Miles & Natasha Model Outdoors

Miles and Natasha had accompanied Trisha and I to the coast; towards the end of that session, I'd asked if either of them would be interested in modeling or if they'd like to model together. The opportunity to work with one or two more models in such a beautiful space was certainly not to be missed.

Digital infrared original, 4 frame stitch

The first set of images I made was of Natasha alone. We took our cue from the last images I'd made of Trisha, and worked in the shallow water pool. We arrived at the peak of the tide, as the water level barely changed over the hour or so that I worked in the water pool. As opposed to focusing on her figure alone, I choose to make a series of more dramatic compositions, with the big sky above Natasha providing a balancing element to her pale form in the dark water.

When I finished working with Natasha alone on the rock, Miles joined her and we worked on a series of water nudes with the two of them emerging from the water surrounded by rockweed. At the time, I thought a dramatic wide-angle composition would be best and made the images with a wide angle lens to be stitched together later. In retrospective, however, the distortion added to the image from the wide-angle view was a little displeasing, so I regret not making alternative versions with a longer lens, for a different perspective. In my own defense, I avoided the long lens option because of some distracting rocks in the background, but I still suspect they would have looked better overall).

Digital infrared original

The final set of photographs I made of the two models was on a set of rocks that rose out of the still water of the pool; I started with just Natasha in the image, but eventually added Miles to fill out the
composition, in this case with him kneeling behind her and stretched out along her figure and the rock. With the infrared camera, the reflection in the water, while clear, is unusually dark, lending a mysterious air to the whole image.

Digital infrared original, 43 frame stitch

The short session with Miles and Natasha at the end of the day was lovely. We didn't work for all that long but made a number of notable images, and made the most of the day which is always a satisfying feeling.