Miranda in Another Oceanside Session

6x7 cm film

After the success of our first visit to Sandy Beach, Miranda and I hoped to build upon it with a second visit; like the first night, we set out from a stiflingly hot Halifax to find the beach very different; in this case, it was not just cooler, it was totally smothered in fog. While this was not the setting I had expected, it certainly provided possibilities for imaging. As opposed to working directly on the beach, we began with some images in the sand-dunes.

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When no-one had walked down the beach during the half-hour we worked on the dunes, we decided to venture out onto the beach proper. Normally, working in such an open space is less then ideal, but the poor weather, combined with the fact it was a weekday evening, made the beach a less the popular place to be. Over the entire three hours we worked on the beach, we didn't see another soul.

6x7 cm film

I did a series of portrait images of Miranda on the beach, but as we were outdoors, it seemed silly to spend time on portraits when we could be working with the landscape around us. The hardest thing about working on a beach is the lack of anything to work from. Usually, with the Nude in the landscape, I draw my inspiration from the lines of the land, and how they interact with the lines of the model, either by comparison, or contrast. With the sand beach, however, there was little to draw from; eventually I settled on the lines of the receding tide, both in the sand, and in the seaweed that lay upon it. In the end, the photos was quite successful. Miranda and I had to work hard to get the pose to come together, but the strength of the flow of the body with the line of the beach behind it is very pleasing to me.

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The end of the session came as the light was dropping too low to work. Miranda offered to brave the surf for a final set of images, given that the ocean-side of the beach was totally abandoned. The light had dropped quite low, so I loaded high-speed film in the Mamiya RB, and walked out into the surf with her. Working with shutter-speeds between 1/4 and 4 seconds, we brought a swift close to the session. Among those images was one that immediately jumped out at me from the negatives, with Miranda standing in the blurred surf. There is a strength and confidence to the image that just captivates me.

Miranda in the Ocean at Sunset (Maartinique Beach, Nova Scotia)

As the sun descended in the sky, the wind dropped, so Miranda and I walked around the backside of Martinique Beach, just to see if the water was workable for nudes. Miranda stuck her toe in, declared it warm enough, and we set to work. Because of the swiftly changing light, I took all my gear with me into the water - if I'd had to return to dry land the change lenses, we would have lost too much time, and with the light failing as swiftly as it was, this was one thing I wished to avoid.

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As I had hoped, the light levels were low enough to permit long exposures - between two and eight seconds. Because the wind was low, and we were on the back of the beach, the water was only
lightly rippling, Miranda had little problem keeping still in the water during the making of the images.

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The biggest problem of the session was finding poses that worked. We had to work low to the water's surface for the look I was after, and we quickly discovered that the only angle that worked was with her body parallel to the camera. With the light dropping rapidly (decreasing as much as 50% in five minutes) Miranda and I had to work as fast as we could just to make what could be recorded. By the time the light had faded to a point where it was too dark to work, Miranda was pretty chilled, and ready to come out. The session was over, but I felt strongly we had achieved what I was looking for.

6x7cm film, two frame stitch

About the only question I have about the session was in regards to my decision not to use colour film. I had colour film with me, but decided that switching between the two films would have cost me too much time. Also, with the bright scarlet of the sky reflected in the water, I felt that overall the images would have been too red, and been next to unprintable.

An Evening on a Beach (Martinique Beach, Nova Scotia)

We left Halifax for Martinique Beach late in the day, hoping to work with the setting sun and water. In the city, the day was stifling, with hot, breathless air making everything sticky and uncomfortable. The intent was to work with Miranda in the sea, with the low light of the sun. When we arrived at the coast, however, there was a brisk breeze blowing, and what I had thought would be a hot evening at the sea turned into a decidedly cool one. While Miranda and I still hoped to work with the sunset if the evening warmed up, rather than forget about photographing altogether, I opted to walk down the beach on the ocean side, and see what was there to be photographed.

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The results of this casual explorations couldn't have been more surprising. We'd arrived at low tide, so the beach was as flat as could be, with long, delicate patches of sand being lightly washed by the surging of the waves. The astounding variety of textures and forms on the beach was breathtaking, and everywhere that I looked, I saw potential.

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Though I had no intent when planning the evening to do landscape images, as soon as I started seeing the possibilities on the sand-flats, I set up my camera and began exploring what I was seeing. It is a difficult thing, to explain how images are created. In this space, they seemed to appear as swiftly as I could record them - as soon as one thought was pursued and recorded, another would spring up and present itself. There was a magic to the light and space which demanded an attention that I could not deny. As I worked, a flow was established, and while several images would be made of each scene, using different camera settings, I would already be looking for the next composition as the last exposure was being made.

