thomasholmphoto

Dharmas Mirror

I’m growing fond of using a large mirror, so much so that I’ve just bought another one.

Lighting is challenging partly because you need to pay attention to what you can see in the background of the mirror.

Anyway, here is Dharma and a large petal necklace we thought would look better elsewhere. I’m sure the last image will be a bit controversial.

His arm looks amputated, but that instantly makes me check the mirror, and as a result, I spend more time seeing the image. ...

Kung-Fu girl

Freya Gallows, AKA Bump wolf, was super fun to work with, but I must admit I booked her for her Bio. It went something like “Having bicycled the entire Pacific coastline in the US, pyrotechnician on movies, and studied kung-fu at a Shaolin monastery for years and other interesting tidbits.

Bird of prey

Here are a couple of studio shots with Gracie Sweet.

Gracie is a newly started model, which may be the reason for the following controversy.

We shot for half a day and into the second set (these) she asked if I could make her genitals dark so we could shoot some images they were sexy but not showing too much.

I said sure, but it requires some careful light angling and careful posing.

As always (if you have seen my multicam BTS movies, we shoot, evaluate on the monitor,...

Mynte showing off in a bed.

I love shooting with Mynte. She is a self-proclaimed exhibitionist who gets a kick out of shooting. So generally, if you go with the flow, something fun, and often erotic, will come out of it.

The light here is from a skylight window above the bed.

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2024-03-22 15:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post

The hot beach

Last summer, just before starting a workshop, Wiana, the Endless Sinner, Loulou models, and I went to a nude beach and did some freestyle shooting. These are a couple of the images that came out of it.

They seem authentic.

The Outhouse

During all the COVID lockdowns, my neighbor country, Sweden, took the strategy of remaining open but cautious. Interestingly, it has not negatively influenced mortality compared to other Nordic countries that have all closed down.

We Danes were free to travel to Sweden, so I traveled there for ten days with Poppyseed Dancer and Lilith Etch.

This image was shot on an idyllic morning beside one of our Airbnbs.

I shot this freehand - and corrected the perspective in Photoshop t...

A gorgeous crawl

I lit this slightly erotic set of Lena with available light from the window, diffused by a couple of Lee opal diffusion foil layers. On the opposite side, a large styrofoam flag provides negative fill.

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Minka on wheels BTS

It's surprising how many of the models I shoot fancy a naked drive on the scooters I use when getting around on the airstrip.

I guess there is a streak of exhibitionism on many of the models.

The roundbales

In the former airfield next to my studio are some large grassy areas. Once a year, they harvest the long grass and compress it into these round bales. Then they proceed to stand them, which is a unique, slightly abstract location I like to use when possible.

I was shooting Minka, and we were cruising around the airfield on my electric scooters. I decided to do a shoot.

I made a mistake that day:
I forgot to bring oil for her body, so they ended up with a matte look.

Shoo...

Jump the shark

This was my first ever shoot with a Ballet Dancer. 

At the time, she was dancing for the Royal Danish Ballet.

As you can see in the second image, the stripes are created by a fringe curtain.

We didn’t have any sunlight available, which is the best light source, so I set up a lamp with a grid about 10m/30’ away to get the light as pointed as possible. It’s not great, but the second image was still worthwhile.

Floor shapes

Modeling by Goodhaab

It always amazes me how much you can do by playing with shapes on the floor. Everyone is different. The light is my 57” Zeppelin with a white diffuser and a soft grid set up slightly from the back.

Sofa full of Grace

Grace108x (I should have asked her how she ended up with that model name.) Ambient light from my two studio windows and a big flag to provide negative fill on the opposite side. Easy does it.

Faith & Yoko Ono

This is an old set with Faith Chu from Sweden.

The first was shot with a direct lamp head on a white background and with a large flag to create the gradation of the background. I wanted the shadow side to be bright and the light side to be dark to make her stand out.

The other image was shot in a Huge daylight studio with an overhead window about 10m/33ft straight above the camera - and with a silver reflector on the floor, as you can see in the sunglasses.

I always loved th...

Clara on stripes

I don’t think I reveal too much if I state that Clara Sinclair is a bit of an exhibitionist, which happens to be my favorite kind of model to work with.

This set is from a small summer cabin backlit by the window behind the model.

It’s not art, but I do like the intimate feeling we got across in these.

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Sleeping beauty.

This was one of the weirdest shoots I have made: The model is Mira, a Russian model, and we had no means to communicate, so every time I needed her to change something on a pose, I had to guide her body parts. At least, that is the solution we arrived at via Google Translate, but I’m not particularly fond of working that way with a model.

I am fine asking a model if I can guide her leg if she does not understand what I mean when I direct, but moving every limb of the model almost alwa...

Belzen on lookout

A couple of shots of Belzen model in Sweden this summer.

A little composition trick in the first image: Notice how I get away with directing the model with the horizon line by placing her alongside a rock? Having something (other than the model) break that horizontal line allows more focus on the model.

Spinal tab

The sweet Rigmor_aa is on my old daybed in the studio. It’s backlit with available light from two windows in the studio. It was the last shoot I did on the daybed.

