Flowers in the Rain

I have always been fascinated with macro photography, but given my predilection for photographing architecture and the Nude, I don't have many opportunities to explore close-up photography. With the weather being as horrible as it has of late (rain, rain and more rain seems to be the order of the days and weeks), I spent today working with a number of photographers in downtown Moncton, and testing the Olympus 50mm f/2 macro lens. My partner Joy bought an Olympus E-300 this spring, and the 50m f/2 lens would be a perfect addition to her system - both as a fast portrait lens and a good close-up lens.

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Though the day was heavily overcast, with rain spitting intermittently, and threatening a real downpour, we decided to head as a group downtown, to see what we could find to photograph. With the macro lens in hand, I was specifically looking for small things to photograph, and these little white flowers, covered with water drops from the morning's rain, seemed just perfect. The macro lens on the Olympus E300, combined with a flexible tripod and wireless remote, made the whole process simple and straightforward.

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As it happened, one of the other photographers had the extension tube for the 4/3rds system, so I was able to focus REALLY close with the macro lens - a total revelation. Once I'd set up the lens with the extension tube, I worked alternately between compositions that called for a deep depth of field, and those which would be more appropriate for less in focus. Close-focused images inherently have less in focus, but sometimes, more in focus, as opposed to less, is preferable.

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The explorations of the water-dropped flowers came to an abrupt halt as the sky opened above us and the real rain started. As nice as the flowers were, they weren't worth ruining any camera equipment.

All I can think of now is how much I want to work with rain-covered flowers again!

A Day of Exploration

Usually by mid-May, the weather is more than warm enough to be working outdoors with models, but this year's spring has been unusually cool. As a result, the first weekend that I'd intended to spend working with models in New Brunswick was spent driving around on the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border looking for potential spaces to work in with models, photographing, and generally having fun.

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The first space to really engage me was a massive stone bridge Joy found in the middle of the small community of Tidnish; in the midst of an innocuous looking park, the path went over a broad, wide bridge. In a country well under 150 years old, stone bridges of this sort are incredibly uncommon, and it wasn't until I was back home hours later that I could discover its origins - it was originally built to support a ship railway, for carrying ships from upper Canada across the Tantramar mashes, and into the Bay of Fundy, saving over 500 miles of sailing. The project ultimately failed, but the remains, like this massive stone bridge, are a mute testament to the grand effort that was undertaken.

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After leaving Tidnish, I spent the rest of the afternoon driving along back roads, and keeping an eye out for potential spaces to photograph. About the only thing to bring me to a halt was a single lone tree on the horizon of a distant field. The afternoon sky was high and multi-layered, providing a simple but visually engaging setting against which to place the tree.

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The last hour or so of the day's trip was spent photographing the architecture in downtown Amherst, the last town in Nova Scotia before the New Brunswick border. This was the first time in the day that regretted not having my 8"x10" view camera with me. Architecture naturally lends itself to the flexibility and control of the large format camera, but as the day was simply an exploratory mission, I had left it at home. In an effort to make the most of the situation, I decided to focus on architectural details and images where colour was a major element.

Three Models in the Studio

The original plan for this afternoon was to head to the countryside with Natasha and work in the landscape for the remaining light of the day. As things turned out though, the rain precluded that plan, so after some quick phone calls, and a somewhat hurried lunch, Natasha joined Ashley, Miles and I in the studio for an impromptu three-model session.

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I've worked in the studio with three models in the past (the most notable time being the "Three Graces" session in 2002), but each time it has been a planned session, with some foresight put into the possibilities and direction of the sessions. For this session, given that Ashley and Miles had only modeled together for the first time hours earlier, and Natasha had never met either of the others before lunchtime, it was a little more awkward at the beginning. Fortunately, I'd left the studio set up from the earlier session, so we could begin where the comfort seemed to be the highest, with the models simply lying comfortably on the backdrop.

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For the remainder of the session, I alternated between the various combinations and permutations possible with three models (1+2+3, 1+2, 1+3, 2+3), often working with very similar poses with alternating models, to make the most of the possibilities. To a degree, it was harder to work with the two women and Miles together than with any other combination, as it was a little difficult to keep the images from looking too hedonistic, but with careful attention, and a focus on a more stylistic approach, the results were very pleasing.