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The final results are among the most shocking of all the work of the year. I had an idea of what was happening before my lens as I made the images, but it was totally shocking how clearly the images were transferred onto film. Many of my images in the Laetitia folio have struck me for their stillness, but these images, and others from the series, have a silence to them that bordered on reverential
(which is amusing when you consider their making was accompanied by the constant white noise of the surf crashing on the beach). Without hesitation, I would say that the images I made on the beach on this particular evening are among the clearest expression I have made of the power of seeing well. When I made them, I knew that what I was composing on the ground-glass was striking; it was only when I saw the final images that I realized the translation from what I saw to what I made was striking as well.

A River Session with Miles & Miranda (Dawson's Brook, Nova Scotia)

Without a doubt, my work builds and feeds upon itself, from one session to another. By this I mean that a good session lends energy and enthusiasm to the next day, which builds upon that, and continues to the next, and so on. Once things start coming together photographically, if I can maintain the momentum of the inspiration, it can carry my imagery through a week or more, with each image contributing to the next, in an ever widening circle of influence.

8"x10" film

Immediately after the session with Lynn Marie, I got home and received confirmation that Miranda and Miles were available to model the next afternoon. I had no real plan in mind, but given the strength of what I saw happening with Lynn Marie in Canaan River, I wanted to continue to build upon that energy, so we decided to head to Dawson Brook. The session started in the late afternoon, when the light is perfect at Dawson Brook, which is in a ravine between high pine trees.

8"x10" film

As with Canaan river, there was less water then unusual in the creek, but where it cascaded over the rocks above the main falls there was more then enough white water for me to work with. Because of the high trees on both sides of the creek, the lighting tends to be dramatic and contrasty, especially between the centre of the water, below the open skies, and the edges, where the trees surround the creek.

Working with the 8"x10" camera in and around the river proved easier then I'd expected. Dawson Brook is not as treacherous as some of the other places I've worked, and while the footing was a little tricky at times, I could generally get the camera where I needed it with relative ease. The slower pace that the larger camera imposed was a little hard on the models, given that it sometimes took me five or more minutes to get the image composed and camera ready, but both Miles and Miranda were indulgent, placing their confidence in the strength of the images I was trying to create.

4"x10" film

The combination of the beautiful light coming from directly above, and the dark wet rocks lead to to a very stark, dramatic quality to the images. Working with only the one camera permitted me
to focus all my attention of the possibilities it provided, and both Miles and Miranda were more then willing to work with me for as long as it took to make the images work. Several times, after trying to bring a composition together, we had to admit it didn't work, and move onto another image. By the end of the afternoon, however, I felt very strongly that we had made the most of the space, and with light fading behind up, we packed up and headed back to Halifax.

Lynn Marie Models in a River (Ingramport River, Nova Scotia)

Lynn Marie and I worked together in May, but, as is often the case, it wasn't until three months later that we managed to co-ordinate our schedules enough to return to working together.

8"x10" film

The day was bright and sunny, so I decided to try to work at Canaan River, where I knew there was good tree cover over part of the river, which would provide enough shade to soften the light of the afternoon. As I had hoped, when we arrived Lynn Marie found the water more then warm enough for full immersion, which greatly increased the number of poses open to us. While the river was not as high as I would have wished, there was still enough moving water to provide the white highlights that I enjoy working with so much.

4"x10" film

As Lynn Marie and I worked, she became more and more comfortable working in the water. At first, her poses were hesitant and cautious, as she moved gingerly on the small rocks and boulders to find spaces in which she felt comfortable. As the first couple of images were made however, Lynn Marie gradually grew more accustomed to what I was looking for in a pose, and grew in confidence. This very swiftly changed the images from ridged, posed looking compositions to photographs that took full advantage of the flow of the body and the landscape both.

4"x10" film

The real jewel of the session arrived as we were working in a shallow patch of fast-moving water. Working with a wide-angle lens, I was exploring the flow of the river over Lynn-Marie's back and hips, but was frustrated by how much of the forest above the water I was capturing in my composition - if I framed the image without the forest, the distortion of Lynn Marie that resulted from pointing the lens downwards was quite pronounced, yet when I pointed the camera forwards to keep the perspective on the Nude figure correct, there was too much above her to make the image as I intended.

4"x10" film

It was only after a couple of minutes of struggling that I remembered by split dark-slide, that permits me to make two 4"x10" images one above the other on a single sheet of 8"x10" film. Very quickly, I composed the image on half of the film, and made an exposure that totally ignored the upper part of the image on the ground glass. The results were exactly what I sought after, and even better, because I could get two images on the sheet of film, I made a second exposure with an even longer eight-second long exposure. The right tool at the right place helped me make the most striking image of the session.

