Brianna on Millstones at Sunset

Though I hadn't expected to have the opportunity to work outdoors, the second day of Brianna's visit was relatively mild (for the end of November), so we set out late in the afternoon to see if we could find a space that would work for a session. We ended up working on the dyke land by the banks of the Petitcodiac River, in a space I had discovered earlier in the year, where some old mill-stones lay abandoned in a remote field.

Digital infrared, 2 frame stitch

In truth, the setting was strongly on the minimal side; apart from the handful of mill stones, there just wasn't much in the field, but I had selected the location for just that reason. I really felt it would work for a couple of images, but wouldn't really fill out a long session. Thus, it was perfect for a short session on a cool early winter evening.

While the location was quite minimal, the image possibilities were anything but; the sky above was peppered with red-painted clouds, so as opposed to working with my regular colour DSLR, I reached for my infrared camera, knowing the clouds would gain an extra edge of contrast from the sunset sky.

Digital infrared

To some degree, this session was a study in variations on pose and point of view; while it wasn't too cool to prevent Brianna modeling, we both quickly agreed the session would a short one, as the cool stone and earth sapped the warmth out of her bones. I worked with a wide-angle lens to capture as much of the sky as possible, and kept close to Brianna, to keep her a prominent part of the image. I made a couple of two-frame stitches, but to keep the session as short as possible, I resisted the temptation to made larger stitches, which by necessity require more patience on the model's part.

Digital infrared, 7 frame exposure blend, 2 frame stitch

In the end, it wasn't the temperature that limited our session, but the time of the day - we arrived in the field just as the sun was approaching the horizon, and less than ten minutes later, the sun has dropped below it, and much of the light we were working with suddenly disappeared. With the infrared camera, as soon as the sun sets, available infrared light also declines rapidly. As a drop in air temperature