Pipes

Tia Maria

Susie B 100 Poses

Part of a series of images, that I named 100 poses.  Basically the model get this table and 100 frames to pose with it however they want.   It's amazing how similar and how different each one is.

Jewel

It was a rainy overcast day, I locked my keys inside the studio as I was heading to the shoot. needless to say I was an hour late while waiting for a friend to show up with keys. I lost an hour of light which created good things and we missed out on good things. Jewel was sweet and a wonderful model to work with. Thanks to Elsa Brodmann and Jasmine for styling and makeup.


More images can be seen at the online magazine amelieg .

vivian

The gymnast!

The Two Swimmers

A rare treat this weekend with Bella Blue and Nettie Harris together. Yay! These two beautiful and incredibly talented models were so much fun to work with and they put up with my crazy ideas and concepts.

Published!

I am officially published in Carrie Leigh Nude Magazine Spring Issue 2009. 8 Pages! I can't even believe it.

The link to the brief preview is here: I also have a cover mention!

http://www.carrieleigh.com/Nissues.html

Scott Paul Designs

Custom blindfold by Scott Paul Designs

Boxed In

Recently, when I answered a casting by a young and perhaps naive model she wrote:

thanks for your interest! i was going through your port and love your work. what would you be interested in shooting? there's not much of a market for **** pinups and i don't have the wardrobe for it :/ and i'm tired of seeing my naked, saggy boobs lol

Perhaps I misunderstood her reply but I interpreted it as the model thought I was a photographer who is only able to shoot nudes and pinups. I have fashion and some beauty images in this particular portfolio too. I kind of let her go by the wayside and haven't responded to this.

I do not like stereotypes or boxes that people put me in. I shoot many different genres yet Galleries, Portfolio Reviews and Institutions want to see a consistent style and look. God forbid you step outside your look to experiment as an artist. If I decided to shoot Mardi Gras candid images this weekend that would be frowned upon. Good thing that Mardi Gras includes naked women in public, that way I can stay in my genre.

I am currently compling images for an upcoming book and it is quite a dauting task. Aside from culling through 300+ images that were already deemed worthy of retouching or converting to black and white. I keep finding more gems along the way. A nice distraction.

Here is Sarah again: Two sides of a very beautiful coin. I think she was kind of surprised to see the reflected images in the window in the finals. I was consciously framing for both poses as well as trying to keep myself out of the reflection too.

Cooking Models 101 by Sarah Ellis

I was setting up the camera for an interview with the lovely Sarah Ellis. I started recording while I was setting up just in case something wonderful would happen and of course it did. For those of you who have never met or spoke with her this is the real deal. She is actually this sweet, candid, and is not in the least bit pretentious. I told her later that we had already started recording but it did not phase her in the least bit she just laughed.

I will post the full interview on this blog later. It is about 15 minutes so. I am considering posting a couple of parts so it has good pacing.

Enjoy this clip of someone I consider to be one of the significant art models of our time.

Good models, Great models

Worship

• Great models bring more than just beauty to the table.
  
• Great models let it all hang out and bear their souls to camera, not afraid of looking ugly for the sake of beauty.
  
• Great models have a presence that shines through the lens.
  
• Great model have no limits when it comes to creating something that rises above the fraction of a second that it takes to capture an image.
  
• Great models bring passion.
  
• Great models are fearless.
  
• Great models connect.
  
• Great models show their emotions.
• Great models don't want to be an art model, they just are.
• Great models relax and are themselves in front of the camera.
• Great models know their bodies and how to manipulate them for the best shot.
• Great models need little direction.
• Great models change poses and listen for guidance.
• Great models can rewind 10 poses back and change their expression slightly for the shot that you didn't quite get, but now have it nailed.
• Great models know where the light is.
• Great models create wonderful shadows.
• Great models can show strength and weakness at the same time.
• Great models know themselves.
  
• Great models have no category.
• Great models blend into their environment and stand out of their environment.
• Great models are the kindest people.
• Great models are quite a bit smarter than you think.
• Great models are humble.
• Great models are undefined.
  

I am blessed that I have met these beautiful women.

Univers D'Artistes

A really nice feature on my work by Chris St. James the European editor of Carrie Leigh Nude magazine.

http://www.universdartistes.com/2008/11/michael-siu-nolaphoto-studios-first.html

This is the feature, the interview is still to come. This is a monumental honor.

