NSPART - Time Travel Tuseday: Images from my first photoshoot with models in 2009, how that shoot saved my life and How Steemit kept me from Quitting Photography when I had almost given up. (Part 1 with Renata - Multiple Images -NSFW - Mild Nudity)

Hello Fellow Steemians,

So I decided to use my Time Machine (And older hard drive...lol) to go back to 2009 to my first shoot with models and lighting, which brought back a lot of both good and bad memories which inspired this post. Up until this point I never shot anyone but a couple of girls that I had dated and a girlfriend. I was work in my previous businesses (online marketing, affiliate marketing, writing ebooks and dating coaching) and I decided to stop being a workaholic for one weekend and grab my almost never used Nikon D70 with it's crappy Kit lens and headed out to a group shootout barely knowing how to even use the camera.

How that Shoot Saved my Life, and I got into Photography...

In 2010 after the economy collapsed and I was being relentlessly harassed and stalked by my only parent (In spite of many interventions from other people trying to stop it) at a time I needed to be as sharp as possible stay stay afloat everything I did failed. I went from successful independent business owner thorough my own hard work to broke, depressed, exhausted and actually lost the will to live. Because not only had I gone broke, barely had any income and lost a bunch of money in the stock market, I was still dealing with a psychotic parent that would not stop harassing me weekly if not daily. I really didn't even want to live anymore.

Then I got the advice to "Follow you highest excitement!" I was in such dark negative place in my life that I had to seriously think and try to find a time where I remembered enjoying myself or even being happy. So I remembered the photoshoot I did back in 2009 and how my neighbors said to me "You look like you're glowing!", when I cam back from the shoot. And when I showed people the pictures they would say how good they were and how long I had been shooting.

So I thought ok I'm going to go into photography with the goal of becoming a photographic artist shooting what I love to shoot and making money from the images. And that's what I did. But what I was not prepared for was how hard it was to make a living shooting what Like shooting, because just a few years before there was very good money in it.

That Old Camera...

I was going to keep that old camera it just because it was the first the camera I first used to start my career into photography but sadly I have gone thought some very tough times over the past 7 years trying to live my dream and reach my goals and had to sell off or pawn almost everything I had of value to survive and keep doing my photography and art. I guess that's a test of how dedicated you are to something maybe, I don't know or maybe I just broke a Mirror 7 years ago and it was all bad luck from that. Because I have had a good 7 years bad luck and struggle, the only thing that has come easy to me was was my natural ability to capture good images and I almost quit shooting several times. But here I still am. I guess we'll see down the road if it was the right choice or not.

Steemit kept me from Quitting

I have immense gratitude for Steemit because without the support and money I have been receiving on here for posting my work. I don't think I would not still be shooting at all as I would not be able to afford to. Steemit has been the best thing to happen to me since I started photography (even more so than being published in Playboy Croatia) and has allowed me to actual get paid for doing what I love to do and that people tell me I'm good at. I was very close to just selling off all my gear and quitting as my quality of life was just crap. And then as I was about to hang it up I found Steemit but sadly not when there were the big payouts. I have had to really work Steemit to get were I am now with it and it is a lot of work for me. I spend hours working on images and then posting them and hoping they do well.

While I'm still not where I want to be and I lost my studio... Before I found Steemit I was broke all of the time, people all loved my work as long as they didn't have to pay me. (This is a very, very common thing for artists and photographers and really has little to do with your level of skill, but more who you know.) I was very depressed and came close to quitting several times. And if not for the money I make on Steemit I probably would have quit.

So I want to once again than @dan and @ned for creating Steemit and thank all of the people that upvote, resteem and support my work as well as those that have sent me private donations.

This is why it has been my dream that Steem and Steemit get very big so that others that are in my position are able to use Steemit to follow their passion in life and make a good living at it.

On to the images from my first shoot with models in 2009...

That's really all I wanted to say so let me share some of the images from one of the models from that first shoot back in 2009.

I really don't like to show older work that is not that great but everyone has to start somewhere so I think this might be of value to those just starting out to see that if you stick with it and apply yourself and educate yourself in your art, over time you will progress. If you're not progressing and improving you're doing something wrong. I will also post a couple of images that have been retouched since 2009 as I went back and re-mixed them in 2011 and 2012.

Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Nikon 18-70 f/3.5-4.5
Lighting: Alien Bee Lights with Softboxes

You can see the reflection of the light in the picture on the wall. Something I would not allow now. Now I would take the picture down as well because of copyright issues.

This was shot in 2009 but I re-mixed it a few times over the years.

These below as seen when first released, shot in 2009 you will notice my original watermark and website that is no longer, on some of these older images.

Another shot similar to the one above. I would retouch it much differently now, as it's far too dark for my taste these days. In fact I might re-mix a few of these and post them the future.

Another reflection above her head that I would most definitely retouch out now. I's also fix the blinds as well.

This one actually came out pretty decent.

Keep an Eye out for Part 2 with Renata shot in Natural Light.

Copyright Notice: All Images on this and any of my post are copyrighted by me Nico Simon Princely and registered with the U.S. Copyright office. All rights reserved. You DO NOT have permission to use or post any of my images without written consent from me. Do to so is copyright infringement and is subject to $150,000 in statutory damages per occurrence under U.S. Copyright Law. You may resteem the post.

Please Upvote, Follow, and Resteem if you view my work and want to see more of it and if you don't want to vote on something NSFW but want to keep viewing my work please go Upvote one of my Non-NSFW images to support my work, thanks.

