What I learned on yesterdays artistic nude shoot

Yesterday I had the pleasure and pain of having nine girls from a bachelorette party in my studio, for an artistic nude shoot. It was a pleasure because they were all very nice both to look at and to converse with. And a pain, because I have to be strictly professional and concentrate on the photographic challenges of getting the light, composition, camera settings and all of that correct.
On every studio shoot I learn something that I make a note of. This type of photography is a difficult one to get right. Go to far in one direction and you get pornography, go to far in another direction and the customer might not be satisfied (with the pictures). I mostly aim for a result that can hang on a living room wall, or at least a bedroom wall, even if the in-laws are visiting.

With nine girls, all a bit tipsy from their champagne breakfast, the atmosphere in the studio was quite different from when I have only one girl there. And that is one thing I learned : Getting good shots of this nature, gets easier when there is only customer in the studio, and not 8 others running around in their birthday suits drinking champagne (sounds blindingly obvious to me now). But on a more serious note, getting one person into the creative zone with you, is easier than getting a whole bunch. With "getting into the creative zone" I mean the work that is done to explain, pose, draw and sketch the results we are trying to achieve together. When the model gets into that same zone and shares the visions of the photographer, results come faster. Add just one more person in the studio, that the model knows well, that shared zone can be lost. For a while at least. But valuable time and perhaps creativity is lost. This many kinds of people-photography of course.

Another thing I learned (that I did not do yesterday) was to always have lots of marketing material in the studio. I've been thinking that when the customer is there, the marketing job is complete. But with all the girls enjoying the shoot so much, they all asked for my business card. I had only three to give out. Instead I should have had enough to go around. I should also have a single page brochure or something similar with my different services and prices. Thats something I have to add to my todo-list.

I learned many other things as well. The girls were chatting away about stuff they only talk about at girls-only-parties. But being the ninja-photographer I am, I of course blended into my studio so well that they did not notice me.

Sorry I cant disclose all the stuff I heard and saw, but I hope you all like the photo, which the girls were kind enough to let me post on the internets.