Working along the Atlantic Shore (Polly's Cove, Nova Scotia)

Digital, 8 frame stitch

I’d thought this session would be one spent working with the rocks along the Atlantic shoreline, but when J_ discovered how warm the water was, we spent most of the session working with it.

Digital original

I always try to make a portrait every session I work with a model who's comfortable with their face being in images; fortunately, J_ was more than comfortable, and many of the portraits we made were really pleasing. All through this session with J_ I returned to making portraits of her, always asking her to be back-on to the sun. Of all of them, this is my favorite.

Digital infrared original, 3 frame stitch

Several months before making this image, I’d created a photograph in the same space, but at the time, I couldn’t realize the image I really had in mind, as I didn’t have an ultra-wide angle lens. As soon as the session began, I mentioned to J_ that we’d save “that rock” for the end of the session, which was when this image was made. I don’t see this as a case of one image being better than the other, but it certainly is a situation where one image directly lead to another.