So… I’m gonna take my MacBook Pro for servicing. The battery that was supposed to hold 1000 cicles, just died with 171 cicles, and the notebook only works plugged to the wall. So, I’m taking for servicing, which I suspect, will be a battery replacement. In any case, I’ll be offline for at least 3 days, due to this problem.

So, if you miss me online, that’s the reason

Kisses,

Jessica

One of the hardest and most important disciplines any photographer should learn early on the training process, is how to select your very best images, towards the desired storytelling, from your photoshoot. It’s important on every aspect of photography, and not any less when it comes to fetish photography.

I was going to write about lighting before I came into selection, mostly because I think selection and composition go hand to hand, but I think it won’t hurt to lightly brush with the subject right away, and maybe help some people have more productive photoshoots, and better use out of those.

The selection process, to be honest, happen in two moments: during the actual photoshoot, and afterwards. You could say it also happens before, which would sound pretty silly ( oh, we’re always selecting ) but I personally see the planning process as something very different from the selection.

After planning, and storyboarding your photoshoot, you know what you’re striving for. You already have the ideas worked out, and now comes the waiting moment where you’re very eager to get to the selected location and start working. First, you waste some 2 to 20 images getting the lighting precisely as you want. The more you shoot, the better you get to it, and I think the lighting setup will become an integral part of the storyboarding exercise. And the less shots you’ll need to make it right. But, when you’re starting out, it pays out to be humble, and tell the models you do need some time to get things right. They won’t frown on you when they see you finally got it and it looks amazing.

After that, you start the actual shoot, and it will be really normal to spend the first few shots warming up. Back in the day of film, many photographers used not to even put film in their cameras, just to save up on developing costs afterwards. I mean, why pay for two extra rolls when you pretty much know the magic isn’t going to happen in the first 20 images ( talking medium format 120 film here )? Now, we’re on the digital age, and we can pretty much shoot everything and keep everything. But you should understand, those first photos are the warming up photos. Magic is not likely to happen and only really experienced models manage to start a shoot already hot, focused and nailing every pose. You may also want to adjust the light a bit here and there as you go, and the creative juices flow forth and back from you and the model.

But when the shoot really starts, you start selecting. Every pose, every move, you look on your viewfinder and imagine if what you see is working, or not. If that’s what you want, or not. You shouldn’t just click as a maniac on every single pose the model makes, because that’s just creating a ton of mud on your later final selection process. Creating a lot of noise, if you want. Don’t shoot sequence of very similar photos, shoot the very best. If you look on the viewfinder, understand what you’re seeing and actively compose the shot. Talk to the model, interact, move, change, think… until you know you’re seeing a keeper, and then you shoot. Look in the LCD, make sure the model didn’t blink, everything is perfect, redo if needed. But don’t just shoot crazy.

One good method to help develop that, was to have small cards. 256Mb cards were ideal for the 6Mp cameras. But cards that hold some 36, to 48 photos, so that you could work as if working with film. Ideally, you’d spend one or two in each set of images, and you knew, if you were running out of cards before you found the images you wanted in the shoot, you were in big trouble. Well, now in the age of 8Gb cards that hold 500 images, it’s even hard to find smaller cards, and don’t make much sense in the cost/benefit ratios. But still, you could set a number of images for each set. Say, 60 images, or 80 images is pretty much. Before you change pace, or move into a different idea, change clothes or a new prop is added. With time, try to narrow that number down to 40, and then to 30, progressively increasing your own critical eye on what you want, and only clicking when you feel you got an image that is a sure keeper.

That, is the very first discipline to reduce the amount of work needed later on. The more you select while shooting, the easier the later selection process will become. Otherwise, you’ll be risking sitting on your computer with 1000 images, several being very similar, and instead of selecting the best, you’re actually trying to salvage usable images. Many good images won’t stand out in the middle of several very similar ones. Don’t allow yourself to get into that trap. With 30 to 60 images per set, the selection process within the set will be much more productive.

Now, here’s a process to selecting afterwards, that I use. There are others, and if you want, leave your own process as a comment here and I’ll try to add to the text later on.

First, I select within sets, using a software such as Adobe Bridge or Adobe Lightroom. They allow me to browse all images and rating them with stars. I place one star for each real keeper in the set. After that first selection is done, I set the software to ignore all other images, and only show me those.

A second swipe is done, comparing similar images, still with the objective of the shoot ( both in terms of aesthetics, lighting, composition and storytelling ) in mind, placing them side by side. The “weaker” image looses it’s star, and the process goes on, taking down the worst of each pairing, until I have a set of unique, good, sequential images that do tell the story in a very strong way. Sometimes, an image stands out alone, and is a keeper, but not so great on the storytelling, and it’s kept as a single image. Maybe it’s the cover for the whole photoshoot, but not really part of what’s inside the story.

