let's start our journey!

void main() {}

I have been asked so many times why don't I have my own photography-related blog that I got tired of coming up with a veritable reason why the hell not and finally succumbed to the idea. While I do have my own photo-site and I do post more or less regularly on Facebook, Twitter, various photo forums and modeling sites, having one place where I can put together both my - otherwise obscured - work and my - even more obscure - thoughts about it seemed only logical.

As a photographer, I have been shooting a lot of different genres: landscapes, portraits, events, weddings, you name it. But most and foremost I love shooting artistic nudes. Hence the name and primary idea of this little journal. In the follow-up posts I will be sharing both my recent and past work, as well as discuss techniques (shooting, lighting, post-processing, etc.), quirks, anecdotes and just purely random things.

To schedule a shoot, please email to request@photosocal.com
To schedule a photography class, please follow this link to my Master Class

Caveat: my work is depicting nude female body. If you don't like it, or if you're legally "under age" (whatever that means in your particular country, in US it means "under 18") - please don't read the rest.