deadguitarist

Greetings faithful followers, loyal friends and random stumble uponers! I am so excited!

Las Vegas was a bit drizzly yesterday. Because it happens so infrequently, I don't mind. But it was a productive weekend on many fronts.

From the boring stuff, I made a long needed trip to Goodwill to donate many 13 gallon bags of clothes and shoes. Still have a few more. While I can fit a surprising amount of stuff in the back of a Mini Cooper, space is still limited.

But here's why I'm excited! I alluded to it early last week, but didn't want to jinx it since we were in the early stages of discussing the details. But Thursday afternoon, we locked it down and I booked the location [more on that in a minute]. This Wednesday night, I'll be shooting several sets with the intention of submitting them to Suicide Girls. This is something that I've been hoping to do, but wasn't sure if it would actually happen.

My model, who I think has a set submitted to Suicide Girls, but not yet accepted, and I have worked together 4 times previously; the last time was two weeks ago when we spent 5 or so hours shooting many fashion and boudoir sets, and one 420 set. It was our best shoot overall so far: creativity, fun, results, everything. That sets up the shoot Wednesday night at which we will be shooting sets with the intent to submit them to Suicide Girls. We're comfortable working with each other. She's gotten used to my direction, limited as it has been so far... that's probably going to change some on Wednesday night as I plan to give more direction. So, even though it takes us a bit to get warmed up and into a groove, I think we will get really good results. Unfortunately, I can't link you to her profile yet. I don't know what it is. I think she's waiting to get a set accepted for the free one year account all hopefuls for each accepted set.

The location... yes. I booked a corner suite at Palms Place in Las Vegas, NV off of Airbnb. Surprisingly, it was actually less expensive than a regular suite. It has two balconies, a jacuzzi tub (web page say it is but it looks more like a large soaking tub) with a view, large walk in shower, 1.5 bathrooms, fireplace and more.

PHOTOS

ABOVE: Vanity

ABOVE: Part of the living room area

ABOVE: Living Room

ABOVE: Kitchen and Dining

ABOVE: Fireplace

ABOVE: Bedroom

ABOVE: Large Soaking Tub

ABOVE: Secondary Balcony (Strip and Mountain Views)

ABOVE: Main Balcony (Strip View)

ABOVE: Walk In Shower

I think we're planning to shoot in some, if not every one, of these spaces at least once, except maybe the kitchen. I'm planning to shoot on the narrow, secondary balcony before the sun disappears behind the Spring Mountains because, from the one photo I'm pretty sure that's the sunny side of the suite. In late afternoon, there should be some spectacular light. However, the weather forecast is for wind and temperatures in the low 60s or high 50s by late afternoon. 🤨

I think we're lucky in Las Vegas. If you're willing to pay, you can get some really spectacular indoor spaces in which to shoot. If you can't afford to pay much, you can still rent a room at a casino for dirt cheap (especially at the Stratosphere or Gold Spike). We have a lot of really cool outdoor spaces at which to shoot too. And, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fantastic year round weather, even if it does get hot, hot, hot in the summertime.

So what do you think of the place I booked?

SHOOT PREPARATION

So, I've spent most of the weekend preparing for the shoot. I contacted a couple of photographers for some advice, one of which is an SG Staff Photographer; the other is a local photographer on the SG Trusted Photographers List. And I did receive back some good advice. But if any other photographers want to weigh in, well, I will be forever grateful.

I put some photos of poses I like and that I think will work well for my model on my phone so we can refer to them during the shoot.

I revised and updated my Model Contract/Agreement.

I printed out plenty of Photographer Release Forms and 1 Model Release Form (in case she didn't submit the set I think she submitted.

Then I went on an Amazon shopping spree:

• ■ Nikon 1.8 50mm AF-S 50mm lens (with my d3300's 1.5 crop factor it will be 75mm) - I needed a lens with a wider aperture than my 18mm-200mm Zoom (widest it goes is 3.5) because hotel room lighting is notoriously dim without daylight coming in through the floor to ceiling windows.
• ■ Handheld Stabilizer
• ■ Microphone
• ■ Compact Flash Card Reader (My Olympus camera uses compact flash cards to save to and I cannot find my compact flash card reader)
• ■ 64 Gb Compact Flash Card (I only have 1 or 2 2 Gb compact flash cards - I’m planning to shoot BTS videos with the Olympus camera)
• ■ Bubble Machine and Bubble Juice
• ■ Fog Machine and Fog Juice
• ■ Bubble Bath
• ■ Two more extra batteries for my GoPro clone action camera (I use it for POV videos)
• ■ A 25-foot, multi-outlet extension cord because hotel rooms have notoriously few electrical outlets

I still have a few more things to buy for the shoot, but I’ll pick some of it up at the grocery store tomorrow night, milk bath ingredients and soft drinks, and flowers and some essential oils from Walmart on my way to the shoot. And pizza delivery once I arrive and check in.

Despite all that, I still found time to process more photos from KGs "It's My Party" photoshoot and update my Patreon page.

I'll post this in a separate blog too, but I just want to get it out now. REWARDS ARE RETURNING IN APRIL now that I have or will have plenty of content for rewards, with the prospects of more since I have two models that I work with fairly regularly now and hoping that I'll be working with many more as the year progresses. I have ideas for additional rewards I can offer, but I want to know what rewards you would like to receive. So I created a poll. If you're interested in supporting me, take a look at what I currently offer on my Patreon page, then go fill out the poll.

That wraps it up for today... I'll be around more frequently than I have been recently.

Stay Tuned...

DeadGuitarist

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