I have for quite some time been incorporating the use of an old wooden chair in my creative nudes. Recently, I purchased a new (used) chair with a red velvet(een?) seat for $20. We decided that this photoshoot with Jo was the perfect opportunity to use the chair while shooting in a local conservation area.
This shoot was amazing and we have a good collection of keepers to use for our book. Stay tuned! We may post a couple more teasers but we aren’t giving it all away. 
Until next time..
- Ray
In 2006, Sharon and I had gotten into a rut where we were shooting a lot of brightly lit glamour images that pop and we started to lose our inspiration as there is only so much one can do with glamour in a cramped basement studio.
So, I started looking at more classical nudes and also loved the shadows in some of the old hollywood glamour a la George Hurrell. I wondered how I would approach this type of shot when I actually stumbled upon the lighting seen in this image purely by accident. I was just experimenting with light placement of a single light source. I loved the outcome. There is a bit of fill light on Sharon’s head and back due to a mirror that I mounted to the wall at the end of our bed.
I will be playing with this style of lighting again for our book of nudes. We shoot our first images for the book this Sunday, in an old abandoned motel.
Until next time..
Ray
Back in 2007, I finally picked up a set of gels for my Alien Bees studio lights. I wanted to create more of a classic nude yet I wanted it toned. I set up a strobe to camera right and put an orange gel on it. It threw way too much light on the model without light modification. Ater weighing the option of using a snoot or a grid, I put a 30 degree honeycomb grid on the strobe, metered it to 1/60s and an aperture of f/11 and shot this image with my Canon 5D.
I think it turned out wonderful!
Until next time..
-Ray