Aeyla's First Studio Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

Aeyla is one of the most influential models I have ever worked with; though we only worked together four times in 1997, the images that she modeled for helped catapult my vision forward. Pleased with the images, Aeyla had hoped to model for me over the fall and winter of 1997, but for various reasons, it was a year and a half later that Aeyla and I finally managed to work together in the studio.

4"x5" film

Most of the session explored focus shift, the work of the past three weeks still fresh in my mind and I felt strongly that I had not fully investigated the possibilities. Aeyla had never worked in a studio before, and had a hard time adjusting to the new environment. Like me, she far prefers the outdoors; she found modelling alone under the lights a much less comfortable experience. She persevered, however, and the success of the first two images owe as much to her willingness to work hard as they do to my pushing technical boundaries.

4"x5" film

Much of the power of these photos is lost on the Internet - the soft gradations of the blurred skin and cloth are simply untranslatable through this medium. With the image to the left, the only point in focus is Aeyla's right breast and the background on the left side. The rich shadows in the cloth mirrors those cast on Aeyla's torso, something I spent some time creating using the controls available in the studio. An image like this would have been impossible with available lighting, where I would have had little control over direction or intensity.

Cheryl in the Studio (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

Often when I work with models, I cannot afford to make the assumption that they will work with me Omore than once. This colours the way I work, and often prevents me from having the leisure to experiment. Cheryl  has been very generous in her support of my work, however, and has offered to model on a regular basis over the winter (and hopefully beyond), which allows me the freedom to experiment and push the work forward.

The images utilizing focus shifts, which I made earlier in January have continued to drive me, and during this session with Cheryl, almost everything we did revolved around distorting focus and playing with the depth of field.

4"x5" film

Because a view camera's lens and film are independent of one another, it is possible to tilt or swing either one to distort the plane of focus. Usually this is done to increase depth of field, thereby compensating somewhat for the longer lenses used with view cameras (almost all my studio images using the 4"x5" view camera are made with a 210mm lens). With the focus shift images, however, I take the photographs in the other direction, forcing portions of the image out of focus and keeping the plain of focus as narrow as possible.

4"x5" film

On the whole, I am far more satisfied with these images than with most previous studio images I have made. I realize that the focus shift aspect to the images may wear thin after a time but, for now, I plan to pursue this approach until I really feel I have used it to its full potential. The only frustration I am having at the moment is that I suspect some of this work would really sing in colour, and focus shifts of this kind are not available on 35mm cameras. I may have to try some experiments using the 120 roll back, though these focus shift investigations could become a bit expensive, given the unavoidable failures inherent to my learning curve with colour.

Cheryl by Candle Light (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

I think what draws me most to working with candles is the visual simplicity. Candle light nudes are about as simple as it gets: one light source and a model. There are some pretty hefty technical considerations that come with the process, but with experience and patience, these can be overcome.

Though the image above is unrecognizable, I would hold it to still be a very successful portrait,  not so much of a person, as of a mood.  The quietness of the pose, combined with the soft drama of the light lends a very delicate feel to the image. In the actual print, the only sharp portion of the image is the hair on Cheryl 's forehead, helping to focus the viewer's attention on her face. In reality, this effect is more by necessity than by design, as all the images were made with my 4"x5" view camera, using the 210mm lens wide open at f/5.6 for between 2 and 8 seconds.

4"x5" film

The image above draws upon the incredibly black shadows inherent to working with a single, small light source. The angular decent of Cheryl 's hips and legs across the image plane divide the image in half, with the candle in the top balanced by the empty void of the bottom. The slight detail offered in the transition between light and dark across Cheryl 's body provides a richness which fills out the image.

4"x5" film

One thing I learned during this session was how little a second candle adds to the images - about 1/3 of the images were made with two candles, and in every case, the single-candle images were stronger because of their simplicity.

Victoria & Joe (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

My first couples images of 1999 have their roots in the work I did with Victoria and Ingrid in 1998. This time, however, she worked with her boyfriend, Joe, both of them generously letting me gaze though a photographic window into their relationship and affection for each other. Though Victoria has had extensive experience modeling, both for photo and drawing, the session was Joe's first time in the studio but he was more than enthusiastic. After some time spent talking over my working process, and the goals of the session, we began.

The first image, above, is my favourite from the session. Drawing upon the work I did with Cheryl and Marieke earlier in the month,, I experimented with using view camera movements to control focus. The softness of Joe's hand on Victoria's back a counterpoint to the sharpness of his face, and provides a delicate image of an embrace.

4"x5" film

The second image has a less obvious focus , but in the print has a delicate softness to the hands, while Victoria's lips and hair are sharply defined. These images, and a couple of others which we produced together, firmly convince me that the focus effects possible with the view camera are going to play a major role in my work. I am very drawn to the look of these images, and look forward to pushing the envelope with this technique outdoors - the possibilities are endless.

