Sunset with Victoria

At about the same time as I moved to New Brunswick, Victoria relocated to upper Canada to begin her Masters Degree. Needless to say, we haven't worked together a lot since. So when I heard that Victoria was back in Nova Scotia for part of the summer, my hopes were raised that we could work out a time to meet up and make some new images.

Digital original

As it turned out Victoria had the same idea, so after a couple of hours spent catching up and hanging out, we made plans to meet up the next evening and take advantage of whatever light there was left in the day. As I have mentioned before, the fact I only visit Nova Scotia once a month inevitably leads to a full schedule during those visits, often with photo sessions timed back to back (in this case, three sessions in one day).

By the time I'd dropped Bobbi and Kylie off, and picked up Victoria, it was well into the evening, so we headed to the high rocks at York Redoubt, knowing that the last light of the day would still be visible here, long after other locations were shrouded in shadow. I hoped that given this location, we would be able to work until the sunset, or even longer.

Digital original, 2 frame stitch

As it happened however, a serious misjudgment was made on my part; when we left the car, to walk into the rocks, I decided to leave the bug-repellent in the car, assuming that there wouldn't be any insects on the high rocks. I was wrong, and very quickly, after starting to work, the bugs arrived, initially a distraction, then increasingly an impediment to Victoria modeling.

In the end, we had to retreat from the space altogether; without the drug-repellent Victoria was in danger of being carried away altogether, and rather then lose a model to the wildlife, I decided that it would be better to call the session to a close, and get away while we could.

Digital original

For such a short session, I still achieved much of what I hoped to accomplish - after working together for six years, I was focused upon making images that can add to the body of work we have already created - a good portrait, and one or two successful landscape-nudes was what I sought to create, and even in a session that lasted less then an hour, these were created, and the body of work Victoria and I began in 1998 continues to evolve.