Sarah Bathed In Sunlight

I would guess that most models would describe my photographic sessions as "sedate". We usually work at a comfortable pace, and since the strobes yield consistent results from exposure to exposure, there is no hurry -- we can work on a setup for as long as it takes.
Here, in the sunlight, it's quite the opposite. The optimal sunlight changes from moment to moment, and the sunlight will be gone entirely in less than an hour. So, I pretend that Sarah is a sundial, and I keep a close watch on the time.

Sarah has taken off most of her clothes while sitting on the floor against that wall. I knew that I wanted to move her around a bit more, so we remove all her clothes and look for a few more places to work.

The first thing we try is this. While Sarah looks lovely, I just don't like this much. As I grow older, comfort has become very important to me, and lying down on the hard wood floor just doesn't look very comfortable to me. I like the light on Sarah's face & figure, and I like the play of light & dark, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I know that for some reason, I just don't do a good job photographing horizontal models. I should work on that.

I find this much more interesting, especially since all lines are pointing towards the figure.

When I'm working with the strobes, I set up & refine the technical details up front, then I focus on the model, the pose, and the composition. While I'm working, I'm singing to myself "Up, down, in, out, left, right" to remind myself to look around at all angles.
In particular, when I'm working with new-to-me models, I want to see how close I can get without making the model uncomfortable. Sarah is an experienced & confident model, and over the course of the quick sitting, I've found that I can get as close as I needed to be.

I really like this picture. I like how the nudity is understated and how Sarah's presence is strong.

I'm a fan of unusual proportions for an image (when it works). This works for me because the splaying of Sarah's legs suggests the wide & short composition. Sarah is out of the direct sunlight, which makes the tonality a bit more pleasing. And I kinda like the confusion of the plant shadows on the left side of the image.

Just perfect.

When I first saw this image, I liked it, but I think I liked it because I find it to be a little disturbing. It's those light/shadow stripes on Sarah's back. Sometimes I think that they look like gills. Sometimes I think they look like marks from caning. Either way, they are disturbing.

A very interesting sitting.
I'm used to my sedate pace & my typical 2.5 - 3 hour sittings, and working under these conditions (a quick session utilizing sunlight that was constantly changing) was a good break from the routine.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate Sarah's flexibility -- she dropped everything to make it over here so that we could take advantage of the rare winter sunlight. Thanks, Sarah.