another recent photoshoot - Wynd, from Model Mayhem

I became fascinated by Wynd the first time I looked at her portfolio on Model Mayhem. Mind you, I don't really have an interest in shooting nudes and that is the way Wynd prefers to model. We never discussed it as I guess my portfolio speaks for itself. No, what intrigued me about Wynd was her eyes and her hair. Later, as we communicated more, I became fascinated about her lifestyle too.

Anyway, Wynd is a professional model and no longer does shoots in which she trades her time for a cd or prints (TF-CD/P). I came upon her at a time when I was sort of able to talk her into a trade with me though. I gave her a condition, that if she were able to get a paying gig on the day of our shoot it would be ok to cancel on me. I also told her that I would give her a "gratuity" of $20 so that she could buy some dinner after our shoot (or do whatever she wanted to with the money). We started this conversation in March and she said that if she was going to do a shoot with me it would be in mid-May, and to get in touch with her later. I wrote to her again late in April and actually offered to double the gratuity to $40 as she had explained to me that she too was a starving artist and was getting ready to go out on the road. She wrote back and said that she DID still want to do the shoot.

I can't remember now exactly what day of the week the shoot was, but we decided to meet at the gates of Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. I had offered to pick her up anywhere in Berkeley/Oakland but she said no, that she would ride her bike there. We met at 3pm.

Now this was the first time that I've ever worked with a completely "professional" model that I was giving money to. I was going to give "Maenad" the $20 dinner gratuity too but she ended up buying ME dinner after our shoot! That wsa because I ws going to drive her from Santa Cruz to Pleasanton after our shoot. Her plans changed though. Wynd is a very experienced model who has worked with a lot of very talented photographers. I didn't think about this too much ahead of time but I started to notice it while we worked.

Wynd does a lot of shots where she does not look directly into the camera. I on the other hand like to get shots of my models looking into the camera. It took me awhile to realize that the coy manner in which Wynd was moving before me was "her style" of movement and posing. Normally, to get one of my models to look into the camera I need to call out a direction, and they follow. Wynd made me feel a little nervous doing that. Not in a direct way but in a subtle way... I don't know exactly how to describe the way she, er, resisted? It only went on for about 20 minutes though before we started to get used to each others methods. And it's not that I want the model to look into the camera in every shot, or even half of the shots... but when I do want them to look it is for a reason.

Anyway, we didn't really talk about anything while the shoot went on. She was familiar with the cemetery and in fact, had her bachelorette's party in the mausoleum. Well, it is not entirely true that we didn't talk. I think I'm comparing our working conversation to the conversation I've had with other models, for instance two of my most recent models; Sarah and Nadishka, who I had deep conversations with. I did know about Wynd's upcoming travel plans and we talked about that. Well, for now that is all I think I have to say about this shoot. You should check out her portfolio at the above link as she really is beautiful and very talented.