Recommended Site: AbbyWinters.com

Rather than shovel links into a blogroll, I'm trying to also post reviews of the sites I link to. Here's my take on www.AbbyWinters.com, one of my favorite websites.

For better or worse I've enjoyed sexual imagery for as long as I can remember. On the other hand I don't have a lot of patience with conventional pornography. (Actually does anybody admit they do? I don't think I've ever run into anyone who claims they like photos of overinflated boobs, tattooed eyelids, grossly outstretched tongues, and especially high heeled shoes in bedbut somebody's got to be paying for it because the internet's awash in those kinds of images. But I digress...)

I *really* like Abby Winter's website, www.abbywinters.com because she doesn't like that stuff either. (She's sworn never to photograph anyone wearing high-heels in bed.)

Instead Abby photographs ordinary, healthy, attractive, naked women (roughly college age, generally Australian) doing familiar things in familiar settings. She has a studio but more often she photographs her models in their own homes.

She's an excellent photographer with a background in theater lighting. That’s reflected in the quality of her pictures. She’s also enjoys pornography herself. That’s reflected in the style of her pictures.

Abby posts one to two sets of very large, high-definition photos daily. Her prices are very reasonable, her customers polite (on the associated forums), her website is well designed, and her staff is personable. Subscribe for three months in a row (or pay for three months all at once) to gain access to the "Gold" section.

The videos on the site (she doesn't shoot them herself) range from giggly/shy jumping on the bed to very intimate leave-the-camera-running masturbation and sex. I'm not a particular fan of videos. I like Abby's because they tend to make the model's personality available. It's a pretty nice bonus for those of us who prefer woman-next-door sorts of erotica.

I also like Abby because she's pretty outspoken about what she thinks, what she does and doesn't like, what she does and doesn't do, and best of all *why.*

Great line in the forums from one of Abby's early staffers:

You mentioned that there has to be "human sexual energy". I don't think I've ever been turned on while at a shoot (ok...maybe Petra...), and even if there was that energy or tension, the model would most certainly freak out - she feels completely vulnerable in the situation. We leave the "energy" up to them!!

Great line from "Video Dude," evidently the only man on Abby's staff (the photo in question shows a panty-clad woman's legs and behind as she leans out a window to pick up (I think) her cat:

I've been busy making this wallpaper today, which I thought would be very amusing to have on one's desktop.

But Abby wondered if some may consider it as inappropriate. The argument being it's out of context from the shoot; and it centers around a single bodypart and not the model as a person; and it's a sexually oriented bodypart, as opposed to e.g. an eye or a belly button.

My argument is, it's funny, and cute, and relatively harmless. Certainly it's not anything explicit or gratuitous (depending on your definition of 'gratuitous').

What do you think? Please tell us your own views, as well as what you think others may infer from it.

Great line from Abby:

Although it may not be PC to say it, the less turned on I am, the better the pics will turn out, cos I will focus on capturing good images of a gorgeous model, not sating my own needs by using the telephoto lens to zoom in and see what she had for breakfast.

I still haven't figured out which way I want to go with this weblog. I especially haven't mastered responsible filtering technology like NannyNet and ICRA. Until I do I won't post any pictures on this site and so I won't post samples of her work either. You can visit the guest section of her website, though, and see for yourself.

It's a great website.

Full disclosure: I've occasionally exchanged email with Abby and I've contributed -- sometimes heavily though not lately -- to the forums on her site (under the name Talking Figleaf.) Although she has in the past waived my subscription fees I'm currently a paid subscriber. One of these days I might join her affiliation program, which would generate a little revenue to help support this site, but, at the moment anyway, I'm not going to get compensation if you click through to her site from here.

Update: Well that's weird. This site hasn't been online more than three weeks and Google's already indexing it! Based on search strings in my log files it looks like a lot of you looking for Abby and finding me. If so then sorry for the detour -- you probably want to go here instead.

Update: This was one of my earliest posts on this site and I wrote it in a hurry. I keep coming back to tweak it because while it says what I wanted to say I don't think it says it particularly well. If anyone ever links and/or trackbacks to this page I'll observer proper blog etiquette and quit fiddling with it.