thomasholmphoto

Out of the spotlight

Emma Helena aka. Real life and a spotlight.

I've been experimenting with shooting sculptural images with a couple of models using a large Fresnel spot and a separate lamp on the background. It works well in that the model gets an almost surreal look to the skin and the light accentuates any minute detail in the skin, and I really like that look.

Maria in Mols

This set with Maria is also from Mols Mountains, shot exclusively with available light. All were shot with my old Sony NEX-7 and either a 32mm or a 50mm ƒ 1.8 (Equivalent full frame 50mm - 75mm). Except for the second image, which I shot with a Lomo Petzval 85mm  (which becomes something like a 135mm on the NEX-7) with a slot aperture. It’s the Petzval lens design is what creates this swirly bokeh.

Cassie Suspended

I’ve had ample opportunity to practice Shibari over the summer, and this is from a shoot with CB, doing her very first both semi- and full suspension.

She was a bit anxious, and I had to rush it at the end, but that’s how it is.

I’m sure we will get another go sometime.

Light on this is the same as the booty chair images, released on the 5th.: Sidelight from my two studio windows.

Faucets - teaser

First set with the wonderful Silas Ash

Faucets

Early June, I had the opportunity to shoot with the wonderful UK model Silas Ash over two days..

She is very unique in regard to expression, has an exceptional body, and I loved working with her.

This set was shot in a derelict washroom on the former airbase near my studio, exclusively using available light from the windows high above the sinks.

You’ll see a lot more of Silas, Promise.

Wiana Chair suspension

The last set from my collaboration with Tom Knox (@tomofswedenshibari), where he tied up a chair and wiana and tied wiana to the chair and suspended her.

Photographically, there is not much to it: my 59” Zeppelin did most of the heavy lifting from the left, using a large v-flat to keep the light off the background and a couple for negative fill on the opposite side. And beyond that, I mostly helped and studied what Tom was doing.

Enjoy!

Wiana Chair suspension teaser

A little teaser from the complete set that just dropped on the Photographers and Vault tiers.

Occupied Territory

Once you really get to know models, interesting things can happen.
In this case, I was on a trip with Wiana and The Endless Sinner, and we were all bringing a lot of kink gear and accessories. And it turned out we collectively had matching erm, 🍑♠️ accessories 😜. Some funny things came out of that, as you can see from the image.

If you are on Discord - All Tiers - you should check out the extra material!

Don't know how to connect your Patreon with Discord (or set up a Discord)?

Read this guide.

Belzen in the booty chair

I haven’t posted anything in the “booty Chair” for some time, so it’s time for a few more, this time with Belzen.

This setup is deceptively simple: The chair faces the back wall, and two regular windows at a 90-degree angle cast gorgeous light on the model's back.

Then I use a black flag to keep the light off the right side of the end-wall, and a black styrofoam to create negative fill on her left side to create good, deep shadows.

And having the model either fold her legs or stick her through the armrests forces the forward-leaning angle, which does wonders for any booty I have seen.

Simple but effective.

Julie Carole in the Mols Mountains

The name Mols Mountains is a bit of a joke, I think, as the highest elevation we have in Denmark, called Sky Mountain, directly translated, has an elevation of 165m or about 550 ft. So perhaps that is a mountain - if you are a minion…

In any respect, it’s a natural preserve, and I was just driving around trying to find places that ticked my fancy. It’s a great place to shoot and is rarely too populated.

Anyway, I shot the first with Julie Carole late afternoon and the last two within an hour before sunset with the sun almost straight behind the camera at a very low angle to get the gorgeous light.

All were shot with my old NEX-7 camera, a $500 APS-C system, and were published in my first book, The Graces.

A Slight Change

For the last 5 years, I’ve been posting more than once a day.
For the next two weeks, I’ll have to scale back to posting every other day.

In the meantime, I haven’t archived posts for the last couple of months, so newcomers on the Connoisseurs and Photographers tiers will still have access to more content than normal.

I have something exciting coming up shortly, which has required a lot of my energy (and still does), and I’m trying to get in some vacation downtime to avoid burnout.

From Aug 14, I should be back to the regular schedule with daily posts.

Apologies for the inconvenience, and I hope you understand.

Best regards,

Thomas.

BTS. Ballerina at The Crystal

Poppyseed is doing her thing at The Crystal in Copenhagen.

Ballerina at The Crystal

I shot this set with poppyseed some years ago, around 8.30 am, en route from picking her up at the airport during rush hour. It’s the lower part of a bank called The Crystal, a place that had intrigued me for some time.

But being a bank, it has a ton of cameras everywhere, and its next-door neighbour is the motor pool of the central police station in Copenhagen.

So we started with a dress (sort of), and at the end, when nobody kicked us away, we did some quick nudes at the end of the shoot.

I shot this set with poppyseed some years ago, around 8.30 am, en route from picking her up at the airport during rush hour. It’s the lower part of a bank called The Crystal, a place that had intrigued me for some time.

But being a bank, it has a ton of cameras everywhere, and its next-door neighbour is the motor pool of the central police station in Copenhagen.

So we started with a dress (sort of), and at the end, when nobody kicked us away, we did some quick nudes at the end of the shoot.

I shot this set with poppyseed some years ago, around 8.30 am, en route from picking her up at the airport during rush hour. It’s the lower part of a bank called The Crystal, a place that had intrigued me for some time.

But being a bank, it has a ton of cameras everywhere, and its next-door neighbour is the motor pool of the central police station in Copenhagen.

So we started with a dress (sort of), and at the end, when nobody kicked us away, we did some quick nudes at the end of the shoot.

