Ingrid Models on a Frozen River

For several years, Ingrid has expressed interest in doing some modelling with ice and snow, but this was our first real attempt at working with winter nudes. After a week long cold snap, a day with mild temperatures (6 Celsius) arrived, so we headed out to Dawson Brook to see what the winter presented in the way of inspiration.

Digital infrared original

As we walked into Dawson Brook, we stopped several times to made images, including the above infrared image of Ingrid with ice. I'd thought the infrared camera might work well with the snow and ice, but it turned out to be less than pleasing in most cases, with the above image being a notable exception.

Digital original, 31 image stitch

Ingrid only headed out onto the ice after I had thoroughly stomped on it - if anyone was going to fall into a freezing river this session it would be me. This setting had exactly what I sought - a lovely shelf of ice for Ingrid to model on, and a full waterfall of running water to contrast the ice in the final photograph.

After disrobing, Ingrid perched on top of her socks while we experimented with the pose; after a couple of non-starters, we made a handful of pose variations, the best of which is above. After finishing the colour images, I moved closer and made some hand-held images in both colour and infrared (which were not very successful).

Digital original

I have such a dislike for photographing on bright, sunny days that when Ingrid suggested an ice-nude session, all I could think was that if I was lucky, I might find some ice in a shady spot. Little did I know how important the direct sunlight would be to the images on the ice shelf - the delicate highlights on Ingrid's torso really sing in the above two images.