Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Let's Play Dress-Up

A neat thing about shooting models who also dance in gentlemen's clubs is they often come to the shoot with some cool wardrobe. In fact, sometimes they show up with, what looks like, steamer trunks filled with outfits.

It can be lots of fun going through the model's wardrobe!

I'm not saying I'm the kind of guy who spent time as a kid dressing Barbie dolls, I didn't, but when models show up with lots of outfits, it's like dressing Barbies for adults. Ya gotta love that, right?

Models often ask, "What should I bring?"

"Everything," is my usual answer.

Of course, they don't show up with "everything" but my answer encourages them to bring more, rather than less, of their wardrobe. Often, it's the outfits that dictate how I'm going to light and shoot the model. Their wardrobe can be downright inspirational!

When a model has a particularly unique and interesting get-up with her, I get quite excited. No. Not *that* kind of excited but excited photographically if that makes sense.

In the images accompanying this post, Regan showed up with this outfit that is somewhat dominatrix-like and reminiscent of an SS trooper and/or a 50's "Wild One" motorcycle look. I loved it immediately and wanted her to throw it on.

Later, she told me she showed the pics to other shooters and it seems everyone wanted to shoot her in this outfit. She also confided it's one of her most popular costumes when she's on the road as a featured dancer.

Don't limit yourself by limiting what the model brings to a shoot. Do the opposite. Try to get her to bring as much as possible. This affords you, the shooter, more opportunities to showcase the model, as well as yourself, with interesting imagery. Besides, they usually show up in automobiles and most automobiles have trunks and back-seats so they've got plenty of room to carry plenty of luggage containing plenty of outfits.

Model Regan. MUA Terese Heddon. Images captured with a Canon 20D w/85mm prime. Here's another from the set, this time monochrome.

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