It has been a little quiet on the photography front this year. I don’t spend as much time behind the camera as I would like. And I am spending way not enough time sharing my work. Too much other priorities I’m afraid.
The little time I did spend in my studio had me revisit an old love: the all-white set. I did some work with Lynn in the all-white set in January and with Alexandra somewhere in May. Let me share my favorite pic from that shoot.
OK, I admit: it ain’t even close to black & white. These pics are pretty much done in technicolor. They’re lit wit 3 Elinchrom with Lee Filters color gels which turned my white background into a bright pink.
But lovely Lynn is wearing black and white latex by William Wilde and matching ballet by Kassiopeya heels though. So does that count as back and white?
I don’t get to do photo shoots as often as I would like. So I tend to work with experienced models I know to get the most out of every photo shoot. But a few times a year, I offer my studio to an aspiring model. Usually someone I’ve never worked with.
Pakitha is one of these young ladies that had asked me if I would want to work with her. She had never modeled before, but she was an absolute charm to work with. Once she got the hang of it and flashed her natural smile, she just shone like the brightest star you’ve ever seen.
Billy Joel’s Blond Over Blue from his 1993 album River of Dreams would be the perfect soundtrack for these pics. It was the song that got stuck in my head all trough the shoot.
Karlien and I go way back. We met in 2010 when she was competing for the title of Miss Fashion. We keep in touch off-and-on. And when we realize it’s been way to long since we collaborated on a photo shoot, we get together for a new shoot. When we realized our last shoot dated back from 2014 we new it was time for new work.
We set up to work in my home studio. We did a couple of sets and outfits on our photo shoot. I totally loved this series where we combined latex briefs with a regular–or should I say vanilla–blouse.
I have published a few photos from the other sets on my Instagram. Why don’t you head on over to Instagram and check them out?
Shana has been following me on Instagram for some time and whenever I posted a pic of a model in latex, she liked it. So when I dropped her a message asking if she wanted to come to my studio to work with me and pose in latex, her response was: “YES!”
I asked her if she would be ok to help me with my series of shoots on colored backgrounds and we decided on yellow.
We also set out to experiment some with that background, adding a 2nd color.
Coal mines are a thing of the past in Belgium so I’m not really working in a coal mine of course. However, many of the coalmines’ buildings–especially those in Limburg–have been transformed into museums or cultural centers. They are open to the public, and some will even let photographers work there. Last summer, I took model Nanoe to the former coal mine of Winterslag, Genk for a photo shoot.
Here’s a few results of our work in the coal mine. btw: why don’t you head on over to Spotify or YouTube and listen to the Lee Dorsey’s hit Working in the Coal Mine while you’re enjoying the pics?
An orange backdrop, Black latex, raven black hair and confidence that will take you twice around the world are all the right ingredients for a series of fashion portraits of model Jolien that will make you go “Wauw!”. Jolien’s makeup was done by the lovely Beata and surely added to the final result.
These photos are just captivating and bring a whole new meaning to Orange Is The New Black.
From time to time I grow tired off shooting on white, grey or black backgrounds when working in my studio and then I go look for other possibilities. It turns out there are much more colors to life than just white, grey or black. All it takes is a big soft light, some shiny latex and the ever ravishing Shannety to turn my studio into a fiesta… And oh, maybe some orange and yellow backgrounds.
Back in the 80’s–the 1980’s that is–aerobics was a thing. And aerobics fashion was hot: pastel & neon colors, high-cut leotards, leg warmers, … When I came across this outfit from Blacklickorish, I knew I just had to shoot it. And, guess what: both Shannety and Jolien look damn hot in it.
And when they’re side-by-side in the studio, they look like sisters, very cute sisters!
My very 1st photo shoot with a model, Daria is her name, was way back in 2006. I met her on one of them platforms that brought models and photographers together; this was well before social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter even existed. It wasn’t always easy to find models back then. I remember it was a cold day in January when Daria and I did that shoot. And I also remember having a lot of fun that day. At the end of the day, I came home with a couple cool pics–like the one below–and thinking to myself that I should keep in touch with Daria, ’cause I would want to shoot again with her.
Unfortunately we lost touch until somewhere last summer when a mutual friend and photographer did a photoshoot with her and put me back in touch with her. It took us a little while to set a date for a new shoot, but 12 years after our 1st shoot, we found ourselves together in the studio for a new shoot. One that I hope is the 2nd of many.
Well, she’ll have to return to my studio, ’cause I promised her I would teach her to walk on ballet heels 😉
