In the Beginning

I got my first Single Lens Reflex camera in 1979. Although, I've always had a love of photography, before then I had only had small Kodak's or Polaroid cameras, but nothing that would really capture quality images. One of my best friends purchased an Olympus OM-1 camera and lens the year before just before we took a trip through Yellowstone National Park.  We both took lots of photos during the trip, but what his images lacked in compositional technique, were more than made up for by the clarity of the capture.

So, in 1979 when we were expecting our first child, I knew that I wanted to step up my photography. As a young Navy Petty Officer with a young family, I couldn't afford much, but I found an all manual Canon AT-1 camera and lens that was within my budget. Once I purchased it and started to use it, I discovered that I knew next to nothing about photography and I've been spending the last 31 years learning the craft.

Fortunately, I've had many subjects over the years - not just my kids, but my lovely wife and many of our lovely friends as well. The image to the left was from my very first shoot with two nude models and I still had much to learn, as the image is circa 1980. Still, I like the composition, the natural look, and the relaxed poses. The cropping and the light sucks, but as I said, I still had lots to learn. I suppose I could blame it on the constraints of my equipment - no flash, no light modifiers, and having to shoot in our tiny bedroom, but the reality is that I really knew next to nothing about what I was doing and any good images I got were primarily due to luck.

With practice and help from my beautiful wife, I think I have gotten a bit better:

Two Beauties

One of the fortunate benefits of having a beautiful and willing wife to model for me is that it often encourages other beauties to pose for me as well, especially when my lady agrees to pose with them. These images were taken after I had completed a shoot with Bridgett for one of my projects.

Since we had the studio for the day and Wanda was available, I got the girls to wear some of the custom chain outfits I've purchased for my various projects and we shot some poses featuring the ladies together. Wanda is wearing a set of chains called the Diamond Ensemble, while Bridgett is wearing the Raven Ensemble. I think they look quite good together - the chains as well as the women.

The background is a rather unusual piece that I purchased from a studio owner in another town. He called it his "bird poop" background. The background contains white and dark gray swathes in a random streak pattern, hence the name.  The white areas, however, are thin enough to be translucent and gelled strobes placed behind the background produce a result quite different from a front lit background.

The ability to change the color of the backdrop by swapping out the gels allows for significant versatility but, of course, the background is always secondary to the beauty of the models themselves.

This wasn't the first time that Bridgett and Wanda have posed together for me, so they were quite comfortable posing together, and I think it shows in these images. These two redheads work well together and both are familiar with my style of photography, so little direction was needed from me. I was able to just set the theme of the shoot and let them go.

I'm sure (or at least I certainly hope) that I'll be able to shoot with both of these lovely women together again, but next time I want to do an exterior shoot with a different theme of camo, guns and knives. That should be quite exciting and fun.