“My look and my style is a combination of inspiration from many things, and from decades of my own personal evolution.”― Dita Von Teese
If you’re interested in glamour photography you might want to follow Dita Von Teese (@ditavonteese) on Instagram because her images will provide lots of inspiration. On Mondays one of her IG fan sites publishes glamour portraits of her wearing corsets, so I thought I’d continue the #corsetmonday concept here, at least for a little while longer.
There was a time when I included a portrait of every model I photographed wearing a corset including lighting equipment reviews I wrote for the former print edition of Shutterbug. To the best of my recollection, the editor, managing editor and art director never published one of these photographs in the magazine. (And sometimes wouldn’t even feature images of some models.) Since they wouldn’t let you see the images, I’m going to publish some of them today and for upcoming months until….
Some of the models featured in this series have either never appeared or may be under represented on this blog for several reasons, including the number of shoots I did with them. Others, like “the one and only” Maria Cedar, who is featured today, has appeared on this blog many times. This image of her was made during one of four shoots I had with her before the pandemic changed almost everything about the on-line modeling scene.
How I made this portrait: Today’s featured image is from my first photo session with Maria Cedar that was held on October 17, 2017, during a time when I was lucky enough to photographed this incredible woman showcasing many aspects of her sparkling personality.
I photographed Maria in the breakfast nook of my Daisy Hill home using a mixture of daylight from windows at camera left, behind her and large patio doors at camera right. A Paul C. Buff DigiBee without a reflector was placed at camera right, which was always a favorite technique of mine to create natural looking bounce light.
The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at 45mm with a manual mode exposure of 1/60 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 200. This was one of several similar shots I made of her at that time and it’s the one I liked best for this blog. There are many other images from these shoots that I would like to share but if I did it on-line the nanny software used by corporations and social media would block this site. This year, I’m hoping to create a totally uncensored glamour photography portfolio site that will let me feature those kinds of images.
Special Note: We are getting close to the end of this series and I would like to keep #corsetmonda going as long as possible. To do that I’m looking for women interested in posing in corsets for photographs used on this series. After signing a simple model release, they will receive a choice of a CD or flash drive containing all of the approx 200 photographs made during the session to take home the day of the shoot. The model will also receive full rights to use the images however they like. If you’re interested, click CONTACT and let’s talk.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New books are available from Amazon for $23.54 with used copies starting around twenty-three bucks as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.