living up to our name

From Iso's Suicide Girls set, So I Married An Axe Murderer.

Okay, so I have a shoot coming up that is right up your alley! And it will involve a lot of learning on my part to pull it off. My friend (we'll call her "Her" as I haven't asked permission to talk about it) wants to submit pictures to Suicide Girls. I've known about the site for ages but had never delved into the content before. I figured I'd better brush up so that I'll have a better chance of getting Her the results she wants.

I've discovered a couple things, the main being that the Girls don't just submit random sexy photos; they put thought into a theme that holds the whole set together. While I have not yet looked through a full set (it costs monies to join!), I pored over about 16 pages of set preview thumbnails and got the gist on common themes:

colors (soft pink, indigo, black bed, against red)

music videos (fiona apple's criminal, MJ's thriller)

or, more broadly, pop culture references

(kiss army, the force, alphabet aerobics)

sexy-fying otherwise innocent scenarios

(making dinner, reading the paper, going fishing)

the "gritty" stuff (violence, decay, the devil, etc)

showcasing a hobby (polaroid photos, classic cars, deejaying)

showcasing a lifestyle (veganism, lesbianism)

embracing a body part/region (belly, faces)

evoking a feeling

(unleashed, soft touches, sunkissed, warning: may cause injury)

illustrating euphemisms/dirty phrases

(pearl necklace--but with an actual necklace)

and lastly, the ones that disappoint me...

lacking creativity/washed up themes

(back to school, hot tub/swimming pool/shower)

So, I'm thinking my plan of action is 1) think of any situation, then 2) consider ways to make it sexy and 3) plan a storyboard of sorts to build suspense/a story. Any ideas? In the meantime, some examples:

Scout's Sunday Times:

Colada's Double Dribble, in homage to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:

and Mary's humorous Gossip Girls:

happy earth day

now here's some leaves for you to munch on.

andy rides bmx

yessir, yessir.
I'm stoked on this picture -- it's from the first time I've taken pictures of Andy riding, which was last Friday (right before we enjoyed margaritas & yummy food at Acapulco! mmmmmm).

OK, so before you read any further--do me a favor! Look at this image and think about how Andy got way up there in the air. What happened before this moment? What happened after? Where did he come from, where did he go? Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe?

Did you think about it? Maybe write it down? Thanks!

The biggest reason I like this picture is because Andy was happy with it. I'm having trouble figuring out what elements make a bmx photo a good one. Like what information does a rider gather from an image that makes them think a trick looks sick or not?

I have been asking this question for a while and I learned a bit about it on Friday. Once I started shooting and asking questions and observing it wasn't so hard. (I think dating Andy for a long-ass time helps, too--seeing as riding is not so foreign to me anymore. but anyways!)

To answer the question "How did Andy get way up there in the air?": In this instance, he was doing a 270 table. Meaning he spun around 270 degrees and pulled his bike parallel to the ground like a table. (You might even call this one an invert but we won't get into that.)

He started by coming up that lower ramp in the front:

Did you guess that correctly?

Next he spun counter-clockwise while doing that table-y thing:


Then he finished it off going down the larger ramp on the right:


All together now!


...maybe we need to get some video up in this shit... heehee

How close did you come to guessing his actions correctly? I ask because I am pretty damn sure that no one who read this rides bmx, and I know that when I look at a bmx photo, I'm like "How the hell did that happen?" Even though I watch videos and hang out with those scumbags while they ride, I still don't know. So I'm curious. And excited to learn more by shooting! So Andy better get another trick up his sleeve soon.