Down to Basics, pt. 3

Link to photos: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MlCEoEDaftV2tyYzZIbm5TQkk

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DOWN TO BASICS

Back in 2011, my model Nicole was going through a tough time, with her mom and step-dad getting a divorce. Her house, which I had shot at multiple times with her, was now empty, and she was moving away to LA. But thankfully she told me where the key was under the mat, telling me which days the house wouldn’t be visited by realtors or her parents, giving me carte blanche to move in and shoot wherever I wanted. That’s when I called up Erin.

Erin, the feisty, stoner redhead that many people here on Patreon know and love, was never easy to deal with, but she was always open and honest and fun. I picked her up from her crowded house strewn with empty pizza boxes and even emptier young people, handed her the box of donuts I had brought for her, and we headed out to the empty house.

Clearly the place hadn’t been lived in in a while, and I was a little fascinated and dismayed by the dead frog that had been caught in the door and then dehydrated over time. (Check out the linked photos to see that image.) Before we went inside, Erin needed to hit the pipe, so I tried to wait patiently as she took several tokes, complaining about life and people and the world at large. Though I’m not a fan of smoking weed, I’m not necessarily against it, so I waited patiently and listened to her rants until she was ready to go inside.

The place was dark and quiet, and with the electricity off, it was moody. There were some great pockets of natural light in a few rooms, so we focused our energy there. We started in a green room, which I think had been Nicole’s bedroom, and Erin slowly undressed, showing off her new stomach tattoo that I wasn’t crazy about.

After a while we went outside and shot in the direct sunlight. I like those images, with the soft breeze lifting up small parts of her hair. The sunlight looked great on her, but she feared rapidly acquiring a sunburn on her fair skin, so we quickly headed back in.

Finally we found another empty bedroom which still had marks on the walls from the removal of wall decorations and hooks from frames. The window light was soft and moody, so I had her put on the last item of clothing she had brought, a black, lacy bra. Of course her massive chest filled it out well, making my job easy. Click away, don’t stop.

It was a bit of a meaningless shoot, but still well worth the effort. I miss these times shooting with Erin, even though she could talk too much and sometimes be difficult. There are times when I miss her a lot, and other times when I definitely do not. But somehow photography seemed simpler then, or maybe just my view of it was.

What do you think of these images? Please let me know what you think in the comments below or in my DMs! And thank you thank you thank you once again for your continued support of what I do, it means so much!

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Here’s that link again: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MlCEoEDaftV2tyYzZIbm5TQkk