Tuesday's Shoot - Lela Beryl (New Model)

Back in January I wrote the ninth installment of the ongoing "Would Love to Shoot" blog series. (see blog: "Would Love to Shoot #9") In that particular installment I named Lela Beryl as one of the three girls I'd love to see in front of my camera one day. I wrote, "...I feel pretty good that one day, if our schedules match up, Lela will be showing off those pretty bare soles for Soles of Silk." 

Well, that day came on Tuesday, but it almost didn't happen.

For several months Lela and I have been talking on Twitter (@LelaBeryl) about meeting up and shooting for Soles of Silk. She has always been fond of the idea, but with the distance between us, it would take one of us traveling for it to work out. Luckily for me, a few weeks ago Lela informed me that she, along with her friend, and Soles of Silk model, Rachel DD (@ModelRachelDD) would be doing a road trip and coming my way. We compared schedules and set on the date of Monday, March 3. Then the weather had to go and ruin it!

For days leading up to our shoot the talk of the town was about a massive snow storm that was set to pelt the region with between 6-10" of snow. With the kind of car that I drive I told Lela that I didn't know if I'd drive much, if at all, with that much accumulation. She understood, but we decided to take a wait and see approach. When we knew the snow was coming no matter what, we decided to push back the shoot by one day, doing it on Tuesday, March 4 instead.

So I guess it is true then... Good things do come to those who wait.

After leaving work and getting all my stuff together I waited only a short while for Lela to arrive. It took me no time at all to warm up to her. She has one of the sweetest personalities and had so much enthusiasm for the shoot themes I had shared with her. She said to me numerous times that she was so happy to finally be a "Soles of Silk girl," - a statement that I echoed.

Lela playing some Zelda while toying with her foot boys.

The first shoot theme of the day involved video games. I've been itching to do a set with my Nintendo 3DS and some games for a while now. As an avid gamer I know many of us guys love our gamer girl counterparts, so it is a set idea I figured many of you would also like.

I let Lela pick out what game she wanted to play, which turned out to be "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D." Talk about a classic! And could it really get any better? I had a beautiful new model with killer soft feet playing a Zelda title on the 3DS right in front of me. I was in love!

I can't tell you how far Lela got in the game because I was too busy paying attention to her foot game. This girl knows how to pose those little feet of hers. I was only on the first set and already knew her sets are going to be hits!

Feeling lucky yet?

The second set of the day, and the one she will debut with on the March 12 update, carried a St. Patrick's Day theme. I always try to do holiday sets when I can (and when I remember to do them). One holiday I've never done, however, is St. Patrick's Day. Well, now I have.

When we began the set Lela mentioned how she loves having props in her sets and in this one, she was literally surrounded by them. I bought countless items at 5 Below and a dollar store and just let Lela have at it with whatever props she wanted to use. And she sure put them to use too! Well, once she finished pulling off her green-striped knee high socks.

I bought a pack of various color knee high socks some time ago and luckily I still had the green pair. I decided to have Lela use them for this set to add some variation to her set themes. Lela's little sock strip certainly made me realize just how nice the idea to use them turned out to be too.

Lela is a huge comic book fan herself.

The third set of the night put Lela back into nerd mode - this time with some comic book cards. A fan of comics herself, I knew this set would be right up her alley. When I mentioned it to her in the days leading up to our shoot, she sent me a picture of her Spider-Man one-piece (pictured above) and I absolutely loved it!

My original plan was to bring some comic books, as I have done with some sets in the past. In all honesty though, I did not feel like lugging out any of my comic boxes to the shoot. As any comic book reader/collector will tell you, those damn boxes are heavy! I went with my comic card collection instead, bringing a few binders and loose cards.

In my opinion, whenever you can find something a model is into and use it as a set theme it always makes for a better set. Much like Carlin in her comic book set in the past, Lela's love of comics really came through here and all of my fellow comic fans are going to love seeing this one when it goes online.

As if those soles couldn't get any softer!

So, how do you make two very soft feet even softer? How about stockings and lotion? Well, the lotion wasn't really part of the set, but more on that later.

Seeking yet more variation in her sets, I decided to have Lela pull on some stockings for this one. We only had two sets remaining and I knew the final idea would not have lent itself well to stockings. (see image below)

After watching Lela straighten out the seams running up the back of her legs, along her soles, and over her toes, I was all too eager to shoot the beautiful sight before me. I've adored seeing women's legs in stocking since I was young - something I shared with Lela. Eventually, I believe, this led me to notice how pretty female feet are. And man, did Lela's look ever so adorable encased in those white seemed stockings!

I made sure to do a lot of photos with in the stockings before she pulled them off. I even did what I like to call the "best of both worlds" shots where only one foot is bare. I've had some requests for stocking sets lately and people were really loving the teaser shots I was posting on the site's Instagram account (@SolesofSilk).

Now, as far as the lotion is concerned, I made sure to give Lela's feet some massage time after those stockings were off. We quickly lost track of time and Lela mentioned that she could easily fall asleep to the pampering I was giving her feet. Although I was all for that, we still had one set left to shoot.

You thought her feet were sweet before...

Our last set of the day, well days as it was past midnight by this point, involved a peanut butter/chocolate cake I picked up at the grocery store just before the shoot. I mentioned the idea of doing a food smashing set a few days prior and she was excited by the prospect - even saying she loves doing them.

There isn't much description needed for what happened here though. The cake met its demise at Lela's feet all too quickly as the cake clung to those arches and globs were stuck between each and every toe. And when the set was coming to a close, Lela couldn't resist eating some of the cake - even doing it off her own feet. Neither of us had eaten for hours and it was just too tempting not to enjoy it.

By time we were finished it was incredibly late - after 2 a.m. I still had to get home to add the preview shots of Lela's St. Patrick's Day set to the site, so I said my goodbyes, all the while hoping that our paths cross again in the future. 

Lela was nothing but amazing during the entire shoot. Any photographer should feel lucky to have such a fun, creative model in front of their camera. I know I did and hope to do so again - maybe even doing some with Rachel DD too! Now that might be dangerous... or at least, very teasing!