A Final Pregnancy Session

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What a difference almost 7 weeks can make! For Stephanie's first pregnancy session we went to some military ruins close to Halifax, and worked there, and in the woods around them - where we came across the above erratic. The image we made at that time (at the bottom of the above blog entry) was good, but almost 7 weeks later, Stephanie's belly had grown and dropped, and her whole line had changed, resulting in a richer, more elegant image.

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After we finished revisiting the forest image, we moved into an abandoned engine room, to make a final set of photographs. The light in the space was low, forcing some very long shutter speeds, and high ISO settings, but with Stephanie in poses with lots of support (leaning or sitting on things), we managed to work until the light was near unusable, and made the last compositions of her pregnancy.

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As a last minute, end-of-pregnancy session, this was a great success - the first image is exactly what I sought to create, and the second set of images, in the old building, are really pleasing, and provide some variation to the small set of photo sessions we were able to make in the last weeks of Stephanie's pregnancy!

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Stephanie gave birth several weeks after this session, and mother and child are doing well!
 

A Water Pregnancy Session (on a rainy day!)

When Stephanie and I first talked about me photographing her pregnancy, I showed her the images I made of Miranda in 2019 - and her first question was "Where is that bathroom, and can I work in it?" Sadly, it was no longer available, but I beat some bushes, and came up with an alternative bathroom to work in.

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In an odd sort of irony, it was poring with rain on the day we had to work in the bathroom - this provided a more even window light, and made it easier to balance the exposure between outdoors (natural light) and the bathroom (which I lit with a single strobe). The resulting images looked very natural, but would have been impossible without using the flash. The other tool I employed was my 17mm tilt-shift lens. The bathroom was so small it was really hard to get the entire tub, and Stephanie, into one frame; using the tile-shift lens, I kept the tub from being distorted, but also managed to keep Stephanie within the composition. It would have been really hard to get a similar result without such a specialized lens.

The second set of images was surprisingly challenging to make; in addition to the lovely bathtub, there was a large walk-in shower, so the plan was to make some shower images of Stephanie, before we make the final set of images of her in the bathtub proper. The first challenge was lighting - I had hoped to get some direction to the light, but with such a small room, no matter where I put the flash, the reflections off the other wall filled in the shadows. In the end, I put the strobe in the top corner behind the door, which gave some modeling to the light, though not as much as I had hoped. The other consequence of lighting from this angle is that it put all the shower hardware behind Stephanie - and while digital retouching is never an issue, it is frustrating to have to do it to a whole set of images.

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The second challenge was the condensation on the shower walls; all my other shower images were made in bathtubs with shower curtains - in those the condensation was not an issue (except for on the lens, which is easily cleaned off), but in the walk-in shower, within a minute (well before I was ready to photograph) the glass was covered with condensation, and try as she might, Stephanie was unable to clean it off. The lighting and condensation issues didn't stand in the way of getting a couple of really pleasing photos, but the were far from the images I had in my mind's eye.

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The final photos of the session were made in the tub (inspired by the IR images I made of Tanya in a tub in 2007). Again, the room size played a major role in what was possible, and with that in mind, I began with a portrait lens, focusing on breast and belly details, and the liminal line, which has always fascinated me in my work with water.

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Overall, the bathroom session was a success; the first images of Stephanie standing in the stark white tub where what I was really after, and as much as the shower images were a source of frustration, they worked well enough to be worth making!

On the Northumberland Shore (4/4)

The final location for the day was along the Northumberland Straight, looking towards the sunset. Jessica had found the most amazing water-carved outcrop of rock to work upon - a space I could spend a month of Sundays working on, without running out of locations to work in.

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When we first arrived, the evening light was harsh and direct, making it challenging to work, as in addition to refining the pose, I had to take into account the light as well, with several otherwise successful compositions being abandoned due to problems with the lighting. Eventually, however, we manged to make a number of really pleasing photographs which took full advantage of the dramatic light.

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As the evening progressed whoever, clouds gathered, and the light became more delicate; this provided the perfect light to explore the wonderful water-carved rocks, and Jessica and I took full advantage of it. In the space of thirty minutes, we moved across the rock, and made half-a-dozen compositions, of which the above is one of my favorites.