I shot this set with poppyseed some years ago, around 8.30 am, en route from picking her up at the airport during rush hour. It’s the lower part of a bank called The Crystal, a place that had intrigued me for some time.

But being a bank, it has a ton of cameras everywhere, and its next-door neighbour is the motor pool of the central police station in Copenhagen.

So we started with a dress (sort of), and at the end, when nobody kicked us away, we did some quick nudes at the end of the shoot.

I shot this set with poppyseed some years ago, around 8.30 am, en route from picking her up at the airport during rush hour. It’s the lower part of a bank called The Crystal, a place that had intrigued me for some time.

But being a bank, it has a ton of cameras everywhere, and its next-door neighbour is the motor pool of the central police station in Copenhagen.

So we started with a dress (sort of), and at the end, when nobody kicked us away, we did some quick nudes at the end of the shoot.

Enjoy.

Btw: let me ask you photographers and models: How do you feel about shooting in very public places?

Oh, Hello

A lot of you requested to see more of Mynte, and who am I to refuse the wishes of my Patrons?

So here you go.

57” Zepppelin from the left and nothing else, except a tiny bit of flirting, is going on.

Lava Canyon

I shot this set with Wiana model, in a slot canyon I discovered last year while researching locations for my two workshops (I hope to use it again during this year's two upcoming workshops).
The natural light mostly comes from above, similar to a long striplight on a boom arm with a grid.

It requires careful placement and turning of the body and face, but when done right, it’s pure fire (pun intended).

Lava Canyon - Teaser

If you want to see more images of Wiana in this canyon, you can upgrade to the Photographers or Vault tiers - and downgrade again - at any time.

And these tiers also have access to all the behind-the-scenes videos.

Lava Canyon - BTS

OK frankly this is not the best BTS movie in my life, it's just very hard to place a camera in a slotcanyon, especially when you move around.

If only I had an assistant...

Beast mode

I enjoy working with dancers like Miriam here.

It’s usually very controlled—you can repeat each pose until you get the light just right and freeze the moment, then move on…

And I also admire the capabilities and musculature of dancers, like this.

The light was a 57-inch zeppelin, but with the diffuser removed to give it more punch and a lamp with a large reflector pointed inward so it became a big deep silver umbrella.

Sekaa’s Ghost

The first of these two images with Sekaa is near a place called Wahweek Hoodoos in Arizona. It takes a couple of hours' hike to get there, but the scenery is well worth the effort.

Fun fact: the capstone on top of the hoodoo is there because everything around it has eroded over thousands or millions of years by rainwater. If you look at the rocks in the background you can see how this might have looked millions of years ago.

I shot the second image of Sekaa and Roarie Yum in Little Finland, and it is a joy to see these two amazing models freestyle and move together with no other prompt than to stay within the mini cave frame.

Both images were taken roughly 2-3 hours after dawn, with the light at about 45 degrees, which means you need careful placement of the face and body to avoid deep shadows.

Orchestrated Emotion - BTS

Mimi & Anneli Acrobatics - BTS III

Mimi & Anneli acrobatics - BTS II

Mimi & Anneli acrobatics - BTS I

Mimi flashback

I shot with Mimi Desuka a couple of times before COVID, and she has an exceptional body for photography: Besides her dark skin tone that creates depth with light, the rest of her features are also amazing.

The light on the first is direct sunlight from a window.

The second is in the open terrace door (which is about the size of a softbox measuring 80x200cm) and has a lot of oil on the body, creating beautiful reflections on the skin.

The third image is a duo with Anneli shot during one of the days I shot with Mimi. This was lit with my 57” Zeppelin with the diffuser attached.

It’s a pity there are so few dark-skinned women in Denmark who engage in nude modeling…

Wiana Dessous

An extra set with Wiana who, somewhat unusually for me, is wearing lingerie in this series. I posted some standing ones, along with a BTS movie last month, but here are the last of the set.

The light is from my two studio windows, diffused by some white translucent curtains.

PS. While I do love to shoot nudes with Wiana, I also enjoy seeing her dressed up like this.
I mean, who wouldn’t? 🤗

Container queen

Once a year, I attend a meat-up (yes - it is spelled that way - because a large part of it involves meat on the grill).

Another part of the event is that some models and photographers meet up to shoot.

I usually don’t photograph at these events, I'm just there to hang out and socialize.

But in this case, Melanie (Miss Blond) persuaded me, and I brought the other dark-haired model along, who prefers to remain anonymous.

She was eager to try posing nude but was worried her body wasn’t up to it.
I think I proved her wrong.

Sadly she never took up nude modeling.
I think she would have been great at it, but it's not for everyone.

The solo image was shot up against a dumpster 🤷‍♂️😝

All natural light in the shade for both images.

Vicky in Bloom

I stumbled over this almost ancient set from 2014, back when I started shooting nudes.
The model is Vicky Laursen, back then she mostly did glamour type work.

If you look closely at these, you’ll possibly realize they don’t compute with what I do these days. The facial expression and thus the emotion is not there. At least not to the degree I’m looking for today.

Marbelesque Zsan

Zsan Of Sweden impersonating Marble on my studio chair. Or just basically doing her thing, making great shapes, here in the soft light from my studio window.

Regina medley - Teaser

A couple from the full post on the Photographers and Vault tier.

Regina medley

Following yesterday's post:

I’ve shot with Regina since 2014, and here is a range of the images we’ve shot that have not previously been published on Patreon.

4+5+6 are with flash (can you guess what modifier was used on 6?), I shot the rest only using natural light.