By chance I stumbled upon a model who lives just down the road from me, well not literally on the same street, but certainly less than a very short car journey away. So I arranged a short 2 hour shoot to see how we got on, some of the edits from that shoot you can see below. Let me know your thoughts…
I don’t tend to do many TF (Time For) shoots, where both parties give their time for the output, as I often find that the images taken during such sessions are saleable so it makes no commercial sense not to organise the session as a paid shoot in the first instance. However, as ever there are exceptions to that rule and often when it involves trying out equipment, ideas and/or incorporating a lot of suspension bondage work then I opt for TF, providing both parties are in agreement. The time taken to rig and de-rig can limit the content that you can cover during a session, so too fatigue that the model encounters with strenuous ties and positions, so a TF session takes the commercial pressure off the session and allows you to have a free rein.
A model called Gestalta contacted me via Facebook wanting to know if I would like to shoot some shots for her as she does quite a few exhibitions and demonstrations of shibari rigging and did not have any good images of her performances. Trying to get good images during an onstage performance is very difficult as lighting, background and the ability to direct the action are all against you. I’d worked with Gestalta before back in 2009 so she was familiar with my work and I hers, although I was not aware she had become so involved in the rigging and shibari demonstration and exhibition scene. I was happy to go with the TF session as it would be trying out ideas and using rope work extensively throughout the session. For me I’d just had a re-organisation of the studio to give me more width specifically to shoot suspension and want to see how that worked out, as well as shoot some video content for a showreel which I’d not done too well at in the past. I was also keen to expand on one of my underlying themes that I keep returning to of bondage and ballet, a theme I’d first shot with Joceline back in March 2007. Below are some of the images that we took during the session, rigging was a joint affair, or Gestalta or me doing the rigging.
I’ve just returned from giving a talk at Eroticon2013 entitled ‘What makes a good erotic photograph’. My session lasted an hour and I have to say I really enjoyed the talk. Although I’m a qualified trainer and used to standing up in front of groups, you never know how a new talk is going to go down. I pulled the content together for this presentation over a couple of weeks adding some of my new work which had not been seen before. Although the session was titled ‘What Makes a good erotic photograph’ I also wanted to include some content about how I work with models and how to develop creativity and ideas. So these themes were entwined throughout the talk. The conference is mainly targeted at writers and publishers however many of the delegates take photographs to illustrate their work or would like to get more into photography.
I attended the two sessions that preceded mine so I could see how the room worked and I’m glad I did as I did pick up some new things and bits of information from both the speakers which I thought were good ideas.
I had 15 mins to setup and and thankfully technology behaved itself, even though I had to start by re-booting the PC laptop we were all using to present from. Once it had re-booted it was fine, I’m not surprised it complained as my PowerPoint was 305meg in size with all the images in it. I was also using a wireless laser pointer and clicker for the first time, which allowed me freedom from the keyboard to advance the slides in the presentation and to use the laser to highlight particular areas on an image I was talking about. I’ve seen them used before and always wanted one as it makes your presentation a little slicker and allows you to move away from the perceived safety of standing behind the lectern or laptop.
Primed, loaded and ready for the off
My session stated at 12:30pm and from the off I encouraged questions as we went along and there were some great questions from a thoughtful and well-informed audience. I showed just over 90 of my images which I projected. The room at the venue was super, it was in the basement, which did make me snigger as I thought of a dungeon and all those rope, chains and bondage, my images fitted the scene perfectly I thought. Thank you to Ruby who organised the event and I’m hoping there is a demand for more in the future.
20 Ways to Develop Creativity – handout - handout from session
These shots are all from the same shoot with KatyCee, we shot 350 images during the 5 hour session, but covered so much ground and a variety of ideas and concepts that I thought it was worth sharing this diversity and explaining my approach to achieving it.
When I shoot I tend to run with an idea for about 30-40 shots at most, after that I find you can end up being repetitive and not moving the idea forward. If the idea is going great, then I’ll let it run, however in most cases we will get some great images within the 30-40 shots and seeing as I will only use the best 2 or 3 images from each set there’s little point of carrying on once you have those. So we call a halt and then move onto another idea, this approach keeps both me and the model fresh, new props, new ideas and changes of lighting. Short bursts of creativity, action and ideas and then onto something else. This approach works for me and most models I’ve worked with feel the same, however like most things around creativity you will need to find what works for you.
Just to add a model’s viewpoint, if you do shoot long sets e.g. 150+ images per set and then swap onto something else, if your model is not inspired by the idea, then subconsciously they will know they have a long wait before moving onto something else. This won’t help their modelling or posing, so if you do short sharp bursts, if they are not keen then they know that very soon something else will come along.
I’ve often called a halt on ideas that sounded great until we actually started shooting and they turn out not to produce the fruit I was looking for. Rather than flogging a dead horse I’ll call a halt and move onto another idea. Often I’ll store those ideas and try them with another model or two. If they still stink and produce no fruit then I bin the idea completely. It is interesting that often a different model will produce a completely different outcome to the same initial idea, I often store up ideas specifically for a particular model who I know will do a wonderful job working with the idea.
