What Makes You Most Nervous About Having An Erotic Photoshoot?

Since I started this site over two years ago, I've had a lot of inquires from folks who are interested in paying me to do an erotic/intimate/naughty photoshoot for them.   Many of them seem quite excited about it, but the most striking thing I've noticed is that only a small percentage ever go through with the shoot.  Those that do are very happy with their images and almost always say they would do it again.

There are many things that can cause a person or couple to change their minds about doing an erotic photoshoot. Their relationship situation could change, their job or health status could change, maybe they just get too busy.   But I think the most common cause is that people simply get nervous.  If I have a chance to meet with a potential client, the nervousness mostly goes away and once we actually begin the photoshoot, they find they are actually enjoying themselves in ways they haven't before.  I love watching the transformation.   Unfortunately, many are unwilling to take our conversation beyond email and never make it past the barrier.

I could list several things that might make people nervous, but I'd rather hear directly from you.  If you are considering an erotic photoshoot, I would love to trade some emails with you regarding the things that make you most nervous.   In return, I'll send you the passwords to the protected galleries, if you like.  

Drop me a note here and tell me your thoughts!

Feel free to respond no matter how long this blog post has been up.  Thanks for your time!

Blue BoudoirIn her boudoir - from an erotic apartment photoshoot. - intimate, explicit boudoir, racy, raunchy, nude, sexy, risque boudoir, photographer, photography, private, discrete, couples, couple, portland oregon, photo studio.

What's The Best Lens For A Foot Fetish Photoshoot?

A friend recently asked me to shoot some photos for her foot fetish web site.  I find virtually all fetishes fascinating, so I readily agreed if she would allow me to share the images with you.

When I do fetish photoshoots, I take advantage of the opportunity to learn about that particular fetish from my model. My friend Faune explained that she wanted more than just simple images of her feet; her clients were also interested in shoes and socks, as well as the angles at which her feet were displayed.  Even her posture and facial expression would be important.

As I prepared for this photoshoot, I had to think pretty hard about which lens would be best.  You might enjoy hearing a little about what goes through my head when I'm planning a shoot, so here goes:

Sometimes I use several prime (single focal length) lenses and switch lenses a lot during the shoot.  I make the switch when I tell the model to change positions.  However, for this shoot, the model knew more about what she needed than I did, so she would be directing me.  I felt that I had to be ready to shoot without making her wait for a lens change. That meant I needed a zoom lens.

I had two zoom lenses available, a Tamron 28-75 F/2.8  and a Canon 24-105 F/4 L IS.   I have used both enough to trust them.  The Tamron is much smaller and lighter, but the Canon would allow me to zoom in closer at the long end of its zoom range; I felt this might come in handy for closeups of shoe details.  The Canon also has image stabilization, which can make for sharper images by reducing camera shake, but using studio strobes made that irrelevant.  The short duration of the strobes freezes all types of motion.

The Tamron offers a wider F/2.8 aperture, which gives you shallow depth of field and blurs the background for an artistic look.  However, I would probably be shooting at F/5.6 or 8 under the bright studio strobes, so that is another factor that is irrelevant for this shoot.

The photo below, like most of these, was shot at F/6.3.  I focused on the foot and let the face go just a bit blurry.

The Canon is definitely the sharper of the two lenses.  That, combined with the longer zoom range made me decide in favor of the Canon.  So I did the whole shoot with the Canon 24-105 F/4 L IS lens.

In my opinion, the 24-105 is a real workhorse.   One reason it isn't talked about a lot by pro photographers is that it's not very expensive.  Canon flooded the market with these lenses by including them with thousands of camera bodies as part of a "kit.'  Some retailers break up the kit to sell the body and lens separately.  Right now, you can find these lenses for not much over $600 US on Ebay.  

Another factor in favor of the 24-105 is that its a very durable lens.  The folks at LensRentals.com keep track of how often their rental lenses need repairs and they have said this is one their most reliable lenses.   I'm not hard on lenses, but it's nice to know it won't wear out easily from being used.

I would highly recommend the Canon 24-105 F/4 L IS lens to any Canon shooter who is making the upgrade to a full frame Canon body, but isn't ready to spend thousands for the really high end professional lenses.  

Of course I had to ask Faune to pose for one of my usual artistic nude portraits, so here she is without her shoes:

Since we were shooting under controlled conditions, we got over 700 images for Faune to use.  Only a handful were rejects due to posing issues.

Thanks for reading!

