Constance Models in a River

8"x10" film

Every time I work with a model in water, the difference from every other session astounds me. When I return to land-based settings with different models, I often find myself working with the same spaces and angles, relying upon the difference in the model's response to the space to generate new and fresh images. With water-nudes, however, it is a totally different experience.

8"x10" film

For the entire session, I worked between the digital and the 8"x10" camera; in many cases, I sketched with the EOS 10D first and then brought the 8"x10" camera into play when I found an image that was particularly successful but, surprisingly, several times it worked in reverse.

Digital original

Because the image on the 8"x10" camera is upside down and backwards, it is a little more abstract, and removed from reality then viewing through a single-lens reflex camera, which shows the image the right way around. I have always found this to be a strength of the view camera, separating the final image one step from reality, before it is rendered onto film. This certainly was the case for this session, with a couple of the later images coming directly from compositions and viewpoints developed with the larger camera and then revised on the digital. The best case in point is the last image displayed here of Constance emerging from the water with her hips twisted. The lines are beautiful, and all the stronger for the flowing water but it was only when I considered the image as a 4"x10" cropped composition that I discovered the final image - a cropped digital image. It only took a few minutes to switch to the EOS 10D, and then the image was made. A perfect mesh of the old inspiring the new.