Zivity publishes my first set

I love this new site.
Zivity is a new website that features female beauty and lets both models and photographers collaborate equally on ideas, and uploaded content.

They are in beta right now so you have to sign up to see the whole set...
But if you email me and ask nicely I'll send you an invite code...
Because I am cool like that..

This set was shot in Seattle WA in an abandond mill where the photogrpaher has been shooting all year for a book project.


Iona Lynn at Zivity

Steven Melvin: “ I went to school for this stuff… “

Stephen Melvin: “ I went to school for this stuff… “

Steven lives in Kansas and few out to the Bay area for a few days and shot several models, I was one of the lucky ones … We worked in a local private home of another photographer who was kind enough to host traveling photographers. We worked on this huge complicated long panoramic multi exposure project that involved many poses and exactly timed shots& very even light…
I did my job, our other model Wynd did her job, and Steven had everything set up perfectly…
But the sun had other plans…damn that sneaky sun and clouds…The sun did NOT cooperate..




Oh well we had much fun in the waning light in the back yard and created these images..

Iona Lynn in Los Angeles Wed Feb 6th Canters Deli 6:00 pm.

Iona Lynn in Los Angeles Wed Feb 6th Canters Deli 6:00 pm.
I have reserved the upstairs room at Canters Deli for anyone who wants to show up nosh hang out and meet and greet..
cantersdeli
This place has tons of great food, it’s own parking lot, and is open 24 hours so we can hang out all night if we want and they will not kick us out…

Jaded Geisha and Chickens!!

Ma Joy is a photographer, stylist, MUA, and even cosmetic line all rolled into one ball of fun.

She runs Jaded Geisha and we got together for her great outdoors project, she had scoped out this field out in Tracy, CA that had those pretty little mustard flowers blooming and the idea was to do a few fashions shots amongst the little yellow flowers. We arrived to our location to the scent of freshly cut crass and rotting chlorophyll. They had mowed the field earlier that day!!! Curses, So we drove about for over a hour looking for another felid but the flower killers had been very busy that week… Then I spotted a goat farm.. I convinced Ma Joy to go up and knock on their door… they actually let us shoot in the yard the goats were not very friendly though but the chickens were I gentleman man who owned the property gave me a bucket of feed and I had fun feeding the chicks cracked corn.

Naked girls in our bed

Pure silliness and nothing more.
This shoot was tacked onto another shoot that Stacie and I had with Lucky B a San Diego photographer. Lucky has a very intriguing job as a custom fetish photographer, When I say custom fetish I don’t mean latex and bullwhips I mean melted gummy bears and water guns filled with green ink… Lucky and Stacie and I worked on a project that involved wedgies, wooden spoons, giggles and much roughhousing about. With our cacophony of clothing ripped to shreds we were then left with nothing on but our freckles. Lucky has a project that is varying women in him and his wife’s bed. Stacie and I agreed to pose for this art project. The entire bed shoots are fast and simple only natural light and just a few shots of models lounging, or jumping, or playing under the sheets. Many of Lucky’s projects are light hearted and quite silly much like him. I once made him put a hot pancake on his head for my cameras amusement..

I am not alone in this.

Sarah Ellis wrote:
I really don't want to post in this thread, but I know I have to. My reluctance is not due to fear of retribution or shame, I am reluctant because I don't have much faith in my ability to change anyone's mind. At the same time, if Iona and others are going to expose themselves to the scrutiny of the MM mod, I want to be with them.

My story is almost exactly like Iona's. I shot with him, hoping to get good commercial images for my book in exchange for doing some art nudes. Late in our conversation he added the double nudes to the trade, and that was fine - I (wrongly) assumed that a professional like him would never do anything to betray my trust. I expected to pose nude with him "in a dance" I did not expect to take me to the middle of the desert, out of cell phone range, to touch me when I asked him not to, to rub his erection on my even as I tried to move away, to humiliate me in front of a police officer, to straddle me naked while I begged him to at least put some underwear on saying "don't worry, I don't want to come in to you", to lecture me about how women love to cry rape for situations that are their fault for the whole trip home and tell me how much success I'd have in modeling if I just stuck with him. I didn't expect any of that.

I'm sure that plenty of you are saying, "Why didn't you run?" "Why didn't you beat up the little 100lbs. freak?" "Why didn't you call the cops?" Why? Don't you think I've asked myself those questions a million time already. I was scarred. I just wanted to get it over with and get back to my hotel and take a long shower. I didn't know what he would do to me if I resisted more than I already was. I still wish I had. If something like this happens to you, I hope you have the guts to fight back, all I could do was get away as soon as I could, go home and warn as many trusted friends as I could.

