The Official Website of
Dennis F. Stevens &
Cinema Arts Productions LLC
Formerly Cinema Arts Productions Inc


Published Playboy Photos Taken By Dennis F. Stevens

How to photograph your wife or girlfriend – nude

 

Lessons from a former, part-time Playboy photographer

 



Dennis F. Stevens moved to San Francisco in early 1958 and wrote comedy material for several night club comedians – including Lenny Bruce, Ronnie Schell, Jackie Gayle and Mort Sahl.  He worked as a part-time missile-tracking cinematographer for Lockheed, at nearby Sunnyvale, and as a contract photographer for Playboy Magazine.  The Playboy assignments lasted on an assignment-by-assignment basis, until the late '90s.     

 

The missile tracking platform Stevens operated was huge and he has said that it was a thrill every time he mounted the platform and seated myself in the control seat – surrounded by two separate, 35mm motion picture camera systems; each of the magazines with 1,000 foot loads, (approximately 9 ½ minutes of film going through the aperture at 90 feet per minute).  Powered by its own internal gas powered 40 amp generator, It was the two large lenses that gave the platform its massive look; one a 500mm and the other 2,500mm; but each with 2X extenders.  

 

Stevens’ job was to control the tracking for the big lens cameras.  Like the ball turret gunner on a WWII B-17, his feet controlled the left – right movement and his hands on the joy stick controlled the up and down movements.  On the joy stick was the trigger that started and stopped the cameras.  All he had to do was keep the gun sight steadily on the target. 

 

The entire system was designed to be taken apart and loaded onto a 10 wheeler for transportation, and then reassembled at the site.  It was often flown aboard a cargo plane – and just as often towed on a trailer behind a pickup. 

 

Stevens’ leisure time during this period was spent racing his Porsche Carrera. 

 

As a member of the Sports Car Club of America, Stevens raced as an amateur on Saturdays while the professionals like Dan Gurney and Sterling Moss raced on Sunday.   Although his racing strategy was to complete the race with as few dents in his Porsche Carrera as possible, he did end up winning a few.  Placing first in Las Vegas during May’s 1960 Helldorado Week was probably his most satisfying. 

 

In San Francisco’s North Beach, writing his own material, Stevens began appearing as the warm-up comedian at the then iconic cellar night club, Purple Onion, managed by Berry Drew – a Barrymore. 

 

It was during this period that Stevens began photographing semi nude military wives and girlfriends wishing to send such photos to their husbands serving overseas.  It was not surprising when Stevens was contacted by Playboy Magazine and offered the job of photographing young women from northern California who had submitted self photographs to Playboy in hopes of being considered Centerfold material.  Stevens’ job was to do a professional shoot of these potential Playboy models to bring out and determine their attributes for appearing in the magazine.  

 

As the same time, Stevens also was active as an advertising print and portrait photographer – even dabbling for awhile in so called baby photography, popular at the time. 

 

 

CAREER AS A PLAYBOY PHOTOGRAPHER

 

In the late 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, although only working part-time for Playboy, Dennis F. Stevens helped shape the Playboy rules for photographing the nude bodies of attractive women.  For instance, as a photographer you could not simply photograph a nude woman standing up and facing you, arms at her side.  Models had to be properly posed – hopefully in exotic environments.  Below are some standard poses Stevens used.   

 

 Remember, lighting is everything. 


The above photos DID appear in Playboy.  Below are some of Stevens’ photos that for some reason or another were rejected by Playboy (i.e.) too old, too young, too fat, boobs too big, boobs too small, boobs failed the pencil test, etc.  What is the pencil test, you ask?   Answer:  You lift up one of your breasts and place a pencil beneath it.  If the pencil stays in place, you’ve failed the famous Playboy pencil test.     

BUSH, LANDING STRIP, OR SHAVED

 

At Playboy there was a lot of controversy over women’s pubic hair.  In the 1960s such photos of pubic hair were known as beaver shots.  Later they were merely called bush shots.  Sometime in the early 1980s woman began to shave or trim their pubic hair with regularity.  A popular trim was a two – to two and- a-half inch wide strip of thick bush known as a landing strip.   

