Lace and pearl musings - Katerina M & Penny A

Dear member,

I am delighted to share the first seven photos from last Saturday's shoot in Athens with beautiful Greek muses Katerina Maragkaki and Penny Adamopoulou.

Many of you will no doubt remember Katerina from last February's shoot in Athens - including her duo with Valerie. However, I expect that Penny will be new to most, if not all, of you.

I shot this set in a 1960s retro style living room of the apartment that I was staying in, featuring an old Fuji film camera and a record player with real LP's, which we made good use of - anyone remember those?

I do spend a considerable amount of time and money finding interesting places where I can shoot and stay - it is pointless to have beautiful models and place them in an ordinary or sub-standard setting. This is one of the reasons I tend to avoid studios - most tend to be dirty, dusty and more often than not tacky.

The icing on the cake for the scene was the provided by the two lacy pearl lingerie sets that I brought with me belonging to the Bracli Sydney and Geneva collections - some of you may remember these from previous shoots with Aphrodita, Chiara and Emily Moon.

Last but not least, comes the lighting and photography technique part: the decor of the room was very dark (look at those walls in the background) and natural light through the balcony door not sufficient. So I used my trusted Hobolite to light the models from the side (carrying this with me necessitates a large Samsonite case travelling with me, adding to costs...). Even then, I was getting ISO values of 2000 or higher even with an aperture of f4.0, so I decided to go completely cinematographic and chose f2.8 - which means that it made a huge difference on which model's eyes I focussed on. I explained all this to Katerina and Penny and was telling them during the shoot which one I was focusing on in each and every shot, so they could pose accordingly. I am adding a screenshot with the full camera settings as the last photo in this set for the benefit of those of you interested in photography technique.

I must say the results surpassed my expectations. I just love these photos - I would, of course, want to hear your views (there are nearly 500 members now on my Patreon, so I am not asking for too much).

This is also why I am not using the term "muse" lightly here. Katerina and Penny were truly inspirational. They interacted with each other beautifully and, where needed, took direction well. All this allowed me to capture some lovely cinematic moments.

I should also add that Katerina and Penny are both professional dancers. In my experience this means perfect toned bodies and a certain elegance in posing (another good example of this is Beth Kate, whose elegant poses and beautiful toned body are second to none). All of us know how hard it is to keep fit but when constant movement is part of one's job, it is a little easier.

ps: in Greek Mythology, dance and chorus was associated with Muse Terpsichore - whose name broadly translates into "delighting in dance".

ps2: in part 2 of this set, which will be posted behind the paywall in the coming days, the lingerie comes off slowly and Katerina and Penny reveal their beautifully toned nude bodies. Part 2 contains 17 photos.