My entire studio, including the office, is about 85 m2 or about 900 sqft.

The amount of furniture I can have is limited, so when I want something new, I have to replace something old. I mostly use Facebook Marketplace for this, as you can find local things, and shipping furniture is too expensive.

Vintage Chaiselongue

Here is a nice set with CB Modelling on my new vintage Chaiselongue/recliner.

It’s lit with a 57” Zeppelin deep umbrella with a soft grit to keep the light from the background. In addition, some Large flags create negative fill and further keep the light away from the background.

The light is kept away from the background because it creates a much better focus on the model.

Oily body

Another Oily shot I once did with Poppyseed back in the day.

I love the effect oil has on the body and its interplay with light.

This is available light from a studio window.

Black sand

This was an oil-experiment more than anything else.

As a part of the Art-nude on Location course I created on Lanzarote with Wiana Model, I wanted to see how glistening I could get the model.

So we brought a 150cl bottle of (cheap) olive oil to cover Wiana. It works, but we were not liberal enough on the breast and upper body.

But I’m a sucker for the reflections on her legs, pelvis, and hips.

And the black sandy background certainly helps.

It also made the pro...

Two tone wall

Anneli soaking up a few rays of sun in the studio. 

It’s the first time I’ve shot a woman of color in my little Boudoir corner, and I like the dark grey against her skin.

The light is daylight through the window. And very low light, as the light doesn’t get very high in the sky in Denmark at the beginning of January when I shot this.

Clara's Spotlight

And to top it off, I have another set with Clara Sinclair, which is very similar to the set that dropped two days ago.

It’s lit with the large Fresnel light but shot with a modern lens and a bigger depth of field.

And no second lamp to soften up the shadows.

So again, it is a new variation over the same theme.

I love the first and second of these images; what do you think?

Booty time

I like few things more than a beautiful model who is eager to show off her booty like D Genevievre here. The set is almost identical to yesterday’s post but shot in color, with a modern lens (24-70mm Sigma 2.8) and a larger diffused light source: A Westcott Apollo 43” deep white reflective umbrella, but with no diffusion or anything to soften the shadows.

While both are hard, I’ve given them “the opposite” treatment:

The hardest source (Fresnell) is that I softened the s...

Film Noir

I decided to give these images with Daniella Carter a film noir look:

I used my Fresnel spot, which was placed relatively close to the model, and another lamp from the camera at a very low output to open up the shadows slightly.

If you look closely at the shadow on the face, the effect of the second lamp should be apparent.

Then, I used my vintage Canon 50mm ƒ0.95 to give the minimal depth of field to enhance the dreaminess of the shot further.

Leçon de séduction (Lessons in seduction)

When I shot with Dharma, she asked if we should shoot some images with a body. My facial expression may have revealed a lack of enthusiasm as she quickly jumped into a sales pitch, showing me it was crotchless.

Then I remembered Aubade’s “Leçon de séduction” Advertising series shot by Herve Lewis. When shooting white garments in a backlit environment, white is brighter than the skin and reflects more light.

This means you can underexpose the body while still having the app...

Happy "Leap Year Day"

Here are some more images with Sylph Sia from Bulbjerg on the northwest coast of Denmark. There were shots during the last hour before sunset and after getting the best possible light.

PS. See notes about shooting at beaches from yesterday.

Here you can see examples on how to avoid the problems.

Bordeaux In J-TREE

I had the pleasure of shooting with Angelina Bordeau in Joshua Tree a few years ago.

She’s a former commercial and catwalk model who escaped the rat race.

I had been following her for a couple of years, and she me, so I asked her if she would be interested in creating some art nudes, and luckily, she agreed.

She was at a point where she needed to regain faith in herself, but without going into professional modeling, so we were a perfect match. We created some awesome pictu...

Lifeguard on duty

I’m generally not a fan of photographing at beaches:

With the sand sloping down to the water, it’s hard to photograph a model in that direction:

Unless you stand on a ladder or lie in the sand, you will have a horizon line intersecting the model. You could, of course, shoot the other way, but then why go to a beach?

I love water, and I love skies, but I prefer them when I can use them with other elements, like in this image:

I have an outstanding graphical element ...

Sigrife on Tour

This is from my second-ever model tour: IE. Spend several days with a model and utilize the best light in different locations. These are from Mols Bjerge, a nature park in eastern Denmark that also holds a ruin, Gavnø Slot.

Since Sigrife has done yoga for years, she naturally falls into doing it in nature.

The jumping picture is a little of an optical illusion: She seems to be jumping really high, and one of the reasons for that is I’m standing a bit further down a small hill s...

Sienna Hayes

I had the pleasure of working with Sienna Hayes for two days two years ago.

We went to this place I know, Stevns Klint, a Unesco World Heritage site with a massive area of Limestone.

We first had a mist in the morning, so we started shooting a couple of shots using that. The rest is straight sunlight.

I think this set shows everything I look for in a location:

Elevation, exciting shapes, and few or no people.

Also, a lot of skies and other relatively uniform back...