Stagg Street

Navigating the members area at this site is a real no-brainer. The primitive design is a throw-back to the websites of the 1990s, and it has a basic-HTML look that'll leave you feeling nostalgic. But its simplicity, quaint as it may be, is sometimes more of a hindrance than a convenience.

The video and picture sections of the site illustrate this point perfectly. Updates are spread out over a series of pages, usually around 10 updates per page, and you're given only two buttons to navigate: "next" and "previous." Don't think that's a big deal? It is.

Imagine you're on page 23 but you want to skip back directly to page 2, so you can scope out that gallery you really liked. Only a click away, right? Wrong. You're going to have to wade your way back through those 21 pages. By neglecting to link to each page, they've turned browsing content becomes into a tedious chore.

There are currently 248 photo galleries there. The amount of pictures per gallery varies, with sets containing as few as eleven while others have thirty. A good rule of thumb would be to expect an average of twenty images per gallery.

I'd probably be bitching about the lack of an option for download full galleries, if it weren't for that being overshadowed so heavily by there being only one resolution option for images. Hey, 1080x720 pixels is nothing to laugh at, but it's a hell of a long way from what I expect in a site whose staple is their pictures.

However, the pictures were stunning. She always manages to get "the" shot, even if she has to use every possible location and lighting technique at her disposal. There are some scenic/nature shots, the kind you'd probably expect, but she often departs into grittier areas — industrial and urban decay.

Ellen Stagg is a heck of a photographer. As I browse her work, I feel myself becoming immersed in her world. She doesn't rely on fancy technical or post-processing techniques, but she get some great shots, nonetheless. It's clear she has more than just a working understanding of focal length, shutter speed, and aperture. Her shots have a great visceral impact, often playing with angles, light and shadows.

In one set she used slow shutter speeds, gravity, and a girl's hair to get some creative shots. In yet another, Athena Fetale — a spunky young beauty with an fetish for tattoos — is shown naked, lounging on fluffy white couch in front of a big picture window. The views were magnificent, and there were some frightening closeup shots of Athene perched atop the couch. Zoom lens in place, the borders of the window no more, it's as if there were no window at all. I was momentarily convinced Athena had performed a death-defying stunt.

The models are pretty much an even mixture of girl-next-door types and smokin' hot bad-girls with tattoos and piercings. But no matter what their fashion preferences or lifestyle may be, they all have one thing in common: they look real. Sure, there are a few porn stars. But for the most part, these are just like the girls you pass every day on the street ... well, the hot ones.

Don't expect any intercourse. These are mostly just solo nude sets, with girl-on-girl and light bondage sprinkled about. Oh, when I say girl on girl, don't expect two droolers chowing down on each other's axe wounds. For the most part it's kissing and light petting, never actually touching each other's genitals.

As of this moment there are 102 videos. I was surprised to find that there's no option for downloading these movies. Your only choice is streaming the them in an embedded player that's mediocre at best. The resolution is tiny, and they won't let you fast forward in a video — even if it's fully loaded. I also had some serious buffering issues a few times.

The clips, themselves, are composed exclusively of live footage of the photo shoots. Expect to hear the click of the camera's shutter, people chatting, and all other manner of background noise. All in all, I find these videos more interesting than boner-inspiring.

There's not much in the way of extras. There is a store, though, and inside you can purchase your very own copy of "Stagg Street" the book. It contains 100 pages of shots, handpicked by none other than Ellen Stagg herself. The price of the book ranges according to weather or not you want the 8x10 or 11x13, but you can expect to pay at least 103.00 USD. The bright side is that a minimum purchase gets you 6 months free membership, and if you spend 153.95, you get a year. I can't vouch for the quality, as I myself have never seen the book physically. I'm sure it would make an interesting conversation piece.