I'm sure this will come as a shock to some, but as well as art nude I occasionally photograph fetish and erotica. Not often and only with people who I know are comfortable doing so. One of those is Keira Grant who I've been lucky enough to photograph a number of times over the last few years when she has been in Australia.

One of the local models I photograph often is Sylph Sia, we've done a few shoots over the last few months that I have been a bit remiss in publishing, these are a few from our last couple of outdoor sessions.

Over the years I've gotten to know a number of the local burlesque artists, an advantage of which is that I get to photograph some of their performances from time to time.

Underwater photography is one of my favourite things to do, frustrating at times, but definitely worth it.

Most people I photograph have never modelled underwater before and can be somewhat nervous about it.

Next Wednesday night (13 November) I'll be displaying a few of my limited edition prints in public for the first time at Raw: encompass, and truth be told I'm a little nervous.

I would love to one day hold a solo exhibition of my prints—because truthfully I think they look best large and on the wall—however whether I do or not depends to an extent on how successful Raw is as my first public viewing.

So what can you expect from Raw: encompass?

Not much in the way of words tonight, last week I attended Spin Saturday and these are some of the photos I took.

Around this time back in 2010 I was sitting in a Balinese style shack on the side of a hill overlooking the bay at Mission Beach. I was there to take part in a gathering of art nude models and photographers that I was lucky enough to be able to attend. It was also my first real attempt at underwater photography.

Several times a year I hold special photo sessions around a particular style of photo shoot. The next one will be on the 2nd of November and is an aerial photo session. So, what happens at an aerial photo session?

Photographing events and performances can be very challenging, but also very rewarding. Normally I like to use a very shallow depth of field with a fast enough shutter to stop the motion. With the moving performers, the changing lighting, and shooting wide open, the difference between a photo being good and being crap is a very fine line.

Sometimes freezing motion ends up with a surreal looking photo, so in those cases I'll slow down the shutter a little to about 1/2 a second so that there is a little motion in the photo - particularly in fire performances. There are times though when you want to go for a completely different look, when you want trails and to not see the performers clearly. After a conversation recently, I realised it had been quite some time since I took performance photographs of that nature, so when I went to Nightfest earlier this week I decided to take along a second camera and do some photos with a longer exposure.

Being a model puts you into a vulnerable position (I know there will be some models that disagree with that statement), not just during the photo shoot, but with what happens to the photos afterwards. Sure you can have a written agreement with a photographer, that doesn't mean that they follow it. Then you have the Internet, once a photo is out there you have no control over where it ends up.

As a photographer I try to always keep that in mind, especially when it comes to art nude and fetish photography. Which is why I decided early on to try not to ask models to do anything I wouldn't be willing to do myself, and to occasionally put myself in their place. Given that I am really uncomfortable having my photo taken, that's not always an easy thing to do. (Don't worry, no GWC dick photos in this post)

In the last post I mentioned that my first photo shoot was with Dollybeck, I was able to work with her again a few times over the next couple of years. When you are starting out as a photographer one of the advantages of working with an experienced model is that you get the opportunity to experiment and concentrate on what you are learning, while letting them pose in the best way for the shoot.

I'm sure some of you are wondering why there is no place to comment on my blog, so I thought I would address that early on. I'm also often asked how long I've been photographing people for, in answer to that my very first photo shoot was on the 22nd of October 2007 with Dollybeck and I'm going to embarrass myself by showing you some of the photos.

Şeker Pare is a Canberra based performer that I've had the pleasure of photographing a number of times. Last Sunday was our latest photo session.