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This is Tiana.
She is a very well known model. She started modeling
young, and she's now on top of her game. You may have
seen her in fashion and/or glamour magazines, possibly advertising
cosmetics. This was her first trip to town.
Tiana
is also best friends with
Betcee May,
one of my favorite models. Betcee hasn't made it back
to town in years, but we've kept in touch. Betcee
went out of her way to give each of us a great reference
for the other. When Tiana's lodging plans fell through
at the last minute, I volunteered my guest room for her,
based on Betcee's recommendation.
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My previous
photography session was with a newbie posing for the very
first time (Ashley
S.). In contrast, Tiana is as experienced as any
model I've ever met. She is clearly comfortable having
her picture taken -- in fact, she was quite at ease throughout
her trip. She was relaxed, comfortable, graceful,
warm, and genuine all the time we were together.
In fact,
I immediately noticed something amazing about Tiana.
Most experienced models simply can find the best light instinctively.
With Tiana, it was quite different -- good light just circles &
dances around her, like all those woodland creatures who
were enraptured by Snow White in the classic Disney cartoon.
Look
at her! This is the spot the big comfy chair normally
sits, and I've photographed many models right there.
Never has the light been more lovely. How the heck
did Tiana do that?
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Tiana had only
a couple of sessions scheduled here, which was a surprise
to me. Her rates were reasonable, and her talents
are impressive. In any case, she arrived on a Thursday
evening. On Friday morning, I showed her around town.
The light in my house is best in mid-afternoon, and that's
when we made many of these pictures. We had a nice
dinner, and we turned in early. On Saturday morning,
we visited the Farmer's Market, which Tiana enjoyed a lot.
On Saturday afternoon, she went off to her second session.
She was
totally delightful throughout. Our conversation flowed
easily -- she was very easy to be around.
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I'm including
this picture because it is poorly exposed. (I find
my "misses" to be more educational than my "hits").
When working with natural light, you just have to pay attention
to even the subtlest of changes to the lighting. |
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Here is my
first glimpse of Tiana's wonderful figure.
I can't
help but contrast Tiana with Ashley S. -- Ashley's sitting
with me was her first time posing nude; she was nervous,
excited, and she didn't know what to do with her hands.
In contrast,
Tiana was comfortable & graceful without her clothes.
She moves so naturally!
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Another contrast
between Tiana & Ashley S. Tiana gives great eye
contact.
I like
the cropping & composition of the two images that follow.
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| A word about cropping.
Back in my film days, I was creating large-ish 6x7 negatives,
but I was typically only printing on 8x10 paper (although
I've been known to make prints as large as 20x24).
Even with modern digital cameras, film is capable of retaining
more information than the highest resolution digital images.
So, with a moderately large negative printed on a moderately
small paper, I had a lot of latitude to crop an image.
That's an ingrained habit of mine.
It's not so good nowadays. This image, above, is
about a full framed image, and it looks fine. But
if I crop it, even a little bit, the tonal quality of the
image deteriorates. It's a tough habit to change --
I used to defer cropping decisions until I edited / printed
the images. It's something to think about.
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Hypnotic, isn't she?
I should mention that Tiana & I had such a fun casual
time throughout the day & a half we spent together,
but when it was photography time, she was all business,
all professional. We were efficient, and "Hit
vs Miss" ration was much better than usual. I
can see why she is in so much demand as a model.
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Have you noticed
that I haven't included any of my "signature"
sepia toned images on this page yet? (There will be
plenty in the Out Takes).
In this
case, I do like the color -- the color balance is very accurate,
light is delicate & lovely, and the exposure is very
good. Is that the stars lining up? Is that an
indication that my skills are increasing? Or is that
just part of Tiana's magic? I'll guess it's a little
bit of all three.
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| I observe my own habit
-- we set up a particular lighting scheme, we work it, we
try some variations, and when we feel we've explored the
setup as much as we can, we experiment. So, Tiana
tries this, lying down semi-backward on the chair.
This didn't work well for me -- I don't like it when faces
are lit from "below". So, one last exposure,
and we move on. |
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