Waterfall I with Tanis (Kentville, Nova Scotia)

Digital original, 2 frame stitch

I first worked with Tanis in 2011, but because of her location (an hour away from Halifax), it is only now, four years later, that we've managed to meet up for a second day of photography. The first location I chose was a waterfall just outside of her hometown, right beside the highway.

We started the session working with the top of the falls, in the narrow river that flows under the highway, and down the rock face. After initially making some image of Tanis in the falls, we shifted to her posing with her figure crossing over the river, which turned out to be the most successful image!

Digital original, two frame shutter speed blend

After we finished up at the top of the falls, Tanis and I carefully clambered down, and proceeded to work in the water at the base - we made number images working both where the waterfall met the pool at the bottom, and with Tanis on the falls themselves, but there was nothing that had more impact that a portrait we made right at the start, with her kneeling in the water and leaning back into the falling water.

Digital Infrared Original, three frame stitch

The end of the session was spent working out of the water, below the falls. I've made numerous attempts in the past at capturing the size of these falls in contrast to a Nude, but this was the first time I've managed to accomplish both of my goals - making an image which really portrays the scale of the setting, and which has a pleasing placement and pose of the model. In large part this is because I used a 17mm tilt-shift lens, and managed to keep Tanis from becoming too distorted, but it also is rooted in her her pose, which works perfectly with the rock shelf to the side of the falls.