My true love is shooting subjects as naked as possible, even if they have their clothes on. I want to uncover the bare essence of who you are and everything you are that makes you, you. As a fine art nude and boudoir photographer I shoot a lot of women and love the expressions of the female body. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “I’m not interested in boobs and butt without some heart.”

Marie Forleo gave me a wonderful opportunity to shoot my favorite type of subject for her Rich Happy & Hot Adventure Mastermind group. If you didn’t catch the background story of this crazy marathon 22-woman shoot (of which I had 8 to 10 min’s shooting time with each girl), check it out in my first installment. It was a smashing success and total blast, and I am grateful to Marie and her amazing Mastermind women, who have personality in spades.

This is an incredible group of powerful women, who are sincere, giving, and love life…

smokin’ hot too…

strong, on the inside and out…

contemplative…

exuberant!…

silly…

genuinely happy…

honest, focused, forthright…

and elegant in spirit.

Location: The Huntley Hotel’s Presidential Suite, Santa Monica CA
Hair & Make-up: the girls’ own handiwork
Photo Assistants: Robin Hultgren, Hannah Skye, David Glenn

Ciao for now! and thank you for stopping by and saying hello 🙂

x. Christa

ps. Coming up on the blog: more plus-sized real-women awesomeness! dispatches from the streets of Firenze! and a bad ass yoga shoot 🙂

I’m a dog person, but my inner-photographer is all feline… Some of my favorite props are masks. I picked up this sexy little cat mask recently in New Orleans, and I freakin LOVE it! I’ve thrown it on every girl since, just for a minute or two at the tail end of the shoot. It’s fun to see how each girl behaves with it on.

Here are a couple of my favorites from The Last LA Boudoir Workshop I taught.

**Updated to add: The lighting used was one main light, my Photogenic 1250, with Medium Softbox placed about 45 degrees to the right and turned slightly away from the model so just the edge of the light hits her – a technique called “feathering”. This is a really gorgeous look and especially flattering to girls who are body conscious since the edges of your bod will drop off into shadow. AWESOME right? so now go eat that second slice of pizza 🙂

I must confess to putting this sexy little mask on a number of times myself – can’t help myself! Once you start working with props and especially masks, you’ll see how sexy, silly, fun and addicting they are.

Try one on for yourself…

Me-ooow!

Christa

ps. My 2011 Workshop schedule is almost ready! I’ll be releasing the dates very soon.
First up: coming back to LA for an Intensive One-Day Workshop on Sun 2/27 – save the date!

Taking it to the streets! Boudoir does not have to be about lingerie in a bedroom setting… It can be fashion, fantasy, portraiture, and perfume ads! Recently, I did a shooting workshop at PartnerCon in New Orleans for other pro photographers about how to capture my Boudoir Money shots™, work with challenges, and shoot it up in the streets. I wanted to incorporate the mood, energy, and sexiness of the city…

A wonderful photographer I love and admire, Joe Buissink, says that “Photographers are a bag of tricks!” and I totally agree!  I had to pull a ton out of my bag on this shoot.  Here’s the story:

Our model that day was from a local agency, and let’s just say she had stayed up all night beforehand and was not exactly happy, poor thing. Lesson 1 – always bring props! I am always on the hunt for sexy props or wardrobe for shoots.  I found this amazing hat on Magazine Street in NOLA a few days before the shoot and I fell in love! Had to have it. Lesson 2 – work your butt off to use what’s honestly going on with your model and incorporate that into the story. Normally, I do very joyful pictures – but I’m not going to force that, so I let her be where she was and just gave her a prop and setting that reflected that.  That’s my hat, the model’s coat, and another photographer’s boots… and set up at a nearby cafe. Lesson 3 – Everything’s sexier with bokeh in the background! Shoot at a very wide open aperture, zoom in tight, blur out lights in the background (look for chandeliers, Christmas lights, candles etc.) and compose it so it’s visually interesting.

Use these simple “tricks” and ta-dah you’ve got some shots that are beautiful and compelling. And honest.

and work your angles to enhance attitude…

Lesson 4 – seek out and intentionally incorporate any details available in your environment to help tell a story. Sometimes it’s something obvious, and sometimes all you need is sunshine and a smile. And believe me, we had to work hard for that smile 🙂

Here, the lines of the balcony lattice work off her curves and the bustier bodice… which makes this shot kind of cheeky 😉 hee hee

Lesson 5 – We also focused on how to create movement in your pictures – sometimes all you need is a fan or the simple act of joyful running – both are super sexy.  I made her keep repeating this run towards the camera until she finally just laughed despite herself.  Ah, repetition of an action is probably the trick we use most often 🙂

This one might be my favorite. The story here is all about the city!… the energy/color/mood of New Orleans, and with this light it could be early morning or late evening sunset – you just can’t tell the difference – and THAT my friends, is sooooo New Orleans.

Thanks to everyone who joined me at PartnerCon on my shoot and at my talk… it was such a thrill to finally meet all of you and geek out together 🙂

Two announcements:

“Exposed: Redefining Boudoir” my NEW Boudoir book is now available!!
You can now purchase the book online right here.
You can also take a SNEAK PEEK inside the book.

There are two seats available for my Last Boudoir Workshop in LA. Email me to book your spot christa (at) christameola.com.

Stay tuned for the Top 10 Boudoir FAQ’s. I bet your Q is on that list!…

xoxo,

Christa

This girl works both ends of that spectrum… one of the last shoots done at my studio, Kaylyn was a blast to photograph since she indulges my love of variety.  We started elegant and fashion-loving in the studio, then stepped outside for some gritty cinematic action, and ended up at the beach for some good clean commercial fun.

All photographs created at Christa Meola Pictures Studio, Los Angeles, CA copyright 2010 by Christa Meola
Hair & Make-up: Cyndi Ochoa

For Photographers: The film noir photos are all available light at dusk with just the outdoor lights of my building casting some seriously cool light/shadow against the brick and enhanced in Lightroom with the Graduated Filter tool (one of my favorite lighting tricks!)… I talk about how to do it in my new book Exposed, The Art of Photographing Women.  Official announcement and details coming soon 🙂  Plus, more fine art nudes from the Weston + Meola Wildcat Nude Workshop.

Stay tuned yo.

xx,

Christa

Running out the door to San Diego! to teach Boudoir & Lighting at PictageU over the next few days.  So here is part 2 of Sienna’s Wet shoot…  to tide you over.

She’s just so cute!

Ooooo, so Sophia Loren, right?

Plenty more boudoir on the blog coming up… and one of these days I’ll post some of the lifestyle and travel portraiture I’ve been shooting as well 🙂

xo, Christa

An encore performance by Evie! This time, in green feathers and not much else. Her sparkling lingerie pieces are one-of-a-kind and handmade by Evie herself… and sadly, she’s retired from this craft – believe me, I begged 🙂  That’s okay – I just found my next rainy day project!

Please enjoy the last installment of Evie…

If you missed Evie’s Red Hot pics from yesterday, check them out!

Up next on the blog… a 60+ year old’s boudoir session and a break in the boudoir action for a Man About Town and some silly family portraits 🙂

xoxo,

Christa