Please respect the image takers copyright who unless otherwise stated is Manuel odabashian
I had for quite a number of years done landscape and nature photography and had confined myself to just that. The only time i ever did portraits was in a studio session in my camera cub or if i knew someone very well. Eventually i got a desire to do portraits more seriously but more often was refused usually out of cowardice on the potenial sitter's part. I then got in contact with a professional photographer who suggested
model mayhem. I tried at first TFP ie time for prints but it seemed that everyone despite saying
two model sites puestorm and
on their profile that they would consider it, in fact didn't.
Finally, i found one model based in London so i could easily travel to and the studio was free as i would be photographing the daughter. Her name Daniella davies, attractive, lively, friendly and very approachable as was her mother who arranged the lighting for me as studio lighting was something i had little or no experience of. And we contrived to take some images that i her mother Marianne were both very pleased with. Little did i know that Daniella was in fact a highly sought after model, i had only picked one of the best by pure chance!
About 10 days later i found another model advertizing that she was about to go off to university and was substantially reducing her rates. Her name was Emma williams who despite being only 18 was like Daniellarather experienced in doing aute couture. Despite both of us looking for a studio there was none convenient
at reasonable cost so i made my way to her parents home where we would start. Despite her years she seemed a rather strong character but not unreasonably so. We took various photos not having studio flash i brought my on camera flash to take photos indoors in the hallway, kitchen, sitting room and then the garden. We did after a while seem to exhaust all the possibilities of the house. Emma knew of a nearby mansion that was open to the public,
so we took a cab there and after having something to eat in their cafe,
went outside in the grounds to take photos in the gardens.
It was pleasant all round the first time i had visited Harpenden
and a nice day out. No studio but more experience.
Holiday
I was going on holiday soon my first for two years. I arranged another shoot just after i was to return.
She was different in more ways than one but more of that later. I had been taking Argentine tango classes for about 18 months and was still not very good at it. My salsa teacher was also a tango tutor and was arranging
a tango holiday to go to Montenegro. I thought this was great i could do tango and landscape photography
that i love.
Montenegro is great, lovely and relaxing. Not absolutely lifeless and not crazy like some resorts. The weather was in fact too good for landscape photography but the day before leaving there were some loveley clouds. I had a great view over the bay. Here are a couple of photos turned into Black & white and i darkened the sky for added impact
Completely New
When i got back i soon was about to start my next session. Now Fine art nude was always something that i was rather dubious about. On one model website there was a heavily advertized workshop.
The model was Anita debauch. Now it so hapenned that she lives only about 1.5 miles away from where i live. I thought at least if i book her i can talk to her a little beforehand as we both lived so close to each other.
I contacted her and she agreed to meet me in a local cafe from where we would go on to studio where i now do most of my studio work which is Adrian Pini studios near brent cross on London.
During our meeting in the cafe it was revealed to me that photographers doing a nude shoot for the first time became very embarassed as it was usually the first part of the shoot. We decided to defer it till later.
