Kira, Up Against The Wall

At this point, we've exposed 10 rolls of film, but there was still plenty of time to our sitting. I had in mind doing some low angle exposures, and when I do that, I can't use the backdrop because you can see the top of the backdrop being clipped to the picture rail just under the ceiling. I remove the backdrop entirely, exposing the paint effect living room wall, and we make some final exposures with this setup. All these images were made with the digital camera.

This is one of the simplest lighting setups I use, a medium sized softbox set high & to the left of the camera position. Yet, with the toning, it provides a wonderful ethereal feeling to these images. I like the soft shadows on the wall.

As I've said before, I sometimes like to play with the artistic effects available with my photo editing software; below are two examples, based on the original color (digital) image. A visitor to this web site called the effect on the right a "heat wave" effect, and I like that, but the effect is really called "enamel". That effect does interesting things to the gently graded shadows.

The real value of this lighting setup is that it is great for these low-level perspective images. That also is an advantage of the digital camera -- I can use the pivoting LCD screen to position the camera nearly on the floor -- it would be difficult & uncomfortable for me to look through the film camera's viewfinder from down there. Lately, I've also been liking the distortion caused by using the wide angle lens positioned close to the model.

It's funny -- at this point, Kira & I have been working together for about 2½ hours, and these images are the ones that show off her fine, fine figure the best. And, no doubt, you've noticed that in several of these images (like this one), her lips look especially kissable.

Some models I know subsist on a cheeseburger diet, but Kira takes great care of herself. She eats well & exercises regularly, and it shows, doesn't it? She also is conscientious about her school work. In fact, I found her to be a wonderful young woman, and my enjoyment in getting to know her contributed greatly to these images.

Kira looks good from every angle with every pose. Her figure is perfect, her skin is smooth & clear, and her face is lovely.

I'll finish this page & this sitting with a few images made from that low perspective that I've been liking so much lately.

This last image is a favorite from this sitting. In fact, I've recently purchased my first photo printer, and this image was the first photo I printed on it.

There is something I wish I could do better, and that's photographing models in real environments (as opposed to obvious studio settings). These come close -- you can see a nice small mirror on the wall behind the model, the drawn roman blinds on the window, and even the lamp in front of the blinds. But in reality, I tear apart the living room to set up the studio lighting, and these so-called environments aren't really "real".

This concludes our sitting together. Kira admittedly had a bad day, and so did I, because I didn't do enough to rise to the occasion. Even so, Kira is one of the most beautiful models I've had the privilege to photograph, and moreover, I've enjoyed meeting her. I hope that we'll get together for some more photography early next year.