Miranda VIII

When planning the New Brunswick Portfolio, it was important to me to try to cover a reasonably broad range of the province - in Alberta in 1999, Victoria and I only worked in the southern half of the province, leaving about 75% of it unexplored, photographically. This has to be balanced however, with my lack of local knowledge - it would be a waste of time and money to wander all over looking for a space to photograph. With this in mind, during the months before Miranda arrived to work with me, I tried to make arrangements for local guides, who'd be able to show me spaces I'd otherwise miss (it was a co-worker who recommended the amazing space at Bas-Cap-Pele, for example).

8"x10" film

The place where this worked best was in Woodstock, in the middle of western New Brunswick. On what turned out to be the best day yet of the portfolio weather wise, Miranda and I left Moncton early in the morning, and arrived well before noon at Woodstock, met up with our host, and by 11am, we'd started working. Not fifteen minutes from town we spotted a likely looking bard, and swiftly were safely within it's walls working with the piles of hay and architecture.

8"x10" film

It is somewhat ironic that after two days of photographing in rain or drizzle, our first session under cover was on a relatively dry morning. The first poses, standing by the centre posts, was relatively easy on Miranda, but even laying on the hay bales wasn't too itchy - I put my dark cloth under her before she lay back and found the pose (though all through the pose, she was slowly slipping down on the plasticized fabric.

Digital original, 8 frame stitch

The best image of the space however was made on the outside of the barn, with Miranda working her figure into the lines of the lintel over the broad doorway - an image which would ultimately end up being selected for the portfolio.

Miranda VII

The final session for the day took place less than thirty minutes south of Cape Tormentine . We'd decided to continue south along the coast, and see if there was any other space that caught our eyes. For the most part, this area of New Brunswick is flat and densely forested with spruce and pine trees, but occasionally these are broken by fields or houses, logging roads, or narrow tracks leading out to the sea. It was just one of these spaces, a long broad field, which caught my eye as we were passing it – not the field in particular, but the broad beds of Queen Anne's lace that were scattered through it.

Digital infrared original

After parking the car, Miranda and I headed into the field – there were a number of particularly thick patches of the tall white flowering plant, and we selected one of these to work in. I chose to use a longer lens, my 50mm portrait lens, for the images to begin compressing the space, and give some sense of depth to it through selective focus. In initially I had thought the images would be all in colour, with the pale white flowers complementing Miranda's skin, and the green stalks and leaves providing a counterpoint, but when I made my first exploratory images with the infrared converted DSLR, I knew that would be the way to go, with the surrounding field becoming a sea of delicately detailed white with Miranda emerging from them.

Digital infrared original

The session is the field was quite brief, and apart from Miranda having to duck down a couple of times due to cars passing on the nearby road, without incident. As much of the final image focused on pose, once the camera was set up and the proper exposure determined, the session was really about working with Miranda to generate spontaneous, comfortable poses that worked well with the setting.

Digital infrared original

The final image of the session is actually my favourite portrait of Miranda from the portfolio – as I was packing up my equipment, I turned to find her taking a photo of me. I returned the favour, and was pleasantly surprised with the results, a one-eyed Miranda standing in a sea of luminous lace.

Miranda VI

After leaving Bas-Cap-Pele, we journeyed west, hoping the weather would ease, and perhaps even clear. Being less than familiar with the area, I decided to head to Cape Tormentine , where the ferry used to run to Prince Edward Island (this service was replace by a fixed link bridge in the 1990's). The small town was less than inspiration, in regards to finding spaces to work in with Miranda , until I found the old railway bridge, which would have been used to carry rail cars onto the ferry to the island. Sitting in the middle of a broad, overgrown field, the iron bridge was a riot of peeling paint, rusting metal and protruding rivets – a perfect space to use as a backdrop.

Digital original

By the time I'd discovered the possibilities offered by the railway however, Miranda was already well into a well deserved nap, recovering from the chill and effort of working on the rocks at Bas-Cap-Pele. With free time on my hands, I spent the better part of an hour clambering over the structure, and making abstract rustscapes, all the while seeing where the possibilities lay for images with a model (though the old bridge was in a field, it was easily within sight of a dozen or more houses, so discretion was necessary for any images we planned to make. By the time Miranda was warmed up and rested, the weather had settled on ominously overcast, but without actual rain. This was a marked improvement on the earlier part of the day, and Miranda, having come over to look at the railway bridge, declared she was willing and able to make whatever photos I had in my mind's eye.

Digital infrared original, 11 frame stitch

The first and most compelling composition was where we began, with the camera positioned as high as possible, looking down upon the edge of the bridge. As I am doing increasingly with multi-image stitches, I pre-made the bulk of the image, making the 18 exposures necessary for the surrounding image, and waiting until all that was complete and recorded before having Miranda disrobe and begin to work the pose. This approach has a number of advantages, the foremost of which is it keep the actual time that Miranda has to hold the pose to a minimum – for this image, I still needed three frames to capture the whole pose, but making three images is exponentially faster than making 18.