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In the end, for all that the day was cold and wet, with the help of the enthusiastic models I was able to make some very striking images. For all that I was hyper-aware of the potential issues of placing two, and then three models, in such a personal and intimate setting, the day's sessions couldn't

Miles and Ashley Pose Together in the Studio

Sunday in Halifax was blustery, wet and cold; instead of working outdoors as I had hoped, I stayed inside for the day, working in a studio for both the morning and afternoon sessions.

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When planning ahead for this visit to Halifax, I'd arranged to work with Miles and Ashley on Sunday morning. Ashley had modeled nude previously for Miles but, after seeing my work, specifically my work with couples, was interested in modeling for me with a male model. Miles was an obvious candidate as he's worked with me for more than eight years and has several times cheerfully posed with models who were not partners.

Working with two models who are not a couple is always an interesting (and on some levels, delicate) process. Much of the tone of a session is set by the models' comfort; while one can assume the comfort level of a couple, when two friend or acquaintances model, there's no way to predict how relaxed or awkward the session will be.

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With Ashley and Miles, it didn't take long for the models to find their own comfort level and simply focus on making the images. For the first while I worked with the models standing, but the awkwardness this introduced was hard to overcome. With "real" couples, standing poses inevitably turn into cuddlefests, but with Ashley and Miles, as much as they worked with embraces and hugging, the images had an artificiality to them which is impossible to ignore.

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The second half of the session was much more successful, with the models shifting to work on the floor, and the lighting shifting to a more dramatic, side lighting. By this time, there was little hesitation or uncertainty in the models' movements, and that, combined with the more relaxed, prone poses, really strengthened the closing images of the session.

L_ Dancing

L_ recently returned from a long trip to Turkey and India. Shortly after getting back to Halifax, she asked if I'd be interested in photographing her in some of the belly dancing costumes she'd bought during her trip. I was more than happy to to help and we made plans to spend an evening in the studio during my next Halifax visit.

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I was quite surprised by how different working with clothed models is (I suppose this should come as no surprise, but, as I'd never thought about it, it was worth mentioning). With the focus being on the dance costumes, I had to alter my usual approach to working, and experiment more with pose and position than lighting. As it happened, L_ forgot to bring dance music so she had to work harder to create a natural flow to her body and the costumes.

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As the session was so focused on the costumes and poses, I lit the studio as evenly as possible, which had the added advantage of using all the flash heads available to me. This resulted in my being able to set the lights to their lowest setting, permitting me to photograph L_ dancing at three frames per second!

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This session, more than any other recently, brought home the huge influence that digital cameras have had on my approach to photography. Because so many of the images were of L_ in motion, I took advantage of the high volume of images possible with digital SLR cameras. By the end of the session, we'd recorded more than 1,100 photographs and, while many of these were discarded (due to facial express problems, bad timing, or bad framing) the images I kept were much stronger for the high volume used to create them. The other element that digital photography added to the session was that less than two hours after finishing the session, L_ and I parted ways - her with a DVD full of images, and me with the satisfaction that I'd been able to go from start to finish with the session in under five hours!

Miranda and Partner

With the warmer weather in May comes the beginning of the photo workshop season and the resumption of my regular visits to Halifax. I was lucky on this visit, in that Miranda's work schedule permitted us some time to work together on the day I'd arrived (we'd planned to work later in the weekend too, but scheduling issues conspired against us). The day was too cool to permit working outdoors but fortunately one of the upstairs rooms was available to work in (the same room where I'd worked with Gilda, Ingrid and Miranda on New Year's Day).

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As I move closer to converting the Nikon D70 permanently to infra-red, I decided to do a test with an infrared opaque filter - the results were quite pleasing - this image of Miranda was made by soft diffused light - I pushed the ISO up, and used a fast f/1.4 lens, but the results were more than acceptable. If this is an indication of what I will get with the converted camera, I am very much looking forward to using it.

