thomasholmphoto

Roping in Anna

I hadn't shot with Anna for about 7 years (life intervened), but she resurfaced and I jumped at the chance to set up a shoot again.

We only had a few hours, but I knew she used to be into shibari back in the day, so we managed to squeeze in a shibari set.
The front bottom "panty" ended up a little sloppy, but unfortunately I didn't have time to tighten it up.
The light here is scattered sunlight through a couple of textured curtains in front of my studio windows.

Roping in Anna - Teaser

Anna Opsal and a bit of Shibari.
As always the full set is available on the Photographers and Vault tiers.

Eye In the Sky

This is another one of my favorite locations in Lanzarote.
It's a cave halfway up the side of a volcano with a hole in the ceiling about 10m - 35' up, but as a special feature, there is also a large T-shaped entrance where some light is seeping in.

Not a lot of light, but enough to photograph, and in this case, I added a Profoto B10 flash with a 2' Octobox in front to add a little fill.

Still, you have to underexpose 2-3 f-stops too dark to avoid blowing out the sky and the sunlit cliff on the side. And if you crank up the flash too much you loose the magic light in the cavern so it's a delicate balance.
The model here is Georgia Brown, and I have a larger series from this place in the pipeline, along with some great BTS footage.

Pale Cave-dweller

I've been wanting to work with clay on the body for some time, but since my studio is not equipped with a shower, I've been limited to outdoor locations and frankly i haven't had much of a chance in the Danish climate.
But I brought some clay to Lanzarote and had a couple of hourss one of the days after the last workshop to give it a go, and here is the very first result, more, and some behind the scenes videos of the entire process will come before long.

The model here is Zan of Sweden and this particular image, for whatever reason, reminds me of a particular scene with Martin Sheen from Appocalypse Now.

Cassies Canyon

Whenever I'm in Lanzarote, I always visit this place, which has several Slot canyons, which is spectacular to photograph in, and I did this set with CB Modelling last year.
Slot canyons make for very interesting backgrounds, but they are not easy to photograph in:

There is a massive amount of contrast, the light is almost always from above (and more above than is generally flattering), so poses where the model is leaning to reflect the light, or bent over, lying down, or crawling generally work. And in some places, by photographing in a space where there is an overhead space above and behind the camera, there is a resemblance to normal light. Still having the model lift her head slightly to avoid dark shadows under the eyes is generally a good idea.
And if the model applies some oil to the body to make it a bit more shiny it looks even better.

Cassies canyon - Teaser

CB Modelling in a slot canyon.

Window of a sinner BTS

BTS from the Window of a Sinner post

Window of a Sinner

Some month ago I rented an Airbnb that used to be an old watertower, that had a lot of fun nooks and crannies, and one was this weird cut-out hole in the concrete.
And as you may know, one of my mottos is, if there is a hole, put a model in it, in this case The Endless Sinner, but I also have some upcoming ones with Wiana.
The light here ambient light from a window reflected by a large 1x2m / 3x6' Silver reflector which is why it's coming slightly from below.

Btw: When I'm investigating Airbnb's for shooting in, I always look for something that is not too busy as I need somewhat clean backgrounds, and also interesting features I can use in pictures.

Joshua Tree - Teaser

Venusdesierra in Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree

This is Kaela, or Venusdesierra, or V Wild Art from my first trip to Joshua Tree.
All natural light.
Kaela is a rock climber, which definitely comes in handy at times…

Lark’s Stairwell

The Lark reference is a direct translation of her name in Danish.
Both images were shot with my Canon Dreamlens 50mm ƒ0.95 - at around ƒ1.2 on a Sony NEX-7 APS-C camera, which makes the lens approximately 75mm, and only uses the center of the glass.
Had I used a full frame on this setting, I’d need at least a ƒ1.4 to retain focus beyond 1-1,5m away.

And that is really the reason why I recently invested in a 50mm ƒ1.2 Sigma lens. I still love the Canon dream lens for certain things, but the manual focus and restricted focus at wide open aperture is somewhat restrictive.
The Sigma is a great lens too, but much faster. Definitely not the same dreamy quality, so I’m not getting rid of the Dreamlens anytime soon.

Box Bend - Teaser

Just a little teaser (pun intended).
Remember, you can upgrade and downgrade your tier at any time, and only pay the difference between the tiers.

Box Bend

I’m sure you all know Laetitia, the darkskinned French former ballerina and aerealist. The first three images was lit using my Zeppeliner 57” deep umbrella, and the fourth was a 52” white reflective umbrella, as this allowed me the maximum distance between model and lamp to get the most even light.

Sweet Lena

This is a pretty old set with Lena, and for all the images, it’s natural light only, and some variation of shooting mostly against the light (backlight), which is one of my favorite shape-creating techniques.. We only worked once, as I was passing through where she lived, but we did get a nice set done. She looks so innocent in these, but she had a dragon tattooed on her entire back 😈.

Appearances can be deceiving…

The Mask

Sometime during Covid, I made a livestream erotic workshop with Mellanie Villefrance AKA Miss Blondt (she doesn’t shoot erotic images anymore), and these images are from that livestream workshop.

