Sometimes, It's the Not-So-Simple Things That Make You Happy!

Sometimes, it's the simple things in life that make you happy. Other times, it's the not-so-simple things.

Sales of my newly-released ebook, Guerrilla Glamour, are going really well and, while it wasn't so simple putting everything together, it's making me quite happy to report this!

BTW, it ain't simply about the fattening of my PayPal account that's putting a smile on my face. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about readers' responses to the book. It took me hours to gather the courage to click the button that turned everything on and put the book out there, for better or for worse, for people to buy, download, and read.

"What if people think it sucks?" was a question that crossed my mind more than a few times. Happily, I've received nothing but supportive and encouraging responses!

Whew!

I mean, how bad would it suck to put that much time and effort into something only to have people think it sucks?

Really bad! That's how bad.

I slept much better once I started getting feedback.

Anyway, I want to send out a special thanks to the many who have purchased and downloaded the book. If you're on the fence and can't decide whether to get your own copy, go to Guerrilla Glamour dot com and check out what some people are saying about Guerrilla Glamour. It's not a complete accounting of the many remarks and comments I've received but, I hope, it will give you a pretty good idea of the general tone of the many responses I'm receiving.

The pretty girl at the top is Maya, snapped sometime last year in a jail-cell set. Three lights: 5' Octo for the main and a couple of small, shoot-thru brollies for kickers, behind and either side of her. Also set a couple of black flags or some black foil (can't remember which) to keep the kickers from spilling too much on the block wall behind her. Didn't bother with a fill reflector, in front and opposite the main, as I wanted to see a bit more shadow definition on the subject.

Guerrilla Glamour: Finally Complete!

Finally! It's done, complete, finito!

Not only that, but the web page is up, I've uploaded the product to the server and have all the mechanisms in place for purchases and downloads.

Whew!

That was a lot of friggin' work!

But it's done. And I'm oh-so-happy about that.

Alrighty then. Now for the pitch. (You knew there was gonna be a pitch, right?)

First, the obligatory "Trust Me" words: Being a straight-up, no bullshit, kind of guy, I don't think I've ever knowingly mislead anyone from the pages of this blog. Certainly, not when it's been about buying decisions--your buying decisions--and recommending products to any of this blog's readers.

So, in the spirit of honesty, truth in advertising, and responsible enterprise, I'm going to steer some of you to my book, hopefully quite a few of you, while risking sending some of you away. I know, I know... Call me crazy! I'm probably violating some sacred rules of commerce and business here but that's how I roll. I'd rather collect a few more karma points and let it cost me a couple of bucks.

Next, the General Information Stuff: Below are a few FAQs, i.e, Frequently Asked Questions, with answers, even though no one has asked me anything yet. (I'm just trying to stay ahead of things.)

1. Who Is This Book For?

Picture in your mind some kind of a curve. Let's call your curve a "Learning Curve." On that curve, I'd like you to plot where you are as a photographer, specifically, a pretty girl shooting photographer. If you've pin-pointed yourself anywhere between raw beginner through intermediate, this book is, quite possibly, for you. If you see yourself as being well on the plus-side of intermediate and thru advanced, or somewhere approaching super-star status, this book is probably not for you. If you plotted a special place for GWCs on your curve (in the usual definition of the term/acronym) and you want to shoot some really good, sexy pics of hot chicks--doing it better than you might be doing so--this book is also for you. That was easy, no? Now you know who should buy Guerrilla Glamour, the ebook, and who should not.

2. How Much Book Is There?

Guerrilla Glamour has one-hundred-and-one (101) pages from cover-to-cover. Within those pages there's a Foreward, an Introduction, Nine Chapters, a Conclusion, and some Thank Yous and Acknowledgments. There's quite a few photos as well as some diagrams, plus there's lots of words. The book is, I'll admit, more words than pictures. But that's not to say there aren't plenty of pictures. I didn't go too light on that. If you really like pictures along with your words, especially pictures of hot models in varying stages of undress, they're there. The book's tone is somewhat conversational and I've tried to be concise and remained focused.

3. Speaking of Focus, What Does Guerrilla Glamour Focus On?

Obviously, photography. Specifically, glamour photography. More specifically, it focuses on gear, lighting, composition, production, post-production, models, and more. BTW, it talks a lot about models, i.e., finding them, interacting with them, working with them, directing them, posing them, getting emotion and attitude out of them, and gaining and maintaining rapport with them. That's not to say there isn't plenty of words and pictures about that first stuff I mentioned, the lighting and composition and such. But it's also true I've written a fair amount about the models: Those beautiful, sexy, alluring women who are the objects of our photographic desires.


4. What's With the Guerrilla Theme?

I decided to use guerrilla fighters as an analogy for glamour photographers. No, the book isn't about waging war unless you look at it from the perspective of waging war against average, pedestrian, mediocre, glamour photography. That is, fighting that war with less equipment, lower cost gear, and little to no formal training. It's also about keeping production and post-production processes straight-forward, simple, and automatic. Guerrilla Glamour helps you choose the right gear (not the most expensive gear) and encourages you to take the easiest approach to the work without multiplying difficulty and complexity beyond necessity. In other words, it's about making glamour photography as strategically and tactically simple as possible (but not simpler) with the end results being great photos of gorgeous women with less cost in time, money, and effort.

