A Pregnancy Session

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To my mind, there is no doubt that the most magical time in a woman's life is during pregnancy, and the privilege of being able to work with a pregnant model is unparalleled. In this case, a friend of Lisa was in the final weeks of her pregnancy and was interested in having some photos made before her due date. We met up to talk about the process, discuss what kinds of images she sought specifically, and set the time for a session. A week later, we met for the session.

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The session was a mix of available light and studio images, as the model wished to have a broad variety of styles covered, running from anonymous silhouettes made with flash lighting to more typical (for me at least) nudes on a couch with natural light. One advantage of having worked for so long with the Nude is that I have a fair range of variety in the samples I can show a new model, so I can often get a good sense of what a model is looking for before even a single image is made.

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At the time of the session, the model wasn't sure if she'd be comfortable being identifiable in the images, so we made two sets of each pose, one with her face, and one unidentifiable. In the end, she decided to keep things private, and only released anonymous images for public display. As the focus of the session was on the pregnancy, as opposed to the person, this doesn't seem to have much of a negative effect on the images at all.

Alexandra & Liam by Natural Light

Alexandra and Liam's second day in Moncton began with a short session together, before they resumed their drive home. As the session the night before was with studio flash, we set up the futon in the kitchen by the deck doors and worked for close to an hour with the morning light diffused by the curtains.

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The session began with almost the same approach as I'd use the second time we'd worked together (also early in the morning, though not in Moncton) with the two models lying on the futon and cuddling, but unlike that session, we had side lighting, which lead to a totally different look. Almost all the images ended up being narrow panoramas, but as that worked for the subject, I wasn't going to complain.

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The second part of the session was spent with the two models working against the wall by the window - switching from a prone pose, to ones more active. Initially, we started with first Alexandra, then Liam kneeling on the floor, reaching up to the other standing behind them; this was more successful with Liam than Alexandra (who was even smaller in comparison when she was kneeling), yielding one of my favorite images.

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The best photographs of the session, however came last when I had Alexandra lean into Liam, standing behind her; the light flowing across them was beautiful, and their embrace, delicately focused on their faces and hands, is just wonderful. As the final image of the session, it was perfect to end on, an embodiment of everything that I look for in an image of a couple.

A Candle Lit Session with Lisa

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Lisa's enthusiasm for modeling was evident as soon as she saw the completed images from our first session together and we immediately planned a second session. After spending some time on my web site, she asked about the possibility of doing a candlelight session (I think the single most common request for first-time models is for a candlelight session, so this came as no surprise). For some, the candles appeal because of the security of working in the dark but, for Lisa, it was more the quality of the images produced that attracted her to the idea of working with candles.

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As with all my other candle sessions, this evening progressed at a slow, almost leisurely pace. It is near impossible to do candle-light nudes fast, given that each image is usually a second or more in exposure length and, after each candle move, it is necessary to wait until the air currents settle down and the candle stops flickering.

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In the end, the candle session was relatively short; ultimately there are only so many ways to light a figure with a candle and, while each model is different and yields a unique image, once the basic approaches are explored, a session like this can be completely realized in quite a short time. I think (especially after our first session in the studio, where we worked for several hours) Lisa was a little disappointed the session was so short, but hopefully the results will help modify that opinion.

An Architectural Moment

Photography of architecture has always been a passion of mine, though I have not worked with the subject much in recent years. I have completed much of what I envisioned doing with the Halifax Defense Complex, and since 2000, I have not been able to continue my work with the New England forts.

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With both those projects either complete or on hold, there has been little to focus my architectural images on, so architecture has played a relatively small role in my work over the past six years. Occasionally, I come across spaces that catch my attention, and call out to be photographed.

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While waiting to meet a model, I was driving through central Halifax, and came across a new building on the Dalhousie University Campus. One side effect of not having lived in Halifax for three years is that many of the new constructions really pop out to my eyes; in this case, the main entry way to the new building was overshadowed by a high overhang with several circular windows.

