Pretty in Pink!

Pink Clubwear, originally uploaded by Mini Miu.

One of my crazy pics at the Bodyline groups shoot in Nottingham on 5 June 2011. A lot of the Pink outfit pics didn't turn out that well but I love this one! Thank you, Les Pearson!

BTW, this outfit? It's from Dutch clubwear, Unzipped. (www.unzipped.nl)

Miu's Non-stop Crazy UK Tour

Apologies again for being so slow in updating my blog once again! So many going on!!! I was in the UK early this month and in a space of just over a week, I had SEVEN shoots, two of them group shoots and one studio day. It brought me from London to Gloucester to Nottingham then back to London again then off to Peterborough then Horsham and finally Hastings.

Yep I need to slow down but I enjoyed every moment of it. Knackered? You bet! But it was well worth it, seeing old friends and meeting new faces. Then of course there are the pictures of course, a huge variety of them ranging from fetish, bondage, quirky fashion, swimwear, lingerie, and of course nudes! Heck I can't even remember whom I shot with, I need to keep track but just to be a show off, this is what I been up to:

Fri 3 June: Fetish bondage shoot with Silkgag in Gloucester.

Sat 4 June: Studio Day by Martin Russell in Gloucester with 5-6 photographers

Sun 5 June: Bodyline Studio Group Shoot organised by JD Rose in Nottingham

Mon 6 June: DAY OFF!

Tue 7 June: Fashion-glamour shoot with Adi Dewey in Peterborough

Wed 8 June: Art & nude with Dave Hare in London

Thu 9 June: Fetish bondage with James Delta at Horsham Home

Fri 10 June: DAY OFF!

Sat 11 June: Pony Rescue Group Shoot organised by Jason Wright in Hastings

In the course of the next few days or so, I'll be posting up some edited pictures from these shoots as they come in. And of course do my blog. I also got a huuuge backlog of stuff to write up about from the past shoots!

Keep your eyes peeled guys!!!

Miu Gets Cute and Happy Again!

So for the past many shoots I've been doing quite a bit of art and fetish work. Beautiful and profound. Yet serene and in deep thoughts. Or edgy and even shocking at times. Many are in B&W. Everybody loved that pic of me pointing the gun at the camera! And when was the last time you saw me smiling? When I first started off as a glamour model in 2008 much of my images were perky and quite "girl next door". Then I somewhat got interested in fetish and the creative side to modeling so out went the smile and in came the many other facets of me. The mean bitch with the don't f*** with me attitude. Or the vulnerable victim pleading for her life.

Well now that the warmer months have approached, I figured I would lighten up! I was not looking to do any cheesy glamour stuff. Instead, I wanted something elegant and classy yet fun and simple. In short I wanted to relive the cute and happy side to me. It was through Twitter that Drew Hart and I discovered each other. Drew has done a lot of photography for famous people as well as for theatres so has a knack for capturing models well. This was the perfect opportunity for me to get a few decent headshots which I've recently been lacking. Furthermore, donning some colourful outfits would be another change to my otherwise sombre black or white I typically wear nowadays. The date was set for 14 May 2011.

Drew picked me up from Willesden Junction station and we walked to his house. He was just as friendly and unassuming as I expected and was a jovial person. Apart from his wonderful personality, he's a very talented photographer who clearly knew all about lighting as he was meticulously directing me. The studio was set up in his lounge, and after a cup of coffee, we began. I thought we'd warm up by doing a couple of shots in the outfit I wore.

It didn't take long to warm up as Drew was extremely pleasant to work with. I changed into a banana yellow lingerie set from Agent Provocateur. As the bra was quite see-thru, I initially wore a black sleeveless blouse to cover the areas, so as to make it less "over-18", ie suitable for FB! We also came up with a few sexy shots of me lying down. In between shots, Drew took some headshots of me. One of the most remarkable one was of me in profile which is quite useful to have in my portfolio, quite a change from posing straight in front of the camera.

