Soles of Silk Blog

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Before  Aspen  did her first photo sets the day following her 18th birthday, we had already discussed going to the beach to do some sets.  Aspen  has always wanted to do some shots out in the sand in her bikinis. Having used Ocean City, MD a few times, I wanted to go somewhere different. I looked into Seaside Heights, NJ - the location where MTV films Jersey Shore. I had been to this small beach town as a kid and remembered a large park on the southern end of the island called Island Beach Park. I checked it out on Google Earth and found all kinds of potential places to use. When I told  Aspen , she was very excited at the prospect. A few weeks ago  Aspen  and I had plans to do an all day trip to Seaside, but the weather forecast called for an 80% chance of thunderstorms for the entire day. We decided to scrap the...

Aliza is back! This set is being restored and new sets are on the way. The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Back in October 2010 I was very excited to debut a good friend, and the second Asian model to grace the site, Aliza . She had just turned 18 and we were both eager to get her onto the site. Well, only two months later she contacted me and asked me to have her photos pulled. Without getting into too much detail, it was due to some family differences of view about her being here. Fast forward almost two years later and I decided to randomly contact Aliza about the possibility of adding her debut set back to the site. I wasn't expecting much, but was surprised when Aliza said to go for it and that she'd like to do some new photos before it gets cold. I asked her if she was sure about this because if I added her back, I won't be pulling her again. She assured me it is f...

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Over the years I have always tried to shoot my models in unique locations. While that isn't always an option, or needed for the set, it is just something I prefer to do. Maybe it is the artist in me, but I just like to put as much creativity into my work as possible. Having run Soles of Silk since the end of 2004, I can say finding new locations isn't always easy these days. I feel like I've exhausted all my local options sometimes, even though I can always seem to find something in a pinch. But this past year I've been making use of an invaluable tool - Google Earth . If you've used the program, you know what it's capable of. If you haven't, you really need to check it out. You can download the program here: http://www.google.com/earth/index.html I used Google Earth to find interesting spots in Wildwood, NJ to shoot Jam...

Layla was long overdue for some new photos. We finally got to find some time! The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Man, talk about a month of ups and downs - mostly coming over the last couple of weeks. There is so many things to discuss, I'm once again going to break each thing down into a category, alternating between the good and the bad. The Good: Layla Returns Have to start off with this because I was almost certain that  Layla was done modeling. I figured her Rocky Stream set I posted on the August 1st update would be her last. But low and behold, the week I posted that set (which I had held for almost two years), she emails me. We get to talking and decide to shoot again. Well, we did so on Sunday, even though it decided to rain. We didn't let it kill the day and did some great shots with her water beaded feet. The Bad: Blue Screens!!! If you've ever had a blue scr...

Soles of Silk's newest addition to the model roster, Aspen. The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. This week marks a number of exciting new additions and changes to Soles of Silk. There are quite a few to go over, so I broke them down by category: Aspen's Arrival I've done it again. I've added another new sole mate to the model roster immediately after her 18th birthday. Her name is Aspen and she was only a day older than 18 when she did her first sets. The photo above is from the set I decided not to post first, so consider it an early preview. Aspen, who I work with, has been wanting to pose for me for over a year. She's friends with a few of the girls at work who also pose, namely Ryan . Knowing the other girls pose and have fun with it, she's been eager to take part. I, of course, was counting down the days too. Aspen and I had originally planned on doing a h...

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. In the past few weeks I've been quite busy getting in photo shoots with the likes of Jamie , Charlee , Wendy , and Jessie . This past week, however, I was on vacation and wanted to make use of an entire week off. I made plans with a handful of models throughout the week. The temperature during this time was some of the hottest in the Baltimore/D.C. area - hence the column title, "Hot Feet Week." Of course the feet before me were just as hot, if not hotter than the 100 degree temperatures the girls and I were encountering. On Monday I had plans to shoot with Mindee . My plan was to only shoot models who had no photos remaining for me to use for future updates. Mindee, however, was my only exception to that. I had one unpublished set of her from a little over a month ago. Mindee had told me a a couple of weeks back that she'd be going ou...

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Continued from Hot Feet Week: 2012 Edition, Part 1 - Mindee After trying to come up with a couple of locations to shoot Ryan  the night before after finishing up with Mindee , I was driving to Ryan's with two shoot locations I really wasn't crazy about. When I arrived to find Ryan in a cute dress, looking damn good, I knew we had to come up with something else. The locations I had come up with wouldn't had worked with the outfits she picked out to wear. I thought she looked too good to make her change into more casual attire too. It was now time for a group brainstorm. After throwing around ideas Ryan suggested we just go downtown. She said there was enough interesting stuff there that we'd be bound to find something. I agreed and we went on our way. Set 3 of the Week - Inner Harbor Pier 5 I drove us to a location where I had done...

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Continued from Hot Feet Week: 2012 Edition, Part 2 - Ryan Mileena was the first person I made plans to shoot with during my vacation time. Our plans were to get together for an entire day of pictures. Originally I wasn't sure where we were going to go for the day. I thought maybe the beach, but wasn't sold on it. A few days later, while uploading Wendy's newest photo sets from a few weeks ago, I was reminded of a place I used to go as a kid. The place is called Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia. I was reminded of it because when I shot Wendy, we shot in a town we used to pass through on the way. I shot Mileena a text and some photos of the falls and she was quickly on board with the idea. Knowing the ride to Blackwater would be around four hours, I wanted to see if I could come up with several locations to shoot along the way. Fir...

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Continued from Hot Feet Week: 2012 Edition, Part 3 - Mileena Well, the day before with Mileena had been great, but long. I had gotten up at 6 a.m. and didn't get home until almost 1 a.m. the following day. To say I crashed when I hit the bed would be an understatement. Still, I got up around noon and sent Kellie a text. I asked her when she would be open to shoot. After a while she responded that she had a wedding to attend in the evening, but had to get ready prior. Knowing I had Sunday open, I asked her if it would be better to just wait until then. She said yes, so that's what we did. It also gave me a chance to unwind after the previous day. Once I was up and situated on Sunday I told Kellie to let me know when she was free to shoot. She told me she was the one who had a long night this time, so we planned on getting together around 1:3...

The blog below was originally published in  Soles of Silk's  Column section. It was archived and then republished here in 2016. Continued from Hot Feet Week: 2012 Edition, Part 4 - Kellie So my final day of vacation arrived and my original plans to go to Knoebel's Amusement Park were scrapped due to my sore back. I was happy that Nikki was still available to squeeze in a few quick sets with me though. And that's just what we did. We met up at 9:00 a.m. and headed to a local park. She didn't have a ton of time and wanted to try and do several sets. I wanted to get at least two, maybe three sets with her anyhow, so off we went. Set 13 of the Week - Birdhouses Once we arrived we looked around the area and decided it was best to just start walking the paths around the park. Upon doing so we arrived at a large rock with a large post that had numerous birdhouses hanging from it. It was different, but also secluded, so we went for it. Nikki started this set in her blac...