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In truth, I spent less than ten minutes photographing the building, but the results are really pleasing; the infrared camera worked perfectly, setting the building against a dark, dramatic sky, and focusing the images on the harsh sunlight interplaying with the bright metal columns and the round glass windows.

Christine Models in a Ruin

Christine's second figure session was very different from her first; for one, we were working in a more "civilized space", an old abandoned fort, as opposed to the middle of the woods, and second,, her mother accompanied us on the session to lay to rest her concerns about her daughter's interest in modeling.

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The first difference, the location, lead to a totally different approach to working. When photographing the Nude in nature, I often take the inspiration for the pose from the setting, working with the model to reflect or compliment the location. With architectural nudes though, the space sets more of a tone than a pose, and it is the lighting more than the space that contributes to the image.

In turn, this puts more of an onus on the model and me to come up with poses that work with the light, as opposed to the physical locale.Fortunately, Christine has lots of experience working in a studio, which is very similar in its focus on the pose and lighting, as opposed to setting.

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Christine's mother accompanying us for the session was less strange than it may seem at first. I frequently work with other parties present during a session (other models, friends, family), and while I have never had a model's parent come along expressly for the reason of vetting the process, it was certainly a nonissue, as both Christine and I were certain she would leave with a positive response to the process.

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The session turned out pretty much as I'd expected. Christine and I managed to make a number of very strong images revolved around the light within the concrete building, including several in colour that really caught my attention. Christine's mother was quite helpful on several levels, holding her shoes and robe as we worked, and even contributing a suggestion for one of the most successful composition of the session.

Christine in the Woods

At the end of the studio session with Christine, we made plans to meet up again, but this time to work more in my style, focusing on the Nude outdoors. As much fun as the previous day's studio session was, the images (fashion photos) were very much just for Christine's use.

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Christine had done some figure modeling before in the studio, but apart from one short session earlier in the year, she, hadn't worked outdoors previously. After walking for ten minutes to a location I'd worked in several times before, we started with some very classical images of her sitting among the granite rocks of a glacial till. I was using a borrowed telephoto lens for the session, so I made a large stitched image (39 frames) of the most successful image, using the lens' large (f/2.8) aperture to keep the depth of field shallow. 

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After our first set of images was complete, Christine had become more accustomed to the process as a whole, and began suggesting locations or poses. For several hours, we worked our way through a visually rich landscape, predominantly focusing on her posing on and among rocks, but occasionally we managed to find poses that worked with the spring-bare trees, or even the small lakes, and the shallow Canaan River that flowed near the glacial rocks.

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Several times over the session, Christine and I worked on nude portraits, but it took some effort on both our parts to make these look natural and relaxed. So much of the photography that Christine is regularly involved with is fashion-based that it was her natural inclination to "pose" every time I would make a composition that was obviously a portrait. Over the afternoon that we worked together however, she gradually relaxed enough for several fine nude portraits to be made, portraits which seem to be very much about her as a person, not just about a pose struck for the camera.

Lisa's First Session

Lisa is, to my knowledge, the first model who has come to work with me as an alternative to getting a tattoo. While searching for a tattoo artist to work with, she came across a link to my work from a good friend's tattoo company, Permanent Ink. As a result, Lisa started to consider modeling, as opposed to a tattoo, as a way to express herself and work with her body creatively. Eventually, she reached the decision that she would work with me, and contacted me by e-mail.

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After a couple of weeks of conversation online, I was due in Halifax to teach a workshop, so we made plans for a studio session.

There are many ways in which first time models work through the process of moving from fully clothed to modeling nude for the first time; Lisa fell firmly into the camp that just jumps into the pool, without even testing the water with a toe first. Ten minutes after we entered the studio, she was naked and modeling, with surprising ease and lack of stress.

