Miles and Gilda's Second Session

My second day of photography in Halifax was even more focused than the first - three sessions in one day. The first session was more of a continuation of the previous one than a new session. Gilda and Miles met me at the studio and, within ten minutes, we had started working. This session, however, took place in a fully equipped space with more lighting than I could dream of using with two models.

Digital original

Because the previous evening's session was almost entirely focusing on the models reclining on a bed, for this one I designed the studio for standing poses. The studio I was using was very long and quite wide so I lay down a black sheet for a backdro, and used three lights to illuminate the models. The shift to working with standing poses led to the vast majority of the images being focused on embracing, hugging, or one model holding the other. With a full studio available, the images become more polished with rim and side lighting complimenting the main light (the previous evening used only one light, so there was less complexity to the images).

By this session, Gilda's third working with me, she had become quite familiar with the process and her ease and comfort showed in the images. Because I was working with studio flash, there was no need to work with poses that could be held for long periods. Many of my couples images focus on quiet moments between the models, in part because of the focus on intimacy and in part because much of this work is created with available light and requires a pose that can be held for longer exposures. During this session, however, the models several times assumed fleeting poses, taking advantage of the incredibly short exposures of the flash to freeze them with absolute clarity.

8"x10" film

Towards the end of the session, I put away all the studio lighting and backdrops, and finished the time we had to work with using the available light coming through the large windows at the end of the studio. There was a wonderful old brick wall by the windows which was a perfect backdrop for the photos. The light coming through the windows was both bright and even, the best of both worlds (often natural light is bright but incredibly harsh, which is the worst kind of light to work with in most cases). We made the final images of the session with Gilda leaning back into Miles, who was leaning in turn against the wall.

Digital infrared original

Over this session, I created more then 3GB of RAW digital files which more than exceeded the storage space I had on memory cards. There was an unexpected advantage to working in the studio - there were computers on site which permitted me the ability to download my images as I filled memory cards. This avoided the problems I had at the end of the three-model session the previous morning and permitted me to work as I have grown accustomed to.