A Third Session with Jesse

Jesse and have seemed to developed a two-week schedule, though this session will likely be our last of the year given the coming holidays and how hectic my December work schedule is, December being the only month when I work full time. For this session, I decided to continue working in the living room (where we'd worked during the infrared test session). By putting the futon flat and moving it below the windows, I could make the most of the limited afternoon light.

Digital infrared original

For most of the session I worked between the Canon 10D and the Sigma SD-10, exploring the subtle difference that the infrared camera creates in the results. The dramatic differences possible with infrared photography will only really come into play when I resume working outdoors in the spring. Part of this is my chronic "new toy" syndrome, but it is also partly learning the new tool and its place in my working process.

Digital infrared original

Although I began the session with my usual portrait series, because of the soft side-lighting of the space I worked with more bodyscapes and abstract nudes than usual. With Jesse, this required the breaking of a long-standing personal prohibition - namely the inclusion of tattoos, of which Jesse has numerous. Traditionally I have avoided including tattoos in my work, mainly because I feel they ground the images in the individual, as opposed to the universal.

Digital infrared original

Over the past years, the number of models with tattoos has been steadily increasing but with most of them, I try to work around them, either through careful posing or limb placement. With Jesse, however, I have found myself responding more to line and pose and seeing past the tattoos. I think when I do this, at some level I am aware that I could retouch the tattoos out of the resulting image (as they are produced on a digital camera, this would be easy) but, to date, I have always opted to leave the tattoos in the image. I suspect I may feel differently about Jesse's tattoos when I start working with her outdoors but for the moment, they seem to be creeping into my work.