I'll stop uploading artistic pics
Most people don't care much about the artistic value of their pics. Capturing the moment typically suffices. And I think this is fine for a site like TN. In my previous account, I had marked specifically on my profile a promise that all pics uploaded are honest snapshots taken with a phone camera. Then things started to change.
I started to use D's semipro camera. I learned all about exposure, aperture and time. Asked a couple of my girlfriends to take their kit off for me and the results were very encouraging. They loved those pics and we both loved the process. Then I found that lovely big "studio" which T made available for free (ok, for the price of assisting me and learning the tricks of nude shooting from me - of course I had claimed that I am quite experienced, which I was not). Then we started to take erotic pics, including simulated sex acts. They I started to learn to use Photoshop...
I had a total of 14 nude female models and 2 nude guys (without including D). Some of them I shot several times, in various styles and locations. It's been too cold to use T's studio since December, it is only heated by a reversible AC unit which is insufficient. I did a few shoots in the cold, where inside temperature was around 10 Celsius. It's not unpleasant to look at the results, the cold gives nice structure to the skin - and of course makes girls' nipples contract. But you can't comfortably keep a girl naked in that temperature for more than around 15 min and driving half an hour each way for a 15 min shoot is not reasonable. I did a couple at my place meanwhile.
But honestly I am falling out of love with photography. I have several new girls who volunteered to model for me and I have been postponing the shoots. I am no longer eager to give up to any weekend plans to shoot a girl. I will shoot them, I promised, but I am playing with the idea of stopping doing it in the future.
Maybe it's normal, the law of diminishing returns at work. Maybe it's just me, I am a very curious, but not a very consistent person. Maybe it's because a couple of shoots went slightly further than planned (I probably shouldn't tell those stories). Maybe it's because progressing in Photoshop I see how easy it is to make almost anyone look perfect, with perfect skin and Playboy-like body. So why bother capturing that perfect angle, finding a way to make that beautiful body look eerly attractive from behind the camera when you can almost do this in front of your computer screen. Maybe it's because of what is happening around us, which shattered my belief in the beauty of homo sapiens. We are an ugly species and what we call beauty is the way our genes found to make us want to bring to the world more of ugly us.
Anyway, what is clear is that I am no longer waiting impatiently to capture the naked beauty of a new girl. Also no longer feel like creating that beautiful shot which I could hang on my wall and always look at with pleasure. So I will probably come back to some old phone snaps. Maybe some pics of our (current and former) fabulous members. Or nothing at all. I'll be 40 this year so maybe it's better to stop fooling around.
Most people don't care much about the artistic value of their pics. Capturing the moment typically suffices. And I think this is fine for a site like TN. In my previous account, I had marked specifically on my profile a promise that all pics uploaded are honest snapshots taken with a phone camera. Then things started to change.I started to use D's semipro camera. I learned all about exposure, aperture and time. Asked a couple of my girlfriends to take their kit off for me and the results were very encouraging. They loved those pics and we both loved the process. Then I found that lovely big "studio" which T made available for free (ok, for the price of assisting me and learning the tricks of nude shooting from me - of course I had claimed that I am quite experienced, which I was not). Then we started to take erotic pics, including simulated sex acts. They I started to learn to use Photoshop...I had a total of 14 nude female models and 2 nude guys (without including D). Some of them I shot several times, in various styles and locations. It's been too cold to use T's studio since December, it is only heated by a reversible AC unit which is insufficient. I did a few shoots in the cold, where inside temperature was around 10 Celsius. It's not unpleasant to look at the results, the cold gives nice structure to the skin - and of course makes girls' nipples contract. But you can't comfortably keep a girl naked in that temperature for more than around 15 min and driving half an hour each way for a 15 min shoot is not reasonable. I did a couple at my place meanwhile.But honestly I am falling out of love with photography. I have several new girls who volunteered to model for me and I have been postponing the shoots. I am no longer eager to give up to any weekend plans to shoot a girl. I will shoot them, I promised, but I am playing with the idea of stopping doing it in the future.Maybe it's normal, the law of diminishing returns at work. Maybe it's just me, I am a very curious, but not a very consistent person. Maybe it's because a couple of shoots went slightly further than planned (I probably shouldn't tell those stories). Maybe it's because progressing in Photoshop I see how easy it is to make almost anyone look perfect, with perfect skin and Playboy-like body. So why bother capturing that perfect angle, finding a way to make that beautiful body look eerly attractive from behind the camera when you can almost do this in front of your computer screen. Maybe it's because of what is happening around us, which shattered my belief in the beauty of homo sapiens. We are an ugly species and what we call beauty is the way our genes found to make us want to bring to the world more of ugly us.Anyway, what is clear is that I am no longer waiting impatiently to capture the naked beauty of a new girl. Also no longer feel like creating that beautiful shot which I could hang on my wall and always look at with pleasure. So I will probably come back to some old phone snaps. Maybe some pics of our (current and former) fabulous members. Or nothing at all. I'll be 40 this year so maybe it's better to stop fooling around.
Please don't stop fooling around, you're never too old for that, and it will keep you young at heart.
I understand about no longer being eager for the next photo shoot, esp when it's cold still. Maybe take a break for awhile and see how you feel in a couple of months, when it's warmer, the sun is shining... things do have a habit of looking better when the sun shines.
As for our species, we've been the same for millennia sadly, but there's always been good in the world too.
Ever an optimist, Richie x
Aside - I have to laugh at the hilarity of the auto-editing algorithm TN is using ... turning the six letter word ending in -ent, meaning a very short time, into '[removed]ent' ... ffs
This, thoughtful, reflective piece... I think we all have these [removed]ents [my edit!] of doubt, refocusing, re-consideration of what's important... but I agree with Richie that 40 is no time to stop fooling around. Maybe fool around in new, fulfilling ways...
Sure, I know the feeling. Same old, same old. Thats why I got into porn. Then out of porn, then back in. The truth is, once you experience the rush of being appreciated and considered beautiful, you are hooked forever. Maslows hierarchy of needs. So I will continue, even if I am a little older.
When its warmer, consider doing photography outside. All backgrounds are not in a studio, some of which can make a stunning photo all by themselves but are enhanced by a person who seems to have a connection with the environment. Not a person plopped down in a outdoor scene, but someone quantum entangled, at one with the place, a natural beauty as part and parcel with natural beauty,
Oh crap forty is too old. Lol thats too funny !
Years ago they were saying forty was the new twenty. Women everywhere remember what is beautiful.
Confidence ! Believing in who you are and that you are beautiful ! Never, I mean never believe that getting older is bad !
Now you know what looks great and trying to put it into pictures.