Every Picture Tells a Story...

...Don't It?

Rod Stewart famously crooned, "Every picture tells a story..." While he wasn't singing about photography, his lyrics certainly apply.

With photo-journalism and editorial photography, the "every picture tells a story" notion is easy to understand and makes perfect sense. As we all know, it's often applied and we see it played out in so many ways and in so many images of those types.

With other genres, the "story" can be a bit less obvious: It might be subtle and barely perceptible. Or, it might be the same story over and over: "She's hot and she's turned-on and she's all about sex!" (I shoot that "story" often enough.)

Still, there's lots of twists and variations that can be applied to "turned-on/hot-chick" pics. (aka contemporary glamour.) Sexual allure isn't one-dimensional. It can be conveyed in many ways. Again, sometimes subtle and barely perceptible, other times obvious and "in your face."

When I'm shooting that same story over and over, I think about how I'm going to present the often revisited, "sexual allure" theme. Those thoughts dictate many things: Lighting, pose, expression, attitude & emotion and more. My clients needs are always in my mind. Does my client want the viewers knocked over their heads with the sexual themes? Do they want it to look glitzy and fantasy-driven? Do they want the theme, or story, presented in a coy, less obvious way?

Lighting is usually my first thought. Will I shoot high-key or low-key or some "key" in between? Should the story take on a more dramatic sense? Should it be light and airy? Should the subject appear like the girl next door or should she tell the story of a sex goddess? Should my photography "prowess" be obvious or should I dumb it down and give it a more amateur feel? Should my subject appear as being nearly unattainable yet, still, maybe, attainable? Sex is serious business, after all. Fantasy, equally so.

My posing directions usually follow suit to the lighting I've chosen. The more dramatic the lighting, the more the model in my "story" should fulfill the "feelings" dictated by the lighting I've decided to employ.

Who knew so much thought sometimes goes into capturing an image of a hot, sexy chick? Do you think about these things?

Perhaps, sometimes, you should... even if all you're trying to shoot is a hot sexy pic of a hot sexy chick.

Gratuitous, naked, pretty girl at the top is Lorena.