Jenny’s young, but experienced at modelling in her underwear. One thing we both quickly realized is how she falls back on a fairly standard set of poses and expressions in all her photos, so we tried to get her out of that pattern with this shoot. I like to think that she enjoyed the challenge.

Lighting here was with my totally awesome, brand new, and perpetually back-ordered AlienBees 86″ (!) Parabolic Light Modification System with diffusion sock. Oh my goodness, I love the PLM so much — mostly because it’s absolutely enormous and the quality of the light is fantastic. The build quality and ergonomics are also leaps and bounds better then my AlienBees ABR800 Ringflash. Assembling the PLM takes all of thirty seconds, whereas fighting with the ABR800 and Moon Unit is a lifelong battle. It’s like wrestling an alligator. Ugh. Anyhoo, PLM awesomeness aside, the background above was a couple leather couches stood on their sides.

It’s been nearly three years since my last shoot with Kelly Boone, in December 2007. Because I shot her before I started this blog, I’ve only ever posted one photo of her. But now that’s all gonna change…

Meet the new and improved Kelly! As you can tell from the photo, Kelly has her sights set on the world of fitness modelling, and plans to enter her first competition in the coming year. There’s lots more to come from this shoot, which was my first time shooting this style of fitness (I’d previously done some in a gym).

The lighting here was pretty simple (that’s how I roll), with Kelly being lit by an Alien Bees 1600 in a medium softbox to camera left, an SB-900 in a shoot-through umbrella for a wee bit of fill to camera right, and an Alien Bees 400 to light up the white seamless and also provide a bit of spill to highlight her backside.

I shoot almost everything with just one light. Whether that light is sunlight, a window, a bounced hotshoe flash, or a studio strobe with an umbrella or a softbox… it’s almost always just one.

It’s not that I can’t or won’t shoot with more lights, but as I’ve described here before, I keep things as simple as possible when I shoot. I’d rather spend time interacting with the subject than spend gluttonous amounts of time setting up half a dozen lights, only to use them for five minutes worth of shooting. Some might say that means I care stunningly little about the process and just want the quickest means to the end. But for the type of photos I do, it simply wouldn’t benefit the final product.

Randall, above, was lit with one Alien Bees strobe in a Photoflex softbox. In fact, most of everything on the blog so far has been lit with a single source. It wraps her face nicely and there’s just enough light to highlight the exposed eye, which I love.

Christine, below, has called me out on her blog. We’re gonna have a bit of a blogging war it seems. Stay tuned…