I keep all my ideas on my iPhone, as soon as I get one, I add it to the Notes app on my phone including some detail and thoughts behind the pose. It can sit on the phone for many weeks before seeing the light of day. I’ll usually add to it over the coming weeks as the idea evolves and extra bits of information flood in. This works for me, I have about 50 ideas sitting on my phone waiting to be shot so I never worry about running out of things to do!
I’ve just been notified that I received an Honourable mention in the 2012 Bondage Awards in the Bondage Photographer Category. This is excellent news as I’ve only recently started getting in to rigging and bondage photography so it is great to be recognised this early on for the work I am doing.
Honourable mention – Bondage Awards 2012
I thought I’d celebrate this achievement by posting some bondage work that I have done in the past for your viewing pleasure. In 2013 I intend to explore the area on bondage even more as I like the look of the rope and how it squeezes and changes the shape of the body and the skin. I also like the way the tie restricts a model’s movements making them work and think slightly differently that they normally would. I feel it pushes both me and the model to try new ideas, poses and ties which can only led to different ideas, creativity and results.
I’ve always been fascinated how light and water interact, especially with reflections and shadow play on moving and rippling water. Some people get mesmerised by staring into a fire in the same way I get visual pleasure by the play of light on top of the water as well as underneath it.
I was fortunate to hire a holiday villa for a week with my wife and I took along a model for the week to photograph them, so a sort of working holiday if you like. I’d recently purchased two Nikon D7000′s with prime lenses, which I’d be using primarily for video work, but also for some stills work. I thought that whilst in Spain with the super clear light, warmer weather and sunshine it would be too good an opportunity to miss to take some underwater images and video footage of the model. My first challenge was to find a waterproof housing unit, and here I didn’t want to spend thousands on a high-end camera casing as I’d no intention of taking up scuba diving again and taking the camera down into the depths. I did want to take advantage of the prime lenses and quality of the Nikon equipment but ensure it kept dry and safe to a depth of about 6 feet, which was the depth of the pool we had in the villa. After a bit of research I located the SLR Camera Case from Aquapac costing £95 : http://store.aquapac.net/slr-camera-case-458.html
This product is submersible to a depth of 15 feet for up to 30 minutes, both depth and duration were well above what I had in mind so I ordered one. When it arrived I fitted my Nikon into it and tested it out in the bath to make sure it was okay. Being small and soft-formed it was easy to pack along with all my other gear on the flight across to Spain.
In use, it took a while to get used to handling the camera through the rubberised bag, it was like wearing heavy duty gardening gloves, in the end I used manual focus, a good depth of field and set the exposure manually before each session so I only had to press the shutter button. Framing was also a bit hit and miss, I was wearing prescription swimming googles so I could actually see underwater, but meant that looking through the camera’s viewfinder was tricky. In the end I got to pointing the camera at the model and working from there. My first couple of attempts with this technique meant I chopped off limbs, heads and even missed the model completely! However, with constant review and practise I got better and better with framing the model in the shot.
During the course of the week we shot stills and video footage in the pool and reviewed it afterwards, by day four we were really getting on well and getting some good repeatable results. It it impossible to communicate with your model underwater and as she was swimming widths of the pool it meant I could take 1 or 2 shots per width. So before each width we would discuss the pose, the depth, the camera position to make sure we each knew what to do.
Below I’ve included a selection of the better stills from the sessions in the pool shot during the week. I shot about 1200 stills and ended up with about 10 that I’m happy with, so not a good success ratio that’s for sure. I’m still not sure whether I prefer the mono or colour versions best. What I do like very much indeed is the play of light on the model’s body, which was the main thing I was trying to capture with these images.
For a while I’ve considered replacing my current ARRI 800watt tungsten video lights for some LED equivalents. The reasons are various, but mainly due to the amount of heat the tungstens give off when lit. In my studio in the Summer it’s a little too hot with two 800watt lights running, and the video content I shoot is not conducive to having the doors open! The other reason is the cost of running them, two lights pull 1.6Kwh and over a full day’s shoot is quite expensive on the electricity bill, especially when you extrapolate that over the year. I’ve investigated various LED video lights and there’s a wide range of varying qualities out there. In the mean time I placed the Arri’s and Chimera softboxes on eBay and thankfully they sold for a price I was happy with. After that I was then in a position to order a LED kit
The main benefits of LED lights are:
Providing you purchase a good set, they are colour balanced and do not suffer from colour shift when dimmed.
I ended up purchasing a 3 point lighting kit from iKan which comprises of:
iKan Large Location Kit
iKan 1000
iKan 500
The 1000 units are equal to a 500watt head, and the 500 a 250watt head. However as they won’t be having softboxes and because they are smaller in physical size, I will be able to get them near to the models without overheating them and them getting in shot, so they should be the same as the 800watt heads they are replacing. The 800watt heads also had sofboxes on which stopped up to 2 stops of light with both baffles fitted.
The full kit listing:
ID1000:
ID500:
Remote Control:
Every unit comes with an RF remote control giving you command over the light’s power and the ability to regulate each of the four banks of LEDs. The Ikan remote operates on three separate channels so three lights can be controlled with the same remote.
Kit Includes:
1 x ID 500 LED Light
2 x ID 1000 LED Light
3 x Light Stands
3 x Utility Light bag
1 x Stand Bag
I’ve not used them yet, so will post an update as soon as I have.
