The Portland Pin-Ups Team
Mike. Photographer. Artist. Dogs Body. Chief Bottle Washer…
In a world where every cell phone has a better camera than most professional digital ones from only 10 years ago, it’s important to know, and trust, the photographer you choose to create portraits for you isn’t a fly-by-night cowboy who will meet you in Starbucks with the camera he got for Christmas!
Mike’s photographer career began many moons ago (in the mid 1990’s) while working as a lead retoucher for Europe’s largest publisher in London. Retouching images from photographers from around the world, he was convinced he could “do better!” - so after a trip to the local camera store a new hobby, and a lifelong obsession began. Of course, it was nowhere near as easy as he had thought and a respect for fellow photographers soon followed. After tagging along with the photographer at his friend’s wedding, he set off on his first professional photographer journey and has captured over 200 weddings since, as well as babies, families and motor racing.
Portland Pin-Ups began when a young pin-up model from Portland, Cherry Dollface, came to the studio to help test some lighting and showed Mike some basic pin-up poses. He was instantly hooked and his passion soon took complete hold and a new business was born. Marrying together his skills as a retoucher and photographer, he created a brand new niche of photography – one that has been imitated and mimicked ever since! While other photographers can certainly copy his lighting, retouching and maybe even a few of his poses, there is only ONE Portland Pin-Ups!
Years later, pin-ups have taken him around the world presenting workshops to photographers in Canada, Australia and on a 13 city tour around America. and also presented a platform class at the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographer’s convention in Las Vegas for 4 years running.
Mike Says: “I have been lucky enough to have had two births – the first was in the very early 1970’s in England. I lived a very happy, if somewhat beige life, settling in London where I lived for over 10 years. I was then reborn when my wife and I moved to America where my life has taken many twists and turns, and has certainly been full of color! I’m what I consider to be a “born again” American – I chose to be here! (and yes, I’m a citizen, and very proudly so) Shortly before moving to the Pacific northwest we had our first baby, and shortly after we arrived we added another, both boys full of energy, questions and funny smells! I stood on stage at the MGM feeling like Elvis. I’m sure at least 20% of the audience understood my accent!
I like sunlight, my son’s laugher, chocolate and am firmly stuck in the late 80’s music-wise. Bon Jovi were always my favorite band, before Jonny Boy turned them into an elevator music knockoff.
Oh, and #superman”
Nicky. Hair styling, make-up artistry. Bombshell.
Nicky is one of our resident hair and make-up stylists, and is frigging awesome. She’s loud, fun and never boring. Ever. She’s like a cyclone and a hurricane all wrapped up in one Bombshelltastic bundle. Nicky’s favorite sessions are around Halloween where she often arrives at the studio covered in blood…or at least with some kind of weapon to extract blood….
Nicky says: “I’m awesome…bitches”
Erienne. Hair styling, make-up artistry. Bombshell.
Erienne is the other half of our hair and make-up team and is our chameleon / classic pin-up girl. In all the years Erienne has been a Bombshell, her hair has never been the same twice and it’s always a surprise when she arrives! Always full of creative ideas, Erienne embodies the true 50’s pin-up, and has starred in over 180 Portraits for the studio!!
Erienne says: "Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." ~ Marilyn Monroe
Katie. Cheerleader. Bombshell.
Katie is our “girl next door” pin-up! She first appeared at our door wanting to create an album of classic pin-ups, and a year later was invited back to join the team! She’s since been to Vegas with us a bunch of times to play on stage in front of hundreds of photographers and along the way has picked up a new husband, bought and sold a business and created another!
Katie says: “Katie Layne-Forty and fabulous, aka: Mrs. H, a Second Grade Teacher. I’ve been part of the PPU Family for 10 years now! I’ve had a love of the 40’s & 50’s as long as I can remember. First coming to Portland Pin-Ups as a client, I soon after joined as the ‘Girl Next Door’ Bombshell 💋”
The Portland Pin-Ups Bombshells
The Portland Pin-Ups Bombshells are our resident models, helping refine ideas and poses and keeping our portfolio of artworks looking awesome. Our current team of Bombshells are three crazy ladies who all happen to be previous clients of ours! Each chosen to represent a different type of pin-up, they work hard on their outfits and help Mike flesh out new ideas before we unleash them on the public.
Our Bombshell models often cause some confusion, so maybe a little explanation as to what, who and why they are with us!
Portland Pin-Ups started when Mike was testing some lighting for weddings (he shot weddings back then, and has actually photographed over 200 special days) and local model, Cherry Dollface came along to pose for him. After the testing, Cherry suggested they do some pin-up, since that’s what she did. An hour later, Mike was hooked on pin-ups, and it became his obsession. Two other local models joined that year, Mandy Apple and Dottie Diamond. Between the models and Mike, they created some fun, silly, nostalgic and unique portraits – mainly just for fun, and for Mike to flex his artistic muscles.
As time went on, the public started to become interested and requests for pin-up sessions started to rise. Over the following few years, this quickly became Mike’s speciality and he devoted all his time to creating a full time pin-up studio. With clients taking up the bulk of the time, model shoots started to tail off. In the last two years though, Mike realized that the model shoots were essential to the company for a few reasons.
First, we have clients from all walks of life, and even though the art we create isn’t really what you’d call ‘risqué’, some of our clients don’t want their portraits splashed over the internet. So we need fresh and new work to show the world on a regular basis.
Second, while Mike has a (very) over-active imagination, and an idea list that could stretch to the moon, creative people love to spur off of others, and as a team we come up with a final idea that is often better than when first conceived.
Finally, every artist needs to let off steam now and then, and model sessions allow Mike to have fun and create without the pressure of supplying a final product for a client.
With all that in mind, Mike began to see the value of having a ‘team’ of models that can help represent the studio, come up with ideas, look fabulous and help to show what’s possible – and the Portland Pin-Ups Bombshell Models were born.
Little known fact – all of our current Bombshells are actually ex-clients! Part of the reason they are chosen is that Mike has had the opportunity to see how they take direction and how they contribute to the creative process.
Please note – we have a full team of Bombshells and are not currently accepting new applications – please do not ask if we need models, or offer to model for us.
Our current team of Bombshells are Nicky, Erienne and Katie. Previous Bombshells include: Kim and Johanna, who were both our Blonde Bombshells, as well as being on-set posing guides, and who both moved away from Portland and Emilia, who joined us briefly in 2021 and 2022. Before they were called Bombshells, the original models that helped get the studio running are Cherry, Mandy, Dottie and Satheara. The gallery below includes artworks of ALL Bombshells, past and present!