The next set was swimwear. A change from a skimpy number, I got into a pretty colourful bikini with which I wore some pearls for added elegance. Apart from the usual glamour girl poses, we came up with a lot of unconventional images as Drew would go out of his way to shoot from various angles. One of them was of me shot from above but still being able to see what I'm wearing. That's very unusual especially for a swimwear shot!

The final set was of me in my long black lacy dress from of all places, Ann Summers! I liked it not only because it was sheer but also because it has a slit in the side. Very sexy! We got a lot of wonderful images from this, especially with the headshots. I also liked Drew's ingenious idea of having me shake my head side to side and flicking my hair about as he captured my hair is flowing mid-air.

As we called it a day, we promised each other to shoot again soon when I'm back in the UK. Drew is also London based so it's not a big deal to get to his place, after having discovered that I could take an overground from Shepherd's Bush! After having chosen my images, Drew was very quick to edit them. I was very pleased with the results and look forward to working with him again soon. Thanks, Drew, for the successful shoot!

For more beautiful pictures from this shoot, please have a look at my Flickr page! Further work of Drew's can be seen on his website too.

Emotional Moments: 日本の夢を見ました

It's been over 2 months since the tragic tsunami in Japan. Regretting I had to cancel my trip in the midst of the post-traumatic upheaval, I donated some few hundred pounds to the Tsunami Relief Fund via the British Red Cross. It's not a very large amount, and no amount of money will ever recover the priceless losses and bring back the dead, but it's the only way I can express that my thoughts are with them. It is also wonderful to have friends that share this sort of gesture too. I am proud and wish to share my appreciation of some of my dear friends, Shibari artist/rigger Wykd Dave and his partner model/photographer Clover Fibbs.

Neither Clover nor Dave has ever been to Japan before, but both hold a great fascination for Japan and anything Japanese. Hence Dave's great passion for Shibari and interest in the Japanese language evidenced in practising his hiragana! In view of their grief towards the tsunami victims, they decided to auction one of their prints in which I modelled when I had shot with them a few months ago. It is a limited edition which they named "I dreamed of Japan" or 日本の夢を見ました。(pronounced "Nihon no yume o mimashita")

The auction took place at the Shibaricon in Chicago at the end of May. Apparently well received, the winning bid went to a gentleman known as "The Hammer" and his wife from Baltimore, Maryland for $500. Not only was I chuffed that our print is worth as much as that, but how many went out of their way to bid for a good cause. Proceeds have been donated to the Japanese Embassy in London.

As a sweetener, it was Dave's bright idea that I write a little letter addressing Shibaricon participants in Japanese. Even better gesture was that I handwrite it! It has been a long while since I wrote something as long as that in my own language. However, modern technology has saved me from manually rummaging through my kanji-jiten (a dictionary to help us with the Chinese kanji characters), as I typed it all up on Word and copied it on paper by hand. And thanks to my strict mother for pushing me to calligraphy classes as a kid; I loathed attending it but am so grateful now as it proved useful for the years to come for something as important as this.

I sincerely wish to thank all the bidders for their generousity and compassion. And my hugs and thanks to Clover and Dave for initiating this kind gesture. I am very honoured to have them as my friends.

Getting Naughty in Nottingham: The Final Seduction

Yes I am actually back to shooting again more and more! Some of you may remember the Fetish Group Shoot II at the Blue Carrot Studio back in November (blog) which Jonny Blaze had organised. Well I was so impressed with his work and regretting that we only had a short time to shoot during that group shoot, we kept in touch and decided to do a one-to-one session!

Jonny is also a photographer who is also an artist. Rather than just click away while the model just sits and looks pretty, he has his ideas well thought out and goes for it with gusto. Shooting at a hotel was his idea, in which he initially suggested a vintage lingerie theme. To be honest, I have very little of such outfits so panicked as I started improvising with stuff I

already have, ie. polka dots, lace, corsets... Then during our chats, he changed it to the "stockings and suspenders slut" image. Well that made life easier! The shooting date was set for 15 May 2011. I couldn't wait!