Of course, each kind of photoshoot has a different need. If you’re shooting for a gallery site, you need some 50 to 100 images in the end, while a fetish editorial will keep from 10 to 20, depending on how many pages you have to present your work. The first will have a higher number of keepers than the later. But still, you should be able to discard very similar images, and in the end, remain with a good, solid story being told. While shooting, and later on selecting, that must be always kept alive in the back of your head, as to keeping the quality of your photoshoot. In other words, don’t drop the ball, it happens, we all fail sometimes, but you should only click when you see “Wow, this is good”.

Every shoot is done with usually discarding way more than you keep. A good eye will help you shoot 4, 5 frames for each you keep. And an usual measure is about 10 to 1. On a good day, I’ll solve a set with 3 clicks for each keeper, in a bad day, 20. But… if you’re reaching 100 on a single set ( by set, I mean, the same position on the story, the same square on your storyboard, and so on ) and still are not sure about the 3 or 4 you’re going to keep, you’re walking towards a world of pain when it comes to selecting. And in a gallery site, that means you’re going towards 2000 images to get to the final 50 to 100. And that’s not a good place to be at.

You know, FetLife, as any ego-based community, carries a lot of the frail self-esteem problems that plague our world today. I’ve seen people sad because they were “unfollowed” on twitter. I heard people complain about the vanity of those who whore themselves every friday on their “follow friday” event. And, yes, I’ve seen those who, after a weekend having fun with their camera and latex, post an average of 50 photos in their FetLife gallery.

Of course, FetLife loves that, the more, the merrier. After all, community sites make a profit on basis of sheer volume of data. The more photos, good or bad, ensure that any visitor is likely to find at least one photo they like, and stick around. But what for us who really use the site as a way to stay in touch with our friends?

I mean, as a photographer, one of the earliest tools of the trade you learn, is to select what’s meaningful and interesting, and discard the rest. It was common to arrive monday afternoon for classes with my 256Mb card full of 54 RAW images, and have my teacher look those over, and keep two. Then, one of those would end on my blog, as one of the “really good ones”. Now the world is made of 8Gb cards, and people arrive monday with 1000 photos to pick from. I’ll write here something about “not turning your photoshoot in a salvage operation” tomorrow or wednesday, but in a short you should select before you click, know if what you see in the viewfinder is a keeper, if not, don’t bother pressing the shutter. Takes time and discipline, but is worth several hours of selection afterwards. Much easier to pick 10 good ones out of 100, than out of 1000.

But now, I’m gonna leave a word of wisdom for my fellow FetLife users.

5 photos are enough.

REALLY, IT IS ENOUGH.

I’m sure you had fun taking your rubber out in the weekend and having some fetish fun and you want to share with your friends. And you took several pics, and your card being pretty big, you ended up with some 900 photos, and you tuned down to 50, and think “WOW, I really narrowed the selection”. But, the 5 absolute best, if that much, would have done the very same job. Models leave photo studios with 7 photos to start their careers. Food magazines get to pick 5 per plate, and only one per plate gets published. Same for fashion. Why on earth you think 50 photos from one single photoshoot are needed?

It’s not a private gallery. If you need that much storytelling, have your own site, doesn’t cost much. Or a blog. Have your own flickr. There’s where people are used to browsing photos. On fetlife, your crazy maniac need for posting everything will just have your friends, who also have friends who also had fun with their cameras on the weekend, needing to browse through 5 pages of pretty much similar photos, to find any interesting comment another friend did on a regular post. That’s just being selfish. Or being an attention whore. I’ll let you decide which one are you. But will make people frown on you.

So, please, pick the top 5 picks, if THAT MUCH, that tell the whole story, and post only those. I’d post only one if I were you, really. You don’t need to take 4 pages of my FetLife home page with your weekend fun. Then, if I unfollow you, you’ll pretty much feel bummed, as have happened before, and send me a private message asking me “why did you remove me? What did I do wrong?”.

Take this tip as etiquette. And as some sort of training on how to make people really leave meaningful comments on your photos. It’s much much easier to say something that matters when someone already did a pre-selection for you, than when someone leave a swamp of sorrows in the shape of photos for you to try to figure something out and leave one comment in the best photo ( I’m not gonna leave 50 comments, and not the same comment in 4 photos that are the same, cropped in different ways ).