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I had previously discussed with Lisa my frustration with the studio, in regards to difficulties with pose and inspiration. The warning was unnecessary; between the two of us, we worked for more than two hours, moving from idea to pose to a new idea and back again, with little time spent scratching our heads trying to think of what to do next. With studio images focusing so much on the model alone, personality is important in good studio work and Lisa brought lots of this to the session which helped guide the images.

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By the end of the time we had allotted, both Lisa and I felt strongly the images would reflect the success of the session. And, to top it all off, Lisa immediately inquired about working with me again, even before she saw the results!

Alexandra & Liam in the Pool

Alexandra and Liam had come through Moncton on their way west in the middle of the winter and we made plans to work together again when they were on the return leg of their trip. I had hoped that would give us the chance to work together outdoors (all the sessions we have done together to date have been indoors, either with natural light or studio flash), but the schedule of their trip had them staying overnight and being back home in Nova Scotia by the middle of the next afternoon. With this plan in mind, we decided on a studio session on the first night and working with the morning light the next day.

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After the early successes with my wading pool nudes, I still had some technical issues to overcome. The biggest change was using black plastic to line the wading pool, hoping to conceal the texture of the plastic bottom. It turned out to be the perfect solution, removing almost all sense of the pool below the water.

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By this session, my third time working with the pool, I had worked out many of the other issues, so the session was much more straightforward than the previous two. Very quickly, I settled on the fact that it would only be Alexandra posing in the pool; Liam was simply too tall to fit. For the first hour or so, the images focused on the single figure emerging from the pool, but once we had worked through all the possibilities that presented, I proposed exploring the possibilities that would arise from adding Liam's arms to the image.

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It took a little arranging to get him into a position where it was comfortable enough for him to have his hands within the pool; after a bit of experimentation, we found something that worked. As I had imagined, just as working with a couple in a studio suddenly changes how easy it is to find successful images, after working with Alexandra for over an hour, and feeling utterly at a loss for new images, the addition of Liam's hands suddenly fostered the creation of a number of completely new compositions.

A Field Trip to Hillsborough

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The second field trip of the weekend followed close on the heels of the first, and provided me with a very similar mix of subjects. The small town of Hillsborough was once a thriving industrial community, but now only hosts a railway museum to remember its hay day. This proved to be a perfect setting for a photographic field trip, as students interested in landscape and wildlife can work with the wetland preserve at the bottom of the hill, and those more attuned to the industrial or man-made side of things can spend their time exploring the rich visuals of the railway museum.

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I spent much of my time moving between the two locales assisting students with issues and generally providing whatever support was necessary. In addition, I did manage to spend some time photographing, alternating between macro photographs of flower, and more regimented images of the old trains and buildings. I worked in both infrared and colour, but it was a colour image which crowed the day - the last image I made, and without a doubt, the strongest result as well. As I was walking about collecting students at the end of the afternoon, I happened to walk around the back of one of the old buildings, which brought me face-to-face with a pair of old, weathered doors. There was no doubt what I had to do, and 16 images later, I had the stock material for the most magical image of the day - a beautiful, perspectively correct assembled stitch of the doors!

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A Morning Walk

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A definite side-effect of spending so much time teaching photography is that I now spend much more time photographing casually, either during the photographic workshops I teach, or just to create more material for my classes. On this particular afternoon, I was leading a field-trip for a 10-week photo course, an exercise more focused on helping the students work through the process of working with their cameras than making stunning images. All the same, it is quite surprising to me how easy it is to make strong images if one is just open to the possibilities.

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The field-trip was spent walking along the side of the Petiticodiac River in Moncton, though my eye was not drawn to the landscape but rather to the new bridge across the river and the rusted, discarded remains of the old span. I  have always had a fascination with abandoned and ruined architecture, and these spaces had everything I look for in a visual abstract.

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Over the morning, I vacillated between grand, sweeping images of the underside of the new bridge, and close up details of the paint peeling off of old rusted pilings. In some ways, such images are sketches, designed to keep the eye nimble and open to varied possibilities visually, but regardless the results have an edge to them that really draws me in; a thread that runs through all my images is present in these as well.