Jason Tag Photography

Ella - Nude on a rock!

Today’s shoot with Ella was fantabulous!  It was so good that I had to make up a word just to describe it!  Ok really.  It went very well and we both had a great time working with each other again.  I just hope that she’ll be able to get back to Hawaii soon so we can work together again.

The location we used was a beach on the eastern shore of Kauai.  A place that is known for it’s natural beauty and a lack of a crowd.  We had a little trouble finding the parking area but it wasn’t too terrible.  Once we got onto the beach I had a feeling that this was going to be a great morning.  We headed toward an area of the beach that was mostly rocks with a little bit of sand.  And that’s where we started the shoot.

After playing with the rocks that were dry we decided to play around with some rocks closer to the water.  Ella got splashed a few times from the small shore break and I tried to time the shots so that we were shooting inbetween waves.  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.

A very cool tree to be nude in!

We ended up having to duck out of sight a couple of times due to people making their way onto the beach ad going about their activities.  We made the best of it though.  When we saw a fisherman getting his net ready, Ella put on a sarong that she brought with her and we continued to shoot.

On another occasion we ducked into a tree and shot there for a few minutes.  The tree ended up being very cool and no one bothered us at all.  I was glad for that.  I had read a few stories of people being harrased on Kauai for being nude.

Ella in lingerie on the beach

Towards the end of the shoot there was one woman who got pretty close to where we were so Ella pulled out an cute lingerie outfit that she brought.  It turns out that she’s just as beautiful clothed as she is au natural!  Who’d a thunk it!

All in all it was  a gorgeous morning spent in a beautiful place creating beautiful images with a beautiful person!  Not a bad way to spend a sunday morning…

Aloha,
Jason Tag

Well I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks so I haven’t done any shoots this month.  But I decided to go back and revisit a past shoot I did in May.  I never edited it using Aperture So I decided I’d go through it and see what I get.  I ended finding a few new favorites.  Which now makes me curious about the other past shoots I’ve done.  I wonder if I’ll find some new favorites if I go back through those as well….  Here are just  couple of those new favs!

During the shoot with Ashleigh this month, she suggested that I should put together a calendar featuring my images.  I told her about my book(which is available on lulu.com!) and how I’m working on a second book focused on outdoor nudes and already thinking about my third book which will be featuring images of nudes in and around trees.  We continued to talk about a lot of other things that day but the calendar idea germinated for a while.  So a few days ago I decided that the calendar idea is not a bad idea.  So I put one together at RedBubble.com!  Of course prints of my images are also available at RedBubble as well.

If you buy a book, calendar, or a print let me know so I can thank you personally…

Aloha,
Jason Tag

The only drawback to having done 4 shoots in the past 2 weeks, is the amount of editing work that needs to be done. I’ve finished editing the shoot with Elizabeth and Julia. At the moment I’m putting together a gallery of the shots with Elizabeth and will be updating the members area later today. After that I’ll be able to start editing the shoot I did with Ashleigh on September 6th. I hope that by next Wednesday I’ll be able to finish editing the shoot with Sarah last Wednesday. It’s a lot of work…but it’s also a lot of fun so I don’t mind so much…

Elizabeth - Aug. 30 2008

Today’s shoot went very well. Elizabeth, who was visiting from Virginia, was wonderful and It was a real treat to work with her. We went to a beach that I had scouted a few weeks ago. It’s one of those beaches where there isn’t another soul around. So we had the whole beach all to ourselves.

We started out with a few basic poses using a knit top that I had found at a department store a few days ago. I loved the knit material and how it looked against her skin. after a few minutes I had her take off the knit top and we started shooting nude.

Downed Tree

We found ourselves shooting all over the beach. We tried a lot of different kinds of shots. Further down the beach we found a downed tree that made for some very interesting shots as well. We tried to get into the water for a few shots but there were some rocks just under the surface of the water that made that a no-go. But we did get some good shots in the shore break.

After playing on the beach we went into the woods where we found a really cooll tree to play with. As many of you know… I love shooting nudes in trees. There’s just something about it that makes it so interesting.

All in all we had a lot of fun and I’m hoping that she visits Hawaii soon so we can work together again.

Im guessing this images is from the Beijing Olympics. A friend set me this link with a line that read…”this is why commercial photography is not for me.”

I just think it’s an interesting image.

Link: http://img.stern.de/_content/63/41/634192/BesteBilder56_750.jpg (opens a new window)

Before I did the shoot with Ashleigh, I knew that she had tattoos. I had only done one shoot with a model who had a tattoo before and we tried very hard to work around it. Trying not to photograph it. It ended up being an interesting challenge. What ended up happening was that I mostly shot the model from the side without tattoos. Which led to having most of the shots from the same side.

Tattooed Nude

With Ashleigh I decided that it’s her body and it’s she’s chosen to decorate it this way. It’s real and I find it beautiful. As I drove to the shoot, I had an idea to get a few close up shots of her tattoos. Partially as a way to embrace the tattoos as a part of her being, but also because I thought it might be interesting to see the tattoos in the context of the nude. Now I think I’m onto something with this thought.

Now I’m thinking it might be interesting to do a whole book on just tattooed nudes. it might be interesting to see images like the one above of tattoos and the nude body.

Waimnalo, Hawaii Aug. 6 2008

Today’s shoot was with a new model. Ashleigh had never posed nude before but had always wanted to. The moment she told me this it sounded familiar. It made me realize how I started shooting nudes is pretty much the same as how she started posing for nudes. Having a desire to do it, but needing another person to help fulfill the dream. In my case it was a model. In her case, a photographer. I feel very honored that she chose me to do her first nude shoot. She is an amazingly beautiful woman. I hope that she will continue to model as I know she’ll do very well.

Waimnalo, Hawaii Aug. 6 2008

We started our shoot on the backside of Pele’s Chair. I was surprised at how comfortable she was with her body and with being nude. Considering that this was her first nude shoot, I expected her to be a little more reserved. I’m glad that she was comfortable because it seemed to give the rest of the shoot a feeling of exploration and discovery that was quite nice.

Overall, It was a lot of fun to hang out with such a beautiful person and capture beautiful images. It was a joy to work with her and I hope I’ll get to shoot with her again soon.

Aloha,
Jason Tag

In between shoots, I usually look back through old shoots to see what I missed or looking for lessons to learn from my mistakes. Today I went looking through a shoot I did with the model who I now refer to as “Goddess”. She has asked that I keep her name anonymous.

An Intersting Find

When I first saw this shot I thought that it was no good because of the light refracting in the lens. Today when I saw it my heart just skipped a beat and I couldn’t believe that I didn’t publish it before. I wonder what would happen if in a year or two from now. Would I edit the images differently? Would I pick different images to showcase? I can’t wait to find out…

Well most of you know that I’ve switched from editing photos in Photoshop to editing in Aperture 2.0. And I’m very happy with the results that I get from Aperture. In this process I’ve become quite enthralled with black and white photos. While I love the colors that I’m getting there’s something to be said for black and white images.

The other day I was going through the shoot I did with Ella Rose and I realized that I had never produced black and whites of that shoot. As soon as I could, I dove in and started re-editing that shoot and here’s just a few images that came out of that session… Don’t forget to visit her website at everythingella.com!

The only edit made in this images was the switch to black and white

A closer crop of the original image