4"x5" film

I produced very little colour work of Joe and Victoria, deciding instead to focus on black & white for the session. Interestingly enough, the image to the right is far stronger than its black and white counterpart, with the darker colouring of Joe emphasizing the pale skin of Victoria. I keep struggling with colour in the studio, and feel very much like someone learning a foreign language. Sometimes I can manage to speak an entire phrase fluently but I feel like I have an accent when I try to hold a conversation in colour. I'll persevere with the medium and hope to eventually become bilingual in both black & white and colour.

Marieke's First Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

The day after the snowstorm Nudes, I went back into the studio to work with another new model, Marieke. Like Cheryl, Marieke had never modeled nude before, but coming from a European background, she had a very different reaction to modelling for me. Where Cheryl took time to adjust to the process, Marieke pretty much jumped in with two feet, spending the last ten minutes of my set-up stretching on the backdrop (she had been mountain biking earlier in the day).

4"x5" film

I went into the studio with Marieke with all the slides from the previous day processed, and totally enamoured with the results I'd achieved. Scattered through my work are images which manipulate planes of focus, but never before had I deliberately designed an image to exploit the possibilities. Marieke's patience, combined with the results from the previous day, provoked me to experiment heavily with altered focus planes. With a view camera, unlike 35mm camera, the lens can be tilted off axis, permitting the photographer to change where the plane of focus falls. In most cases, this is used to increase depth of field, but I reversed the process, using the lens to isolate Marieke's head and hair from the remainder of her body.

4"x5" film

The image above is the best of the photos I made using selective focus. Unlike the images of Cheryl  above, this, and the others like it, is about a whole figure, but the eye is called to focus upon a single point, with the image flowing from there out. I think there is incredible potential within this technique, and in the future I intend to spend time considering not only lighting and composition, but also focus, and how the deliberate manipulation of this might strengthen a particular image.

The three sessions between January 3 and 13 are somewhat of an interwoven trilogy. Each takes the previous work and builds upon it. I still am not sure where the movement and freedom of the first session with Cheryl  falls within my work, but from that came a reflection on my more "traditional" work, and the exploration of a previously underutilized tool. Both Cheryl  and Marieke have expressed a desire to work again, so hopefully these ideas can be pushed further, and lead to even more dynamic images. 

A Winter Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm transparency film

The second session with Cheryl took place indoors, but by natural light, as opposed to studio flash. While a winter storm turned the outside world cold and white, we worked by window light, exploring narrow depth of field and colour.

35mm transparency film

Given the outdoor conditions, I were pretty fortunate to have enough light to work with at all. In addition to making images with my tripod-bound 4x5, I had intended to work with colour slide film, using wide apertures to throw the background out of focus. As it turned out, there was no choice in how I used the slide film - there was just enough light to work with the 35mm hand-held, and nowhere near enough light to permit me to stop down for an increase in depth of field. At the time, I was worried the extremely narrow depth of field might not work, but knowing that I could always try the initial concept later, I went ahead anyway. The results of the five rolls I exposed were very pleasing with only narrow slivers of Cheryl in sharp focus. I had never tried such a narrow focus approach to the Nude before, and am surprised at the strength of the results. The power of separating the focus of the image from its surroundings is something that's always been present in photography, but I've never before explored its unique power.

4"x5" film

In contrast to the first session with Cheryl a week before, the images we made during this afternoon are far more typical of my work. Where in the first session I had responded to Cheryl 's dancing and movement to make images, on this afternoon I found myself "hunting" for photos - catching glimpses of what I wanted and working hard to frame that glance within my viewfinder. This is very similar to the way I work outdoors, and photographing in that manner felt like putting on an old glove. Where the studio session with Cheryl was unsettling and startling, the afternoon I spent working with available light was familiar and reassuring.

A Dance Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm infrared film

In some ways, I have been spoiled over the past two years because many of the people I have worked had prior modelling experience. Though the images may be as strong, it is a very different process working with an inexperienced model.

After working on a series of studio portraits (the reason we were in the studio in the first place), I asked Cheryl if she wanted to make some figure images to round out the session. She was familiar with my work, and had mentioned a curiosity about posing, but had never confirmed her intent to model for me nude. After considerable thought, Cheryl said she would try doing some figure work, but her trepidation was very evident.

35mm infrared film

I will forever think of these photos as being from the "Tori Amos Sessions." Cheryl had brought some music with her to play while we made portraits, and we kept the CDs playing as we did the figure images. A little nervous, Cheryl kept her back to me as I started photographing. She started moving and dancing to the music, singing along and ignoring me. Rather than disturb her, I just began to work with the movement, setting aside the 4"x5" and using the faster and more responsive Nikon to explore the hard light falling across her hands and torso. As the session progressed, Cheryl gradually turned towards me, until she was dancing, facing me.