Jonny picked me up at the tram stop at Nottingham Station. What started as a warm sunny start in London turned out to be a cold cloudy day in the Midlands. I should've known! We reached the hotel by the tram, where we were greeted by hospitable staff . The rooms were

a tad smaller than as seen on the website but still adequate enough to shoot Plus, at least the decor was quite pleasant and good enough to use as backdrop with the beds beautifully made.

Jonny brought with him an air pistol (known as a BB gun in the U.S.)

which we thought we'd use as a prop. I would be a femme fatale brandishing the gun wearing nothing but suspenders and stockings looking menancing. Actually, that started reminding me of that controversial French film, "Baise Moi", a Thelma and Louise type film but more violent and sexually explicit. I had so much fun pretending to be one of the girls but a lot nicer of course!

I certainly admire Jonny's spontaneity. During getting changed to the next set, Jonny had this brilliant idea ofme getting behind the sheer net curtain in nude and sticking my body out as much as possible to reveal the curves. After a few play with the lights and my posing, we nailed one good one which we are proud of.

We then proceeded to the next set which I named The Final Seduction. I got changed into a beautiful black corset by Nikita Sablier, also run by a friend who is also a model. The session involved a POV (point of view) shoot where I was supposed to be seducing the photographer as he holds the camera in front of him. There, he used a fish-eye lens to give it a more voyeuristic feel. First, Jonny held the gun to my head and snapped away. It was a sharp contrast to the last set where I was now to look afraid and paralyzed with utmost fear.

This is the part of the job I enjoy most. I love exploring different expressions through the various scenarios. After having the gun in my head, I was then to try and wrangle out of the situation by seducing the attacker so it was jumping from fearful to fearless. From vulnerable to being in control. In fact, the entire set turned out so well, as what helped was Jonny being so easy going and non-threatening with me not feeling a least bit uncomfortable as I would have done had it been another photographer

We were just about to call it a day until Jonny asked me if there was anything else I'd

like to shoot. Well I've come all the way from London to Nottingham on a 2-hour train journey with a night over there so I was certainly determined to make it worth the while! I mentioned a stunning picture of Dita von Tesse in one of her sleazy motel shoots where she is standing on a bedside table in her underwear along with her stockings. So I pulled out a pair of

polka-dotted B&W lingerie and black holdups. Finding the lighting on the bedside table unsuitable, we chose a nearby table. Luckily it had a wall mirror behind it so plenty to improvise with!

It was good I suggested continuing earlier on. As ideas developed, Jonny suggested doing some lying on the bed shots firstly in my outfit which eventually led to shooting nudes later. It was interesting how we managed to capture various moods. Some were dreamy, some edgy, others "come hither". It's wonderful to work with someone that appreciates versatility rather than making images look all somewhat same and stuck in a rut. The post-production was just as impressive. Most were B&W but with the coloured ones, he cleverly manipulated the tones to make them look quite 1970s retro as the nude picture below illustrates.

After the shoot was over and I dressed to warmer clothes, Jonny walked me up to the shops where I could buy some food. We gave each other big hugs and look forward to seeing each other again at another group shoot next month in Nottingham organised by another photographer, James Rose. Mind you, I was so exhausted after this successful and fun shoot, I stayed in the hotel snuggled up watching a string of CSI series. Thanks Jonny for this wonderful day, can't wait to work with you again next month!

For more captivating images from this shoot, please click onto my Flickr page!

A Room with a View with Teemu

It's so exciting to meet and work with various photographers from all over the world. Though I have yet to have the honour to shoot with a Japanese photographer, I have already worked with those from at least 10 different countries in Europe and the Americas living out here. Now added to my list is Teemu R. from Finland who was visiting Amsterdam on business but thought he'd spend his evenings by shooting.

Teemu contacted me out of the blue on MM announcing his visit and interest to work with me. When I perused his work I was well impressed! He manages to capture mesmerising

images by making themsomewhat abstract and certainly artisitic through clever angles, lens type and immaculate lighting. His interest to experiment and create clearly reflects in his work. Of course I wasn't going to pass this opportunity! I was curious as to what sort of images we'd come up with. After exchanging e-mails, we decided to shoot on the evening of 15 March 2o11.

