Inside Glamour Photography

A few days ago, a friend pointed me to a fairly new-ish blog called Inside Glamour Photography. I checked it out and liked what I read and saw. It's authored by a dude named Michael Charles. Michael is a former fashion shooter turned glamour pro. He's LA-based and his work has been featured in hundreds of pretty girl magazines world-wide. He's also written an e-book, Skin: The Complete Guide to Glamour and Nude Photography, but more on that in a bit.

After perusing Michael's blog, I wrote to him and offered some criticism, not that he asked for any but, you know, I'm a fairly opinionated guy-- one who, I feel obliged to add, rarely refrains from sharing those opinions. (Which isn't always my most endearing trait.) That aside, I told Michael I truly enjoyed reading his blog with its personalized, easy-reading, writing style. I also mentioned I had a small beef with it and him. (If you could call it a beef.) I wanted to read more! I wanted him to share more and offer up even more of his insights about this thing many of us do, this pretty girl shooting thing.

Michael wrote me back explaining he's fairly new to blogging and has been a bit unsure about how much "personality" to include in his posts. As for sharing my un-asked-for opinion, well, he didn't say, "Hey Jimmy! GFY!" I mostly appreciate it when the recipients of my criticisms don't go off on me with a GFY or other choice and unkindly words. Unless, of course, that's the response I'm hoping for.

Instead, Michael said he appreciated my encouragement about putting as much of himself into the updates as he was putting in terms of the content itself. I was glad to hear that. Personality is a great thing! Especially writing personality. Even more especially if you're a blogger. Unless, I suppose, you're an annoying, obnoxious, or arrogant sort of person and, if that's the case, you're letting the negative aspects of your personality routinely bleed onto your blog. If that's you, I'd suggest simply sticking to the ideas and the info and leaving your personality "issues" out of your blog. Course, if you have an annoying, obnoxious, or arrogant style and it's amusing and entertaining, then I say go for it! (Sheesh! I've wandered off-topic here. Probably another less-than-endearing trait of mine.)

Anyway, one of Michael's posts, one that put a grin on my face with its title, is called, "What Can You Learn From a Naked and Annoyed 19 Year Old?" I knew right away that post was gonna contain some stuff I could identify with. I've shot many, many naked 19-year-olds and, no doubt, annoying a few of them in the process. Perhaps more than a few? Well, with some of them, I'll probably never know, women being women and men being men all.

Michael was also good enough to let me have a look at his e-book, Skin: The Complete Guide to Glamour and Nude Photography. I haven't finished reading it word-for-word yet but I have gone through it from cover-to-cover and, while doing so, I quickly recognized it contains plenty of great, practical, advice, plus more than a little experiential insight helpful to anyone shooting glamour and nude photography. In fact, I noticed there's more than a little in it I kind of wish I also wrote about in my Guerrilla Glamour e-book... not that my Guerrilla Glamour book is overly lacking in content, advice, and insight born of years of experience... and certainly NOT that I'm being defensive or envious or anything. I'm just saying. The truth is, there are so many aspects to shooting women for this genre, stuff that often transcends photography, covering all of it is a near impossibility.

I'll probably do a more revealing review of Michael's "Skin" e-book in the not-too-distant future. The gratuitous eye-candy at the top, BTW, calls herself Riley. Is it just me or does her face seem to have a "Playboy model from the 80s" kind of look to it?