My first photo shoot of the year was a last minute addition. Rollii, a model from southern California, contacted me to say she would be traveling in Seattle, and invited me to shoot with her and her traveling companion, Maddie. While I was initially on the fence, I eventually agreed to the shoot, even though it didn't fit my more typical theme of outdoor figurative nudes. Rollii and Maddie mostly shoot more erotic content, and more typically in studios; they had booked the Dayton Street Studio in Edmonds for their visit, which is a great space that I've shot in before. I've been wanting to experiment with some more erotic content, so figured this would be an opportunity to do so with willing models.

As it happened, I went in a different direction. Most of what I have in mind for erotic art is better shot in a bedroom or boudoir setting than in a studio; I'm interested in the eroticism of everyday environments, not the artificiality of a studio with blank backdrops and stage props.  So I'll follow that up another day, with another model.

And in fact what finally made me agree to this photo shoot was an idea for how to avoid the standard studio shoot -- by literally turning the camera around and shooting, instead, amid the clutter of the studio rather than against the blank cyclorama. The idea was to try to capture something that looked more "behind the scenes," less artificial.

I think it worked, at least partially. It's going to be interesting to think through this photo shoot and figure out what worked and what didn't. I don't think this will be an approach I use regularly. But it resulted in some interesting images, and the idea of shooting "behind the scenes" is one that could be applied elsewhere.

What do you think?

I shot for an hour with Rollii, and then another hour with Maddie, who, it turns out, is local, when she's not traveling, and a hiker, so look for her someday in a more typical photoshoot out in the wilderness somewhere. Here are a few favorite preview images; you can see more here.