my first venture into semi-sensual photography

Ushabelle S. Bongo Photography

Models: Sunshine Barz and Sarah Pepito

MUA: Vien Cabilin

This photo is from one of  the latest and best practice-shoots I've had. I am so very grateful to my models for daring to bare it for the shoot :) Brave souls, haha.

Anyways,  I've always wanted to try out something like this, a lot of skin and just raw beautust light make-up and with minimal post-processing. 

I was originally aiming to have a  completely nude shoot. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a girl willing to fully strip off for me (haha, that sounds so perveted XD) for free. So I settled with the next best thing: semi-nudity. Thus the term, semi-sensual photography. Semi-sensual photography is similar to pseudo-nudity. Semi, as in partly sensual-cause it's not really full-blown sensual.;P Pseudo-nude, because the models aren't really nude. I just made them appear nude in the photos by having them wear tube tops and framing the shots above the hemline of their tops. XD

 I decided to pursue this area for 3 reasons. 1st, because I've always been aesthetically-oriented,I am  particularly fascinated by the human figure.  I am very into shapes, figures, beauty and oddity-and the human body has a plethora of that.  I recognize beauty easily even in the smallest and simplest of things. I am greatly appreciative of how a thing, a place or a person looks-its aesthetic. Some would say that I am "mubu ug kalipay".  haha. In English  that would roughly mean,that  I get interested,impressed and fascinated easily.  Others see this as being shallow. From how I see it, it's quite au contraire, because appreciation roots from awareness. I easily appreciate things, because I am aware of their whats and hows. Oh well, as I always say, prejudice is only ignorance.  

2nd reason:  I wanted to try this because I'm all about experimenting at this stage-as I have yet to determine my photography philosophy and trademark style.  So I'm tryingto venture into different genres and post-processing procedures to find out how I really want my images to look and what would be the coherent factors to all my future works. Which is why despite, time constraints and parental restrictions, I really pushed to make this shoot possibl e. And good that I did, because this shoot made me realize that I actually like and very much enjoy  taking portraits (Initially, I had trouble framing the subject, choosing  from what angle to shoot, how to manipulate the light to my liking, how to direct poses and all) and it also challenged me and pushed me to find ways to get the photo right-composition-wise, lighting-wise. It gave me solutions to my past dilemmas. In the end, it was a fun learning experience and it was definitely worth it. I received good reception for my  photos not just from friends but also from people in photography whom I look up to. yey!

3rd reason: I wanted to make images that are compelling to look at and has a compelling story to tell. And I think the two almost naked women is visually compelling and conveys an equally compelling story. But,  I do hope you get the story in this image though. The devil is in the details they say, so check their eyes-what are they telling you? the body language-what message is it trying to mediate? The background- how does it support the overall mood of the image? and shit like that. ;)

So yeah there go. I'm glad I explored this area. I'm planning to have another one with hopefully more skin. :)

note to readers: the above-mentioned fancy terms (semi-sensual and pseudo-nude) may not be genuine photography terms. XD I just made them up , or atleast I  think they aren't really real, since I haven't heard of 'em. XD