That will help me truly appreciate your photography, and leave comments that do mean something. And on the other end, you’ll see you’ll be much much happier reading that kind of comment ( and several comments in one photo ), than having to browse your own 50 photos yourself, and see a desert of comments, as if nobody liked those, or to find any single comment.

You’ll see it will pay off in the long run

Jessica

This was originally written for my RubberMansion website.

I’m happy to say I’m done with this corset I just closed it, and after four months of not-so-perfect training, with periods of sometimes a whole week without being able to wear it ( because I needed to move a lot, or needed real comfort, or was sick, and so on ), I can say I lost 6” while corseted, a serious reduction, and 12 pounds of weight.

Someone asked if I had any sort of diet I was following while corseted, but that’s not really it. If you’re reducing your waist by pressure, your stomach will accomodate less food, and as a result, you will, if you’re smart, eat less. Removing the corset for eating, is really cheating, you won’t manage to reduce your waistline in any effective way. And overeating will ruin you for the day, being in serious pain and discomfort after the meals. One thing I learned, was to stop eating when I was satisfied.

Eating to the end of the plate is a horrible thing to do, but we all do it. We grow up in families where our moms tell us not to waste food, as it’s a terrible sin, and once we served ourselves, we make sure we eat everything. Most of the waist training was learning how much was enough, and learning there’s no shame on ordering a doggy bag in restaurants. You have to learn again to read those signs we learned to ignore over the years, that tell you when you’ve had enough.

Another thing I did that had amazing results, was adding a glass of milk to my breakfast, every morning, and exercise every afternoon, to burn around 200cal while wearing the corset. I guess it helps to work out our muscles and tone, while conforming to the new waistline and shape.

In the end, I still have another 30 pounds to loose, and a few more inches, which will take a while, but I’m confident I’ll get there. My target waistline for now, is around 24”, 28” uncorseted. And maybe have an extreme corset for events and extreme play to take me down to 22” or 20”. But that’s a dream, a fantasy. But the 24” target for me is very doable, and considering my hip size of over 40”, will be a very sexy, drastic reduction still.

Some people who dream about 18” waistlines, forget sometimes, the best thing is to do what’s balanced and doable. But again, most people who dream about 18” waistlines have never seen a corset in their lives, or would never ever do so for real. But it’s all good to suggest that for others. Same goes for everything. It’s all good to make suggestions for having others go shove 25” plugs in their asses and go at the same time for 15” waistlines, as long as it’s painful on someone else’s body.

The more you train yourself, and force yourself against your own limits in real life, the best life treats you And the more you learn about balance, safety, and how much fun and pleasure it is to push forward and achieve something

I know, when I touched the laces of this corset ( back laced ) and felt it was fully closed, I couldn’t be happier I’m really proud of myself, and I hope my close friends will be happy for me

Kisses,

Jessica

There are a few things that could make you being ashamed of being Brazilian. Usually, it would be the fact most, if no all, our politicians are so crooked, your politicians would look like naive innocent children compared to ours. Or when in a BDSM party, a Dom speaks proudly that, when gay people start going to the venue, he’ll stop going, and so will his friends. Or simply because sometimes I make a professional direct remark, and the person takes it at a personal level, and gets hurt by it.

I mean, there’s a TON of reasons to being ashamed for being Brazilian. Because, what else is left? The great beaches? Nature? That would be all here, regardless of who lived here. Actually, depending on who lived here, things would be better. Or worse. But could be better and more of those natural wonders. So, that’s NOT a reason for being proud of your country. My country is my countrymen, and they’re leaving a lot to be desired for.

Even tho I love some aspects of our culture, my culture, mostly, food culture; and there are some really nice people here, most are just a bunch of self centered people with the self esteem of a parrot with an upside down beak. I think this is one of the countries where people are less courteous. Couple of days ago I had an argument on the supermarket line, because a woman with two carts full of food wouldn’t let an 75 year old lady pass in front of her to pay for a handful of items. And, in Brazil, there is a law stating that elders have the right to pass to the front of any line any time. Because… they’re elders. The lady asked for her right, it was denied, so, I interfered and was ranted about it being an abuse, and she being waiting in that line for about 15 minutes standing, to let an elder lady who got in the same line she did, on purpose, to pass in front of her. She spent more time yelling at me than she would have spent letting the lady pass and pay for her 10 or so items.

That is the everyday Brazil. A country is made of it’s people, and I’m not really proud of the people who live here. There are nice people, sure, and I love my friends. But there isn’t much I can do really, except step in when I feel is needed.