A Night Photoshoot in Downtown Portland Oregon

When a photographer doesn't have regular access to a studio, they are envious of photographers who do.  But those of us who do have a studio tend to get pretty tired of it after a long Winter of indoor shooting.  With the arrival of Spring weather, my model friend Maria shared my desire to do an outdoor shoot.  My photographer friend J, aka: Zen Hick Photography, kindly volunteered to be my lighting assistant, a valuable thing to have for a night photoshoot.  If you like the photos below, you can see all 150 images that I selected as "picks" or "keepers" from this shoot by visiting this gallery.  Keeping in mind the fact that Maria has modeling experience, I think the gallery can give a prospective client a rough idea of how I work.  Also please note that Maria is in her late thirties, not a skinny, 19 year old.

My plan was to shoot at some of the many fountains that are distributed around downtown Portland.  We started out at the Skidmore Fountain, as you can see in the image above.  It is in the old, historic part of Portland and has some cool white columns nearby that create an interesting background.   We arrived at dusk and took advantage of the fading light in the Western sky.  The MAX trains run by the fountain and you can get some interesting effects with slow shutter speeds.

The photo above was taken at the site of the Portland Saturday Market, which just happens to turn into a fountain on weekdays.  The market area has a roof over it, which would certainly attract homeless folks when the market is not set up.  I could not find any info to back up my theory, but I would bet that the fountain is primarily there to keep homeless people from camping out on the nice dry Market site.

All the lighting for this shoot was provided by a single Alien Bees monolight powered by a Vagabond Mini Lithium battery pack from Paul C. Buff, the maker of Alien Bees.   The only light modifier used was a 30 inch umbrella with an integral white fabric diffuser.  This is a very cheap alternative to the popular Octobox units.  I don't like to take expensive light modifiers outdoors, because the wind usually knocks them over at least once.  Sure enough, our light stand fell over once and caused some damage to one of the umbrella spars. No problem, we used it for the rest of the shoot and I recycled it when I got home.  About $15 expended, not a big deal, I have more in reserve!

Maria decided to take off her sweater and kneel on one of the concrete blocks that was just outside the water spray.  It was a beautiful, warm evening after a few weeks of cool rainy weather.  One thing I've learned is to let models do their thing when they have a pose in mind.

There is a fire station in this area with nice glass doors.  It was a little tricky balancing the indoor light with the light from the Alien Bee, but it just took a minute.  We were able to include some brief nudity.  Nobody cared... this is Portland.  

Did I mention the historic columns?  They make a great place to pose, especially at night.  We ended up spending an hour within fifty yards of the Skidmore Fountain, then decided to move to the next fountain on our list.

This is the Lovejoy Fountain.  If you follow the link for more info, you will no doubt notice that the fountain was turned off when we arrived on a Thursday night.  At first we were angry, but then we realized that the dry steps of the fountain made a fantastic place to pose our lovely model.

I think Maria enjoyed flirting with my friend J who was holding and aiming the light.

I liked this shot without any retouching, because it makes the model look strong and sexy, not soft.  A bit different from my usual style.  We spent an hour at the Lovejoy Fountain before we called it a night.  If you want to see all 150 shots from this photoshoot, (some NSFW) just click through this gallery.  No password needed.

Road Trips, Lolitas and Motorcycles!

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Gentle Readers,

You may have noticed that I haven't added to this blog in a while.  I was on a trip to the Southwest US and have yet to master the art of blogging with an I-pad.  I much prefer my custom made, high horsepower desktop work station.  It was fun doing private photoshoots and visiting friends in Vegas and Phoenix.  The weather was so beautiful!   Perhaps someday I might spend the cold part of the year in one or both of those warm cities.   Sorry I can't share any of the private photos I did for clients there, but I do have a few goodies for you.  Follow the links if you want to know more.

The shot below is an abstract nightscape showing one of the large hotels on the Vegas strip at night with the eerie reflections of other tall buildings.   I shot it with my Canon T5i and 18-135mm lens.  This combo is great for travel, much smaller and lighter than my professional cameras.   It also allows you to use a much lighter tripod for night work!

Here is a photo of famous US Route 66 in Arizona, just East of the historic mining town of Oatman.  It's hard to believe this used to be a major cross-continent highway!

Old Route 66 in Arizona

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to Taliesin West, the Winter home and school of the famous architect Frank Loyd Wright.  If you go, be sure to pay for the 90 minute guided tour.  It's expensive but worth every penny. The image below shows one of the many sculptures on the grounds.

Immediately upon returning to Portland, I did a "Lolita" photoshoot for a young lady after checking her ID three ways!  (If you are not truly over 18, please do not ask for a naughty photoshoot!)  The definition of Lolita is pretty vague.  Last year I did a shoot for a model who called herself a "Goth Lolita" and the two Lolitas could not look more different.   I think I'd call this one "kinky Lolita."

Yesterday I met up with my friend Anna who wanted photos of herself looking sexy with her motorcycle.  She rides a red Ducati, which made for some dramatic photos.   She is a local model who loves posing with her Ducati.

