A little late in posting this as I’ve been putting together a new gallery. Now that it’s up and working I have a few backlogged shoots to post about. Back in May I found myself in southwest Virginia and specifically in the lovely little town of Blacksburg for a few days. While there I had a chance to shoot with the lovely Rachel.
Working with models while traveling gives the chance to work with new models and the interesting challenges that come from limited equipment. In this case I only had what I could fit in a camera bag and part of a suitcase. The first problem that comes up usually is location and in this case we actually did the shoot in my hotel room when a hoped for spot fell through at the last minute.
Working in a hotel room is especially challenging given the small space of many hotel rooms. In this case I had Rachel, myself, and the friend she brought to the shoot leaving us a tight space. The key as in any shoot is to make your location work for you and not against you.
A few of my favorite photos and some thoughts about them.
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Rachel is a model with experience doing nude work. She’d brought a friend with her to the shoot so I wasn’t worried about making her feel safe as much as making her feel comfortable working with me. I usually do this by starting with some non-nude work. It gives me a chance to build some interaction with the model in a more relaxed environment than when the clothes come off. I also thought that lingerie images would go well with the bedding of this hotel room. I think the expression on her face sells this one as it adds a sense of playfulness sexiness to it. The lighting for the photo was done by pointing a Canon 580 Speedlight on the camera hot shoe straight up where it bounced off the ceiling and then down onto her. |
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Here Rachel is posed next to a window. It was late evening when we did the shoot and we had bright indirect sunlight coming in the window to the room. For most of the shoot I left the curtains closed, but for a series of shots I placed her at the window lit only by the sunlight coming in. The room was on the second floor and looked out over the mostly empty parking lot of an apartment complex. While comfortable working nude, Rachel did have some concerns about being seen from outside standing next to the window so we left the translucent curtain in place. In this photo I like the way the shadows clearly highlighting her curves and general form along with the sad look on her face. I intentionally broke one rule by cropping away space she’s looking into in favor of show the emptiness behind her which I think gives it more of a lonely feel. |
I also enjoy these more candid type images (hence the title of this blog). It looks like it could be a picture of Rachel getting ready for her day or even a background photo taken while getting ready for the shoot. Someone asked me if I thought of taking out the tattoo, but I like the aspect of her personality that it gives to the image. The photo is of Rachel’s reflection in the bathroom mirror. The biggest problem in taking this photo was finding an angle I liked while keeping myself out of the reflection in the tight quarters of a hotel bathroom.