Vanessa in the Engine Room (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital infrared original

There is nothing as beautiful as window light, and this portrait of Vanessa, made in an abandoned World War Two era engine room takes full advantage of that. The large lens aperture helps keep the focus on Vanessa, not the setting, and the light on her face is near studio perfect.

Digital infrared original, 2 image exposure blend, 2 frame stitch

I have always loved the drama of wide-angle lenses, but have frequently been frustrated by the distortion and warped perspective that they often add to an image when used with smaller cameras (as opposed to wide-angle lenses on large format cameras, which can correct perspective with camera movements). All this changed in June of 2009, when I received my 17mm tilt-shift lens, which opened up much the same possibilities with my digital SLR camera.

Digital infrared original, 2 image exposure blend

I don't normally use the tilt portion of my tilt-shift lens (though I did use tilt all the time when working with 4"x" and 8"x10" cameras), but in this case, to emphasize and downplay to the room around her, I tilted the lens severely towards Vanessa. I am not certain I like the effect, but it was fun to experiment with.