Three Models at Sunset (St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia)

After a snack and beverage break, we all turned and started our way back to Halifax. There were still three or four hours of daylight left, so I put in a request with Miles (who was driving) for a rocky venue and we stopped halfway back and walked out through the woods towards the water. The sun was starting to set, providing wonderful raking light to work with.

6x6 cm transparency film

When I had asked for rocks, I had hoped for big, sweeping coastal plains...instead we emerged from the forest to find a rocky shoreline, with only a few boulders pushing past a metre high.. Initially disappointed, I decided to make the best of the situation and do what I could.

8"x10" film

In reaction to the rather bland landscape, I began to work with models in relation to other models, working close, either against the larger rocks, or using the water and the setting sun as a backdrop. Where the landscape failed to provide me with the inspiration to focus on the body, the similarities and contrasts between two models gave me more than enough to work with as the evening approached. The first images I made had more distance between the models, dictated by both the setting, and the fact the models were not acquainted with each other before the session.

8"x10" film

Towards the end of the session, I worked with Ingrid and Michelle, with far more personal poses. Where before I worked with the models in the lines of the rock, now I set one model against the other, working on the play of body on body. The vast majority of my couple images have been made in the studio so working outdoors was a little different, as these images were most defiantly about a relationship, as opposed to just two bodies within the same frame. I am not sure if the images of Ingrid and Michelle work as well as they would have in a studio, but there is a freshness and depth to the images that is always missing from studio images - those tend to be more about stylized impressions than real people.