My second day of work with Bernice began at five in the morning, which marked the beginning of the commute into Boston proper, though I didn't actually meet up with her until ten o'clock.
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4"x5" film |
After a second light breakfast, and some chatting about the previous
day's work, we got things underway. I had hoped to do some indoor work
with Bernice, and one look at her apartment told me where we'd work - a
comfortable white couch in her living room was perfect.
Lit by a
large set of windows, the light on the couch was soft and wonderfully
descriptive, giving some beautiful highlights, and nice, flowing
shadows. The posing consisted of asking Bernice to "get comfortable" and
then exploring the possibilities. One of the strengths of the couch in
her living room was it was perfect for lounging about, with large
pillows at both ends. Too often in the studio I ask models to get
comfortable on hard floors with only a pillow or two - it was nice to
ask for something that for once was a reasonable expectation.
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4"x5" film |
The
soft light, combined with Bernice's comfort with modeling, lead to a
very strong sequence of images. We worked fairly quickly, moving between
poses and perspectives fluidly. I focused on the complementary
relationship between the lines and shadows on the couch and those of
Bernice's body. I also worked more than usual with limited depth of
field. I've been using this technique in the studio recently, but
applying it with natural light was unusual for me. The results were very
pleasing, with the sharply focused portions pulling the eye to one
portion, and the elegantly out-of-focus areas seducing it elsewhere. The
combination of the two makes for a very complex visual plane.
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4"x5" film |
The couch session was a good start to the day. Its pace was totally natural, with Bernice changing poses when she became stiff, and I asking for something different when I'd run out of possibilities. The light, combined with the setting and model, all added up to a perfect combination. The work only came to a close when Bernice and I agreed we'd exhausted the possibilities of the space. We were both eager to get on the road to the spaces we'd planned to work with later in the day, so after a good hour of working with the possibilities on the couch, we packed up the cameras and headed off to New Hampshire.
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