Hey! If you want to read more about it, I suggest you go to my Guerrilla Glamour site and check it out! You can CLICK HERE or click on the banner in the right-hand column. Either way, it takes you to the same destination.

25 Amazing Boudoir Photography Techniques!

Not only does Ed Verosky's newly released ebook offer 25 Amazing Boudoir Photography Techniques for a paltry $9.95, it also (also amazingly, I should say) acts as the perfect companion, sequel, follow-up, part deux to his hot-selling, "10 Ways to Improve Your Boudoir Photography Now."

Think about it. Do the math. When you put both of these books together, you now have 35 ways and techniques to amazingly improve your overall boudoir shooting skills! Thirty-five!

Take the math to the next level: If you already bought the first book and you now purchase the second book (or you buy both books together) you've laid out a bit less than twenty bucks. Divide that twenty bucks by the 35 amazing ways and techniques Ed's giving you to *up* your boudoir shooting game and all its costing you is a small fraction more than 57¢ each. (For each way or technique you can use to wow them with your boudoir shooting, that is.) Fifty-seven lousy cents! Two quarters, a nickel, and two pennies! That's a ridiculously great deal. Even I know it is and I suck at math.

In a (metaphorically-speaking) nutshell, make that a peanut shell because all this great information can be yours for peanuts, here's what Ed's new book provides: It calls out the looks, shows you the setups, explains the techniques, tells you the gear you'll need (and you won't need a lot), provides simple, ez-to-follow lighting diagrams, and adds some general post-production notes. What more do you need?

Nothing.

Nothing more than Ed's book, that is.

Check it out: Click here for Ed Verosky's 25 Amazing Boudoir Photography Techniques! Or, if you're a right-hand column kind of guy or girl, click the banners for either of Ed's books. Where? In the right-hand column of course. While you're at it, why don't you make it a trifecta and add Ed's 100% Reliable Flash Photography.

If you're really, really serious about shooting hot chicks, especially in their birthday suits, you'll probably want to add Ashley Karyl's How to Photograph Nudes Like a Professional to your electronic library. Yep. That's exactly what you'll probably want to do.

Am I hard-core pimpin' here or what? (You think so? Wait till my ebook is locked, loaded, and ready to pimp! Should be sometime next week.)

Guerrilla Glamour Update

A bunch of people have asked, "Hey Jimmy! When's the ebook done?" Thought I might give and update.

Basically, "Guerrilla Glamour" is complete although I have some work yet to do on it. I still need to make the cover, an index or list of contents, and go through it a few more times proofing for typos, doing a few minor rewrites, and fixing other things. (Editing: The least fun part of this project.) I also need to put up a small site to pimp it and put together whatever marketing graphics and text will be on that site. This has been more work than I imagined!

The PDF ebook will come in at about 100 pages contained in 9 chapters plus a Forward, an Introduction, and a Conclusion. There's lots of pictures to go along with the text, many of them behind-the-scenes pics showing the lighting setups. (I knew there was a reason I've been shooting those images, although I didn't know what that reason was at the time.)

I've taken a different approach with this project than many others like it. Most ebooks on the subject are very "How To." Guerrilla Glamour is more "Way To" if that makes sense. I know that sounds like semantics but, at least in my mind, there's a difference between "how" to do something and a "way" to do something. Whether that was a smart thing to do or not only time (and sales) will tell. Here, let me post a very short excerpt from the book's "Forward" that might explain it a bit better... or not:

"The concept of simplicity, or not multiplying difficulty beyond necessity, is the underlying theme of this Guerrilla Glamour ebook. By the way, when you resist multiplying difficulty beyond necessity, you give Murphy's Law fewer opportunities to assert itself.

Here's what Guerrilla Glamour is not: It's not about learning to shoot photos that look like mine. While I believe there's a worthwhile place for photography "How To" books that take that approach, i.e., books that teach its readers to mimic the work of their authors, this isn't one of them. Many books take that approach: Some good, some not-so.

Also, Guerrilla Glamour is less a "How To" book and more a "Way To" book. In writing it, I've tried to provide information, suggesting tools, methods, and techniques, that will yield great results while still allowing you, make that encouraging you, to develop your own style, stay true to your personal vision, spend less time dickering with your equipment and more time focusing on your model while imagining creative ways to capture her.

In a nutshell, Guerrilla Glamour is about helping glam shooters, at varying points along the learning curve, simplify their production and post-production processes: Be it with their tools and gear, how they use them, as well as their overall approach to the work.

The hopeful goal and end results are glamour photographers focused more on their models, more on the creative stuff, and less on the processes and technical concerns and, in so doing, capturing better photos of gorgeous women.

In simpler words: Keep it simple stupid."

