Ingrid & Miranda at Long Lake

Digital original

On this day, both Ingrid and Miranda had time free to work with me, so we decided to take advantage of the hot day and spend the session working in Long Lake. The advantage of Long Lake is two-fold; first it is very close to Halifax, easy to get to and from, and therefore a good use of the time available; secondly, as a shallow lake, it is easy to work with models close to the shoreline, while still getting a sense of a broad body of water stretching out behind them.

Digital original

I find it very interesting that, while Ingrid and I had worked together extensively from 1998 - 1999, it was only in 2003, after her return to Nova Scotia from the West Coast, that I began to make portraits of her that really looked like her. I wonder if this is because over the intervening years she grew more into her skin, or if I grew into mine. Regardless, I am increasingly pleased with the portraits I have been making of her, and this image is no exception.

Digital original, 7image stitch

While I have often worked with multiple models outdoors, it isn't very often that I use the models in contact poses; this focuses the attention on the two models alone, as opposed to presenting them as figures in the landscape. In this case, however, it worked well; as landscape, the wind-blown water of Long Lake, was simply a minimalist plane upon which to work with the Nude. This approach worked well with the digital camera - the elongated poses created by working so low to the water were perfect for working up as stitches, and most of the images of the later half of the session were produced in this way.