Once we finished working inside the rail bridge, Miranda and I moved onto the far side of it, where the peeling paint was a very attractive craqueline white, undershot with the deep tones of rusting iron. Here I was drawn to the deteriorating metal set against the verdant underbrush which had grown up around it. I explored the possibilities with no specific images in mind, and gave Miranda as few directions as were reasonable, telling her where I'd like her to position herself, and giving her a sense of what I was seeing through the lens. Where the compositions we made within the bridge were very formal and deliberate, here the images were much freer and spontaneous, exploring fleeting moments or subtle variations in pose, as opposed to investing time, effort and energy in a singular, particularly striking photograph.

Digital infrared original

The images that came from the abandoned rail bridge were quite unexpected, and very striking, especially in contrast to the other portfolio sessions so far, all of which have been rooted in the natural landscape. The two different approaches to image making – large, high resolution images from multi-image stitching and the spontaneous, less rehearsed compositions made outside the bridge were studies in opposite, but made with the same tool, interestingly enough.

Miranda V

The second day of the New Brunswick Portfolio dawned much as the first had, overcast sky, a forecast for drizzle and rain, and little sign of respite. Miranda's spirits were high though, so we decided to return to Bas-Cap-Pele and work with some of the other spaces we'd seen on our brief visit the day before, but didn't have the opportunity to investigate.

Digital infrared original, 28 frame stitch

Much to our frustration, when we arrived at the coast, the weather had shifted from ominous to inclement, with the rain being whipped about by the wind off the ocean. Fortunately, one of the spaces created by the eons of waves crashing upon the shore was made up of a series of interlinked caves, perfect for sheltering both Miranda and the camera-gear from the weather (though because of the slippery rocks and rainy walk out to the caves, I declined to bring along the 8"x10" camera). After making a five minute walk along the shoreline, we found ourselves nicely sheltered from the weather, working in a location overflowing with potential - that which sheltered us from the rain and wind also provided a magical background against which to work.

The session itself progressed well in spite of the weather, through Miranda did take numerous breaks to warm up. We worked out way backwards through the space, beginning at the farthest (and largest) cave, and working our way back towards where we'd arrived over the session. Almost all the images played off the lines and flow to the rock, with either Miranda finding the pose herself, or myself showing her what I'd envisioned, and her getting a sense of the pose from the camera's position.

Digital infrared original, 5 frame stitch

As the caves were so small, and the lines of the rocks so dramatic and sweeping, almost all the images of Miranda in the grottoes were multi frame stitches, often made with the 12mm wide lens. These describe the spaces quite well, but are often quite challenging to assemble in the computer, do to the distortion inherent in wide angle lenses. For a small number of images, I was able to be further back from Miranda (without moving out in to the rain) and could use a longer 50mm or 105mm lens to make the images for the stitch - often these images end up with the same dramatic wide-angle of a stitch made with a 12mm lens, but they are much easier to assemble (and much higher in resolution) due to the narrower angle of view of the longer lenses.

Because of my earlier work at Burntcoat Head, which shares the same deep red rocks, I knew that the exposures in the caves would be difficult at best, so I was especially careful to try to balance Miranda's pale skin with the dark red rocks that surrounded her. The temptation is to expose for the rich detail in the rocks, but this inevitably leads to loosing detail in the model's skin, so instead, exposures are biased towards ensuring detail in Miranda's figure, and the tones of the rocks, rendered too dark in the original image, are corrected in post-production later in the computer.

Digital infrared original, 26 frame stitch

In the end, as sheltered as we were, the weather put an end to the session, with Miranda simply becoming too chilly to continue working. We gathered up the equipment and set out back to the car, but I knew that behind me lay one of the best spaces to work I'd found yet in my eighteen years of photographing the Nude. A space to which I would return to again and again.

Miranda IV

The greatest trick to working with the Nude outdoors is finding the settings in which to work - these can be found by chance, personal experience, or the recommendations of others. The last session of the first day of the New Brunswick Portfolio was set in a coastal location shown to me by a fellow photographer, who had been intending to show me the space for more than a year. Less than an hour from Moncton, the space brought to mind the drama of Alberta's hoodoo's, though it also bore similarities to the rock space of Burntcoat Head, in Nova Scotia.

Digital original

By the time we arrive at Bas-Cap-Pele, it was early in the evening, the wind had come up (more evidence of the tail wind of the tropical storm that was moving through New Brunswick) and the sky was a leaden gray, threatening rain. All that was swept asside however, when we stepped out of the car and looked over the cliffside and the landscape below. The red sandstone rock which made up the shoreline had been shaped by the continual assult of the ocean, until it had carved a wonderland of organic caves, bluffs and freestanding hoodoos, the greatest of which lay directly below the parking spot where we stood.

