I want her bang me in the ass til I bleed...

Those were Katharine's words when I presented her with the opportunity to shoot with Rain. Which is perfect because Rain is all about banging girls and guys with a strap on.

I didn't want a conventional shot because there's millions of those already. At the studio I suggested something kitchz for fun, but the idea wasn't getting a lot of love from Rain and Katharine was agreeing with her on just about everything. As she explained, "Rain is going to bang me in the ass, so of course!" No love indeed.

Then I tried a different angle. What about something edgier, like Jason meets Jenna Jameson? Rain still wasn't feeling it, but Katharine abstained from commenting. Ha! I was on the right track and she must have loved the idea.

Katharine didn't really end up bleeding, but there's always next time. The two had great chemistry and the shots were banging. So to speak.

The Big Weekend: Epilogue (part 4 of 4)

Even though the results were good, the weekend shoots with Casey lacked the spark of her previous trip. I tried a solo shoot, but it didn't help. She was polite and cooperative but the energy was gone.

She flew out the next morning. I didn't know what happened and tried to put it out of my mind. A few days later, she left a message and everything changed again.

"You know how I thought I was tired out from kink? Well, I went to the doctor and I have strep throat. No wonder I felt like crap that whole weekend. But next time we shoot, it'll be just like the first time...."

:)

The Big Weekend: Last Shoot (part 3 of 4)

I had invited a half dozen of the best riggers and photographers for the last shoot, including Dan from the Naughty Boys, Tom Foolery, Ivan, and others. The last shoot was to be the most brazen and debauched one but needed Casey to be in top form. When I picked her up though, she was still sore. As we talked while waiting for people to arrive, it still felt off and I knew my concepts wouldn't work today. I decided to tone it down and discarded the idea that had been planned for weeks.

Even with a tamer shoot, Casey seemed to struggle although no one else could tell but me. When she complained about the texture of the rope, only I knew that a couple months ago, she kept encouraging me to make a difficult concept work while folded over backwards on a cold concrete floor for hours. Something was very wrong.

To be sure, Casey still looks great on an off day. Nonetheless, I wrapped the shoot quickly and thanked everyone for coming.

Days afterward, I'm still wondering what went wrong. Perhaps the concepts didn't live up to her expectations. Or maybe it was something I did. In any case the shoots were over and they hadn't lived up to either of our expectations.

Then I saw a message from her that changed everything....

The Big Weekend: The Party (part 2 of 4)

The idea was to have a kinky dinner party where the main course wasn't the food. As the invite said...

I would like to invite you to a very special night. It's a dinner party, here in SF.The theme is "Eyes Wide Shut". You can wear clothes if you are more comfortable - or nudity if you prefer. Masks will be available for everyone who wants them. The model will be the dish.

The concepts will all involve her not knowing who's playing with her. She'll be blindfolded or other means will ensure that's the case. Chi will direct everyone to do the most atrocious things to her. This has her request and approval. I am told her personality is even better than her looks.

Two of the guests couldn't make it to the party, but fortunately enough attended that we had enough - barely. Casey was placed on the table, and as the food and drink was prepared. People started to eat and drink, while Katharine and Charisma took turns feeding Casey on one end while playing with her on the other.

Everyone was having a good time and Casey was grinning when she wasn't cumming or being fed.

Charisma found the back view was as good as the front.

Although a little more free-form than I planned, the shoot was close to the original concept and worked out well. The biggest and most audacious shoot was tomorrow though, so I crossed my fingers and hoped things would continue to trend up.

The Big Weekend: Choppy Waters (part 1 of 4)

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BDSM Wedding Night

Good communications is not only for directing the model, but it's a great source of ideas. So many intriguing concepts come from models during our discussions.

Which is where today's concept came from. Brandy lowered her voice during one of our chats and confided that one of her fantasies was a rape scene. It's a fantasy because no one really wants to be raped by a stranger - they want it a consensual non-consensual experience with someone of their choosing. If we could only read minds in high school, but I digress.

Concepts like this are interesting because if all the elements are overly literal, the image will look cinematic at best or cheesy at worst. But how do we convey something like this in a single image?

I gave it some more thought over the next week. I decided not to have anyone else in the shot and here's what I came up with. To make it more interesting, this particular fantasy happens on her wedding night.

Did she discover that her meek, shy husband had a darker side after she found herself like this after waking up on her wedding night? Or did she get snatched away while her husband wasn't looking? Or was it something else?

