Shadow & Figure

Carlotta likes coming to Portland. She doesn't have problems finding enough bookings here to pay for her trip. There was even some talk about her moving to the area.

But for some reason, she always seems to come through town during the coldest part of the year. Portland only gets snow for maybe a handful of days each year, and that seems to happen when Carlotta comes to town.

Carlotta lives in Florida. The problem is these warm weather models is that they are never warm. When I have a sitting scheduled, I turn up the thermostat hours before the scheduled start time, and I have a little space heater that I can point at the model, just out of the image frame. For some, it is never enough.

Carlotta likes shopping, especially at used clothing stores. She got this coat when she arrived in Portland & experienced the cold weather. We decided to let her warm up, but we didn't stop making pictures.

I'm including this image here not because I like it but because I don't like it at all.

I've really grown to dislike that "model staring off into the distance" pictures. What the heck is she looking at? Why is she ignoring the photographer? What is going on?

I realize that such pictures are popular, but when I see such images, I think the photographer was/is a beginner.

And that's the only downside to working with experienced models. They have a set of moves & poses that photographers have preferred in the past, so they tend to offer all photographers the same poses that have made them successful.

Don't get me wrong. I love working with experienced models. I prefer working with experienced models. But I don't want the tried & true old poses. It's easy to bore an experienced model. The challenge for me as the photographer (the person with the artistic vision) is to engage the model's brain with new ideas. Experienced models raise the bar, and the photographer has to figure out the way to make the sitting new & exciting. "New & exciting" is not so easily accomplished with a model who has posed for some of the best photographers in the world.

So, I like getting the model to move. I give her something to do with her hands. I talk with the model. Anything to get a natural reaction instead of standard poses.

While I don't like the "model staring out into the distance" images, I don't insist on model eye contact for every picture. Two of the main reasons I don't like the "staring out into the distance" pictures are...

It draws the viewer's eyes out of the image, and
I always wonder what she is looking at.

This image, without any eye contact, is preferable to me. While we can't see what Carlotta is looking at, we have a pretty good idea that she's looking at her foot on the floor. In addition, I think this is an unusual picture:

It is not a standard glamour pose,
In fact, it's just some natural gestures, true to the moment,
There's something casual about Carlotta's nudity.

Admittedly, there's something about this picture that I can't quite figure out. On some level, it puts me ill at ease, but I couldn't tell you why. And for that reason alone, I like this image.

(Also, it has nice light & tones, and it has nice tonal separation between the figure & the background, and despite the casual pose, Carlotta is all woman.)

Here's a more glamorous pose, of the kind that makes Carlotta famous. There's a lot going on with this image.

I was going to list all the elements that make Carlotta look luscious in this image, but then I thought -- why bother? If you can't see it, me explaining it won't help you.

It ain't bragging if it's true: I come from a show biz family -- my father was a very successful song writer. As a consequence, I've been around famous people all my life, and I still trip over a famous person every now & then. For them, once they become famous, the people they meet tend to treat them like celebrities, and sometimes that's a bother. But for me, meeting a celebrity is no different from meeting a non-celebrity.

I've been a fan of Carlotta's for a long time before I met her. Nearly all of the images you see of Carlotta are glamor poses. There's nothing wrong with that -- in fact, I enjoy making some glamor type images with her.

But more than anything, when I photograph a person (model or otherwise), I'm looking for "connection". I don't envy Carlotta her work -- she's on the road much (most?) of the time, posing nude for hundreds of photographers, all of whom want the same thing from her. The danger is that she can fall into habit posing.

Meanwhile, instead of just ogling her body, I'm looking for "connection", and on occasion, I say or do something (or provide some direction) that breaks Carlotta out of her habit posing. These "connection" images are the ones I treasure most.

Like this one. Like the one below. Carlotta works hard, and in most of her images, she is not smiling. I like her smile.

There more, a lot more, to being an exceptional model than being attractive. Carlotta is an exceptional model, and yes, she is a knock-out. But in addition:

She knows how to move & pose,
She knows how to present herself,
She conducts herself professionally,
She is very confident.

And to me, nothing is more attractive than confidence.

I like the pose. I'm a big fan of poses that give a little jog to the spine and that raises one shoulder higher than the other. As long as it's natural, and Carlotta can pull it off.

I also like the glow behind the coat.

Finally, I'm a fan of off center presentations. So, this image works on several levels.

But Carlotta has a somewhat neutral expression on her face. I always figure that that stuff is my fault -- it is my job to engage the model in the process. The similar image, below, is better.

Winter weather in the Pacific Northwest is a crap shoot. In particular, days are often dark & gloomy, but on occasion, the sun bursts through the cloud cover. When it does, we celebrate it. It is a rare winter occurrence. It is rarer still when it happens during a photo sitting. Today, the sun cam out for just a moment, and I scrambled to utilize the sunlight coming through my favorite window. But by the time I took down the backdrop, moved the light stands, and opened the window shade, the sunlight was starting to fade. Still, we made a few exposures (most of which will appear on the Out Takes gallery).

I love off center compositions, when they work.

Here's my favorite famous window. The window shade softens the light, and if the sun is bright enough, produces streak shadows that are fun & interesting. The space is a bit tight, but I compensate by using a wide angle lens. I minimize the wide angle distortions by keeping the camera low and keeping the camera axis parallel to the floor. If the lens was pointed up or down, the vertical lines would start to curve more.

You can see why I like putting models into this corner.

One special treat -- Carlotta "gets it". Put her in a situation, like posing in this corner, and maybe show her a sample on the camera's LCD screen, and she needs very little direction. Carlotta gives me a fine range of poses, and I like all of them. That frees me to pick & choose the poses and to play with compensation.

We had the idea of keeping the coat in the image, on the floor. I've had the idea before of having a trail of clothes on the floor, leading up to the nude model. I've even tried it a few times. I haven't been satisfied yet -- so I suspect that I'll try it again. Keep tuned to future sitting images.

I've also put models on the floor in this corner -- it changes the feeling of the resulting images. By putting the model on the floor, I can move in closer, making the images more intimate. I particularly like the natural light on Carlotta's face -- I just love this light, including the light that bounces around off the floor & wall to illuminate Carlotta's lovely figure.

And just like that, the sun disappears behind a thick cloud cover, that the window light is gone.

I don't know why, but I've had doing some harsh downlight images for a while. This is probably because I recently installed a boom arm on a strategy wall nearby. So, I figured I'd try some.

Okay -- I like planning my sittings, but I must admit that my plan was mostly the "World Melts Away" sequence. On this page are images that are more improvised -- we started by working with the coat that Carlotta recently purchased and then moved on to taking advantage of the rare & wonderful natural light coming in from that window. On the next page, we'll have a mix -- I had planned the hard downlight images, but we didn't finish the sitting with them.

I like to think about past sittings, especially when I put together these web pages and their attendant commentary. For this sitting, I think we did 50% planned concepts and 50% impulse concepts. Now that I think about it, I think I'd prefer more planned concepts, but I'll always leave some time for impulse concepts.

This sitting continues with Sweet Portraits.