So far in this blog I have been keeping to pretty much a chronological structure in telling my shoot stories. Once I meet Jerry Blansett and start renting his studio everything becomes more jumbled. I don’t have the sets organized in that order, and about half are just on my computer still. So we will be less structured from now on.

And I will be answering questions again in an upcoming blog.

But today I want to tell about my first trip to participate in an actual bikini contest. R.J. Wells owns Caribbean Tan and he works to make the name a marketable brand. He sponsors bikini contests where the winner gets prize money and a trip to wherever they are shooting the calendar. He invited me to come and he invited my friend Joe, who I had brought in as a lawyer to represent R.J. when his company was drug into the suit I had going for Erick Blair against Hawaiian Tropic. He wanted to thank Joe and the invitation included Joe’s wife Anne. R.J. was providing the suite.

We got to the very nice two bedroom suite in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the afternoon. R.J. then said we would be sharing it. We go in and there are two beautiful young girls there. Now this did not surprise me as putting as many people in a room as you can is the way to save money. Caribbean Tan had often thrown 4 or 5 girls and two photographers into suites. But Joe and Anne were surprised. They took one room, the two models took another room, and I got to sleep on the couch in the living room.

Nancy and Gwen had come up from Texas at R.J.s request. He promised them room and board it they would come. His motive was that he had a bikini contest that night and he wanted to be sure a lot of girls showed up. Their motiviation was the prize money. They had made a deal that they would split and money they won since they were going on the trip together. The girls actually went to two or three bikini contests a week in the Dallas area and used their winnings as a part time job income.

Nancy said she came in second and third a lot, and Gwen said she won a lot. Gwen had recently been in Playboy Magazine’s special lingerie edition.

We all went out to eat with R.J. as the contest did not start until late. Then we went back to our very nice room. The girls said they had come up the night before and the room was not ready so they stayed with R.J. and his dad at their house, and it was “nasty, I did not want to touch the shower curtain.” Gwen told us. I had been to their house and R.J. and his dad lived like single men do. Not a lot of cleaning. I liked it there.

The girls then asked if we would help them pick the bikini they should wear for the competition. They began taking turns coming out of their bedroom in different bikinis and posing for the three of us. I would offer my opinon and Anne would tell them what she thought. Joe sat and looked nervous. About the third time Nancy came out I said “that is so sexy and hot” and Anne said, “I like that.” And we turned to Joe who was not saying anything. Anne looked at her husband and said, “its ok, you can say something, I’m not jealous or upset.” Joe then started in telling his opinions. We helped the girls pick out the two we thought were best.

The event was fun. It was outdoors at a marina and some of thegirls were ones I knew. They had the girls line up on stage, in a group and pose. Then they had each girl walk across the stage posing and trying to incite the crowd. The judges were randomly selected by R.J. from men in the audience. One he selected was Joe. I was there with my camera to record the whole thing.

It was fun, lots of whoops and hollers from the audience. In the end, Nancy came in first and Gwen was second. Nancy was so excited, she had never placed first. But this all ended about 11. Then we all went to a dance club in downtown Hot Springs. The girls put on different bikinis. We hung around until about midnight and then they had a second contest that the club sponsored. It was a lot less informal and the judgingwas by audience response. I remember either Nancy or Gwen placed in this, but the winner had a bunch of her friends there who made lots of noise.

So we go back to the room and the girls set up their computers and got on the internet in the kitchen area, which was right by my couch. Joe and Anne went their room and went to sleep. I was worn out, but the girls stayed up talking and typing until real late. I was relieved when they finally went to their room and I could sleep. The next day I took them out to shoot, but that will by my next blog.

Gwen in the bathroom of our suite.

Nance puts on her makeup using the mirror behind the bed in the girls room.

Nancy and Gwen together and seperately posing in their official Caribbean Tan outfits.

All the contestants lined up on stage.

Nancy in the bikini Anne, Joe and I picked out for her.

Nancy is the beaming winner. The two Texas girls won $1100 that night between them at the two contests.

One day I was talking to the owner of Caribbean Tan and he said he had a friend who published a biker magazine and was looking for pictures of hot girls and hot bikes. He gave me the guys email and I sent a message. The guy said if I would take some pictures of a hot girl on a hot motorcycle and write up a little story about the owner of the bike, he would publish it.

I wanted to get published. So I turned to the hottest girl I knew who I thought would shoot for me, Taylor. The same Taylor I had my first photo shoot with at the Madison motel. I contacted her and she was wanting to shoot anyway. She wanted to shoot some fashion with real graffiti in the background. I was game for that. We planned two shoots. The first would be with the bike.

But I had to find a hot bike. Now I am not a chopper, biker guy. I don’t know anything about them. I knew Jesse James had a show building the things but had never seen it. I started asking friends. One of my good friends told me she had just bought a hot chopper for her husband. It was a replica of the Captain America that Peter Fonda rode in the movie Easy Rider and had once belonged to another actor.

Now to me that was a hot as bikes got. I loved that movie and remembered it from my youth.

I set up the shoot. I got Taylor and off we went to shoot the bike. Now my friend had built a living room type set up in her garage to house the chopper. And she did not want us to move the bike outside. We had to shoot it in the garage. I was not happy. I put my flash on the strobe-frame and pointed it up at the low ceiling. We shot and shot. The results were just ok. Taylor is wild to shoot. She will take any outfit or prop and turn it into something interesting to shoot. And of course she is beautiful.

After we were through with the motorcycle and after they turned down my request to move it outside, Taylor put on her bikini and we shot a few in their pool.

I was very excited and wrote up the article, edited the shots and emailed it into the publisher. I knew that whatever limitations my photography had, Taylor would overcome that with her unique beauty.

In a day I got my reply in an email: “I said I would publish a HOT bike. This is just a chopper.” At that time I did what I should have done at the outset; I went to a magazine rack and looked at the pictures of the motorcycles in the magazines. I saw his point.

This shot had the flash aimed right at Taylor. Notice the dark areas in the lower left and the shadows on the wall.

Another with the flash aimed right at her. She is washed out and the shadows are on the wall and floor.

In this shot the flash was pointed up at the ceiling. The light is more even and the shot looks better.

I get the whole bike in the shot.

Sexy Taylor with an implied shot with a biker jacket and cap.

Taylor in a hot orange bikini.

I shot this from above Taylor. Notice the distortion as I have her head looking much bigger and out of proportion to her body.