The first was shot with a Lomo Petzval on a shift/tilt adapter that allowed me to alter the plane of focus, only leaving the eyes in focus and the rest out of focus.
It’s a trick I learned way back when shooting large format, so when I had to get an adaptor for the Lomo Pettzval, I dug a little deeper in my wallet and got this one from Mirex.

The crucifixion of Angharada

Driving home from work, I noticed a huge pile of stacked trees in a parking lot.
Incidentally, I was shooting with Angharada over the next two days, so I wanted to include this location.

Because of the direction of the pile, we decided to shoot at this early in the morning, as the clear sunlight would streak the model from the side and cast long shadows.

But when I picked her up at her hotel and we drove to the location, lo and behold, seven logging trucks, and 12-14 guys and their machines were all parked and working in front of the wood pile, so that wasn't about to happen as planned.

We parked, walked around, and decided to shoot a quick set on the backside in the mostly slight overhead light, which I’d normally not be interested in, all while the loggers were busy on the other side.
But it was either that or no shoot at all.
I’m happy we did it.

Sasha free soul

This set of Sasha was taken during a trip to Riga in a rental studio some time ago. All of these photos were shot with a large rectangular softbox on a white background. The reason it doesn’t appear white is due to the inverse square law: the background is much farther away compared to the light's proximity to the model. The inverse square law states that every time you double the distance, the light intensity halves.

I’ve shot many beautiful women, but there are some that stick out as unnaturally beautiful; they are literally freaks of nature.

Search for Sasha on my Patreon if you want to see more.

Sasha free soul - Teaser

A small sampling opf Sashs from the full set.

Katharina in the wild

I’ve only shot with Katharina once, but unfortunately, subsequent tries failed, and then she stopped modeling.
These images were captured during a short road trip in southern Sweden, and are all shot with natural light. The first was shot with a Lomo Petzval 85mm, which creates the swirly bokeh in the background.

Kate's patterns

Kate Ri in the studio.
In this set from 2017, I was playing with various fabrics and having the sun cast shadows on the model. I’ve experimented with this, but I keep coming back to the fringe curtain if I want to do patterns. The ones above seem too structured to me today.
Don’t get me wrong, they can work, but it’s a bit of a one-trick pony.

Bodyscapes

This set with Janni is 11 years old (she no longer models). We've worked together five to eight times, but for some reason, I’ve only published a few pictures of her so far. There will be more.

In all the images, she stands on a white acrylic plate, which reflects the light that falls onto a white paper background, thus eliminating shadows and replacing them with reflections.

There are also some lights from the rear sides illuminating the model's side in some images. For the first two, I use a Fresnel spot to create the hard light and texture on the model.

Angelina Hurt

Every time I see this image, I think of the Johnny Cash version of “Hurt” produced by Rick Rubin. There is a lot of emotion in this image. Technically, it’s shot 5-8 minutes after sunset in Joshua Tree with my 50mm Canon Dreamlens 0.95, creating the very dreamy bokeh, and enough light to shoot despite the minimal lighting conditions.

Rooftop Gymnastics

This is the Carillon Doll on top of an abandoned factory outside Milan, Italy.

It was quite challenging to edit this image, partly because of the intense but unclear tan lines, as well as the deep tan, color, and roof color. I ended up separating the model from the background so I could edit them individually to improve the overall look.

And in case you're wondering, in Photoshop, there's a function called 'Select Subject.' If you set it to 'cloud,' it creates a remarkably accurate mask, whereas if you leave it to run on your laptop, the selections and masks are often inadequate. It’s an incredible feature, and I wish you could use it in Lightroom too; it would be so much better than the current masking tools.

Rooftop Gymnastics - Teaser

A couple giveing you an idea about the full series

Rooftop Gymnastics - BTS

BTS of Carillon on the rooftop

Phallos

I took this photo with Luoluo models and Wiana in Alcudia Bay, Majorca, a few years ago, and I still love it. The intensity of the models' gaze and the symbolism, almost over the top, make a great combination.

Top and Bottom

A little Shibari roleplay with the Endless Sinner and Zsan of Sweden in the studio. Honestly, binding this ended up taking more time than expected, so it was too dark before we started.

I had to revise the plan and decided to create a living room mood, include my chandelier, and set the light (a softbox on a boom) from roughly the same distance.

Then, possibly because of time pressure, I messed up:
The Pro-6 generators I use have multiple ways to adjust light, and one of the fine-tuning functions can also do auto bracketing. I accidentally turned the knob too far and caused a 2/3 ƒ-stop decrease and increase after every correct shot.

All are usable in the end, but having to adjust every third image darker and lighter to pick the best shots is a bit of a hassle.

Top and Bottom - Teaser

Zsan of Sweden and The Endless Sinner. As always, the full series is available in the photographers and vault tiers, and you can upgrade and downgrade anytime.

Anna-Conda

Back in ’19, I picked up Poppyseed at the airport and visited a public swimming spot nearby (second picture). Opposite that, there was a stone sculpture that looked a lot like a giant serpent, so I named the image Anna-Conda. Back then, I didn’t like giving names to images, but it’s easier to relate to than a random number like 2909.

These days, I try to find a name that resonates, possibly lifted from a music title, an association around the image, or something similar. It’s never meant to add extra meaning to the picture, which I firmly believe should stand alone, but rather to provide some sort of reference, mainly for myself.

Anna-Conda - BTS