Parrsboro, on the Bay of Fundy (Five Islands, Nova Scotia)

After such an intense period of image making, all revolving around the Nude, it was almost a relief to spend a full day working with another subject. Parrsboro is on the Bay of Fundy, on the other side of the province. Famous for its high tides and rich fossil finds, the landscape around the small town is geological fantasy land, with millions of years of earth's history laid bare. It was these rock forms that I was interested in exploring visually.

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I arrived to find the tide receding; it had already revealed a broad swath of the beach dozens of metres across (the tide in the Bay of Fundy is often over 8 metres in height). Little did I realize that only about a fifth of the tide had withdrawn; by the time I left the beach in the later afternoon, there was more then half a kilometre of beach exposed.

For most of the day, I spent my time walking along the base of the massive cliffs at the top of the beach. The sedimentary rock was buckled and turned on its side, exposing of beautiful striations of different tones and widths. It was these rock forms that I explored with the camera, marveling as much at the time displayed in the rocks, as the beauty of their forms.

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I walked back from cliffs was along the bottom of the beach, where the ocean had most recently receded. I'd put the Mamiya RB away for the day, thinking there would be little on the flat rock and mud beach to work with. Then I came across one of the many small rivulets that ran down the beach - in the light of the setting sun, the water in these was dazzling as is babbled over the small rocks and debris that was being carried along with it to the sea. I quickly got the camera back out (not any easy feat, as there was no place to put the backpack while I set up the camera) and made a series of images of the water and mud.

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On the whole, the day was a contrast to much of my earlier work this month; the images
came slowly, and with much consideration. As opposed to working with the synchronicity
between a model and the landscape, I was working with the lines of the natural world alone,
which are much more patient then even the best model! One the whole, the day was as much
about reflecting on image-making as it was about making images.

Fern Models on a Beach (Carter's Beach, Nova Scotia)

The end of what had become a marathon day of photography was spent using the dying evening light to work with Fern on the beautiful white sand beach that surrounded the abandoned boat.

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Much of this work referred back to 2000, when I worked with Yvette in Long Island, New York, though the timing was the exact opposite of the day - dusk instead of dawn. Working on beaches is not easy; the flat sand leaves little to work with but the pose of the model, and while the texture and flow of the sand can be very beautiful, it isn't necessarily enough to carry an image along.

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As it turned out, the beach was only one of the elements I worked with in the space; the first was a concrete breakwater that protected the beach from erosion. The day was a foggy one at the coast and that, combined with the evening light, provided a wonderfully soft quality to the light, perfect for a reflective image of Fern looking out to sea. In some ways, this mirrors the image of L_ from earlier in the month, but the injection of the concrete changes it from a wholly natural image to one with the infused with the hand of man. Even with that addition, I think some of the wistful romantic qualities of the earlier image are carried through for this one, focusing on the longing and mystery associated with the sea.

6x7 cm film

After we finished working on the breakwater, we moved down onto the beach proper, working with the texture of the sand. The first images explored the lines of grass interrupting the flow of the body - they begin to look like the marks of Japanese brushes set against the smooth tones of Fern's body and the sand.

The final images on the beach were some of the most challenging to make, exploring the possibilities of the texture of the sand left on Fern's skin as she rolled around on the sand. Because the images were made up of just the sand and Fern, the composition had to be carried on strength of line alone; the two of us worked hard to find poses that were both comfortable for her and dynamic enough to make up an engaging image.

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Overall, this was one of the most successful days of photography this year. Three distinct spaces to work with and an enthusiastic, hard-working model lead to a broad variety of well-seen images which will hopefully serve as the foundation of even stronger photos to come. As I have said many times before, it is impossible to say what will come out of a first session with a model, and in this case, the interplay between Fern and myself was just as influential as the rapport between myself and a long-time model. This is not to say that, after more session together, the work Fern and I produce will not grow in strength but rather that the spontaneous dynamic that can arise between a model and myself can feed the work as much as any deliberate direction I try to impose upon the session.

Fern Poses in an Abandoned Boat (Carter's Beach, Nova Scotia)

The greatest surprise of the day came as we were walking to what we'd expected to be our second location, a white sand beach. As with the first location, I'd been told of the beach, but had never actually seen it, and as a result, didn't know what to expect.