Digital infrared original, 4 frame stitch

As the light was fading, and the evening had turned decidedly cool, Miranda and I only had the chance to make a handfull of images working with the space (also, being directly below a car park, and close to houses, the space was relatively exposed to interlopers). Taking advantage of the DSLR's potential and the even light, I made the images of the rock and surrounding water first (using three rows of three images to increase the final image's resolution), and then had Miranda experiment with the pose possibilities, assembling the results in to seven finished images later in the computer.

Miranda III

The second location for the day turned out to be as green and verdant as the first - in search of a barn I'd seen a year before, we headed out onto the dirt roads that cris-cross the Tantramar Marshes. After more than half-an-hour of driving, and many short side-trips down dirt tracks, I had to finally admit that the barn was impossible to find (or razed, which was a distinct possibility, given how dilapidated it had been when I'd first seen it. Over the search, however, we had driven past numerous spaces that held great possibilities for images, and given how crowded the marsh was (we saw perhaps four cars over the two hours we spent on the marsh) I felt it was more than secluded enough to make some images.

Digital infrared original, 8 frame stitch

The Tantramar is criss-crossed with dykes to keep the ocean back, and many of these run directly beside irrigation ditches, and it was one of these spaces that we decided to work in. The grasses here were easily three feet high, and provided the perfect screen for Miranda to emerge from. With careful composition, I could frame her against the dark water behind. Working with the infrared camera, I made a hole series of images, initially starting with a large multi-image stitch, and
then working with Miranda on a set of poses, which could then be dropped into the final assembled composition.

Digital infrared original, 12 frame stitch

On the whole, the space was fabulous to work with, but extremely limited in regards to the angle and perspective from which I could work. More than anything, Miranda and I were experimenting with posing, as there was little I could do with the composition. Working this way (seeking a single image in a space, as opposed to working in a location with plenty of possibilities) is unusual for me, but with the reality that Miranda would be modeling for the next week, it didn't seem like the time and effort expended to realize a single potential was unreasonable - if we'd only had that day to work together, I might have driven past the space, deciding that a singular image wasn't worth the time and effort, but in the context of a week of solid work, taking the slow and methodical approach seemed almost appropriate.

Miranda II

The first day of the New Brunswick Portfolio dawned dull and overcast. The forecast threatened rain, but we headed out anyway, determined to make the most of what weather we had. All through the drive down to Hillsborough the weather held, and by the time we'd stopped and set up the equipment the day was looking to be improving.

Digital infrared original

The first images of the portfolio were a wide panorama of Miranda, backed by the muddy edge of the peticodiac river. Eight times wider than they are high, these only hint at the broad sweep of the river's edge, and almost dwarf the figure of Miranda - not an image for inclusion in the portfolio, but definitely a photograph that had to be made. After we completed the panoramic images, Miranda and I walked further down the riverbank, to where a lone tree was growing out of the dyke.
As is often the case, I worked from the general to the specific with the tree, making a few initial images from a distance, and then moving closer to work with Miranda in among the leaves. Though the sky was heavily overcast, the infrared camera still yielded magical images, with the tree developing a beautiful separation between the leaves and branches, due to the high infrared reflective qualities of the leaves.

Digital original

As I moved closer to the tree and had Miranda move in among the branches, I began to work with both the infrared camera, and the unmodified DSLR, which permitted me to make images in colour.  One of the most liberating aspects of digital imaging is the freedom it permits in realizing an image - every digital image I make with the conventional DSLR has the potential of being colour, or black and white, with an almost unlimited range of possible modifications and variations to the final image. In this case however, it was the rich greens of the leaves, in contrast to Miranda's delicate skin tones and soft golden brown hair that drew me in - hence the importance of keeping the image in colour.

Digital infrared original, 15 frame stitch

After completing a whole series of portraits of Miranda among the leaves and branches of the tree, we set about to discover if there was anything else in the area to work with. Just behind the tree was an old weather log, set into a block of concrete at an almost horizontal angle. With careful composition, it was possible to isolate the old trunk in the landscape, simplifying the background to the sea of green grass and minimizing the content to just the wood, and Miranda. The only other issue was how much longer the log was than the model - this by default meant that Miranda had to work with an elongated pose - and rather than trying to explain my way through it, I just showed her, stretching out along the log as I wanted her to be positioned.

The end of the first session came rather spontaneously, happening to coincide with the start of a little rain - not the torrential downpour that I had feared, but certainly enough to put a damper on the session. Regardless, after much planning and anticipation, the New Brunswick Portfolio was now underway, and though I didn't know it yet, the first image for the final portfolio had even been made!