While you're waiting for my ebook to be released and if you have an appetite for learning, why don't you give Ashley Karyl's, "How to Photograph Nudes Like a Professional," or Ed Veroskey's "100% Reliable Flash Photography" or his "10 Ways to Improve Your Boudoir Photography Now" a shot? They're great ebooks jam-packed with plenty of useful info for improving your nude, boudoir, or flash photography!

The pretty girl at the top, perched on the table, is Brea from a few years ago snapped on a Playboy/Club Jenna shoot. She's my idea of "fine dining."

Strobe-On-A-Stick

I surfed over to David Hobby's Strobist blog this morning mostly because I haven't done so in months and I was curious what's been going on over there.

The first article that grabbed my attention, enough to click the "More>>" button and read it, was one from last week. It featured a YouTube video of Annie Leibovitz shooting the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton.

David's blog post seemed mostly a tribute to the skills of AnnieL (which certainly are considerable) as well as an opportunity to subtly extol the virtues of Photek's Softlighter: A sort-of hybrid between a shoot-thru umbrella and an octagonal soft box. What grabbed my attention most was the way the Softlighter was being employed.

In the vid, the Softlighter was attached to the end of a boom pole while an assistant hand-held it in various positions as Ms. L snapped away.

I've tried this technique before: Not with a Softlighter but with a small softbox. In the video, Annie is using the hand-held Softlighter as her key light. When I played around with this idea, I used the hand-held soft box as an accent or highlight light.

I wish I could remember who I was shooting when I did that. It was 3 or 4 years ago. I do remember my friend, Rick, of Simi Studio, performed the light-holding. I also remember that some of the photos came out quite cool as Rick moved around, providing edge and rim lighting from some unusual, less-seen, angles.

If you're out shooting with a friend sometime, you might try using this strobe-on-a-stick technique. Try using the hand-held light for either a main light or an accent light. It's fun and can produce some very interesting images, especially if, while the friend is moving around with the light, the model is also moving around, perhaps provocatively and seductively dancing in somewhat slow-motion? (Still gotta be able to focus, ya know?)

Here's the video of AnnieL shooting Keith Richards. The gratuitous, half-naked (getting naked-er) pretty girl at the top is Kayla from about 4 years ago.

Ockham's Razor

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was the lead engineer at Lockheed's famed "Skunk Works." Johnson, amongst other accomplishments, led Lockheed's development of the SR-71 Blackbird. He was also, at the request of the CIA, one of those responsible for construction of the airbase at Groom Lake, Nevada, later known as Area 51.

One of Lockheed's most famous aircraft, the U2, was flight tested at Area 51. Interestingly, I used to work for a man who was a U2 test pilot. But that's another story for another time.

Johnson's most enduring legacy, in spite of his many aeronautical accomplishments, might be the acronym and phrase he coined: KISS, or "Keep It Simple Stupid."

Simply put, it means don't be stupid, keep it simple!

Johnson wasn't the first to recognize the importance of simplicity. Leonardo Da Vinci wrote, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Albert Einstein is famously quoted for saying, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

Whether you prefer the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) or Einstein's or Da Vinci's words, the concept of keeping things simple is well-applied to glamour photography.

One of the things I've learned in my many years shooting pretty girls is to keep everything as simple as possible but, as Einstein suggests, no simpler. I've noticed, when working with novice to intermediate pretty girl shooters, they often overly-complicate the process. Something -- Yeah. You guessed it! -- I was guilty as hell of doing for quite a long time.

I'm talking, of course, about the technical aspects of pretty girl shooting, e.g., the lighting, exposure, all that stuff. Unfortunately, while all that seemingly complicated stuff is going on -- assuming you're caught up in it like a fly in a web -- the creative juices are sometimes prevented from freely flowing and opportunities to snap great pics sail by. At times, it causes truly monster problems: The model might begin to question, in her head, your competency or, worse, starts losing interest in the shoot!

Yikes!

Nothing worse than a bored model who thinks you suck as a photographer when you're trying to capture cool images of her!

The dude who started this whole KISS thing was a 14th Century Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. Friar William postulated, Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. It later became known as Ockham's Razor.

What? You don't speak Latin?

Sorry.

Friar William of Ockham wrote, "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity." In other words, "The simplest explanation is usually the correct one."

Ockham's Razor is as true for explanations as it is for solutions, designs, U2 spy planes, and even glamour photography.

The concept of simplicity, not multiplying difficulty beyond necessity, is the main theme of my soon-to-be-available ebook, "Guerrilla Glamour." (Which I've been working as hard as a Tennessee plow mule to finish.) Yep. In a nutshell, that's what it's about: Helping pretty girl shooters, almost wherever they are on the learning curve, to simplify their work processes: Be it with their tools (gear) or how they use them, as well as their overall approach to their shoots. The goal, the end result, is shooters focused more on their models, more on the creative stuff, and less on the processes and technical concerns and, in so doing, capturing better photos... by "keeping it simple stupid."

Jami, the pretty girl at the top, seems to understand the value of the KISS principle although she appears to prefer a different sort of KISS. I like her version of it too!