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With my previous DSLR, the Canon 10D, infrared photography wasn't practical; the camera was both very insensitive to infrared light and many of the images had a huge hot-spot in the centre of the image, making the results basically useless. The Nikon, on the other hand, worked quite well - the camera was quite insensitive to infrared light, but the results were quite lovely with no hot-spot to be seen. I made a number of images of Miranda standing against an open door, drawn to the small white door handle - the only real problem being getting accurate focus.Infrared light focuses behind visible light and requires adjustments to focus for larger apertures.

The rest of the session was spent working with Miranda on the bed, lit by the window behind it. The experiments with the infrared filter at the start of the session had been focused on standing poses, so I thought working with sitting and reclining poses would add some variety. In the middle of the session, Miranda's partner leant his arms and torso to a number of images, adding a third layer of variety.

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By the end of the afternoon, the light was fading, and I had to take my leave to set up for teaching. The experiment with the infrared filter had made me even more enthusiastic for the modification of the camera, and the variety of images, from working with the door, Miranda and her partner, and just reclining on the bed, made me feel like we'd made the most of the time we'd had.

A First Session for Carol's Second Pregnancy

Carol's first pregnancy was also the first time I was able to document an entire pregnancy, from start to finish, resulting in a couple of image collections (here and here) which chronicle the entire pregnancy. So when Carol let me know she was pregnant again, I didn't expect the invitation to document the second baby as well, but it was thrilled when it was made! Carol wished to have a similar series of images, and wished to began as soon as the next time I visited Halifax.

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Like the first series, we planned the images around a couple of poses we hope to recreate throughout the pregnancy. It was tempting to simply reuse the stairway pose we'd used in the first pregnancy, but I didn't want to series to simply be a second version of the initial set, so instead, we decided to work with the couch in her living room, following a couple of poses there that should nicely describe the progress of her baby's growth as her term progresses.

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The real treasure of this second pregnancy for both Carol and I is that I expect to be back living in Halifax before her due day, which should give us some opportunity for outdoor images before the baby is born. With the first pregnancy, while I was able to make it down to Halifax to do one outdoor session several weeks before her baby was born, the day was quite wet and cool, forcing us to cut the session short, and work in a less than ideal setting. This time, I hope we'll be able to get out and work in a more bucolic setting, better suited to such a magical time in a woman's life.

Amber's Pregnancy

Though I don't have a formal studio to use in Moncton, I have become quite adept at improvising workable spaces where I live, especially if the images are limited to a single model, or in this case, parts of the model. For this session, I borrowed a second studio flash from a friend and set up my living room with a black background, a large sheet on the right side to diffuse the main light, and the second flash to the left to serve as rim lighting on that side. While somewhat cramped to work in, the lighting worked perfectly and gave me exactly what I was looking for.

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The reason for the careful focus on the lighting was the fact that this session was likely to be my only opportunity to work with Amber. We'd met to talk about the pregnancy photos a couple of days before and she was due to give birth in the next week or two; while she was quite interested in having the photos done, there was no guarantee that we'd have a second session together before she had her baby.

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The focus of this session was on the swelling belly, and the beauty of the pregnant body, reoccurring subjects in pregnancy imagery. I alternated between full-body poses and closer compositions of just Amber's belly, or her belly and hands. Towards the end of the session (just before I discovered a serious technical problem!), Amber asked about using a thin, white robe. Normally I avoid clothing in my own work but, as the session was very much focused on making images that would please both the model and me, I acquiesced and we began working with the thin shift. As it turned out, the images were quite engaging, with the lighting working well with the translucent white fabric and the hint of nudity emerging from below.

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One thing to note is that a good portion of the images from the session were seriously compromised in quality because I was using my newly acquired Nikon D70 without having fully explored its features. Unfortunately, I had it set to "Auto ISO on", which automatically boosted the ISO on the camera to 1600, because of the low light levels. I should have caught on earlier in the session than I did, because of the high power I seemed to be getting from the flashes, but as I was so focused on getting the best images in the shortest period of time, I didn't clue in until I was reviewing some images 3/4 of the way through the session, and noticed the ISO setting was at 1600! A quick resetting of the cameras functions saw me resetting the ISO to 200, adjusting the light levels, and revisiting many of the more successful poses. The blame for this error lies squarely on my shoulders, due to my lack of familiarity with the new camera, but I am glad at least that I managed to catch the problem before the end of the session, and had time to remake some of the more striking images from earlier in the session.

