Category Archives: Photography

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all Asian Sirens members and visitors!

The pictures above were taken around Halloween time back in 1998 at the annual Exotic Erotic Ball in the San Francisco area. I actually tried doing a google search looking for Asian models dressed up for Halloween but found nothing. I then tried to search asianthumbs.org for Halloween and got back one result which pointed me to an entry about the Exotic Erotic Ball so I figured I would just got ahead and post my own photos instead.

Just a little background, these photos were taken with my first digital camera that arrived in the mail the day before the event. I actually took my first photos with the camera at the event.

For more photos, click on

2sexygirls

sheerdelight

blacklace

There are 24 more photos that I took at the 1998 Exotic Erotic Ball including larger size versions of the photos in the cover pic at my Exotic Erotic Ball 1998 set on flickr.com

Relevant links:

My Exotic Erotic Ball 1998 set on flickr.com
Exotic Erotic Ball thumbnail photo galleries found by searching asianthumbs.org

Classic Glamour Photography: Pacific USA ’96 Calendar

Sung Hi Lee

Regular readers will know of my boredom with much of the current glamour photography emanating from the US, and as a semi-pro photographer myself (you can see my work at Sachiko McLean‘s site) I’m not just an armchair critic! So I thought it would be interesting and instructive to do a post about what I consider to be great glamour photography, and what I think makes it great glamour photography. And what better example to use than the photo that introduced many of us to the model who inspired the launch of Asian Sirens? I am of course talking about Sung Hi Lee, and her appearance on the cover of (and inside) Pacific USA‘s 1996 calendar.Although Sung Hi had already shot for Playboy by this time, it was her appearance in this calendar that really kick-started her modelling career. Of course you would expect good results from the combination of arguably the top Asian glamour model in the world with arguably the top Asian glamour model photographer in the world (Adam Yurman). But in this case I think the results are even greater than the sum of the parts, as Sung Hi was really in her prime and Adam had gained enough experience by this time to do great work, but still had enough time to make every shot the best he could do. But what exactly is it that makes this photo so great?

Of course every great photo starts with a great idea, and the bright, beautiful, yet simple backdrop of the poppy field certainly makes for a good start. However, Adam and his makeup artist (Anny Kim) really made the most of this in their choice of Sung Hi’s bikini. In fact, I think her bikini goes so well with the background that the result is better than if Sung Hi had been nude! Even the lines of the bikini are a perfect match for Sung Hi’s body and her pose in the photo. Indeed, the pose itself also makes the most of Sung Hi’s body.

Then there’s the attention to detail. For one thing, every hair on Sung Hi’s head seems to be perfectly placed to make the most of her pose – for example, her hair is swept back in the same direction as her stance. But the piece de resistance has to be the poppies in Sung Hi’s hands. This adds a certain delicacy to the photo, and simultaneously draws attention to Sung Hi while linking her with the background. Great stuff!

Adam got such great results with Sung Hi that she appeared no less than three times inside the calendar itself, and every photo is a winner. But for my money Sung Hi wasn’t the only standout in the calendar – he also got a couple of absolutely sensational shots with Hawaiian model Joy Nakagawa. Check this one out:

Joy Nakagawa

Isn’t that just beautiful? I really love the drama in this photo – Adam must have reeled off lots of shots to catch her hair blowing so perfectly (or he got very lucky)! Classic glamour photography at its very best. I always thought Joy was one of the most underrated Asian models of all time actually – look out for another post on her soon.

As alluded to above, photography at this level takes a lot of time and effort. And sadly, in the internet age this is usually no longer possible. Personally I’d prefer to join a site with a few thousand great photos rather than a site with a few hundred thousand mediocre ones. After all, how many pics can you look at anyway? But as comsumers have largely opted for quantity over quality, photographers have had to respond to this demand. So whereas before they would only have posted their best shots, they now have to post anything that’s just satisfactory.

Hence the monotony and lack of creativity in much of current US glamour photography (where most stuff for the internet is done). Even Adam is no more immune to this market reality than anyone else. And even worse, mediocre photographers are often able to get work just as easily as good or even great photographers, as mediocre work is all they are required to do. I don’t know about you, but I find this very sad and depressing. But until consumers start rewarding photographers for producing the best quality photos, I can’t see this changing any time soon.

Mongolian bongo pics

Mongolian bongo

I can’t read Russian so can’t write much about this page full of pictures of naked Mongolian ladies posing outside in what looks like very cold weather. If anyone reads Russian, maybe they can provide a translation. Unfortunately, the page doesn’t come up with pictures if you run it through the web based language translators and I believe most people here would be more interested in the pics anyway.

I noticed that there hasn’t been a lot of nudity on Asian Sirens lately so figured it was a good time to post this.

I will leave you with another photo which links to the source of these photos:

Mongolian bongo

Asian girls @ Flickr.com

Photography: n.e.w.works @ Flickr.com

While surfing and exploring the options of Flickr.com I came across their public groups. And for Asian girl lovers there is enough to see! We have got the Girls of Japan group, the Asian Girls group and the Girls of Asia group. I think the ‘Girls of Japan’ group really contains some great artistic material!

The photo I used for this item is a good example. It is a photo taken by n.e.w.works from Tokyo, Japan. Check out his other photo’s on Flickr.com.And of course the nice shots by Maxx Manboeuf are still there. Enjoy!