The worst part of this for me is that it's not the first time I've been in a situation like this. When I was 13 I was molested by a photographer at a commercial shoot. I was with a pretty big agency at the time and I loved what I was doing, but that experience killed it for me. Luckily, that photographer is no longer practicing his craft (and I don't mean photography), but there are so many like him in - successful fashion shooters, GWCs, MUAs, models, all over the business. People can be horrible. They can be so manipulative that they even delude themselves and they can hurt you in ways that can't be predicted and leave no traces. So if you're reading this, please trust your instincts and don't let anyone make you do anything that doesn't feel right. The reward will never be worth the regret.

Thanks for reading this.

Not every shoot goes as planned. Or does it….Daguerre

Daguerre
Steven James May Photography
http://www.mayphotography.com/

Not every shoot goes as planned. Or does it…

I started conversing with Steven months and months before we actually shot together.

He lived close to my home town and was a photographer, we spoke of many ideas concerning marketing and art and photography and whatnot as well as bounced around ideas for shoots. One theme that was introduced to was his women in mirrors shots. I later found another model who had worked with him; I noticed that he had some stunning images of her looking into a mirror with him out of focus in the distance. I asked her if he was wearing a shirt because it did not look like it, and in my experience most photographers stay clothed. He and I talked more about the theme over the months and he let me know that he was always fully nude at all of these mirror shoots.

I can deal with nudity - I work nude every day, so why should it bother me? I met up with him to do a short test shoot to see if we can work on something more in depth at a later date. In his office he shows me more of his work, including shots of him nude and many images of him erect interacting with other models. Somehow this doesn't seem right - I love the images, but am not feeling any reason I would want to create anything with him.

Part of me wonders why he took so long to get to this point with his art, and why he hiding it from everyone. I know many artists who have nude and even erect art that they display proudly - why is this guy so secretive? Why am I here looking at image of his erect cock on his monitor while his wife is at work? I don't think I want to be a part of a hidden project that no one knows about; it's silly and it makes me feel like nothing more than a notch in his camera strap.

I don't say anything, for once I am tongue tied, and I think again back to the proposed mirror project. we do a few shots in his bedroom that are ok - he wants interaction. I don't interact with many artists, I interact with my own environment. He wants me to play with the camera and to tease it, so I poke my greasy finger across his lens to smear his optics. I don't want to play, I want to create images. He tells me we will shoot in the bathroom, and the bathroom is lovely with lots of light. He is nude and he tells me to stand in front of him and touch him; I am distracted by my own reflection. I say no, and back away; I want to sit on the huge counter so I scamper to my perch. He follows me he sits behind me and again I refuse to interact with him. I'm now wondering how this shoot will turn out, as I am so concerned about where he is that my posing is stiff.

He hands me the camera and let me shoot the images, I am now completely occupied by shooting that I forget all that is around me and I never feel where his hands go. The camera runs out of battery, breaking my concentration, He leads me back into the bedroom and has me sit upon him, he tells me to touch him I do not. I look up and study the texture of the ceiling. A chicken can run after its head has been cut off, a man can be erect after death, and a woman can still get wet when she is scared.

After I shake myself from my own inner shell I stop and say no, this has gone too far, he replies it is dangerous, he has me go move my car, I feel this is only a ruse to copy the files so even though he deletes them in front of me they are still safely tucked away in his hard drive. I look at the images and force my brain back into work mode again I am not looking at images of me being touched by someone else I am looking at light shadow and composition. I say that they all should be deleted. For my payment for the test shoot I am to receive one print. Months ago I tore it up, I thought that would help me feel better about what I have done, and it has not. I can scream until my lungs bleed, I can cry until my eyes fail, or I can educate others and raise a new generation of stronger women.

I have receved a number of messages and emails regarding this post.
Spread the word, but do not spread only the hate,
Please post to this story.
Do not forget to post about a GOOD experence with another fellow artist.
I have posted 30+ good stories & only 1 bad I still have over 200 more to go.

Fine Art Nude Model: Iona Lynn

Fine Art Nude Model: Iona Lynn

WGR aka at sooty footprint studios

This was a fun shoot last year in SD.
WGR is known for his digital art and creating imagery rather than just pretty photographs when he clicks the shutter he is only begun his journey into his art. This is an image from a session that is one of the few casual un posed just hanging about and taking pictures sessions I have done.


This session was shared with a friend of mine and much fun was has being silly and giggling and making faces.

Raven's Laughter The Beautiful Grotesque Project Prints for Sale

The Beautiful Grotesque Project
Copyright Raven's Laughter 2007
This is a beautiful 8 x 10 image
Printed on 60 lb glossy museum quality paper.
All Raven's Laughter prints are shiped in 7 days and are shipped flat.
Price includes shipping and taxes.