And now is one of those times. You see, I am Brazilian and I speak fluent portuguese. I also speak english. Most of the fetish people here do, it’s pretty much a professional requirement anywhere and any private school in Brazil, and any middle class family pays for education in Brazil, has english classes. Many kids also attend private english schools, where you do nothing but learn the language. I spent 7 years in one of those. So, it’s not like someone who is on fetlife and can find their way around the site, doesn’t speak english.

I don’t mind when a fellow brazilian sends me a private message in portuguese. After all, I DO speak the language. But here’s the thing… I do. The rest of the world, DOESN’T.

If I write my profile in english, it’s simply out of the common courtesy that english became kind of a middle-ground language, where everyone can speak. I like, love, the idea of an open forum, where everyone, regardless of where they are in the globe, can take part on a conversation and exchange ideas. So, when I post a photo with a description in english, I’m trying to make it more accessible to the most number of people, Brazilian or not. And, I see the comments as part of a forum of ideas. People will like or dislike, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone understands everyone, and for me, it’s really important so we can all contribute as equals.

And then I see people I know for real, and I know speak good english, write a comment in portuguese. Look, when anyone posts a comment, for a photo with comments in english, in any other language other than english, there can be only one of two reasons for that behavior. Either you don’t think what you wrote is worth being read by others, or you don’t care about the rest of the people taking part on the forum, even if it’s for them to agree or disagree with your comments. Either way, I don’t think such a comment should be kept.

Germans have the common courtesy of writing in english to be able to talk to French and Englishmen and Japanese. It’s just a matter of being polite and understanding the world doesn’t turn around you. It would be pretty sad if we all started only speaking in our native language. Most fetish forums would just die instantly.

So, I’ll start moderating the comments on my photos. Any comment done till today in any language other than english will be kept. New ones will be deleted unless in english. Come on folks, it’s not like “WOW, REALLY HOT” needs a dictionary to be written All I’m asking here is for a bit of common courtesy to everyone in the site. Don’t shame us in being just as selfless and self centered as the bad part of our countrymen, who prevent us from growing as a nation, are.

First of all, thanks for David of Honeyhair.net for the answer Yeah, 42!

I have been away for a while, Xmas has been not a troublesome part of the year, but let’s face it, didn’t leave much time to work out a fetish site. I had fetish fun instead And much love for my Mistress.

Anyway, a friendly piece of advice, I’m writing this as a slightly drunken women, LOL Maybe it’s true, in Vino Veritas, in the wine, the truth. Actually, in my case, in booze the truth. I’m not sure why I compartmentalize all areas of life. Fetish, work, love. But the honest answer is I fear people won’t be able to properly handle it. I mean… let’s face it, a guy can be a stud, a really perverted Master, and still, a good professional. Now, can a woman be a really accomplished professional, and at the same time, a total slut, and respected as a professional?

Sometimes we must break down barriers. Sometimes we must speak out and face the consequences, or in other way, burn or crash. Or, a craziest idea, succeed.

I’m really tired of living under the fear if things mix up too well, I may be damaged and regret in some way. There’s always the underlying fear that, A big corporation that has access to all our identities and darkest secrets will be able to control the world by blackmail. All our lives are pretty much public now. We post our fistfucking pics on Myspace, and we talk about sucking cock on the same sites we scream in happiness for getting a new client.

So, let’s be honest at least. If we all come clean, and we all own our own identity, the sheer pressure of being who we are, without fears, without having to worry too much about consequences, as we’re in the open. What’s the worst that can happen? That people find out we’re exactly who we are?

Yeah, right, I’m shaking in fear, LOL

In Vino Veritas leads me to 42.

The answer to all problems, live in no fear.

I mean, I’m already a gender disphoric woman. I cannot change that. My best hope, is to have my friends, people who care for me, and I care deeply for, around me and helping me cope with the hard moments in life. I can only improve life, not try to pretend some parts didn’t happen. I’m also a photographer, and a really good one at that. Weird how we have to be slightly drunk to see things as they are. 42.

I love my Mistress, Suzana, the woman of my life. I want her to fist me crazy. I’m gonna have gender reassignment surgery someday. Soon I hope. I’m gonna have a pussy she’ll dominate and own from the first day. She’ll pretty much break the champagne bottle on the opening day.

I wanna be happy, and not fear anyone, or anything. I want to live in truth.

So, I’m tired and fed up of keeping separate identities as separate pare lives online.

My name is Jessica. I’m a big fucking perv, and I sign articles on www.rubbermansion.com as Ivette. Also, you can find me using that name on FetLife. Ivette was a creation, a created name, in the hope I could keep things separate in the hope to sustain our own privacy, and because, quite simply, the world is full of prejudice, and I wanted to protect myself.

