Being interviewed.

Lust for film.  I love this work.  Snapshot sexy right here >>

Added to my portfolio recently >>

It seems these jean-maker people CANNOT GET ENOUGH of the whole Ryan McGinley-we-love-to-be-skinny-and-naked-and-unwashed-and-run-around-canyons aesthetic.

Rachel Hulin.  You rock.  I can’t get enough of your sometimes playfully snarky blog!  Yeah, I don’t get it either.  But they had to do something to compete with those hot Calvin ads, I guess.  Just goes to show you.  Who knows what an AB will find in your supposedly mismatched-for-their-client-list book.

Read about the Wrangler photos here >>

For a band editorial.  One of my test shots before the band arrived.  Ended up using another corner of the room that looked a little more, how shall we say, “party basement.”  I loved this bar.  I want to take more photos there.  Thanks to Amber.  Try their famous Bloody Mary.  Rio Rita’s on E. 6th, Austin.

My Facebook friends know how I can go off on a rant about copycat photography sometimes.  My latest was about the pervasive “girl wearing a creepy rabbit mask in the woods” shot that seems to be so popular with Holga-toting liberal art students lately.  Worse?  How about the girl in the mask holding balloons?  Or, as my friend, Jeff Kauffman quipped, holding a picture of an old woman?  Ooooh, how thought-provoking.   Well, at least it’s not all about taking pictures of your own feet anymore.  Or the ever-popular, pseudo-documentary “homeless guy” project.  We’re making progress.

I’m not totally against one picture looking like another, however.  Sometimes there’s real merit in an homage, or fun in a cliché, or an idea just feels right to carry on.  Some photography repeats itself for good reason.  Portrait photographers like Avedon, Karsh, and William Coupon have made their signature looks stylistic classics.  Sometimes, it’s what your commercial clients expect.

And sometimes, a copy just happens because two photographers had the same great idea.

I don’t know what category Jack Guy’s photo fits into (bottom photo).   But should he have shied away from the idea just because it had been done before?  I don’t think so.  It’s an excellent, illustrative image.  And it works for its intended audience.

But, if you’re in a photography class somewhere in the world, please don’t do the rabbit mask thing to fulfill an assignment.  Try something that hasn’t been so played out.  Your instructor will love you for it.

Images: Top, Hilary Swank by Norman Jean Roy.  Bottom, Jillian Michaels by Jack Guy.

Oh, hey.  You want some real cliché shots?  Try this!

From our shoot earlier this month.

Jessica Wilson, actress

From a previous post at AustinBoudoir.com:

Unlike standard portraiture, boudoir photographs are studies in sensuality, not in the average day-to-day look of a person. The goal of traditional portraiture tends to focus on capturing a person’s likeness, or realness. Whereas boudoir is more often focused on representing an idealized vision of a woman.

A photographer’s use of color, especially overall casts and skin tones, help to determine the overall feel or mood of the atmosphere depicted in the photographs. But it is the relationship between light and shadow that is used to communicate a sense of shape, texture and tone.

Most professional photographers have personal preferences when it comes to lighting, it’s those preferences that will likely carry into their boudoir work. For example, I tend to light in a more dramatic way. I use plenty of shadow in parts of the photograph and avoid the broad and even approach — unless I’m going for a more commercial or pin-up look.

I also use artificial light so I have complete control over the look. This is not as easy as the so-called, available light approach, but I don’t want all of my boudoir shots for one client to look like they were made at the same time of day, either. With a good knowledge of photographic lighting, and proper technique, a photographer can produce images that look like they were taken at any time of day or night, regardless of the actual time of day, in a variety of environments and lighting moods.

Some photographers who aren’t comfortable with artificial/studio light make it a point to specify they only shoot “available” or natural light boudoir, which is almost always accomplished with window light. And while I also love to shoot with natural light, I feel it can be limiting for this type of photography. So, I encourage other photographers to learn to light for a little more control–over the images, and the time of day they can be produced.

More info and image examples of my boudoir work at AustinBoudoir.com >>

For a different spin, and more technical information on this subject, Neil van Niekerk has a great instructional post up on his blog about lighting for boudoir photo sessions.  While his style of boudoir photography is very different from mine, his methods might be more of a match for your  shooting style.  He prefers to use bounce flash and video lights, as well as window and available light.  My lighting style for boudoir tends to be a little more focused and dramatic, sometimes very controlled, sometimes just the opposite.  But there are no rules.  Take a little from here, and a little from there, and use whatever works best for you.

Neil’s boudoir lighting post >>