Lovely model. Great lighting. Made my day and I'm not fully awake yet!

I prefer the BW. The background is less distracting, but obviously enough to set the scene.

I like them both but I am just partial to BW. If it were mine I would bump the contrast up just a bit--but then it would be mine and not yours! And I like yours because of the softness it gives to a lovely woman's body.

Agree

Two different models at two different times! I MAY be able to find a candle light one somewhere but as I recall it was more than one candle. I'll start looking as soon as I can get my computer computer operating right. Waiting on the "next available" from tech support!

Of course into the light suits silhouettes but it can be more. Here are a couple that differ--one an environmental shot and the other with the model lying on a trampoline. No diffusers, no fancy "star filters" nor even a polarizer. Other than color balance tweaks and cropping this is it. But please, add your thoughts, it is how I can learn.

I don't mind the pictures you post and I can see the thought behind many (not all) of them. I am not sure I agree that one must silent the internal voices in order to create art. For me the arguments of the internal voices is important. It is conflict that drives my creative juices (if I have any). Many of the pictures I post are not art with a message, nor even a time line. They are more about learning and testing craft. As a potter I have heard many beginners talk about the vitality and kenetic energy of their sloppy pots. Actually you can see the pots they make are because they haven't mastered the craft of throwing a round pot. Then you watch a master craftsman throw a tall, perfectly symmetrical pot and finally stretch and pull into a moving art piece--there is a difference. So I am trying to simply master the craft and the art can then "become". I have listened to multiple accomplished, and art educated, people give definitions of modern art and none of them quite agree on everything.

Working with models becomes a cooperative endeavor. I've worked with various experienced models that have resulted in zilch--we just didn't connect. On the hand I have started with a model that is not the usual definition of "beautiful" but we connected and the results pleased both the model and me. It is still a moment in time, and there is certainly a past and a future but capturing the moment is a part of what I try to do. Just sometimes the moment becomes a story. Many times is a moment that makes my eyes and brain feel "happy" a little (or larger) burst of endorphins. Even trying to make art I am still a biologist. We need to observe, cogitate, and then let those inner conflicts direct our growth.

Can't argue with you on art--don't have the depth of knowledge in the area to even fully understand the vocabulary. So no arguments--just they way my brain works (sloooowly).

Thought I would post some that the model selected.

Here is another time exposure coupled with some very quick movements (almost not seen) some slow movements and some still poses.

This one I really like! I'm not finding old vacant buildings--thley tear them down and build new. Good for the economy they say. (Just not good for photographers!

Nope--just tweaks and then cropping.

Just a fairly large soft box

Right you are, but easier to buy for a dollar at the thrift.

Part of a dance sequence. As I had to wait after each shot for flash to recharge these were not made with the camera running a sequence nor are they frames from a movie. So it took time and patience especially on the part of the model. Here are just three--pretty much at random- from the eighty some we made. Hope you can enjoy seeing as much as we did making them.

Just a couple of shots--virtually the same except that one used a wide angle lens and the other a much wider. Not the extreme WA distortion that I sometimes am drawn to but it shows some of the difference. Which do I personally like better? well if I knew I wouldn't have posted both.

One gets the sort of idealized proportions while the other has rounder "classical?" proportions. Over time (centuries) "ideal" changes just as it does from one society to another.