Thank you Chris.

Madison and Charters

So we left Pirate's Alley and walked over to Madison street. We were still in the French Quarter. As we walked down Charters we noticed a young black guy sweeping the street. He was just going about his business cleaning and sweeping the sidewalk as Sarah begins to get ready for her next shot.

Wardrobe moves in and I walk down the street getting perspective on the shot. I start shooting and here comes our little street sweeper just working that broom on the sidewalk. I wasn't watching but I don't even know if he looked up. Some guy walks out of a door at the end of the street on the right. He is wearing a pair of red running shorts and gets his newspaper. He looks down the street at our team shooting and then just goes about his business.

There isn't much traffic on this street so shooting goes well and we decide to move on to Canal Blvd.

PIrate's Alley, NOPD, and Ozzy

With Sarah covered in a trenchcoat, which later she emailed me and said she left her bra in, our "entourage" moved into the alley next door to the cathedral and set up the next shot. Ozzy, an English bull dog, was going to be our star for this shot. Sarah lost the trench coat and I fired off a few frames. The shots were good but I had a vision in my head as to what we were going to shoot there.

Kenny was preparing Ozzy, because he really didn't like the new spiked collar that I bought him. I guess he was used to harnesses but those don't look good in photos. I had purchased Mardi Gras costume mask with a rose on one side, on that same side a large feather plume extending above her head, and three ribbons that hung down about two feet. Add Mardi gras beads and we were ready to go. Did I forget to mention that we were 20 feet from the Police station. Oh well it is the French Quarter. If they arrested everyone who was naked down there the jails would fill up every weekend.

Kenny's job was to keep Ozzy focused and moving forward. Sarah looked stunning as always and with Ozzy pulling ahead things were looking good. I got low, stopped down and tried to keep both of them in focus but there wasn't enough light available for that. I adjusted the iso on the D3 to 800 and continued to shoot. The composition, dog and model lined up for the perfect shot.

So far our day was going brilliantly, scouting ahead was the key and planning. Now onto Madison Street. I can't post the pirates alley image here because it's just too good and the agreement with blogger is that they can have your image once you post it here. That said if you randomly run across this blog and you want to post a comment or get me an email from the definitionsofwomen site. I will send you a password to take a look at the image.

Sarah Takes the Streets of New Orleans

In a departure from studio work I hit the streets with a crew of six early last Sunday morning. Lots of emails and a fairly comprehensive list of what we were shooting and where. Planning it felt like it was a Heist. Getaway drivers, muscle, the computer guy, the director, the last minute guy all of the players were there.

5:00 am I am up grabbing my coffee so that I can make it to the studio to meet Karl, the videographer, Britney, my assistant and Kenny getaway driver, muscle and animal wrangler. I had another shoot the night before so I packed up the gear last night knowing that I am not a morning person. I look out the window to check the weather. Great news it looks like fog. I look again, damn, it's just humidity on the window.

6:00am I am at the studio getting ready and Britney is there just after me. She is sooo reliable. Karl and Kenny arrive shortly after. We load up softboxes and lights that we need for the shoot.

6:20am I get a call from wardrobe/models assistant who is supposed to pick up the lovely model Sarah from the hotel. The model is at the international hotel, right? Is this the right hotel he asks? No the intercontinental. Damn a snafu first thing in the morning, but wait I hear a female voice and laughter in the background. Jokes, my friend has jokes this morning. I hear Sarah say,"It wasn't my idea!"

6:45 am Jackson square parking lot. behind the canon. You know where the president said he would help out New Orleans. We decide to nix the wedding dress because it too hard to get off. Sorry Sarah for making you lug that all the way from S.F. Trenchcoat ready we get Sarah into Jackson Square in front of the Cathedral. The homeless guys are asking a lot of questions like who are you? What are you shooting? Then Sarah walks up and loses the trenchcoat. Silence. Then applause. One of the homeless guys insists he wants a picture to send to his buddy Howie. Stay away from the the model I say shaking my head, nervously clicking off frames. From behind me I hear a booming authoritative Voice. "Sit down Sir!" It's Kenny the muscle, getaway driver and animal wrangler. I hear it again "SIT DOWN SIR!" then I hear the homeless guy apologizing profusely. I am trying to compose the picture and do something but the cathedral is too big the angle wrong and I decide to move on.

Next post Pirates alley.