The utterance of "Calendar", almost always brings to mind the beautiful scantily clad women in swimsuits.  Many companies have put females in swimsuits to grace their advertising calendars: Michelins tires, Snapon Tools, and of course Sports Illustrated.

Famous models have their own swimsuit calendars.  Found on every newsstand are dozens of different formats in varying degrees of undress.   Oh.. I am not putting them down.. I enjoy the female figure, and many of these are exaggerations of perfection... Exotic backgrounds, places we dream of going to... And maybe dream of that beautiful model being  there when we arrive!

When I announced that I was doing the "Classic Car 2001" calendar and it was not going to be a swimsuit calendar, lots of people thought I had truly reached that age of senility. A car calendar without bathing beauties!!!!  What a waste of time... But I went ahead.

The idea was to have the model costumed close to the year of the feature car for that month... The T Model ford was of the Flapper era,1920's,  and thus the dress of the girl buying vegetables at a road side stand was the straight dress.  The 1957 Thunderbird was close to today's shorts and top... So that was easy....  What did people wear??  We researched mostly in the Sears Catalogs. The newest car was a 1965 Mustang.  And another easy job to costume. Then came the 1931 Plymouth, and it was a natural for the Bonnie and Clyde look, including the guns.  (Related:  How to protect your photos)

But does it sell?    I know it was easy to get volunteers to be models.  An extra plump leg or waist was not a drawback,   I was extremely pleased with the quality of models that came forward.

A strange turn of events with the project was that one of the models has become the subject of my next calendar. Yes you guessed it "A Swimsuit Calendar"...Joanne is her name and a very beautiful lady she is.  (Related:  How to buy swimwear)

I would love to photograph Japanese women best of all.  I am always on the lookout for a beautiful subject to put in front of my camera.

Have you ever photographed that girlfriend as a beauty queen?  Bikini or ball gown, these tips work with either.  And if you are a model posing for photos, we have tips too.

Tip 1: Watch for the background.   I like a very plain background, best if it is not near my subject. Let the camera have a chance to put it out of focus..  I don't like the background to be bright and the rest dark... Your eye goes to the bright part of the picture, and if the background has a lot of bright spots in it, then the eye will go there.

Tip 2: Make sure the model is comfortable and sometimes,  not looking at the camera.  A playful, non-posed photo is usually the best.

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