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In the middle of our rock explorations, Jessica invited her partner Thomas to join hee in a pose, and we created the above composition. This takes full advantage of my infrared camera, providing luminous, smooth skin tones, and inky black shadows around the two entwined figures. My only regret was not asking Thomas to remove his glasses...something I would retouch out in a finished print!

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The last light of the day saw Jessica slipping into the ocean, and posing along side the rock we had explored for the previous 90 minutes. The sunset was delicate and soft, with subtle colour, and little drama, so I directed Jessica into a rather static pose, lying back directly on the stone, and mirroring the simple outline of the rock above her, and paying attention to the water surrounding her.

Over the 9 hours Jessica and I spent together, we worked in 4 locations, and made a wide range of images (and took some breaks, and even ate some schnitzel!). I am truly amazed at the richness we created, and look forward to returning, to continue building on this work!

On the Northumberland Shore (3/4)

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The third location Jessica had proposed for the day was a broad field, high on a hill, overlooking the Northumberland Straight. Open fields really don't exist around Halifax, where I live, so the chance to work with one was quite exciting - but also brought with it one concern - ticks. In years past, I have worked extensively in forests, but over the past decade, as ticks, and more specifically, tick born diseases such as Lyme Disease have become more prevalent, I have mostly avoided the locations ticks prefer - fields and forests.

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That being said, with assurances from Jessica and her partner that they had no ticks after their previous visits, I decided to risk it, in return for the chance to work in such a lovely setting. We arrived in the later afternoon, and the sun was low enough in the sky to provide some lovely light - and the infrared response to the grasses provided a lovely setting for Jessica to pose in.

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All told, the visit to the field was short - both because of the posing challenges (it was, after all, just an empty field, which made it a little challenging to work with), and the march of time. With one location still to work in, after making what I was certain was some striking photographs, we headed back down, in preparation to move to our last setting.

On the Northumberland Shore (2/4)

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The second setting that Jessica had found for us to work in was just magical - it was a dramatic waterfall just off the road...which sadly had no water in it. The summer has been so dry to date that barely a trickle of water was flowing down the cliff, but regardless, the space was fabulous - near vertical cliffs of rocks on two levels, perfect to pose against, or on.

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We started the session with Jessica posing on the lower vertical wall of the falls - here there was dark green moss, and plenty of rock shelves to pose upon. I had thought the moss would become luminous on the infrared camera, but it remained dark, which provided a wonderful contrast to Jessica's luminous
skin, and the couple of ferns and other leafy plants that grew in the area.

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Overall, impressive as the space was, it was challenging work with - the sheer scale of the upper rock face overwhelmed the space, and required a really wide lens to record - which risked distorting Jessica's figure. Once Jessica shifted to working on the second layer of the waterfall, things really came together; I suggested she pose along the front edge of the rock shelf, which allowed me to make a composition that took in the full height of the waterfall origin above her, while still keeping the focus of the photograph on her.

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The final images at the waterfall focused not on the rocky space around the not-so-wet waterfall, but on the roots of a tree to the side of the main (now dry) stream - the twisting lines of the roots were a beautiful parallel to the lines of Jessica's figure, and the soft diffused light, provided by the forest canopy above, provides perfect contrast!

On the Northumberland Shore (1/4)

I learned long ago (in 1999 with Victoria, in Alberta), there there is an incredible richness to spending concentrated periods making images. In light of this, when Jessica (who I began working with last year) suggested I come visit, and we work together for most of a day (afternoon to sunset), I was more than keen.

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As the session approached, Jessica sent me images of suggested locations, but one thing noticeably absent was architecture (which was not too much of a surprise, as she lives in the country), so I asked her if she might be able to find a barn or other sort of structure to work in...and in less than a day, she came back with news that she'd found a large barn to work in - and the photos she sent show significant promise.

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For the start of the session, the focus was on a ladder, with us making images of Jessica on it, and in the above image, beside it. I really liked working with the geometric lines of the barn - all of which were blended with an organic element injected by the material (wood) and time. The light was lovely too, turning the bright and sunny afternoon into soft, even light.

