I first met Natalia in 2005. At that time,
she was living in L.A., but she traveled up
here to Portland often, to visit friends.
Right off the bat, we "clicked" --
this image on the right is from the very first
setup of our very first sitting together, and
to this day, it is a favorite of mine.
As things happen, Natalia stopped visiting Portland
after 2007, but we kept in touch occasionally.
Out of the blue, she contacts me & tells
me that she's found some terrific air fares
to Portland, and if I was willing to pay for
her air fare, she'd pose for me for as much
as I wanted. "For as much as I wanted"
-- those words made my heart racel! I
trusted her, and I was thrilled to see her again
after over three years. And frankly, there
aren't many models who would inspire me to do "as
much as I wanted" -- there are few models
who could inspire me for more than my typical
sitting.
Natalia is fantastic -- sure, she's beautiful.
She also moves with more grace than many dancers
I know; she certainly is more graceful than
any model I know. But the bottom line
is that we have more "chemistry" than
with anyone else I've ever photographed.
See below:
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I don't know if I could fully define what I
mean by "chemistry", but I feel that
we made a photograph (above) of our chemistry.
Natalia is like your best friend that you never
get to see enough. To know her is to love
her.
We worked together on two consecutive days --
two full sittings, 24 hours apart. That's
something I've haven't done for decades.
Afterwards, I put a few dozen images up on a
private web page & shared it with Natalia,
and this casual snapshot was one of the images
that Natalia identified as a favorite.
Is it high art? No, not really.
But it perhaps shows our chemistry better than
any other image I've ever made. So, after
visiting briefly, we noticed some nice light
from my favorite window, and we jumped to it.
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Here's the
very first "serious" image of the day.
I just
reviewed my
list of
Oregon models (listed alphabetically). This is
the fifth time Natalia & I worked together, and there
are only a few models I've worked with more often, but there
are no models I've worked with over the span of five years.
Natalia is still stunning & fit. In addition,
she is still the most graceful model I've ever known.
Natalia has also become a skilled photographer in her own
right, and that knowledge has helped her improve her dynamic
posing. She simply is the best. Look at these
images on this page -- I've worked with the window light
many times before, but few models have managed to fill that
space with more grace.
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The sun
was particularly bright this day; this makes exposure very
challenging. In some spots, the sun on Natalia's skin
are blasted out, but I kinda like this effect.
On the
other hand, few models can fill a large space as well as
Natalia.
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I like this
light in part because it's so confusing. The sunlight
is harsh on Natalia's body, but look how soft the shadow
of her figure is on the wall behind her. (That light
is the light that's bouncing up diffused off the floor).
Check
out the image below -- this was another one Natalia identified
as a favorite. I like it a lot, too. I particularly
like the tonal separation between her face & breast
against the light wall. That's not easily done.
I'm aware
of the difficulties of this light, so I know that we aren't
going to be working in this light for long. But a
few more exposures...
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I've got to
admit that the lighting here defeated me this day.
It was just too difficult to get a good basic exposure setting
in this harsh light.
Y'know --
for quite a while now, I've started each session with my "Getting
Started" setup, where I photograph the model in her
street clothes and ask her to disrobe. But I thought
this light was calling us, so Natalia jumped into it right
away, and I've got to admit that I found that somewhat abrupt,
especially since I hadn't seen (or "seen") Natalia
for so long. That, in itself, is interesting.
Regardless, Natalia likes the "Getting Started"
setup (because she knows that I like the way she dresses),
so we go ahead and visit that setup using the studio lighting.
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Getting Started Second
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