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As we were walking to the beach, we came across an abandoned Canadian Coast Guard vessel, pulled up on the shore and left to rot. The ship was almost entirely gone to rust, and immediately, I saw the possibilities it held for images. I wasn't sure if Fern would see what I did in the space, but she readily agreed to see what could be made in the boat, and we set to work.

6x7 cm film

Because I'd shot through all my 8"x10" film at the river, I had to change to working with the smaller Mamiya RB and 120 roll film. It was a shame not to be able to use the larger view camera with such a texture-rich space, but the reality of how much film I had along dictated the smaller format.

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As much as the rusty hulk called out to me visually, it was surprisingly sparse to work with; while the textures of the rusty metal were incredibly rich, the flat-sided, flat bottomed boat challenged Fern to find poses that worked with such basic surroundings. With almost every pose, the inspiration was the simplest of elements; the join between the deck and walls, the circular inspection hatches set against the lines of Fern's torso and hip, the flow of her body between the hatches on the deck.

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Where the first session of the day (and Fern's first session modeling outdoors) was very much about finding inspiration in the landscape, and melding the body with the setting, the images in the abandoned boat relied very much on Fern's ability to collaborate with me to find a pose, and make it work. This is probably the hardest thing about nude modeling, and something that is next to impossible to teach. Fortunately, she was both keen enough, and patient enough and we came away from an hour of working with a good variety of poses, in spite of the small setting.

Fern at North River

Until mid summer, I was wondering if I would ever get a real chance to work with water Nudes this year - apart from the images of Carol and Miranda from the end of June, the year hadn't been conducive to water Nudes....until now. August seems to have finally brought the hot water, and with it, the prospect of spending a day working in a cool river or stream is particularly enticing.

35mm infrared film

When we first arrived at North River, a space I'd never worked at before, but which came highly recommended, I was rather dismayed by the lack of water - while there was certainly water flowing in the river, as opposed to a torrent of rushing water all the river contained was a gentle flow.

As we walked upriver, however, my evaluation of the situation rapidly changed, as the river opened up into a couple of shallow pools, each of which had a gently rippling surface surrounded by dark trees. I instantly thought of how well a model's skin would be set off in contrast to this, and we set to work. As it happened, the surroundings were so dark there was almost no detail left in the water surrounding the model. Initially, these images were a little disconcerting, but the more I live with them, the more they are growing upon me.

8"x10" film

The best image of the session (and one of my favorite of the year) came when we were working on a large expanse of bedrock, through which the river had carved a narrow waterway. In the spring, I am sure the entire rock is underwater, but with the low water level of mid summer, it was just a rush through the narrow cut. We made a few experiments, and then hit on a stunning pose - Fern lay back in one of the smooth hollows formed by the water, and instantly the image came together. I switched to the 150mm wide angle lens, positioned the camera almost directly above her, and make the image.

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After working with the ocean two sessions in a row, it was very different to set about making images in a river. Where the ocean is vast and open, surrounded by sky and open air, the rivers I enjoy working on are all surrounded by trees, and generally less then a meter deep at any point. This changes how I can work, because I can not only work in the water, as I was with L_ and Krista, but I can also frequently work from above the model, looking down in to the scene.

A major source of frustration on the earlier beach sessions was how limited I was in vantage point - it was impossible to get higher then two meters off the ground. While a low perspective can be quite striking, it quickly lend a homogeneous look to the work that would be better avoided. With the river spaces, the option of working from a higher vantage point is not only present, it is often obligatory, with there not being enough room in the space for the model and the camera.

8"x10" film

The session wrapped itself up after a series of images made in more rapidly moving water - just above the pool where we began working the river narrowed between rocks and the pace picked up quite a bit. Working between the 8"x10" and 35mm cameras, I made a number of images taking full advantage of the landscape, with perspectives and view-points very different from the earlier work on Sandy beach.

Hirtle's Beach

One reality of the way I live and work is that there is only so much time for art; it is necessary to put food on the table and a roof over our heads, and as a result, a good portion of my time and resources must go to the simple act of earning money. Thus, when I do have time to make art, I must always select a subject, and invariably, when they are available, the various models whom I work with win the contest.

8"x10" film

The logic behind this is that while a landscape or architectural space will be present the next day or week or year, the model may not, so I invariably choose to work with model over other subjects, when the choice is possible (about the only exception to this would be when I am traveling, in which case architecture often takes on a higher priority then my figure work, which I can always continue to pursue back at home). It is frustrating to have to select one subject over another, when I hunger after pursuing all the images I wish to make, but such is life.

