Why do I go to Phoenix in the summer? It just happens. I will say a convertible in the desert at night was awesome. Outside during the day – not so much. That’s why my shoot with Plush wasn’t outside. During my trip out west I spent a little time in Phoenix between Las Vegas and heading to California. The night I came into town I’d set up a shoot with Plush at my hotel. Here’s some photos from the first part of that shoot. As always you can find more in the member’s area.
A couple of interviews and a look at using architectural tools to take photos like those from a drone this week.
Sometimes I come up with a photo concept that I can’t try out right away. Sometimes it’s logistics of getting to a location or the weather. An outdoor shoot isn’t going to happen in January baring exceptionally great luck no matter the idea. A shoot for a specific location may need a mix of timing and luck to have the model and I both able to get there at a certain time. Last spring I’d worked out the idea to mix in a starscape with light painting a nude. I’d planned to shoot this on my spectacularly unsuccessful trip to Arizona last summer, but it ended up one of the many things from the trip that didn’t work out.
Afterward I tried again a few times. At least six more times I’d planned to shoot it, scheduled the shoot, and something had occurred to prevent it. Some were just cool weather or rain moving the shoot indoors. Two noteworthy times trying to shoot the concept fell through came with Leanne that ended with us in a patch of cholla cactus. Another failed attempt would have been following the interrupted shoot with Wonderhussy in Nevada earlier this year.
Even when I finally got things to work out and shoot this concept it didn’t go perfectly. I’d planned the shoot with Keira during the summer for the evening hour turning into night. All day before the shoot the weather had been overcast with scattered rain. Not a daylong washout, but occasional showers from light sprinkles to steady rain off and on. As I left to meet Keira I got a message from her and learned she was currently experiencing a rather heavy thunderstorm. I drove into North Carolina through a steady mix of showers and sun. Near Asheville I traveled through an impressive downpour of rain. Knowing the weather I’d planned for the eventuality we’d end up shooting indoors and packed some items for that case. I’d largely accepted that result during the drive. To my surprise as I neared her location, the clouds had broken up. While not a bright, sunny day, things were at least hopeful. Looking toward the shoot location I’d had in mind also appeared promising. A few minutes before I’d been running through an indoor concept in my head, but now it looked like we’d get a chance to work through this concept after all.
We headed up into the mountains in mixed clouds and sun, more of the former than the latter. We hoped was that the radar and skies just looked promising. It was still mostly overcast, and there was no guarantee that we’d get to try the concept, but there was enough that it would be worth the effort. I’d planned a different spot for the shoot, but that had some disadvantages of distance and terrain making it unattractive, if not dangerous, for a night when a sudden downpour of rain and a thunderstorm were real possibilities. The alternate location offered a usable location with a shorter run to shelter if the weather took too much of a turn for the worse.
Arriving before dark gave time to settle and scout a bit. We shot some early work and it looked like we’d get some decent stuff at first. Those early shots around dusk in fact came out more interesting than I’d expected using the dim light to allow some almost ghostly images of her in a small meadow. As dark came we started some light painting work resulting in the images above. Using a mix of red and white light giving Keira the look of a demon dancing in the darkness. Also in the light painting working with multiple.
While breaks in the clouds appeared giving some hope, it didn’t clear off completely. Then the rain started. A small shower, but it looked to be the end of the night.
Turned out to be the beginning.
The rain was light and fairly brief. Enough to make things damp and cool, but never hard enough to call the shoot. Shortly after it ended, the skies finally began to clear and the stars appeared. After more than a year and several attempts things finally came together.
A short list this week. Expect large amounts of iPhone camera related comments next week.
Sequoia trees are big. Really big. As in the below photos is a tree that fell over long ago and was big enough to be a home in the early days of California and can be walked through without needing to bend over. The photo below is taken from just inside that tree. I’m standing straight up.
It’s hard to put into just words how massive these trees are. Two in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are among the largest living things in the world. Think about how much wood is inside a tree over 200 feet tall and thirty feet around.
This week’s edition of links.
In the original plan for my California trip I’d planned to spend a day or two winding down from hiking in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains and then heading over to the coast around San Luis Obispo for a day or two. After booking several shoots around that area, I decided to just head to that area for a few days between the mountains and heading up to the Bay Area.
When I think beach, what comes to mind for me are those of the Atlantic coast of Florida and South Carolina. In summer the water is warm and generally calm unless a tropical storm makes an appearance. The Central California coasts don’t match the same vision. The water when I was there seemed rough and choppy. Fog hugs the coast in a way that reminds me of fall mornings here near the lakes and rivers that carve through the valleys. Except many days that fog never quite went away. It’s a different terrain in spite of being another place that ocean and land meet.
My last day in San Luis Obispo started very early with at 5 AM meeting Katja Gee. Early mornings are a common element of morning shoots. Here our hope was to catch the light crowds of the early morning until the sun burned through the fog. On the good side the fog never really burned away. On the down side along the beach itself we found a constant light drizzle just steady enough I didn’t want to get my camera out in it. Katja had scouted a good location for us, and we found some nice sports to work with in the woods and trees around the area.
In particular there was a large Eucalyptus tree that we saved for the end of the shoot. I worked around these trees twice in the area, and really love the way the curves and size of the tree can either compliment or dwarf the human form. There are tall trees here, but the sheer scale of some of these trees (not to mention Sequoia and Redwood trees) have a scale and presence that’s hard to put into words. These trees were already old generations of people ago. The photo above shows Katja in a small section of one tree. The photo below shows true scale of the tree with Katja posed against it.
My afternoon shoot in the area had canceled by the time I’d returned to the city. After Katja and my shoot completed, I left to make my way to San Francisco, hoping to arrive before rush hour. I almost made it too.
Welcome to what I hope to be a new feature on this blog going forward. Hopefully weekly, but no promises as I’m starting this out and seeing how it works. It’s a place to gather some items I’ve come across since the last entry in the series.
Topics will be photography related, but rarely to images (though there is one below). Mostly expect to see tutorials and thoughts of models or photographers here. Subject to change of course as I figure out exactly how I want this to work.
Some photos from a late spring shoot with Xlcr Moon outdoors at one of my favorite locations, but the first time there with Xlcr Moon. This was a late starting shoot that stretched late enough that we wrapped about the time the light became too dark to work out in the woods. We started out in some nice deep wooded area in the mountains.
In spite of the late hour, I think some of our best work came during those last few minutes of shooting before it became too dark. We wrapped along a nice, well worn wooden fence near some water where that best work came. Moon as always does great work and really seems to produce some of her best work in the woods.