 

Below are some photos of Playboy models Stevens photographed which are sporting a full bush or landing strip.   Once again, remember, lighting is everything. 

Below are some photos of Playboy models Stevens photographed which are shaven.  
EXOTIC BODY SHOTS

 

Below are exotic body shots taken by Dennis F. Stevens – over the years; one or two may have been published in Playboy, most were not. 

NICOLE KELLEY

 

The model Dennis F. Stevens photographed which had the most appearances in Playboy Magazine’s pictorial section was Nicole Kelley. 

 

Stevens first met Nicole around 1978 when she was living with her parents in Brentwood and starting her first year at UCLA.   Off and on since the late 1950s Stevens had worked as a photographer for Playboy Magazine photographing attractive young women for the pictorial section of the magazine.  Nicole was beautiful and soon became a fan favorite.   

 

In her second year at UCLA – and with her seminude pictures gracing the pages of Playboy, Stevens found her a part-time job in the Warner Bros. legal department as a paralegal.  She graduated from UCLA in only three years (consistently on the Dean’s list).  After graduation, Nicole continued working for Warner Bros. but now full time in the publicity and distribution departments.  And, of course, Stevens continued photographing her for Playboy. 

 

Then, in 1994, after 16 years Nicole decided she was getting a little long in the tooth to continue being photographed in the nude and put an end to her career as seminude model.  She went to work for Simon & Schuster in Manhattan, in a building located just across the street from the Fox News Channel.  Nicole has since retired and lives in her townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, next to Riverside Park. 

 

Below are some photographs Dennis F. Stevens took of Nicole Kelley specifically for Playboy; which were published.  Some are snapshots taken for other purposes.  Although she made good money from Playboy, Nicole was never a centerfold. 

Few, if any photos of Nicole Kelley submitted by Stevens were ever rejected by Playboy – but the following are some that were – for whatever reason.    

VERONIK

 

Veronik was not a model and never posed for Playboy.  She was the French interceptor and production assistant on the 1978 TV shoot of several major French wineries (including Lafite, Mouton, Margaux, La Tours, & Haut Brion) Stevens directed and (together with the iconic food and wine critic, Robert Lawrence Balzer) wrote the TV commercials – aimed for the Far East and Australasia markets.  However, in exchange for copies of the photos, Veronik encouraged Stevens take candid photos of her in seminude poses.   Stevens did his best to keep the relationship on a professional basis. 

 

Today, 2019, at 61 years of age, Veronik told Stevens she looks back fondly on how she looked 41 years ago.  Here are some examples. 

 

MILITARY WIVES & GIRLFRIENDS

 

In the late 1950s, Stevens teamed with another San Francisco photographer and opened a San Francisco, North Beach studio to take photographs of seminude wives and girlfriends of military personnel – to send to their husbands and significant others stationed overseas.  Here are a few examples.  Again, lighting is crucial.  

While his religious and beloved mother was alive, Stevens never let on to anyone that he was an occasional photographer for Playboy; which discovery would have hurt her deeply.        

 

 

RANDOM PLAYBOY PHOTOS

 

The following are a series of photographs submitted to Playboy Magazine over the years by one of its contract photographers – Dennis F. Stevens; none of which were ever published. 

IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT, UNAUGMENTED, BREAST

 

EXPERIMENTAL SHOTS

 

The following photographs were taken by Stevens in an attempt to perfect his craft and perfect his lighting skills.  Most of the models were French or military wives or girlfriends of military personnel living in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

 

WOMEN IN THEIR 50s WHO STILL HAD IT

 

Often Stevens showed up at a location to photograph a potential Playboy model only to find that the subject was in her 50s.  Since Playboy had sent him, although he knew the model would be rejected, in order to collect his fee and expenses he had to go ahead and make the best of it.  Some of these old broads (a Sinatra phrase) would certainly have made the cut 30 years earlier.  Here are a few examples. 

 

With the above as a guide, it’s time you take your cell phone camera and go to work preserving the images of your wife or girlfriend while she is young and sexy.  Just make sure she’s of age before photographing her.  If you plan on publishing any photos, you might want to get a model release.  

 

 

All participants appearing herein signed consent forms.

Stevens does not claim the right to sell any of the photos

herein, only the right to publish them on this Website.