The Weekend: Ch 7 - Epilogue

It was mid-afternoon on Monday when my phone chirped. There was a new text from Casey. She had finished packing and visited kink. She wanted to know if I was interested in getting something to eat before she left, and possibly shoot. It was questionable whether there would be enough time for both after driving through rush hour traffic to San Francisco, but I couldn't miss out on the chance and headed out to the city for the fourth time in as many days.

We had already shot all weekend, but I was greedy for more. There wasn't much time so I chose the fastest lighting setup that might produce something interesting. I took advantage of her flexibility and I captured her contorted poses. Bend, click bend, click, bend, click, each captured in quick succession. I wouldn't know whether they turned out or not until she was gone, and there wasn't time for many shots.

Afterward we went to SOMA for dinner before leaving for the airport. This time Casey talked more than before and asked me some questions about getting into photography. I don't know why, but I surprised myself by being unusually candid in my response.

Take a bit of graphite, squeeze it with a vise as tight as possible, and put into an oven. You end up with the same graphite. But heat it up to several thousand degrees under the pressure of 30,000 times the earth's atmosphere and it unexpectedly transforms into a diamond.

We had been together for four days, doing seven shoots, three of them with other models, an event performance, art show, and a lot of firsts. At my usual pace, that's months of activity squeezed into four days. I'm no diamond, but compressing so much into so little had changed me indelibly, as surely as jumping down any rabbit hole.

I didn't know if I'd ever see Casey again, but knew that the end of the Weekend was just the beginning.

The Weekend: Ch 6 - The Magic

I didn't know what to say as we drove back in near silence. Casey was usually quiet so it was hard to say if  it was my imagination. Finally, I hesitantly asked, "Are you still up for more?"

"Well, I'm tempted to say yes..." she responded and I pounced with some ideas. She pondered the choices and said she was inclined to try the wand. I gave myself a mental high-five.

For those who don't know, the wand is the plainest, most utilitarian looking massager imaginable. It's banal design masks its true purpose: to make millions of women literally tremble with ecstasy. I had always wanted to include one of these iconic devices in a shoot because it was a challenge to make a nice looking shot with it and capturing the expressions would be priceless.

Back at the condo I tied Casey in twine and put the wand in place. I pressed the switch which was immediately followed by a low pitched hum. Casey began to make sounds almost as quickly. After some adjustments I started shooting.

Unlike the studio shoot, the magic came easily. This was the perfect shoot to end a magical weekend...  or so I thought.

The Weekend: Ch 5 - Solo in the Studio

It started as an ambitious suspension concept in the Redwood City studio, but I couldn't figure out how to carry her weight and get the right lighting to pull it off. Casey was patient though, and diligently tried each pose I suggested. Let's do this... no, let's try that. It seemed to go on and on.

I was becoming embarrassed by how slowly I was working. Sensing my frustration Casey lifted my spirit with words of encouragement. "Don't worry, it will work" and "We'll get there". I also knew that some if not all of my lethargy was from not getting to sleep until past 5 am for the second day. But pictures don't make excuses - they either work or they don't. 

By then she had to pee but didn't want to move away and lose the pose. An idea came to my mind, and as is often the case, a favorite shot was taken from an inspiration through necessity.  

After that things moved faster. We found some poses that seemed to work. I could have done better with the lighting, but I didn't want to lose more time because even Casey's extraordinary physique was hitting its limits after so many strenuous poses. 

We quickly took the shots. Suddenly, there was a wardrobe malfunction of sorts... and I feared an early end to my incredible weekend.  

The Weekend: Chap 4 - Masquerotica

It was past nine when I came to pick up Casey. The Masquerotica ball had already started, but we hadn't planned to begin the model-shoot performance until ten. She was finishing up her makeup when I realized she still needed a costume.

San Francisco is liberal about nudity, but doesn't let venues mix it with alcohol. Alcohol pays the bills,  so privates need to be covered at most events. I took some duct tape and cut two circles that matched her areolas and a thin strip for her crotch. After taping them on, she still looked nude but technically wasn't.

Between her new costume, a bite to eat and finding parking, we arrived an hour late. Yancy was waiting with Jessica, a model he brought to shoot with Casey. The two girls hit it off and as we shot, each image was projected high on a wall 10' wide and a crowd quickly gathered.