In many ways, these images are more about Cheryl than they are about my vision - the session was spent responding to her, rather than exploring her and building on the work I have done in the studio previously. Although that may be a subtle difference, I can see it in almost every image. The photos are no less successful than my other studio images, but they are very different, and where they fall within my work as a whole is hard to say. Where my imagery is usually very subdued and still, the work with Cheryl is full of motion, vivacious lines, and life.

1999's First Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

35mm infrared film

Sarah and I have known each other since the mid 1980s, having gone to the same high school together. Though she only began modeling for me shortly before she left Halifax, Sarah helped me create a number of strong photos. As soon as I received word that Sarah would be in town on New Year's Day, I hoped we'd have the opportunity to make some images together again. After a wonderful reunion lunch and some time catching up on the last five years of each others lives, we set out on a snowy afternoon to spend a couple of hours in the studio.

35mm infrared film

Previously when Sarah and I had worked together, it had been either outdoors or by available light. Since the fall of 1998, I have had the opportunity to use a fully equipped commercial lighting studio, so Sarah  and I worked in this space,  making her first studio images.

35mm infrared film

The most successful nudes of the session were both made on infra-red film, taking advantage of the extreme distortion offered by wide angle lenses. Take a cue from an image I made of Megan last January, I sought to create bodyscapes which provoked the viewer into changing their understanding of the body as a physical space.

1998's Final Session (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

6x6 cm film

Though Michelle and I had worked outdoors together a couple of times this year, this was our first opportunity to work together exclusively (without other models around). Being late December, and outdoor session wasn't an option, so we went into the studio.

6x6 cm infrared film

As Michelle hadn't posed in a studio before, I didn't bring any view cameras, instead spending the session working with a classic Hasselblad 500c/m and a portrait lens. The simpler approach permitted us both to work swiftly, and fostered a spontaneity and energy to the session which paid of in both volume and success.

6x6 cm film

It is no accident that this session focused almost elusively on portrait images; Michelle's presence in front of the camera drew the eye to her face, and I made the most of that strength throughout this session.

Lilly in the Studiom (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

My second last session of 1998 was probably the most casual studio session I have ever done. After Lilly and I finished up our real reason for being in the studio (Lilly trades me figure modeling for more traditional photographic services) she asked if I wanted to do some nudes, as we still had an hour in the studio. I had brought along a couple of rolls of slide film for that very possibility, so we reloaded the camera, and went to work.

35mm transparency film

Given I had not been sure if Lilly would be up for modelling nude, I came to the studio with little in mind as far as images go. All the nude images were created spontaneously, drawing as much from Lilly's poses as my own ideas. After two months of printing in the darkroom, it was a pleasure simply to have a camera in my hands, and make images. I purposely opted to work with slide film, as opposed to my usual black and white negative film. I knew I wouldn't have time to produce any images with larger negatives. 35mm slides have a wonderful immediacy to them, which in some ways makes up for their small size. Given that the session was more an exercise in camera work than a serious attempt at image making., I was willing to accept the compromises involved with staying with 35mm format.

35mm transparency film

The other element which I changed in this session was my camera. As opposed to working with my 35mm Nikon FM2 and fixed focal-length lenses, I tried out the new Canon EOS 3, and the 28-135 IS (Image stabilized) lens. I had read glowing reports about the EOS 3 body, and was very interested in putting it through its paces. The 35-135 IS lens gained no advantage from its image stabilization in the studio, a feature designed for use with very low shutter speeds. The lens is, however, reputed to be very sharp, thus I was curious how this expensive amateur zoom would work in the studio.

The EOS 3 was a delight to work with - the 45 point auto focus worked very well, both vertically and horizontally, and while the Eye-Controlled focus was a little inconsistent, I would be more inclined to put this down to the lack of learning time for the camera than to claim the eye-controlled focus was inaccurate.

35mm transparency film

The performance of the lens is another issue all together. While I suspect most people would find it more than acceptable, it had major flaws when set against images produced with fixed lenses. The sharpness I am used to was simply not there, which I realize is no surprise, but the biggest surprise was how lazy the zoom made me in my image creation. With fixed lenses I usually chose the lens which best suits the image, but with the zoom, I composed with the lens, paying little attention to the effect of the focal length on the image. My only concern was with the composition, much to the detriment to some of the images.

While the EOS 3 is certainly a camera to covet, for me the combination of the body and the zoom lens simply didn't work. I plan to stick with my fixed focal-length lenses. The slight price of having to change them more often is small compared to the increase in the quality of the image produced, both technically and aesthetically.