Guess what, I saw Joe again! Usually it is me who insists on taking some photos of him, but this time, few days before my visit, he asked whether I would bring my camera so we could shoot some fresh photos.

Needless to say that I am always excited over another opportunity to take photos of him, however, I was a little low on inspiration this time — all of the recent photos have already been taken at his apartment so I felt like the photos would just be repeating of what we have of him already.

I spent most of the day there trying to ‘invite’ ourselves to someone who would have a nice cool apartment as a change of scene for the photos. Alright, I did pass out a bit as well, so could have tried harder to find something, but in conclusion, we did not really find anything. Either were the apartments small and not suitable for any cool background scenes, or were the conditions for using a fancy designed apartment a bit too ..non-no-strings-attached.

I keep planning to take some ‘making-of’ and ‘behind-the-scenes’ pics to show the conditions where the photos were taken, but I keep forgetting it while in action.

This time our studio was less than 3 meters of wall behind the bed. The clear white background was barely enough for him to reach out his hand; while he was almost touching the window with the hand reached out, from the other side I had to crop out the photo of Paris that we used as an alternative background for some photos. For the photos of Paris on the background he was kneeling on the sofa and for the rest of the photos he was standing behind the bed (hence no full length photos). Some photos with natural light from the window, some with flash.

I suppose, having him dressed in suits and fancy costumes would be a nice change for all the topless photos, but I just can’t bare wrapping him up in some costumes and hiding that body; kind of addicted on all those bulging muscles.

I have been asked repeatedly, whether Joe is a professional model. Well, not yet, but he definitely has interest in it and we’ll try to submit his portfolio some time soon.

But darn, over the numerous photoshoots we have had, Joe has grown to be such a professional model, by my amateur opinion, at least. I still see myself as a goofy and hesitating amateur photographer, who spends most of the shoot with a pinky between teeth, giggling, and clueless of what else to try. But Joe — he strikes his poses, usually corrects his posture, hands, clothes and facial expressions all by himself — far from the behavior of the guy on the other side of the camera shrugging shoulders and mumbling ‘Eeemmh, ..I don’t know what else.’. Alright-alright, I am not all that bad, but I often have moments when I wish I was more professional. I was just really impressed by Joe.

This shirt seems to be my best costume investment :) I have worn it myself and have made other guys wear it for photos and I think it always works out great on everyone. I really did not think we could get Joe’s bicepses through the sleeves, but we made it! Taking the shirt off seemed much more complicated task and I seriously considered having to use some lubrication, but we finally managed with that too.

With Summer ahead, we already discussed trying out some beach photos of him. ..eagerly waiting!

Photos taken at Joe’s apartment in Finland on May 12th.