Miranda I

Miranda, the New Brunswick Portfolio was born of the tradition of producing a portfolio every three years. Two of the previous three portfolios have been set in Canadian Provinces (1999's Victoria, the Alberta Portfolio , and 2001's Cassandra, the Nova Scotia Portfolio), with the third portfolio being a 15 year retrospective of my work with the Nude (2003's Portfolio XV).

Miranda, the New Brunswick Portfolio officially began on January 1, 2005 , when I asked Miranda (at the end of a photo session with Gilda and Ingrid) if she'd consider working with me on a portfolio during the coming summer. Her response was enthusiastic, and several months later, when her vacation schedule was confirmed, we set the date for the portfolio production to begin.

With two provincial portfolios already completed, in some ways the planning for this portfolio was more of the same, but in two important ways it was very different. This is the first portfolio I've worked on with a model who'd already had a long history of working with me; Victoria had modeled for me several times before we went to Alberta, and was an experienced model when I met her, but by the time Miranda arrived in Moncton to work with me, we'd worked together for almost four years, making a very broad range of images. Secondly, this is the first portfolio where I had been a driver - previously I had to rely upon Joy, in 2001, and Annie, in 1999, to provide transportation, but after learning to drive in 2004, this was the first portfolio where I could be totally in the driver's seat, so to speak.

Monique & Miles at Dawson Brook

The most unexpected session yet this summer was today's work with Monique. After working with me numerous times indoors and out last spring, Monique had moved to Upper Canada , so I didn't expect to have the chance to work with her again. As luck would have it however, she was visiting
Halifax on the same weekend as I was, and we managed to set up a time for working together.

Digital infrared original, 3 frame stitch

The day was a cool and overcast, so we opted to head inland to work, hoping for warm enough water at Dawson's Brook to facilitate working there (I seem to have something of a curse, when it comes to Dawson's Brook and sunlight – almost every session I have spent there was bright and sunny – the hardest lighting conditions under which to photograph).

As it turned out, Dawson 's Brook was a perfect choice, with the water bearable (calling it warm would be an overstatement, and make light of Monique and ultimately Miles' dedication and perseverance) and the light soft and even, filtering through the canopy of trees overhead. We started the session with Monique posing along side the waterfall, keeping her out of the water for the most part. I set up my camera with a six stop (64x) neutral density filter to ensure the exposures were long enough to blur the water, and with most of the images, made multiple exposure stitches to gain both more resolution to the final images, and a wider angle of view to the images (the space we were working in was somewhat cramped and hard to work in, even with a 12mm wide angle lens (this has the same angle of view as an 18mm lens on a 35mm camera).

Digital infrared original

After we finished working on the waterfall, Monique moved down into the shallow basin at the bottom of the falls, and after some cajoling, Miles dove into the water as well, spending perhaps ten minutes posing with Monique. Some of the images we made were carefully posed, while others, like the one here, were more spontaneous, playing on the simple interaction between the models, as opposed to my direction from the shoreline.

Digital infrared original, 6 frame stitch

For the remainder of the session, we worked out way downstream, photographing Monique against the backdrop of the river, and ultimately on a ten metre cliff overlooking a river-bend. For such an unexpected session, it was a great pleasure to be able to work with Monique again, especially with such a striking location, and perfect light.

Miranda in Her New Apartment

This session had an interesting challenge – how much can be accomplished with a single model, a small space, and a limited angle of view? Miranda had recently moved into a new apartment, and much of the space was piled high with boxes – about the only free area was a futon below a large
double window – a perfect space to work in. The set up was not dissimilar to the space I used to work with in my old home in Halifax, with one major change – here my ability to move around the room, or fame a composition from a different angle was severely hampered by all the moving boxes still filling the room.

Digital infrared original, 2 frame exposure blend

On one level these limitations hampered the session, but by the same degree, they helped focus the work on what could be accomplished with the possibilities at hand. With such a small, confined space, an extreme wide angle was the natural lens to use, and combined with the soft, directional lighting coming through the windows, I was able to make a number of very pleasing compositions, initially keeping everything square and level to the camera, with a very traditional feel, and eventually exploring more dramatic off-level compositions with sweeping perspectives and dramatic lines.

Digital infrared original, 2 frame exposure blend

The end of the session focused on a series of portraits, some single frame images, like the one displayed here with a slight tilt to the composition, and others made as multi-frame stitches, increasing the final photograph's resolution to enable larger prints to be made.

Digital infrared original

Start to finish, this session was well under an hour, but within that time, I felt strongly that I made the most of the resources at hand – Miranda's long involvement in my work help produce numerous strong poses, the lighting was everything I look for in an indoor session, and the limited space to work in, while initially frustrating, served to provoke me into pushing what compositions I could make into being as strong as possible.