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As the session progressed, Jessica became more adventurous, and moved to exploring more dynamic poses, which interacted with the space. We were super cautious with the space, keeping eyes out for nails and other sharp edges, all the while testing beams and planks before Jessica moved onto them

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As we began to run out of inspiration, we finished up with a number of reclining poses, with Jessica working her way under and over some fence-posts on the second floor of the barn. The chaos of the space contrasts nicely with the fluid grace of Jessica's body, providing a rich result to end the session on.

A Studio Pregnancy Session

As Stephanie's due date moves closer, each and every session we manage to schedule becomes a gift, so with this in mind, when I realized I had this evening free, I asked her is she'd like to do a studio session, to add to the work we'd already done outdoors (here and here) - and less than a day later, we were in the studio, making photos.

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I have a real affection for dramatic rim lighting, and have used this in almost every pregnancy session I have done (since 1989) - essentially, if you find something that works, use it. For this session, the space I was working in wasn't a studio, so it was more challenging to get the lighting the way I wanted it, but with some experimentation, black foam board and duct tape, I got everything to work.

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All in all, the session was short and sweet; I had all the lighting set up and worked out by the time Stephanie arrived, so could just straight in to making images. I already knew pretty clearly what I wished to achieve in the studio, so it was a very focused session (where often I have no preconceived ideas at the start of a photo session).

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The last photos of the session brought in Stephanie's partner, to contribute hands to the images  - always a great way to end off a pregnancy session!

A First Session with a New Model

One of the greatest challenges of focusing one's artwork on photographing the Nude (for me at least) is finding people to work with; I have been fortunate to have worked with a number of models over extended periods (the most obvious example of this is Ingrid, whom I've worked with since 1998). This is a long way to say that that sessions with new models tend to be rare, especially in year two of the COVID-19 pandemic. That being said, this would be my second session of the year with a new model. Brittany came to my work after seeing it on Instagram, and after meeting up to discuss my ethos and process, we set a date for a first session, and crossed our fingers for good weather!

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Luck was with us, and the day of the planned session had perfect weather - warm with high clouds to provide the occasional break from direct sunshine. While we'd planned to head to the Bay of Fundy, things changed at the last minute, and we headed to more familiar territory, along the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Taking advantage of the warm evening, we began the session with Brittany working in the ocean. Though most of the poses were made of her emerging from the water, early on I made some standing portraits, one of which (above) was a favorite.

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As the session progressed, the work in the water grew more focused; the reflections of the wispy clouds on the ocean where we were was just stunning, and I tried to make some images that took advantage of the still water. There were several spaces where the rocks below the surface blossomed with seaweed, and in one particular location, the rock was the perfect high for Brittany to lie back upon, leading to an image with the feeling that she is floating of a sea of white seaweed - yay infrared!

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After we'd worked through the potential of the water, Brittany and I moved onto the rocks that abound on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. By this time, most of the sky to the north and east had clouded over, and it quickly became the focus of my compositions, as I sought for settings and poses that worked with the flow of the sky. After a couple of other images were made, Brittany tried a back-on pose, along the edge of a spine of bedrock. Directly above her, a gap in the clouds provided the perfect contrast to her luminous skin, and the above composition was born!

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The last images of the session also were my first sunset session of the year (not for lack of trying, but the weather has been incredibly challenging this summer, with warm, clear evenings never coinciding with my (and models) availability). We had some time before the sunset proper, so scouted out the location, and planned a series of poses and compositions to move through once the sun went below the sky, and whatever that delivered began to happen. The planning paid off, in and in a matter of minutes we moved through a handful of compositions of three separate poses, and were done and dusted before the light began to fade - a great end to a wonderful first session!

Ingrid and Liv at the Bay of Fundy

This was a session that almost never happened! Early in the week, the weather forecast for this evening was pretty poor, so I called Liv, and cancelled the session. As it turned out though, the weather improved, so in the end, things were better than ever, with Ingrid joining us for the session! And to make things even better, I had a short term loan of the new Canon R 85mm f/1.2 lens - the upgraded version of my venerable 13-year old Canon EF 85mm f.1,2 II. I am some way away from being able to afford to upgrade the lens, but this loaner will give me a better idea if such an expensive (and heavy) lens would be a good investment!