New Model Army

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For me, the most anticipated event of the visit to Montreal was the chance to see and photograph a performance of the British (post-punk-alternative-rock-electro-folk) band New Model Army. This is a band that I have listened too since I was 19 but have never had the opportunity to see perform live. In the fall of 2004, I'd considered driving up to Montreal to see them on an acoustic tour but, at the last moment, the date was cancelled, so I couldn't attend. Just on a whim, when the dates for the Montreal trip were confirmed, I checked their website on the off chance they were coming back - and they were - as a full band - on the very week that I was going to be in Montreal. I ordered tickets to the show and contacted the band for permission to photograph (though in retrospect , given how many other cameras there were in the audience, I didn't have to be as concerned about the photo permission as I was).

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Though I haven't done it for years, when I was in college I used to photograph live concerts in several Halifax bars several times a week for more than five years. I really enjoyed the spontaneous, uncontrolled nature of the venue and, over time, became quite comfortable with the process (though poor lighting or boring bands were still difficult to overcome and unfortunately par for the course). That being said, this concert would be my first attempt at concert photography with a digital SLR.

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I arrived at the concert with three lenses, a 35mm f/2, a 50mm f/1.4 and a 85mm f/1.8 - all fast lenses. I set the D70 to 1600 ISO to keep the shutter speed as high as possible and began photographing. The very first images were made in RAW mode but I very quickly changed to high-quality JPG to enable myself to photograph faster and make more images (I also very quickly switched from the 4gb Microdive to a 1gb CF cards, to enable a faster frame rate). The Microdive, while fast enough for my regular work with models, was much too slow for the fast response and frame rate required for a concert. By the end of the 90 minute concert, I'd made over 1,000 exposures (which were later edited down heavily) and had finally seen one my favourite bands give one of the best concerts I'd yet to witness (though the sound could have been better!).

Veronica Models in Montreal

After Gilda and I wrapped up our morning session, Joy and I had a hurried lunch (thanks to Mary-Jane for finding us a place to eat!) before heading back to the studio for the second session of the day. Besides Gilda, Veronica was the only other model I'd previously worked with from Montreal - we'd had our second session together over the New Year weekend in Halifax, so I was all the more pleased that I'd be able to work with her again so soon.

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As is my preference, I opened up the session with a series of portraits, working with Veronica against a white-painted brick and wood wall, again taking advantage of the wonderful natural light coming through the large windows. Part-way through the session, Jean-Francois, who was working in one of the other studio rooms, had to ask me something, so instead of putting all her clothes back on, Veronica just bundled herself into a sheet of thin white fabric for a moment. When I turned around after seeing Jean-Francois off, Veronica half-dropped the sheeting, just clutching a small around next to her torso - and it looked just wonderful. She and I spent the next twenty minutes or so experimenting with the fabric, and making a whole series of images, both full body and abstract, exploring the possibilities. I think this is rooted in the fabric nudes I did last fall with Kylie, yet they are different, with an almost bridal feel to them (I suspect this is a combination of the soft lighting, and the white fabric).

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The room in which we were working had a great influence on the images. Much larger then any other studio I've worked with to date, the space gave a real freedom to spread out and work with a variety of viewpoints (usually the spaces I work in are very constrained and severely limit the variety of perspectives and angles I can work from.) I took advantage of this in a number of ways, both in terms of making more multi-image stitches than usual and working with the model from more varied angles.

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The very end of the session saw us moving from the room in which I'd work for the morning and much of the afternoon, into a much larger space on the other side of the building - if the first room I was in was large, this space was HUGE, running the entire length of the building. It was also unheated (remember, this session was in Canada in March), which was why I'd left it to the end of the session. When I'd shown the space to Veronica, she agreed it was interesting enough to work with, even with the cool temperature. For the first time that day, I left the tripod behind, and worked hand-held, making a whole series of images in the space in less than a dozen minutes. As it turned out, the only images I really respond to well were a set we produced at the end, working with a single large window and Veronica standing beside it...not much different from what we'd produced in the smaller space, (the windows were the same size) except for the perspective - I was more then ten meters away from her when making the image, giving the final photographs a very flattened sense of perspective.