But it’s NEVER going to change unless people like me, and like you, grab it by the horns and force the world into a reality where every teenager is posting fuck buddy pics on Facebook, and they don’t have to loose jobs because of that. That doesn’t make them any less good as professionals. As a gay guy doesn’t have to loose their jobs, because of being gay, and having pics of themselves posted on facebook anyway.

I am a fetishist, and I’ll step up to the consequences. I think the internet gave us the ultimate tool for supreme freedom. We can be who we are, because, everyone is a bit of a freak. And I’ll own who I am. The WHOLE of who I am. Photographer, perv, lesbian, woman, writer, person. Human. And I hope this step will help others take a similar step and not fear, on their everyday life, the consequences of being who we are. Because, in the end, if we fear what we have to hide, we’re all slaves. In the worst sense.

Thank you for listening to the venting of a drunken woman

Jessica, aka: latexjessica, aka: used to be known as Ivette

Yeah, that time of the year again. Ugh!

You know, most people have the impression everyone in Brazil goes wild and parties a lot during Carnaval, but first of all, the kind of Samba I love, is not the kind most played during this time of the year. And for me, Carnaval was always linked to bigotry and hypocrisy.

For those unfamiliar, the Carnaval ( not Mardi Gras, Mardi Gras is only the LAST day of Carnaval, not the whole period, and in Brazil, it was extended two weeks prior to the actual Mardi Gras in some areas ) actually is a period meant to be the last big feast of catholics, to start out the Lent period, ending in the Easter. So, the Lent being a period where you don’t eat meat ( something catholics don’t follow anymore – first big hypocrisy about it ) and actually stay away from most sins… the Carnaval is the period where you feast in meat, to compensate. So, why keep it for sins regarding food? Why not all sins, just to compensate 40 days without sinning?

So it evolved in a period where “sins of the flesh” are kind of OK. It DID turn into this wild period, where otherwise blank and boring people drink a lot, eat a lot and indulge in sins they wouldn’t otherwise. In Brazil that made the Carnaval a HUGE absurd blanket permissions for Catholics ( and as an extension – everyone else ) to sin all they want.

Leaving aside the fact car accidents, deaths, bullet wounds, bar fights, drug and alcohol abuse leading to coma and hospital ER overload, lack of blood on blood banks and so on skyrocket… my biggest issue is the aftermath during the rest of the year, in other words, how it supports bigotry towards people who everyday, with moderation, indulge in the sins catholics would LOVE to, but their religion says no to it. And since they want, but can’t, blame us, instead of their religion. How?

Well, people can have sex all they want, and feel pure and chaste the rest of the year. Girls have sex with guys they’ll never seen again. Actually, guys go to Tranny and Gay parties, to suck cock and be fucked in the ass, and resume their dayjobs as normal straight guys the next week, no strings attached. All sins forgiven, as if they never existed. This is a HUGE hypocritical piece in my book, but if you look closely, those same dudes who dress as women and fuck other guys, blame being drunk for that if asked directly ( so, why drink in the fist place? This is just another big fat lie and blanket excuse for letting out what they wanna do ), go back to their normal lives bashing gay people and pretty much anyone who leads a sex-related lifestyle, such as fetish and BDSM. Being gay (lesbian) and fetishist, this hits me TWICE.

In the US, you guys have that stupid idea that College is a time for experimenting, and anything goes, and people AFTER college can go back to a normal life. There’s the sitcom repeated joke about girls who are “lesbian only during college… was a time for experimentation”, and they can then become gay-hater bigotry-monger housewives. That’s is a HUGE hypocrisy for any society to take in.

But Brazil distilled it into a huge annual holiday, where, each year, catholics ( and other righteous religious people ) can “explore” their wild side unpunished, and after it’s ended, bash the “sinners” who do that everyday without any guilt or judgement. It’s not my fault they picked a religion where eating pork in the wrong day sends you to hell! My religion is actually OK with all the stuff I do.

So, I really despise all that this day represents. Really. We don’t need it, it should be stripped out of the calendar for the good of the country. Maybe we could finally reach a boiling point where people would have to face off why their lives are so miserable, and maybe fix it. But again, Portuguese/Brazilian catholicism is a lot about suffering Martyrdom on your everyday life, and life is supposed to suck ( because heaven is gonna be great, and you have to earn it ), so, maybe I’m wrong and it won’t make a difference.

But a question to my friends in the US ( and everywhere you have self righteous right wing extremist religious groups )… you think if they had a 5-day sin-all-you-want/no-punishments-attached/instant-pardon-get-out-off-hell card period of the year… would you see Reverend Righteous sucking cock on TV? Just food for though

Kisses and happy Carnaval,

Jessica