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The first thing to really catch my eye was a large, lovely piece of driftwood. Liv was the first to pose on it, and we made some really striking compositions, but it was when Ingrid was added to the frame that things really came together. The infrared really worked well in this setting, highlighting the sparse foliage growing on the cliff-side, and rendering both women as luminous alabaster.

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The session really began to flow as the three of us moved out onto the ocean floor, and I suggested working with a couple of sea-weed covered rocks. By this time, the evening sky had started to develop some drama, and provided the perfect backdrop. After beginning with Ingrid along, and then adding Liv to the top of the rock back-on (mirroring Ingrid's pose), I suggested Liv flip over and pose on her back, to contrast Ingrid's pose. I felt this the stronger of the two options, and quickly made the three source images for the final composition - one of each of the models at f/1.2, and then one of the sky above them (still focused on Ingrid). The final result is even stronger than I expected, with a dark drama from the coming evening, and a beautiful counterpoint in the relaxed grace of the two models.

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As the session progressed, so did my exploration of the potential of the 85mm f/1.2 lens; it was a real joy to work with, providing quick, accurate auto focus (one of the primary advantages of switching to the Canon EOS R5 for my infrared photography), and absolutely lovely shallow depth of field at the largest aperture. The above image of Liv posing against a small rock, with the evening sky in the background showed off the real beauty this lens can create.

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At the very lowest point of the tide, a long, water-carved bed of red sand emerged, and both models were keen to explore its potential (I was dubious about the logic, given it was still quite wet, and well, sand); over ten minutes or so, the models experimented with a number of poses while I worked quickly (hand-held) and worked through possible compositions. Some, like the above, didn't quite work with the aspect ratio of the camera, so had to be stitched together from multiple frames. As before, these images were produced with the 85mm lens at the f/1.2 aperture, making the most of such a powerful too.

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As the evening began to move to wards sunset, the three of us started to make our way back to the car; on the way however, we stopped to work with a broad swath of sea-grass. I've walked past this space a dozen times or more, but never worked with it. As the grasses were in the shadow of an island, the light was soft, with some highlights created by the evening sky - just wonderful to work with. Again, the large aperture of the 85mm lens permitted me to create some really pleasing image of both Ingrid and Liv set against a seemingly infinite sea of luminous grasses.

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The last images of the session were some of the few I made with a tripod; normally I work on a tripod almost exclusively, but the desire to work swiftly, coupled with the flexibility added to the process by the in-body image stabilization of the Canon EOS 5R body made work hand-held the norm for this session. All that being said, for the last handful of compositions I pulled out the tripod, and the difference was palpable - where earlier work was produced quickly, with numerous variations, the final images of the day were all carefully crafted, with both pose and composition adjusted with care, in a slow and methodical way. I am not saying the earlier, hand-held work wasn't productive, but it strikes me as really noticeable the difference in the precision of the last images, compared to the sheer volume create during the rest of the session (close to 800 files).

This session was certainly a long one; from picking up Ingrid to pulling into to my house at the end of the evening was nine hours, but the investment in time, energy and resources was totally worth it!

Continued Explorations of EOS R5 Focus Stacking

An unexpected bonus built into the Canon EOS R5 is automated focus stacking (called Focus Bracketing in the Canon menu). A technique I have used in various applications for over a decade, to have this quite functional application of the technique so easily accessible is very much a game changer for macro and some other photography.

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During this field trip to the public gardens, as I was helping, I was also casually photographing, making images of some of the flowers around us. The focus bracketing can be adjusted to change how large a focusing step happens between each frame, and how many frames in total are being made - and most conveniently, the images are displayed as the camera takes them, so it is very easy to tell when a particular group of images is falls short of (or goes past) the far goal of the image.

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Early in this day's exploration, it took several experimental image sets (capturing 30, 40 or more images per set) before I began to get a sense of how much of a particular flower would be covered by a set of images. Once I was into the rhythm of the process however, I needed fewer and fewer tests to hit on the optimum number of images, making the whole process smoother and smoother as I worked.

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There is absolutely one downside to all this focus stacking explorations - the massive file count. Over this couple of hours, I made 696 images, with the final edit being 17 final photos made from 278 files (to make the three images used in this blog entry, 100 source files were used). This has serious ramifications on editing and file storage...but the results are SO pretty!