It’s rare that I get to be in front of someone else’s camera, so when I saw the opportunity advertised on Erotic Meet, and Annie Player asked me if I was interested in participating on Holly Revell’s DARKROOM photo shoot, my answer was an unconditional ‘yes please’. It proved to be an unforgettable experience.
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Holly, busy at work.
Holly Revell
DARKROOM is an erotic, artistic style of photography developed and used to great effect by the rather gorgeous Holly Revell. Holly is a sweet, generous and very funny – not to mention unshockable – woman, and a talented photographer. I mean, she teaches photography, which means she teaches talented people how to get the best from their talent, which means she’s more talented than the average talented person. So there.Her site is filled with beautiful and provocative images, and you can check it out here. You can follow her on twitter here. (The photo on the right was taken from this gallery.)
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The Green Carnation, Soho
The Location
The shoot was in the lower floor of the Green Carnation in Soho, which is fast becoming my home from home and I’m happy about that. It’s a beautiful venue and the staff are unanimously brilliant people. I’m familiar with this basement for a number of reasons, some more interesting than others.
My Account…
I arrived after most, (apart from Josh Brandon, whose lateness was as fashionable as his outfit), made my way downstairs and immediately bumped into Holly.
“Hi”, I offered.
“Hi. Are you here for the shoot?” she asked.
“I am indeed”.
Holly looked me up and down.
“…hmm… good” she said, approvingly.
This little compliment immediately put me at ease, and I smiled.
I looked around the makeshift changing room into which I had wandered, and was surrounded by beautiful, semi-naked people, and then my co-model, Miss Annie Player, emerged in her underwear. My smile got broader. My trousers got tighter.
I opened my bag and unloaded a selection of “props” I had brought from under my bed, and a few more that I had purchased en route including a dog lead I had bought from Pet World. I hadn’t been expecting to wear it myself, but as you’ll see later, I ended up wearing it most of the day –and in public.
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A small selection of the sexy things I brought to the shoot.
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Us. In a circle. Obviously. This caption is rubbish.
Holly gathered us up and sat us in a circle to talk us through the process. We were introduced to some of her regular models, Nate and Martin, and the spirit was high. We joked (well, I joked, rather a lot) and we looked through examples of Holly’s work. She was modest; there was one really striking image and everyone cooed and gasped and muttered “that’s beautiful”, and she responded “oh yeah, I got that one by accident, before I knew what I was doing.”
Then magic happened. She gave us a demonstration of what to expect. Nate stripped and posed in a corner, and Holly instructed Nick to kill the lights. We were plunged into blackness.
We fell absolutely dead silent, the only noise was Holly opening the shutter on her camera. We were hypnotised as Holly approached Nate and flicked on a torch and we watched, afraid to breathe in case we somehow interfered with the composition, as she painted him with light. Slowly, she highlighted his muscles and illuminated walls and furniture around him.
After what felt like an eternity, Holly flicked off the torch and said cheerfully “ok, we’re done” and the lights were turned back on. We let out a collective held breath and laughed at ourselves for being so involved in the process. But it was hard to get an indication of what the finished result would be of what we had seen, so we crowded round the LCD screen of Holly’s camera and could barely believe what we saw. From the darkness, with that tiny torch, Holly had produced this:
Image may be NSFW.
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It goes without saying that Miss Player and I were excited to get in front of the camera and have a couple of private shots taken. So I’m going to stop the prose in this post ans switch to photos. Read the captions for amusing accounts of what happened. (I haven’t written the captions yet, so I can’t guarantee amusement.) While there were a lot of pictures taken that day, I’m only including those featuring me, because this is my blog, so… err… shut up.
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This dark little corner would soon feature a large amount of nakedness, and Annie Player's wiggly little backside.
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The camera, full of potential energy.
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Here you can see the cuffs and my lead a little clearer. But don't tell anyone. I'm not used to wearing these things.
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Annie, Holly and I experiment with the mise en scene, which is just a way for me to show off the fact I know what mise en scene is.
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A clearer shot of the gorgeous brown leather collar I was wearing. The cuffs matched, of course. I can't be seen with mismatching collar and cuffs.
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I get murdered by a burlesque dancer, and die happy.
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Me. Naked, collared, and wined.
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Collared Dom
I love this photo, though I recognise we didn’t make the most of Holly’s photographic technique. Instead of being clever with the image, Annie and I – as rather poetic and subversive types – decided to be clever with the content. I’ve kind of established myself reluctantly as a “Dom”, though it pains me to refer to myself as such. So it was fun to be collared, and my lead held by someone in a submissive position. I like the inversion – though I really, really didn’t like wearing that collar and lead out onto the street at Annie’s command.
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A threesome with two people.
I love this photo mainly because it gives the hallucinatory impression that I’m spit-roasting Miss Player on my own. But more importantly, I like it because of those little French knickers….
Here are the rest of the finished photos featuring me. Yeah.
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I'm at the back, while my rather wayward hand is creeping round the front...
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My face is rather obscured in this one. Fortunately. Everyone else was prettier than me.
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I lick cream from a man's backside.
However much fun you think these pictures look, I can promise the experience of taking them far exceeded the end result. Thank you to everyone involved.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