I met Teemu at his hotel in the West part of Amsterdam. Just as I expected, he was very friendly and polite, immediately making me feel at ease. We had already discussed what sort of images we were aiming at so I was able to travel minimally and there was no faffing about. Some black lingerie and simple outfits and a pair each of very high stilettos and knee boots as

well as gloves and collars were all that was needed. The hotel room was very modern and simple which provided a perfect background for edgy images.

We started out first set on the bed. I had a black top and a lingerie "skirt"

which I gradually stripped off. Then the lights were dimmed and we proceeded with shooting some bodyscapes. It's been ages since I done bodyscapes! We were going to do some sets in which I would be standing in front of the big windows but unfortunately the light wasn't right. That said, we captured with a wide-angle lens a really cool image where I'm sitting with legs sprawled apart holding a vintage Ikoflex camera in front of me!

The theme for the next set was fetish. It was so fun having to play role of both domme and sub by wearing nothing but just one item plus shoes. I donned a pair of gloves and a super-high platform knee boots for the domme role, looking mean. Then switched to a sub role by wearing a simple pvc mini skirt and heels, kneeling down with hands tied to the back looking distressed.

We also took advantage of the spacious beautifully-decorated bathroom as a setting. It had black tiles with modern and angular facilities which

provided a perfect backdrop for edgy images. Wearing my boots, I went in nude in the huge empty bathtub sticking my legs out to enhance the monstrosity of the boots. And of course we managed not to miss the crucial "toilet" shot!

The final set was the "shower scene". And what fun that was! I've done shower shots before so it wasn't a big deal but this time, I decided not to get my hair and face wet as I had done in previous ones such as with Thunder UK or for Suite 301. The point was to create sensuality by focussing on facial expressions. Also, I wasn't in the mood to go home in the cold in wet hair

and smudged make-up! The results were intriguing... I loved how Teemu captured the water spraying on me. I think those were my favorite images as they were unusual. You will find more images on the row of images on the right hand side.

I thoroughly enjoyed my shoot with Teemu. He knows exactly what he wants out of the images and sees to it that it's achieved with perfection through meticulous lighting, choice of lens and directing me. He was also very easy to get along with and was interesting to talk to as we exchanged stuff about our own countries. He was very pleased to hear I've been to Helsinki, and I was impressed that he could say "My name is Teemu" in Japanese!

Thank you so much, Teemu, for such a fruitful shoot. Though it took a few months to get the edited pics as he has been busy with work, it was certainly worth waiting for! He plans on visiting Amsterdam again in June, and he has expressed interest to work with me again which am honoured to accept. Fingers crossed, it won't coincide with my travels. Hope to shoot with you soon again!

For more beautiful pictures from this shoot, please check out my Flickr page!

Getting Amsterdamned Outdoors with Kris

Finally getting back to the hang of shooting again! I had 3-days in a row of posing in front of the cameras last weekend: Friday in Germany then back in Amsterdam shooting with a visiting tog from Belgium and finally Sunday in Amsterdam with a local tog. Then this Wednesday, am off to the UK to shoot more next weekend! Wow, am really starting to feel like an international model...

Today's entry will be about my shoot on Saturday. A tog called Kris, known as NDHW Photography from Gent, Belgium contacted me on Fetlife and asked if I'd like to shoot. A lot of his work is dark-toned and subdued, quite moody. And this time, it's rather focussing on composition and story rather than being just about the model which is quite different from what I am accustomed to. Sort of like comparing the paintings of Van Gogh (mellow) with Monet (vibrant). So I thought I'd give it a go. It's always nice to work with photographers of different styles! Kris volunteered to visit Amsterdam on 8 May 2011, hoping to work with another model afterwards which unfortunately fell through.

