Looking at these pictures... I'm SO pissed off!
This was my second nude shoot, the model was coming onto me the whole time and over the next few years we had an interesting friendship. I think this was the first shoot she had done where the photographer didn't try to fuck her. But that's beside the point. It did illuminate what the industry could look like... it laid down a very clear line for what a GWC was and what a true artist was. I'm proud I've kept to what I think is important.
Now. For why I'm so ANGRY looking at these images.
I was a budding body art photographer. While I hadn't learned the art of posing, I was starting. I paid this model. I paid her more than I honestly should have. And after I shot it, edited it, I asked my "friends" for critique and advice.
There was one photographer in specific, who I really looked up to, and he trashed these images. He said they were SUB par for someone wanting to charge for their services. While I agree that I was nervous as hell and didn't watch my focus point... MANY really great shots were lost to soft focus. His, and many of the other photographers had a similar thing to say. Lighting.
They said lighting was WAAAY too low. Not exposure, but the actual physical strobe. This was my first shoot with a soft box. Before this I had only used natural light and exposed bulb lighting. FUCK! I was torn up! I felt like a failure. Like I had wasted my money and her time.
I've tried to edit these photos as minimally as possible... so we can all see kind of where I was going. What I saw in camera. Without knowing it, I was going for that boudoir look... that artistically based... fine art kind of thing. I'm not going to try to bash the photographers who had given me advice in these early years... this was before I knew much of SG other than that my (at the time) wife had considered posing in college, and decided against it.
What these photographers were looking for was something more commercial. Something more front lit, something more flat. The fact that my lighting covered up her "pink bits" and that I accentuated her curves were not really what they expected to see. Over the next few years those photographers would begin to ask me advice for their own images. And in a really shocking turn of events, I was told by a model that one of the guys (the one I REALLY looked up to) had been telling everyone I was his pupil, that he taught me everything I knew. This man... was/is a GWC 🤯😩
I look at these images now and I see where I had begun. How close I was to my desired outcome. But how much I needed to work regularly with a consistent model. Someone who could teach me direction, posing, someone who could train me on how to elicit those looks and connection with the camera without going over the top. I spent the next ten years focusing on equipment... lighting... camera tech. This was shot with a kit lens and a D3200 😒
Seriously!? A $300 camera. And I was close to where I try to be NOW. If ever there was a clear message that equipment isn't anywhere NEAR as important as the incredible brain running it all... this is a flash bang for me.
Yes, I will admit... most of the shadows are a bit dark. If I were polishing it, I'd bring those up a bit. But Gianna Love (I hope she's doing FUCKING FANTASTIC!) could have been my first SG hopeful. I wish she had. I spent the next 4 years editing her photos and porn videos... really getting to know her as a person. Just like with Tasha before her, I am so appreciative of all the lessons she taught me... and is STILL teaching me.
(One funny fact, she had pink lipstick smeared beside her lip... left side. I went through and edited that part for these images. But it must have happened before the first exposure because they are ALL like that.) COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR MODELS!! SHE CAN'T SEE LIPSTICK OR WEIRD LIGHTING!! Help a girl out!! 😩😂
Do you see growth between my first shoot and my second? I do!