| If
ever I got caught up in the modeling skills of one of the Beauties it
was when I kept coming back for more and more photo sessions with
Christine Thoma - though after a time I began to run out of excuses to
publish her photos. You can only feature one girl so many times. She was cute and she was personable, but hardly impressed you as a model, not until she got in front of a lens. Christine was simply amazing in her ability to take on a role for my camera - any role. If I asked for "cute" she was cute. If I asked for "little girl" she became little girl. If I asked for "sexy" she turned it on. If I asked for "beautiful" she zapped me. If I asked for "frump" she gave it. And, as you can see in the photo above, when I asked for class, she dished it up. I have no idea of the number of times we met for photos, but it was many. To me, she became a challenge and a hobby. The challenge was to see where she could go with this, how far she could stretch, how many roles she could muster. I don't think we ever reached an apex, or neared the end of her climb. Neither do I remember why we eventually stopped our sessions. But if she were to call me today and say, "let's shoot some more," I would, at the earliest possible moment, be at her door. |
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We were experimenting with ways of
photographing her eyes when we got this effect without suspecting it
could be possible. A slow shutter speed as she moved her eyes sideways made me believe we'd get a fuzzy streak along the path of the eyeball. Instead, we got a record of the eyes where they started and where they stopped, suggesting two sets of eyes. In today's digital world, PhotoShop might handle such an effect easily, but 40 years ago all I had to work with was a pretty pair of eyes and lots of luck. |
| The white hand occurred naturally;
it was not planned that way nor was the print manipulated. I like the
introspective mood of it - and that, too, occurred without planning. It was just one among many dozens of images I shot in this sitting. The trouble with it was that I never could find a reason to publish it, so the print has been stored with the others from that era during the last few decades. At last, now, it sees light of day. |
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No
small part of her allure was hair that was full-bodied and always did
what it was supposed to do. Here, obviously, it was supposed to stand
out when she swung her head. And here - again - my good luck would have me light it with strobes just as it went one side up, one side down, and one side cutting her face at just the right place while shadows and highlights on her skin completed what I think is a really interesting composition. |
The young girl next door - or the old frump
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Interesting, this pair of photos ...
You want a little girl? You got it.
You want a big girl? She was that too.
I was a lucky photographer to have found Chris
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Beauties Gallery
Christine - Page 2
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