A Fall Gift from Ingrid (Herring Cove, Nova Scotia)

When Ingrid asked if I'd be up for one more outdoor fall session, my first comment was "you know what temperature it is outside, right?" After some discussion (Scotland was mentioned, as we'd done some work there in near freezing temperatures), we agreed that we'd at least try the following morning, but everything would depend on the weather.

Digital Original

The weather-gods smiled us, and bright and early the next day, Ingrid and I were at the coast, working away. Any thought of working with vistas overlooking the ocean was nixed by the morning's brisk wind, but on the lee side of the hill the air was much more sedate, and we set to work. The space was somewhat limited in terms of spaces for Ingrid to work in, but the above rock proved to be a perfect space to make the first success of the session.

Digital original

After ten minutes or so at the coast, we packed up and headed a little inland, hoping for even less wind, and warmer temperatures; this turned out to be a little optimistic, but we did managed to find a beautiful twisted dead tree that was the perfect setting for a more dramatic pose - this time however, rather than photographing directly into the light, I opted to use the raking morning light to flood across Ingrid's body, and set it off against the surrounding bog.

Digital original

Towards the end of the session (as Ingrid actually began to admit she was getting a little cool), I made a series of images working with the low foliage that is so ever present on the Nova Scotia coast land; in the fall it turns a brilliant red. The best of these compositions was the portrait above, as much for the look on Ingrid's face as for the momentary magic of her hair being tossed by the increasingly brisk morning breeze.

Digital original

The last photos of the morning were made with the brightest leaves we could find; the irony about the session was that it actually fell on the far side of the best autumn colour - we'd hoped to find a riot of colour, but almost every tree was either bare or yellow. This one oak tree had the richest shade of red, so won the prize of being the last setting in which Ingrid posed in 2015!