Casey and Jessica encouraged people to join in. There were a lot of inappropriate poses, laughing, and some loose hands. Casey later said the duct tape was the only thing that stopped some fingers from wandering inside. She didn't make it clear whether that was a good or bad thing.

At 2 am, the crowds dwindled so we stopped shooting and walked around the massive concourse. She was good company, but I didn't want to hold her back so I encouraged her to dance. She chose a guy and I started taking pictures.

Her partner was ecstatic as his gyrations ground her body against him over and over. After awhile, I tapped Casey on the shoulder and she untangled. He asked if she could talk privately, but she turned her eyes toward me, so he begged me for the chance. There was more to explore, though, so we moved on and left a new fan behind.

We passed some cages where go-go dancers were winding down to an empty audience. The operators let Casey in a cage. It was like watching someone have sex with the music,  and people began to gather as I started shooting again.

After dropping Casey off at the condo, I had a long drive back and time to reflect. Casey was always the center of attention, but she made people feel like they were the center of hers. I was looking forward to the last day with my weekend muse.

The Weekend: Ch 3 - Mommie Dearest

There was a hint of light outside as dawn approached. I was still on the computer, finishing the flyers and  web site for the art exhibition and model performance at the erotic ball tonight.

The events were exercises in last minute scrambling. A couple days before Carl asked if I'd like to show a few prints at the Masquerotica Ball on Saturday. I just had to hang the prints in the morning, and I could continue with my shoot with Casey for the weekend. 

Then I had a brilliant idea. What if we did a model shoot performance at the ball while Casey was posing with the attendees? I contacted the organizer who loved the concept and gave me space for the modeling shoot. The last 48 hours had been a mad rush to find lighting, projectors, props, and coordinating activities for the model shoot, between other shoots with Casey and preparing prints.

My brilliant idea didn't seem so brilliant now, but I finally finished and stumbled to bed. As my thoughts blurred I remembered what Casey had said about dealing with a crowd where someone would end up trying to grope a sexy, near-naked, provocatively posed girl...

After a few hours sleep, I drove into the city to hang the prints at the Concourse, and went down Van Ness to the condo where Casey was staying. Katharine wasn't there yet, but Casey was walking around topless getting ready for the shoot. 

Both models were in the lifestyle and I love capturing people's personal kinks. This concept was different though. The idea starting innocently enough when Katharine and I were messaging each other about concepts. 

Me: A vintage look perhaps?

Katharine: I have everything from schoolgirl to fem dom.

Me: You could be a housewife in curlers

Katharine: Naughty housewife and baby girl?
Me: Casey also likes... 

Now we were well into the shoot, and Casey groaned slightly as Katharine inserted the plug. She couldn't see Casey's reaction from her position, but the wince didn't look like pain. I asked Katharine to push and pull while I caught Casey's reactions. Katharine silently mouthed "Really?!" as Casey demurely nodded in the affirmative, her face still turned away. 

The shoot had a happy ending, but it was already past 5 and I had to turn my attention to the ball. I left Casey to get ready, and drove out to pick up flyers and meet Yancy to set up at the venue. I couldn't wait to see what would happen that night. Between lack of sleep and not having eaten yet, I was running on empty, fueled only by the  growing excitement over how this weekend was turning out.   

The Weekend: Ch 2 - Rain on Casey

A couple weeks before, I asked my bud Rain if she'd be available to rig and shoot with Casey.

Flash forward to tonight, where traffic was bad and Rain seemed to get there faster than we could. After shooting at the pier, we arrive at the studio in Redwood City. Rain had been waiting for over an hour and commented,. "Ahem, just a tad late." Those weren't her actual words but it's hard to remember what she was saying when her hands are in a vise-like grip around my neck.

After breathing again, I mentioned that Casey was seeing Lew. The Lord of the Rig. Bad idea..  Rain got a bit ambitious with her rigging and after an hour, decided to take it apart and do a simpler version. Working with Lord of the Rig's squeeze must have been a lot of pressure.

By the time Rain was ready, Casey had been up and down the rope for hours. If you've never been suspended, rope feels good at first but gets stressful over time. Eventually, the extremities go numb as blood flow is cut off. Because she had been up there so long and was approaching her limits, I only had minutes left to tweak the lighting and shoot. Nonetheless, she calmly encouraged me to shoot everything we had planned. 

