RESTRAINT SERIES: TORTURE.... Really...??

What some call torture, others call pleasure..

There really must be a thin line between pleasure and pain.

I often wonder how many people are willing to explore the darker side of themselves. I think more people than not have the desire, but lack the will..

I am often surprised by who I find when I ask the question, though rarely are they willing to just volunteer the information for fear of being judged harshly or looked at differently.

What a much more interesting place the world would be if more people asked the questions and better yet, volunteered the information instead of hoping someone guesses correctly..

I always think it is better to know than not know.. and more room out than in..

Dr. Phil likes to say that forcing people to guess never works to your benefit..

I just want to publicly thank the models who put up with my randomness.. No models, animals, or dolls were injured in the creation of my images.. Though I did get a cramp in my hamstring trying to balance myself while I took these... But I worked thru it..



MODELS: CASSIE , Nikki , KELSEY B

SOME FACES....

MODEL: HANNAH E.

Celebrating a Dying Breed..

Today I met Hannah..

She is fun luving and intelligent and athletic and a Natural REDHEAD..

It has been said that the redhead gene (aka "Ginger Factor X"), whilst recessive, appears in up to 40% of some populations.

BUT, while that is true, REDHEADS are becoming rarer and could be extinct in 100 years, according to genetic scientists.

The current National Geographic magazine reports that less than two per cent of the world's population has natural red hair, created by a mutation in northern Europe thousands of years ago.

Global intermingling, which broadens the availability of possible partners, has reduced the chances of redheads meeting and producing little redheads of their own.

It takes only one red-haired parent to produce ginger-headed babies, but two redheads obviously create a much stronger possibility.


MODEL: HANNAH E.

SOME FACES...

SOME FACES are just meant to be stared at.. Often we dont know why, but we are drawn to them almost uncontrollably.

This, for me, is one more of those faces..


MODEL: JASMINE BROWN

LONGING....

As with most of my shoots, I never have specific images in mind, only a feeling I am looking to capture.. This shoot was no exception..

I luved the location and the various textures it provided, so I just wanted to play off of that.. Allowing the models to just be one more texture in the image.

So it literally went from a Wizard of Oz theme to feeling like those old Romance Novels..

Thank you Ron (ETB Photo) for being such a gracious host and sharing these locations with me and to Traycee J and Goddess Angie for coming out to the middle of nowhere and spending an afternoon with us playing and avoiding old wells and green moss spiders..

MODELS: GODDESS ANGIE , TRAYCEE J

Lost Innocence...

There is something about the Loss of Innocence that is appealing in a very primal kind of way.. That desire is the foundation for a lot of behaviors; Deviant and otherwise.

People often desire to have an experience they have seen or heard others had or be the first to help someone else have an experience that they have already had themselves .

And the more innocent the apperance of the person, the more desireable that urge becomes for others to help them fulfill that experience.

So I often wonder if the person being viewed is actually as innocent as the viewer perceives them to be, or is it just a reflection of the viewers desire being projected onto them.

Thank you Angie for 'Monkey Toes' and pre-moistened Animal Crackers and to DJ for the opportunity to talk thru the process and remember why everthing should always be a teachable moment and a learning experience.


MODELS: GODDESS ANGIE

THE GATEKEEPERS....

I am sure there are Gatekeepers for the things that happen in our subconscious.. they are there to keep us sane..

To keep the door closed to the dark side of our personality that all of us struggle with at one time or another.

MY Gatekeepers tend to be Hott and Naked..

I am sure there is some clinical diagnosis for this..

But they help me sleep well at night..

MODELS: JANNALIN ,

Fashion.... High or Not..

I decided to try my hand at Fashion... But as I was shooting, all I could think of were shots that I saw at an Art show.. Really stark, straight forward images.. Like Edward Weston..

SO I tried to shoot these in that vein..

Thank you to Mz Dezy and Traycee J for enduring Arctic temperatures to pacify my randomness.. and thank you to Traycee's hubby for the "assistance"..

MODELS: MZ DEZY , TRAYCEE J

CRIME SCENE: Eviscerated

I was finally lucky enough to get to shoot with Traycee J after missing multiple opportunities to shoot together.. Just talking to her inspires me because she is open to ideas and always brings options to the table..

She gets this twinkle in her eye and this devilish grin when an idea inspires her and you get a glimpse of what is behind her innocent looking girl next door exterior..

I was throwing around random thoughts about the effort it would take to butcher a person and drag their remains to some secluded area.

So she decided to make it real for me.. I shot it like a double exposure and layered the images on top of each other.. So she had to climb in and out of two garbage bags to get these done..

I am sure there is an easier way to do it digitally, but I suck at photoshop so I did it the way I used to do it with film..

THANK YOU TRAYCEE for all your help and input..

and your willingness to crawl over tree roots..

At the same shoot I met an AMAZING SFX Makeup Artist named KIMBERLY KAIN...

After watching her do some really quick fake scars on people I found myself inspired to try something more visual and allow her to do what she does and build around it.


This is the outcome of two people who shouldnt be allowed to play together without rational adult supervision..

Thank you Sophia for putting up with our nonsense and enduring the leaves..

MODELS: TRAYCEE J , SOPHIA
SFX MUA: KIMBERLY KAIN

Some Faces...

Some faces just pull you into them..

There is something so aesthetically pleasing about them that you find yourself staring at them.

I find myself more attracted to interesting faces than what some call traditionally beautiful ones.. Something quirky always holds my attention.. Where traditionally beautiful faces are often forgettable in a sea of faces..

MODEL: REV ARIELLE

CRIME SCENE: Bloodletting..

I had the opportunity to shoot more of my crime scene series today with some new faces who brought fresh ideas to the table..

I normally dont do gore, but something about this just felt right..

More to come..

MODELS: ANGEL EYES , HOTCHILD , NATASHA FATALE

Beauty Is..

Beauty TRULY is in the eye of the beholder..

Beauty truly is subjective.. I tend not to look for conventional beauty when I shoot but find beauty in the mundane.. I try to reach each subject where it is.. Find what is interesting about it and capture that..

That is because rarely are my subjects the people IN the pictures I take.. They are normally there to respresent the intent of the images.. not to be the subject of them..

There was a time when all I wanted to do was take pretty pictures of pretty women.. So I shot strictly to capture what I thought made each of them beautiful in a way that was the most flattering for them.

Then I took some Art classes and "drank the kool-aid" that my professor was serving.. Not quite Jim Jones, thankfully, but the things he made us find to shoot were things I would have never done on my own.. They were things that made me have to focus beyond the physical to find the essence of them..

I think that is why I dont have the same passion for shooting glamour.. I always hope there can be more to it than the obvious.. I was told by someone whose opinion I respect that whenever I do shoot glamour there is always something lacking.. and I think what is lacking is my passion for it..

Just as I tell the models I shoot with that they need to lose themselves in the process and buy into it enough to become whatever is necessary to play the role the image calls for convincingly because there are things few can fake well visually..

I guess this is the proverbial two way street..

So my goal for this summer is to find some passion for glamour.. and translate that visually..

This past week was my first attempt..

Thank you to JENNIE and HOTCHILD for coming out to play with me.. And to RICK J. for the Kool-Aid.

MODELS: JENNIE , HOTCHILD