Best job in the world? Maybe not.

(If you're here after reading this week's "Jake's Take," you might be looking for the post below on the photo retouching process)

Okay, time to come clean. If you paid attention to the small print in the swimsuit section, you'll notice that I took all the pictures.

Awesome, right? Best job on the planet! Think again. Pictures are deceiving.

Don't get me wrong. I love taking the photos, and I'd gladly do it again (and probably will), but the fun is that goofy sort of "hey, let's make you look beautiful while cracking bad jokes" deal, not the "oh my God, she's so hot, I'm such a cool photographer, we are exuding a look of sex that can be seen from the space shuttle" fun.

First, several of the women had never done this kind of posing before, and though I've shot a lot of photos (buy one if you'd like), I'm still relatively new to the female glamour photography scene. They were nervous, my mind was racing with thoughts of poses, angles, lighting and all the technical minutae from f-stops to aperture settings.

Second, take one of the outdoor shoots. It's August, a hundred-plus degrees. We're out in it, sweating. It's me, at least one assistant, the model, a friend or two of hers, and in one case three young children.

There are gnats and mosquitoes, all doing the South Georgia thing on us. On top of that, because of the way sunlight works on this planet, we're either shooting around 8 a.m. or 7 p.m., and trying like hell to get as many shots as we can (usually 100-200 or so) done before either the sun gets too high (harsh shadows) or sinks below the horizon (too dark to shoot without massive lighting rigs).

The whole time, we're talking, swapping stories, coming up with ideas for new shots, and giving uncomfortable directions. Not uncomfortable as in "how about a cleavage shot," but as in "okay, twist your hips a bit to the left, but keep your shoulders pointed to the right... yes, I know you're not meant to bend that way. It'll look great."

For some shots, I had to jump in a pool or splash around in the ocean. Ordinarily, that's fun, but not when you're holding $1,000-plus in camera equipment that doesn't like to get wet.

And the indoor shoot? Get the lights pointed the right direction. Bounce the flash off the reflector right... there. Move that reflector about six inches up. Good. Is the air conditioning on? These lights are boiling hot!

You get the idea. In short, swimsuit shoots are pretty much the un-sexiest thing on the planet, but a lot of frenetic, creative fun.

When we do the second annual one, we're shooting the pictures in the early Spring, then publishing them in August.

After all the shooting comes culling through the photos to find the "winners," then the whole retouching process - read on to the next post to find out more about the nuts and bolts of that.