Melissa W.

   Melissa and I were introduced to each other through another one of my favorite models, Alisha. They were working together at the same hair salon and both Alisha and my friend Kim, who was working their as well, told me that Melissa would be perfect for a photo shoot. They both told me that she was the cutest girl in the world with an amazing figure. Melissa and I went back on forth through texts and set up a shoot. When I first met her all I could think was how right Alisha and Kim were. 
   Melissa's first shoot was early in my glamour days. I was still looking for willing models to build my portfolio and a lot of what I was doing was trying to find my style. Melissa was an amazing subject. I remember after a few pictures commenting to her that her green eyes literally jumped off of the screen. To this day I still am in awe of those beautiful emerald eyes. We had a fantastic shoot and Melissa did one shot that night that 95% of the girls I shot afterwards wanted to recreate. Her stomach shot became known as the "Melissa" shot. It was a simple idea that we did on a whim and thanks to some creative cropping became an instant favorite amongst the girls that I shot. 

  It took almost 2 years until Melissa and I set up another shoot. Not from a lack of trying though. Once again, the wait was worth it. Melissa and I decided on doing a bright, fun shoot. Melissa came to that day with another girl, Colleen, who would end up being another one of my favorite models to work with. The shoot went fantastic as expected and we both agreed that we were going to be doing more shoots as soon as we could. 

  Our next shoot was more of a concept shoot. I asked Melissa if she would be willing to be the guinea pig for 2 ideas I had. One was a crystals idea I had to cover the model with crystals and the other was to use black light paint and black lights to see what we could come up with. We worked together to figure it out and definitely nailed the black light shots. The crystals came out OK but definitely needed some tweaking. Along with some other shots we did that night we got a lot of great images. 

  Then this summer came my absolute favorite shoot with Melissa. Not much needs to be said about it. The pictures say more then enough. This was 2 people completely comfortable with working together and just having fun while shooting. This is how it should be every single time. 

    Melissa, I can not begin to thank you enough for trusting me and for believing in me. You are an inspiration to me. The way you live, free and full of life, should be a model for most anyone to follow. Your smile is like a thousand watt beam and just being around you makes everyone happy. Thank you for being with me from the beginning and staying with me till now. 
    Below is my favorite shot of Melissa. I think it best describes her. Free and alive. A girl with sun kissed skin just enjoying every minute. An incredible girl with a heart of gold who everyone should be lucky enough to know.