Staci rocks! She’s fun, funny, cute, hard-working, and just a nice person all around. She’s a great hostess — and a lovely cook.
We started the day off with a photoshoot. We started with a fitness shoot, as I saw a large punching bag in her Florida room. I figured it would be easier to bring the lights to this room, rather than bringing them upstairs. I tried different lighting angles and colors, and … funny enough… using my Flash to trigger the strobes - a technique shown to me by George of Onyx Photography. I say funny enough, because I had started with that approach, and then realized that I had forgotten my small cable that connects my wireless trigger to the strobe! Oops! So, I’m STUCK with the Flash trigger until I get a small cable.

I taught her about the Grrrrr face. A great technique for models is what Actors use! When you need to make a face… say “a smile”, make an appropriate noise. For a smile, you’d actually chuckle or laugh. This forces your face into the proper shape. If you hold your mouth open in the shape of a smile, you may look like you have tetanus (lock-jaw), or some other jaw disorder or retardation. Well.. you might be lucky and succeed in making a great smile. However, making that noise (laughing, chuckling) will create the right look. We did a couple of shots, and then I had to take a break to take a call to set up insurance for my equipment. The company that I used is called Hill & Usher. They are known as one of the top insurers for photographers. They were recommended to me by Mike Brochu.

The fuse was out on the Florida room for some reason. This made things a tiny bit tougher…. a good tip for photographers: always have a ton of extension cords and power strips. We used the power from the living room– but not without a casualty! I accidentally knocked over one of my strobes and the modeling light died. Oh well. The shoot went well. It’s quite impressive the roundhouse kicks that Staci delivered. Glad I’m on her good side!

We then went upstairs and did the whole implied nude things. I had met a well published photographer, Duane Cramer, in San Fransisco. He had appreciated my imagery, and agreed to share my imagery with some very prestigious artistic nude magazines. That was reason enough for me to start shooting more of them. However, shooting Staci naked was too cliche… If I’m gonna shoot naked women, I’m going to do it my style! So, Staci’s breasts were covered by her dog’s toy lobster! I’m not sure why, but things have to be funny! I can remember being yelled at as early as 3rd grade “You don’t ALWAYS have to be the class clown!” by my folks. This message had been repeated throughout my life, but has never sank in. Maybe it has, but lately has dissipated a bit, as I’ve been much happier by being goofy again.
A very humorous incident was when we decided that one possible sexy image would be in a shower. The phone call of “I’m looking for a shower, so I can get naked and have pictures taken” got some very humorous awkward silences.

After that look, we did my all-time favorite implied nude: Staci behind a lamp! Then we shot her in the other bedroom, right next to the window… this provided beautiful lighting for glamour photography. For those who want to know, it’s called The North Light effect. OneModelPlace.com has a nice article on how to do this in the studio: http://www.onemodelplace.com/newsletter_glamour_article3.cfm

After shooting, we decided we’d make Sangria, and of course, a video on how to make a Sangria. 1st she showed me the dock in her neighborhood. It was pretty - probably the only scenery I had taken the time to see in Ft. Myers. The shopping was great - I love my new camcorder… it made it really fun and easy to chase Staci through the store, finding out what we’re buying, and why. Did I mention it weighs less than 1.5 pounds?

We grabbed lunch at a pizza place, where I called the PR person for the Normal Love confections company. Staci’s idea, as it is a local company, and I am looking for adventures and unique experiences. Unfortunately, the PR woman had never contacted me after I wrote her all the details, as she requested.

Staci had made the Sangria, and we drank some of it- YUM!! I will be posting the how-to video in my LEARN section. I highly recommend it

That evening we went to a bar called Brix to meet up with some of her friends. I bought a Long Island Iced Tea. I think this is one of my default drinks… it goes back to 1994 when I was on a budget, and needed to get drunk quickly :). I met some of her friends, and then saw her friend Nicole. I walked up to her and said “Oh my god! Nicole! How have you been?” She looked at me and said “I’m sorry… I don’t remember your name.” “What? Oh my god! How can you say that? After all we were through? This obviously meant so much to you!” She looked a tad confused, and was obviously trying to place me… I interrupted her thoughts “I’m kidding! I’m Staci’s photographer!” Nicole chuckled, but then blew me off and walked away.

I chatted with some ladies at the bar. One was so drunk, that her friends had to take her home. I’m not a club/bar person, but I’m working on it. I did talk to these random strangers, didn’t I? I went to find Staci, who was outside chatting with Nicole. There was some drama over some girl’s behavior on New Year’s. Not my place to share these with the world. I came over, took her Cell phone away so she couldn’t text more drama. I took it away, and started telling jokes… many retarded jokes! I had a blast doing stand-up… I got back into my own self. Talkative, chatty, joke-telling…. I got a crowd quickly. I met Staci’s close friends, who thankfully liked my retarded jokes. They liked them so much, that Nicole said that she wants to take me out on a date next time I’m in town! — Of course, I made sure to get video of this! She’s cute.

After a while, we took off, and the night was over.

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