Some Days Are Better Than Other Days

For pretty girl shooters, some days are better than other days-- For this pretty girl shooter, yesterday was one of those better days.

Why?

Two words: (Playboy, Penthouse, and FHM covergirl) Tera Patrick. (I guess that's more like 7 words if you count what's in the parentheses, but whose counting?)

When it comes to glamour and tease, no other model I've shot--and I've shot more than a few--works the camera like Ms. Patrick works it. She nails the poses, she feels the light, she expresses everything a glamour and tease model should be expressing, and she's really fun to work with.

Leesa came with me to assist and for an opportunity to shoot a set with Tera. Leesa is an experienced scenic photographer. The annual, 2008, Nationwide Insurance calender features many of Leesa's scenics... about half the pics in the calender are her's. Nationwide printed 4.5 million of those calenders and they'll be going out to a lot of people. Pretty cool, huh? Now, she's building a fashion and glamour book. And what better way to add to a pretty girl port than with pics of a glam goddess of Tera Patrick's caliber?

We arrived at Tera's suburban Los Angeles home at 11:00 A.M. Hair and makeup artist extraordinaire, Ricardo Ferrise, was already at work on Tera. Check out the slideshow on Ricardo's MySpace page to appreciate his skills and artistry.

The first set we shot was on Tera's staircase. (Sorry, but I neglected to shoot any of the lighting setups I used throughout the day.) For the stairs set I used a 5' Photoflex Octodome for the main, a Chimera strip coming in from camera-left for fill and accents, a white reflector, camera-right, for fill, and a small umbrella up on the second-floor landing for a hair-light. I shot this set with my Canon 5D with an 85mm prime on board. (ISO 100, f/5.6 @ 125.) We used a fan to blow Tera's hair because, you know, what's a stairway shot without a little wind blowing up the stairs?

We shot 6 or 7 sets during the day, including an impromptu set, outside, in front of the house on Tera's husband's chopper. Tera's front yard wasn't exactly ideal for shooting a glam chick on a chopper but it was fun. Here's a snap of me shooting Leesa shooting Tera. And yeah, Tera went topless in the front yard of the house in daylight... briefly, of course. Wouldn't you love to be one of Tera's neighbors? The second shot, of course, is the reverse of the first, i.e., my snapshot of Leesa shooting Tera.