What Goes In To My Work/Art:

For those that don't know, I spend a lot of time on all of my photos, unlike camera phone pictures, or quick snap shots. For any shoot there is model selection, planning, equipment setup, the shoot which is usually several hours where I shoot several hundred photos, then there is equipment tear down, choosing the best images which takes a couple of hours, color grading/correction, and then I spend sometimes an hour or two on a single image retouching and creating the final look, then resizing and watermarking for the web, even my Polaroids have to be scanned in, cropped, have the dust removed, resized and watermarked, so to the people that think I'm just posting a pic or two they are not seeing all of the work that goes into that picture they are looking at.

With advanced photo-manipulation and composites that can add many more hours of work. And what also makes these images possible is the years I have spent learning my craft, the $10,000+ in equipment + the Studio I was paying for that sadly I no longer have, and the model and Makeup Artist (when I use one) are either paid or get additional pictures which means more work for me, none of this is cheap or free it's a lot of work that I do because I love creating beautiful images.

I added this to my posts because it seems that people no longer value professional photography or understand what goes into it regarding, time, expense, etc... And some feel a camera phone picture of a ham sandwich or a selfie has equal value regardless of the difference in production time and cost. Almost every professional photographer I know has been adversely affected by the devaluation of professional photography due to mass proliferation of camera phones and the perception that all photos are created equally, so I try my best to educate people on what goes into what we do.

If you want to have Beautiful Women & Erotic Photography in your feed everyday then make sure to Follow Me, Upvote, Resteem and tell your friends about me because Your Votes and Support fund my photoshoots.

I'm also available for hire for commissioned work, commercial work and shoots for private collectors.

For those of you that would prefer to anonymously support my work rather than vote on an erotic image you can either send me Steem or SBD to @nspart or Bitcoin to 1EVqgb37LjmVDYQcjvNXTqy2yTCb11X3pB

You can also support my photography and art by buying me items from my wishlist on Amazon at the link below...

Support My Photography/Art - Wish List
Link: http://a.co/h5gRjuM

Thanks,

Nico

Some of my other Recent and Still Active Posts that feature my Digital Photography...

NSPART - Erotic Art "Playing in the Shadows, Revisited" 1 of 3 Featuring Model Yuni Kaye both Black & White and Color and Process Video (NSFW - Artistic Nudity)

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-erotic-art-playing-in-the-shadows-revisited-1-of-3-featuring-model-yuni-kaye-both-black-and-white-and-color-and-process

NSPART - Another At The Pool Featuring Model Yuni Kaye both Black & White and Color and Process Video (NSFW - Artistic Nudity)

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-another-at-the-pool-featuring-model-yuni-kaye-both-black-and-white-and-color-and-process-video-nsfw-artistic-nudity

NSPART - Erotic Art with Yuni Kaye in the Shower - Second in a series in Color with Retouching Process Video that shows the advanced photomanipulation I did to this image. (NSFW - Topless - Another Steemit First Post!)

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/66s78h-nspart-erotic-art-with-yuni-kaye-in-the-shower-second-in-a-series-in-color-with-retouching-process-video-that-shows-the-advanced

NSPART - Erotic Art "Playing in the Shadows, Revisited" 2 of 3 Featuring Model Yuni Kaye both Black & White and Color and Process Video (NSFW - Artistic Nudity)

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-erotic-art-playing-in-the-shadows-revisited-2-of-3-featuring-model-yuni-kaye-both-black-and-white-and-color-and-process

NSPART - Throwback Thursday - I revisit one of my favorite images from 2011 - Images Color and Black & White + Process Video

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-throwback-thursday-i-revisit-one-of-my-favoraite-images-from-2011-images-color-and-black-and-white-process-video

NSPART - Throwback Thursday - Part 2 - More with Ashley from 2011

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-throwback-thursday-part-2-more-with-ashley-from-2011

NSPART - Throwback Thursday - Part 3 - More with Ashley from 2011 - Natural Light Outdoors (3 Images)

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-throwback-thursday-part-3-more-with-ashley-from-2011-natural-light-outdoors-3-images

NSPART - Steemit Milestone Over 1700 Followers (Part 1 - No Full Nudity)... Taking Questions about my Work, Photography, Art, Etc... from my Followers and images of course!!!

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-steemit-milestone-over-1700-followers-part-1-no-full-nudity-taking-questions-about-my-work-photography-art-etc-from-my

NSPART - Steemit Milestone Over 1700 Followers (Part 2 - NSFW Mild to Explicit Nudity)... Taking Questions about my Work, Photography, Art, Etc... from my Followers and images of course!!!

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-steemit-milestone-over-1700-followers-part-2-nsfw-mild-to-explicit-nudity-taking-questions-about-my-work-photography-art

NSPART - Erotic Art with Yuni Kaye in the Shower - Fourth in a series in Color and Black & White (NSFW - Erotic Photography - Full Nudity - Multiple Images - Another Steemit First Post!

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-erotic-art-with-yuni-kaye-in-the-shower-fourth-in-a-series-in-color-and-black-and-white-nsfw-erotic-photography-full

NSPART - Black & White - Fine Art Implied Nude with Stefanie Revisited (Implied Nude Only) Another Steemit First Post!

https://steemit.com/photography/@nspart/nspart-black-and-white-fine-art-implied-nude-with-stefanie-revisited-implied-nude-only