Kris arrived our house around 9:30am. A very pleasant and laid back guy with hair even longer than mine tied in a ponytail, a true artist with creative ideas. After some coffee and choosing outfits, we ventured off to Westerpark, a park which is about a 15 minute or so walk and much quieter and a more varied venue than the infamous Vondel Park.

It was a very warm day and very sunny, and with no reflectors at hand and no additional lighting equipment, we had to be selective about the ideal place to start shooting.

We had a warm up shoot with me in the green dress I already wearing. I think that was a good idea, rather than jumping straight into a shoot. By then I was comfortable with Kris. He is also very intelligent and quite worldly not to include the fact that his girlfriend is also Asian (a graduate in Gent University from China) which really made conversation stimulating! We strolled around the park and found a building with a fence which made interesting patterns. I quickly changed into a plain black American Apparel black bikini top and hotpants and a small red collar for a fetish twist.

Then was the switch from a domme look to a sub. Previous to our shoot, we discussed the possibility of me crouching helplessly in the bushes in ripped clothes clutching a teddy bear like a lost child. The only problem was, I had no teddy bear but being an avid Hello Kitty collector, I hastily grabbed one of her dressed as a snowman which I thought we could use. The whiteness of Hello Kitty, though, proved too bright on the images and totally distracted everything else from the whole picture so we had to abandon that idea and resort to having me looking lost initially followed by frustration and going mad. And hence the ripped yellow shirt!

We left the park to fetch a bottle of water and proceeded to try out some alleyways underneath the railway bridge. Despite a few passerby's on bikes, we were quite comfortable to shoot there though a little dubious about me going nude. Yes, even I was! I quickly changed into a red PVC bikini top with matching miniskirt with zippers on the side (from Unzippped). Whilst shooting, a couple of guys on a motorcycle stopped by and watched but they were so funny it didn't bother us a least bit. A classic shot was when Kris captured one of me posing with a passing cyclist (see first picture above). In hindsight, it would've been so cool if I had been nude but oh well! Too many passer by's anyway, and it is my neighbourhood in case I'd bump into someone I know...

We searched for the next place to shoot and came across the car-park. Also underneath the railway bridge, the lighting was just as dark. I changed into my pink lingerie set and covered

myself up with a white trench coat. And there I went flashing away. I know, why we didn't think of me doing that in nude makes me wonder... perhaps too many passerbys or I was holding back cuz it was near my house? Nevertheless, we managed to nail some outrageous shots with the naughty element. Perhaps next time I do daring nude shots outdoors we be in another area of Amsterdam? Maybe in the snotty Zuid area which would most certainly uplift those uptight residents!

We then walked home, hoping to capture a few shots in our garden. However, when we got there, the sun was a tad too bright. Although we managed to take a few images there, we had to cut it short and proceed indoors. We did a few images on the bed and intended to make it a fetish scene but unfortunately due to misunderstandings neither of us had any "equip

ment" such as handcuffs and whips which I had left in the UK. Ropes and gags are normally supplied by the photographer. Perhaps in future, it may be wise for me to invest in some as I will increasingly be doing fetish/bondage shoots. Nevertheless, we were able to capture some wonderful nude images combining fetish and erotica, using the bedside lamps as additional lighting! Now that's what I call improvising...

It was about 4pm by the time we decided to call it a day. The day went by so fast! As the model with whom Kris was to shoot that afternoon was a no-show, we were able to extend our schedule. Though the no-show is unfortunate, it goes without saying that it's her loss, our gain! Kris was so fun to work with, and I was very pleased about such a quick turn-around of the pics he edited. He has indicated he would also post me the non-edited ones from which I could choose any other ones I like. Not only is he quick, but he's also generous and fair. I wish other togs would be like him!

We plan on shooting again this summer in the woods. Next time it will be my turn to visit Gent which I've never been. It will be a change, from city to countryside! Also, I will be shooting with another model which should be fun. I very much look forward to that. So thank you so much Kris, I can't wait for this, and look forward to getting the rest of the images!

For more images please check out my Flickr Page!