Christmas Pinup Day 2

Xmas 2000

By 2000 we had finally gotten used to the Pacific Northwest winters - well, as used to them as any human can get - and had established the habit of having a nice warm fire in the evenings. The challenge was learning to light the model and still maintain the ambience of the fire. That, of course, required dragging the shutter and balancing the flash with the fire.

As always, Wanda loved posing by the fireplace because she loves the warmth and the flames. If she had her way, we'd have a fire every night (and sometimes it seems like we do).

Over the intervening years we've done several fireplace shoots, but those Christmas session have always been special - and I look forward to a few more in the years to come.

Christmas Countdown

Xmas 1999

There's just a few more days left until Christmas and I've gone back through my archives and picked some favorite images from Christmases past to accomodate a countdown to Christmas day. With any luck, I'll be able to get a new photo this year (there was no sexy photo from last year - I think we were just too busy with family).

The first image is from 1999. This was shot as a friend's house and was our first time using studio lights for a holiday shoot. We had a lot of fun with this set up and there are many variations and poses from this shoot. This is one of my favorites.

I've used the cape for a few more shoots over the years, but I think this was the only time that I used it to shoot a Christmas series with Wanda.  Don't forget to check out the belly button ornament.

There will be a new photo every day until Christmas Day, so don't forget to check back from time to time.

At the Lake Again

Enjoying the Lake

A couple of years after we moved to Charleston, we bought a 17 foot Bayliner runabout. We used it for skiing, getting to the local beaches, harbor cruises, and for finding secluded spots for nude sunbathing and photography. One of our favorite spots was an island in middle of Lake Moultrie. When we could get baby sitters or when the kids were visiting their grandparents out of state, we would load up the boat with picnic supplies, a cooler of drinks and a bottle of wine and head up to the lake and take the 45 minute ride out to the island for an afternoon in the sun and in the water. In fact, we celebrated our 9th anniversary with a picnic on the beach.

The small island was also great for outdoor glamour photography, and I have lots of images from those days. The problem is, of course, that the images are all on film and even though I've scanned directly from the negatives or slides in most cases, the quality of film and the processing from mumble, mumble, cough, cough years ago just doesn't match the quality of today's digital images. So, once scanned, I've had to put a lot of work into retouching and processing the images so they meet at least a minimum quality for use here. It takes time to do that processing, and it doesn't help that my photographic skills lacked quite a bit in those days. It's not that I'm perfect now, not by any means, but I certainly know more and have developed more skill with the camera over the years.

Having a boat, a secluded place to shoot, and a willing model certainly helped me develop those skills though, so I thought it would be fun to share one of those images here.