I've also been busy responding to many inquiries regarding erotic photoshoots for couples.  If I missed responding to yours, please use the contact form to send me another note.

That's all for this post, stay tuned for more...

A PHOTOSHOOT FOR BRANDY

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One of the most frequent comments I get from visitors to this site is the impression that I only work with women who are amazingly attractive.   That is definitely not the case, but there are reasons why it looks that way.

The most obvious reason is that I go to great lengths to make each women look her best.   But there is another factor at work here.

Most of the "normal looking" women I work with are paying clients, whose images are strictly private and can't be shared here.  Most of the photos you see are of professional models who need images for self-promotion.  These women are quite comfortable posing nude and sharing the photos with you.    This results in eye catching photos, but gives the unfortunate impression that I only work with gorgeous professional models.   Sometimes I do have a chance to work with a non-model who is willing to have the photos shared here in return for a free photoshoot.   I call that a "trade shoot," but the old industry term is TFP or "trade for prints."

Brandy is a sweet thirty-something woman who just wants to dabble in nude modeling for the fun of it.  She has discovered that she loves being in front of the camera and was happy to volunteer to be the subject of this blog post.

Let's call this first photo, Basic Brandy:

This photo was taken after Brandy had her makeup applied by my lovely wife/assistant.  Makeup is fairly important, but I feel that hair is even more important.   In this case Brandy arrived with a beautiful new hair style that would help greatly with her photoshoot.

She wanted to make sure that we documented her unique tattoo, which we did.   This is quite common.  Here in Portland, almost all women have tattoos.

Now, with some creative posing and a bit of retouching we will turn Brandy into a glamourous model!

Looking glamorous is great, but I also like to capture the personality of my subjects.  The photo below is unretouched.  Notice the lines near her eyes.  I could have removed them with photoshop, but I feel they help the viewer connect with the real Brandy.

In this last photo, I combine my "real girl next door" style with some good old fashioned retouching.  Compare this one with the photo above to see the difference retouching makes.

My thanks to Brandy for allowing me to use her for this blog post.  I hope you found it helpful.   If you are a photographer in the Portland area and would like to work with Brandy, I believe you can find her here.

A FIFTY SHADES OF GREY PHOTOSHOOT

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Several times in this blog I've mentioned the effect of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels.  Millions of women have read them and been inspired to devote more energy to exploring their sexuality.  I believe this is one of the reasons for increased interest in private erotic photoshoots.

Normally, my photoshoots are strictly private, so I depend on friends or paid models to pose for the images you see here on my site.  Recently, a local couple kindly offered to allow me to use their images here in return for a free photoshoot.  This is called a trade shoot.   They wanted their photoshoot to be a bit kinky, which is something I am seeing more often in the post Fifty Shades era.  In keeping with the book, they wanted a male dominant, female submissive theme.   The husband preferred not to have his face in the photos, which is understandable and not a problem for me.

Please say a silent "thank you" to my friends and enjoy the photos they offer for your viewing.  Scroll down to find my photography notes.

Fifty Shades ShootUse with permission of the models Copyright: Beyond Boudoir Photo 2014	Fifty Shades ShootUsed with permission of the models. Copyright: Beyond Boudoir Photo 2014
Fifty Shades ShootUsed with permission of the models Copyright: Beyond Boudoir Photo 2014	Fifty Shades ShootUse with permission of the models Copyright: Beyond Boudoir Photo 2014
Fifty Shades ShoootUsed with permission of the models Copyright: Beyond Boudoir Photo 2014	Fifty Shades ShootUsed with permission of the models Copyright: Beyond Boudoir Photo 2014

Photography Notes

This fun couple received 48 photos like the ones you see above.  I believe they were pretty happy with the results of their erotic photoshoot.

The first three photos you see above, the close-ups, were taken with the Canon 50mm F/1.2 L lens mounted on a Canon 5D Mark III.   This lens is an expensive, specialist tool, much loved by wedding photographers.  It's job is to blur objects that are not precisely in the plane of focus.  In fact it creates massive blur, as you can see!  This is often referred to as a "dreamy look."  I rather like it!   The first three photos were taken with the lens wide open and hand held.   The illumination was provided by a large soft box containing six big, 85 watt compact fluorescent bulbs.  Only four were turned on to keep the light down to a manageable level.  My Paul C. Buff studio strobes are too powerful to use with this lens wide open at F/1.2.

This is only my second time using my new 50 1.2 and I can see some changes I want to make next time.  I'm getting plenty of pretty blur, but I want to get the eyes of the model sharper.   Always something to work on!

The latter three photos were shot with the Canon 24-105 F/4 L lens using the studio strobes.  This combination tends to create very sharp pictures.  If you compare the first three shots with the last three, the difference is pretty obvious.  Notice the difference in how colors are rendered.  I think both lighting systems have their places.