On the way back to her room late that night, we dropped by Crepes A Go Go for dinner. It was late and cold, but while waiting for our order, Casey was ready for some quick street nudes. 

Driving back in the early hours of the morning, I reflected on the little things I learned about her. Like she always put a positive spin on everything. Like she climbs 5.12 competitively. Like she doesn't complain. And  like she has the cutest pair of gapes.

The Weekend

There are events that can happen to a person only once in a lifetime. It's not that it can't happen twice, but the person changes for good after the first, so it can never happen to the same person. First loves are like that, and so was shooting this trio earlier this year.

The color of the hair, the poses, the expressions -- everything came together for one moment of insanity with EnderSilence, LillaKatt, and KrystaKaos and my bar was raised forever.

But as amazing as that shoot was, that's a story for another day. This blog is about a weekend.... really, *the* Weekend.

Weeks later, the fallout is still raining down in a good way. If I could only convey the events as eloquently as so many of my friends, but my sub-stellar narratives and the requisite patience conspire against me. If it were otherwise, I'd be writing books rather than creating images. So, you'll have to be content with pictures and annotations.

The Weekend started when I drove up to the arrivals curb at the San Francisco airport. Casey stepped into my car that Friday early afternoon. My plan was to shoot a muse for the weekend and we had a solid schedule of shoots.

She was quiet as we drove into the city. She had warned me ahead of time she was shy, but I was unprepared for just how quiet she was. A fleeting thought about whether I had chosen the right model came and went. I've worked with hundreds of models, and knew that first impressions rarely indicated how well the model would work out.

Besides, I'd be dead tired if I had to get up at an ungodly hour to catch a flight in Florida, then delayed hours en route before landing in San Francisco. After all that, I didn't know how well she'd be able to model, especially outdoors with hardly any clothes. Or any clothes. But she said she was eager to start so we drove to a pier.

Foot traffic was moderate, but my concerns were unfounded as Casey worked her modeling magic. If you look closely, you can see a person or two in the background. I didn't hear any complaints from the guys, or the gals. I spotted a few discreet smiles as people walked by. We tried not to be a disturbance, which is the key to not getting booted.

When Casey's modeling, she turns into someone else and shy has no place in her world. Casey was just being Casey, but for me, this was the beginning of The Weekend. I thought my weekend started off with a bang, but it was only the swell before the tsunami.

Shoot with the mysterious M in Sept

This was an exciting shoot that broke new ground for me, a new style and new concept. Something that pushed boundaries, perhaps too much, but I wouldn't have changed anything if I could do it over again.

Shoots in August 2011

It's been awhile since I posted anything, so I have some catching up to do. Here's some shots from August, a month where I thought I had found a muse, but just as quickly found I hadn't. Ah, c'est la vie - everything in stride and perspective.

That doesn't mean it was a bad month though. Not at all. Here's some pics from that month with interesting stories.

I often shoot from 20' back so I don't always know what the model is doing until I upload the pics and preview them on a monitor. I loved Andrea's little touch - the little things that earn her angel wings.

Then there's this progression I did with Arabelle and James Darling. Ooo la la. Such a great combination and my first shoot with a TG F2M. Yay!

Another look at our dashing couple.

Beautiful Trash is a sub who's into humiliation. Not a particular fetish of mine, but I like to keep an open mind. She's the real deal so no, that's not Gatorade. (Pic deleted at request of the model)

That's it for now. More coming and I promise there won't be a 4 month wait.

Pics from a couple weekends ago

Here's the one with Tiger. This picture totally creeped me out when editing, which I usually do at night in a dark roonm. So look at it in a really dark room, stare at the eyes, and move your head back and forth. I'd swear I saw her fingers move. Or maybe it's just because I'm viewing the image on a bigger monitor.

 

I can't leave Starfalls out of my blog, so here's Jen doing the girly thing to her. 

Charisma and FemmeMistress

Did another shoot with FemmeMistress last Wed before heading out to Bangkok, but with Charisma this time. I was short a couple of stands and a light, so I took simpler shots and experimented with a more candid look. I even took artsy sharp-but-blurred hot light shots to capture some motion. My strobe shoots are definitely punchier, but I had fun trying something different. It also gave the models a chance to play around more.

Here's Mistress and Charisma showing their hot light sharp-but-blurred shot pose. See, if you accidentally shoot a pic that looks like this, it's called a crappy blurry photo. But when done on purpose, I get to call it art.

