Two Friends Pose at Lakeside (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

The session at York Redoubt was brought to a close by the heat of the day, with both L_ and Krista offering to do some water-nudes if I could get them to a suitably isolated space. Twenty minutes later, we were at a lake (within minutes, Lisa who'd modeled a couple of days before, was off, swimming across the lake and back) making images.

35mm infrared film

It turned out that while L_ was keen enough to actually get wet, she wasn't much for swimming, and got out of the water shortly after getting in. Apart from a very elegant portrait of the two of them sitting on a rock-point, almost all of the images I made of the two women were of Krista alone, either swimming close to the shore, and portraits of her on the rock ledge half-out of the water. In the end, it was the portraits that were the most successful of the images of her, with the wet hair and soft light working well together.

35mm infrared film

Interestingly, even though the day was overcast, the difference between the traditional and infrared film was readily apparent, with the characteristic glow of skin and the dark water making the infrared image below very distinct from the similarly framed 4"x5" portrait. The two photos have such a different feel that I show them both here as much to illustrate the differences then to revel in their similarities.

4"x5" film

Working with (relatively) still water was very different then most of my river sessions, where the time-based blur of the water is the important counterpoint to the body. With the lake, however, I focused more on reflections and distortion, framing as much around the water as Krista herself.