8"x10" film

The only time that this frustration fades is during those periods when I am focusing solely upon photography (what other people call vacations, or in other cases, unpaid-leave). This day was one of them, and when it dawned grey and cold, rather then try to find a model to work with indoors, I thought I would head to the coast, and simply work with what I could find.

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The beach we headed for was one I'd never been on before, but which was the favourite of a good friend, Jeff Amos. Being as familiar as I am with Jeff's vision of the place, I thought it would be interesting to see how the beach appeared through my lenses. The results were very interesting; while the beach certainly is the same in both our work, it is a very different place for me. Everything I saw was either sweeping wide vistas, or the small details of the sand and seaweed. Once I have a chance to print up my favourite of the dozen images I made, it will be interesting to see what Jeff thinks of my take on his beloved beach (this is only fair, as in 2001, Jeff spent some time photographing Cassandra, while she was working with me on the Nova Scotia portfolio).

L_ at Long Beach

The day after the session with Krista found me back at the same beach, this time with L_ (who in fact introduced me to Krista in 2001). The day was much the same as the previous one, but we walked much further down the inside of the beach, to where a broad sweeping beach spread out.

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Because the previous day's work in the water with Krista was so clear in my mind's eye, I decided to start working with the same approach. There is something particularly pleasing about placing the human figure within living water - the flow of the body melds so well with the lines of the ocean. I've worked extensively in the past with moving water, using long exposures to record the blurring of rivers and streams, but the freezing of water in mid-motion is relatively uncommon in my water Nudes.

6x7 cm film

Though I had revelled in the work that Krista and I did the previous day with the 8"x10" camera, I decided to use the smaller Mamiya RB camera on this day, primarily because it uses a smaller tripod that permits me to work much lower. With the large format camera, the heavy-duty tripod goes down to about 80cm from the ground, which is a severe limitation when I need a low camera angle (all things being equal of course, while I was hoping to get the camera lower, I simultaneously wanted to avoid getting either the ball-head on the tripod, or even worse, the camera, actually in the water).

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Working with a model in the shallow ocean water was a very different process with the smaller Mamiya RB camera. It permitted me to make images more rapidly, and as I could carry both lenses with me in the water, and extra rolls of film, the whole session moved faster then one with a view camera. All that said, I distinctly missed the flexibility and controls that the 8"x10" camera provides. Often I was often forced to photograph at very small apertures (lens openings) to ensure that enough of L_ would be in focus, where with a view camera, I would have simply used lens movements to change the plane of focus so it flowed along the model.

35mm infrared film

At the end of the day, I was very pleased with the results. Coming so swiftly after the previous day's session with Krista, it was more of an extension of the first session than a totally different session. Almost the full session was spent with L_ immersed in the ocean, though we did make some less-then-successful images working with the flat sand of the beach. Having worked twice now on Sandy Beach, I am sure it will become a favourite space to work in.

Krista at Long Beach

I haven't worked with a lot of beaches over the history of my visual exploration of the Nude, for a number of reasons. Primarily, it is because beaches tend to be crowded, though the risk to equipment from sand cannot be over-emphasized as well.

8"x10" film

With this in mind, it was with some trepidation and we set out for Sandy Beach on this warm, sunny day.  Fortunately, Krista was willing to take the chance that the session would NOT be a beach and water one, so we set out to see what could be created.

35mm infrared original

Rather then beginning to work with Krista right in the water, I opted to try some images in the dunes; I haven't had much chance to work with sand, and the dunes on the beach were much larger then the others I have worked with in the past in Nova Scotia. After working with a couple of possible poses with the smaller 35mm camera, Krista and I finally came across a pose that really came together, with her arching back over a dune, and a cloud filled sky above her. That setting, combined with the soft light of a cloud-covered sun and a orange filter lead to one of the most striking dune images I have made to date.

6x9 cm negative

Once we had worked through a number of poses on the dunes, we moved to the back-side of the beach (where the people were not) and began to work with water-nudes. Unlike the open, ocean-size of the beach, the back had still water, lightly rippled by the afternoon wind. This provided me with the opportunity to work with Krista in the shallows near the shore. In fact, over the hour that we worked in the water Krista moved perhaps three meters from her original position - this was not because we were searching for a better location, but because of the falling tide - Krista had to keep shifting to keep the water depth at the right point.

35mm infrared film

The greatest pleasure of the afternoon working with Krista was the pacing; working between the 8"x10" and 35mm cameras gave me the best of both worlds - the freedom of movement of the smaller camera, and the precise control and rich detail of the larger one. I would never begrudge the role of the Mamiya RB in my work, perfect as it is for short sessions on a limited time-scale, but the pleasure of taking the time that large format work demands for the images that are called for is a great experience.