Two great shoots over the weekend

On Saturday, I shot with Tiger, a model on FL. As with all first time models, I didn't know whether she'd arrive on time or at all, but she made it early. We shot several concepts, including hentai, objectification (puppet), and a cute chain leash. They all worked out really well and when I examined the photos more closely in post, her skin and figure were great, needing little post processing. Her facial expressions were solid as well.

The Sunday shoot was with FemmeMistress and Starfalls, also models on FL I had shot with Starfalls a couple times before, but this time she had made sure to get more sleep. What a huge difference - lots more energy, looks, and just way more fun to collaborate with. Kids, be sure you get enough sleep before you do any modeling sessions.

It was my first time shooting FemmeMistress, and our first shoot was was really down to earth and with no drama. My concepts are provocative, and models who enjoy this type of work often have issues, but she had none. She was enthusiastic, had lots of energy, and I wish I had been cloned so I could shoot the most of her. She has great eyes, and we got some great shots with Starfalls and some solo concepts in the tub and couch.

All in all, a great weekend.

A tamer pic from a prior shoot, model names withheld.

Good News - Bad News

I had a shoot on the weekend with a pair of great models, but there's a hitch - I can't use some of the shots. I usually ask models what they're alright shooting in advance, but broke my own rule by not getting enough specifics. A bit of awkwardness getting the answers before the shoot results in lots better images after the shoot.

I figured it would be alright because we had shot nudes previously. After looking at the previews, the model felt uncomfortable with shots that stronger expressions, regardless how how much nudity was in the shot. Great erotic art shots are ones that convey powerful emotions while showing relatively little, so some of the best images from that shoot may very well be unusable.

What's even more confusing is some rejected pics showed similar content and subject matter as ones that were considered alright. It was my mistake for not ensuring clear guidelines up front. The last time this happened was 3 or 4 years ago, so I got sloppy. Obviously it's something I need to enforce before booking again. Sigh.

After all's been settled, it seems like any shot that shows her face in an erotically charged image isn't something she wants online. On the bright side, a shot that doesn't show her face or identifying marks is alright regardless of how much it shows. I've had models that wanted to be anonymous before, so this wouldn't be the first. Shoot and learn.

A serene pic from a shoot the week before the one above, with EnderSilence and JessiK:

First post

I've been shooting artistic and erotic nudes for over 5 years, showing my work on semi-private sites like fetlife and modeling sites. I was kicked off the modeling site because my avatar was too provocative one too many times, so now I hang out on fetlife and facebook. I'm the least kinky person on fetlife, but the crowd is fun to hang out with and I've met a lot of great models and friends there. And if there's one thing a photographer needs, it's great models to shoot.

Although I don't do this as my day job, I take my photography seriously. Last year, the jury at SEAF 2010 (Seattle Erotic Arts Fair) selected my work and to my surprise, the print sold. So after 5 years of shooting hundreds of photoshoots of female models, I found the stuff can sell. That was quite a revelation... if you submit artwork to venues, the art can sell. Sometimes I'm a little slow, but eventually I figure things out.

So this year for SEAF 2011, I submitted more work and they selected one again (what is it with SEAF... they select exactly one?) and it sold too. In addition to the exhibition area, I sent some images to the store portion of the event, and some of those sold too. I have no idea how many yet, but it's nice to know people like the work. In between the two SEAFs, I participated in "On the Edge", a photo gallery event in San Francisco earlier this year and some other exhibitions as well.

Although none of this comes close to offsetting the studio rental, gas, equipment, and cameras - I tend to go overboard on my hobbies - it's nice to have some validation that people like the work that much.

So, here I am with my first post. It wouldn't be right to start a photography blog without showing some pictures, so here's the ones that were selected by SEAF in 2010 and 2011, and some more risque stuff.

Passion, shown at SEAF in 2010, featuring the lovely Lily with her boyfriend.

Awaiting Atonement, SEAF 2011, featuring the beautiful TaraRyzeI love the way she looks when the light hits her face this way.   

Finally, a good deal of the stuff I shoot is more provocative than these. In fact, most the stuff I shoot is more provocative so to give equal time to my other stuff, here's some pics out of the couple dozen on exhibition in San Francisco a few months ago.

Twine Puppet, with Ivy.

Nature Lover, with Roxy Danger.