originally uploaded by Sheba Wheeler.

I was initially very uncomfortable when a close friend and work buddy asked me to do artistic nude shots of her as a birthday gift for her husband. Up until then, I hadn’t had much experience viewing nude photography that looked graceful and elegant — as everything I had seen up to that point looked smutty and soft core pornish (if that is even a word?!)

I knew that Teri trusted me. I had shot numerous photos of her family and children in the past. A woman who had at first shied away from the camera was suddenly ready to shine in front of it after losing nearly 50 pounds. If I could pull it off, the exercise would be empowering for both of us.

I did some research and talked to several of my instructors who truly know how to transform the body into its own landscape. Having new Alien Bee strobes and Wescott TD5 Spiderlites to experiment with was great. Teri’s wonderful attitude and natural beauty, some old school Madonna playing in the background and another friend with some killer make-up skills made this adventure a success.

I have some 300 images to edit by the end of the week. But I thought I would post a few images (with Teri’s permission) now in hopes I can convince viewers to come back later when I post up again.

 
I paid $500 at Wolf Camera for this Westcott Photo Basics 3-Light Kit so I could take professional portraits of a family at my home studio. But the equipment that got me this great shot was a home-made studio kit one of my instructors gave me. The “cheapy kit” consisted of only one of those clamp on lights from Home Depot, a furnace filter as a diffuser and a white styrofoam board as a reflector. This is definitely an argument for the fact that the equipment doesn’t always make the photographer. Continue Reading »