October 21, 2021

Downtown Halifax at Night

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My first real love in photography was architecture, rooted in my exposure to European art & architecture as a child. As I live in Canada, the architecture I really love (western-European medieval & gothic) is not readily available, so I have to make do with newer buildings. In Halifax, one of the most interesting "new" buildings in the central Library, with a cantilevered top floor, which is a delight to photograph. In this case, using my 17mm tilt-shift allowed me to really exaggerate the jutting out of the top floor.
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As this evening grew dimmer, I began to play with the interaction between man-made lighting and architecture, with the above bouquet of metal posts being the first subject I approached with this in mind. I really enjoy the interplay of shadows at the top of the composition, though I did keep wishing I could have had control over the lighting inside the building - as it is still under construction, the visual noise of the unfinished building site detracts from the central focus of the image.
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 The last set of images I made were created on the walk back to my car; by this time there had been a light sprinkle of rain, and the roads were wet and shiny, which made for lovely light reflections on its surface. The tilt-shift lens created a lovely rendition of this new build, which melds with the older ground-floor building (initially a Zellers, then a night club) in quite an effective way. Again, the evidence of construction (the unfinished cladding on the left side of the frame) is distracting, but fortunately the building is not going anywhere, so it will be easy to revisit this composition at a later time, once the construction is all finished.

October 10, 2021

Another Flower/Bee/Macro Mashup

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A common go-to location for short photo field trips is the Halifax Public Gardens, for obvious reasons. What is not so obvious is how lovely they are in the fall; by this time the park staff have become more relaxed about their "do no walk on the grass" stance, and yet there are still a wide range of lovely flowers to photograph.
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The added benefit of photographing in the gardens in the fall is that with the cooler weather, the bees slow down, so it is much easier to focus on these lovely little insects. During the height of summer, they are certainly around, but they seldom stay still for more than a fraction of a second, which makes it much more challenging to get the bees in the right place, but once it cools off, they slow down, and sometimes stay in the same flower for minutes at a time!
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In the end, it was the bees in flowers that stole this session - hundreds of photos of them yielded some lovely results, adding to the already sizable number of bee-flower photos I've made during previous visits to the Public Gardens.

September 24, 2021

A Final Outdoor Nude Session for 2021

What would end up being my last figure session of 2022 was on a lovely warm fall afternoon, when Ingrid and I went out to the Nova Scotian coast in search of breaking waves. The strongest thread flowing through my last couple of years has been working with the ocean with intent (as opposed to just incidentally working there when the stars align). This year has seen some dilution of this focus, so for the last session of the fall, I hoped to reset my focus on the power of the ocean.

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For all that waves were the intended focus of this session, when Ingrid pointed out a massive split between a boulder and the bedrock it lay upon, we just had to make an image - the above takes full advantage of the incredible image quality of the RF 85mm f/1.2 lens at f/1.2 - incredibly crisp where in focus, and velvety soft everywhere else!

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As the real intent of the session was to work with moving water (in this case, stopping the motion with fast shutter speed, as oppose to exaggerating it with slow shutter speeds, we intentionally sought out spaces where Ingrid could pose, and still be stable when ocean waves broke over her; we quickly learned the trick was to have her in a couple of feet from where the waves actually struck the shore - this way much of the energy of the surf was already dissipated by the time the water reached Ingrid. I don't often use infrared when working with models and the ocean, but for this set, I decided to experiment, and it paid off.

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The last location for wave images was also one of the most magical I have ever worked in - when walking up the beach, we'd noticed this space with an unusual rock overhang, below which the waves moved in and out. As we were walking out, at the end of the session, Ingrid suggested we do one more set of photographs, exploring the potential of the space. It ended up being a fabulous suggestion. 

As with our previous location, it presented a setting where the power of incoming waves was mostly dissipated by the rock behind Ingrid, so for the most part, there was little strength left in the waves by the time they wrapped around her. Using a higher ISO setting, and the largest aperture on the lens (f/1.2) let me get the shutter speed up to 1/4000 s, which resulted in absolutely no visible motion to either Ingrid, or the water surrounding her.

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The final photos of the session, and my final figure images for 2021, were a set of standing portraits, with Ingrid's feet surrounded by incoming waves. With the light moving towards sunset, there was a lovely warm glow around her, and it seemed a fitting end for such a successful session.

September 16, 2021

A Fall River Session with Ingrid

As soon as Ingrid saw the images from my session with Brittany, she asked if we could visit the location, so she could see what she found to work with. More than any other model I've ever worked with, Ingrid loves posing in water, and the chance to work with a new river really piqued her interest.

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We arrived to find the river flow quite different from my first session there - there was less water moving through the river, and lower flow changed the nature of the falls, giving them a more delicate, subtle feel. This had some advantages however, as Ingrid was able to find poses with her body right in the river flow, where Brittany almost always had to work to the side. The above image is quite unusual for my work with the Nude in rivers, as it is a side view, as opposed to from above.

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My absolute favorite image from the session took full advantage of the infrared camera, which rendered the fall foliage (yellow, orange and red) a brilliant luminous white. It was a little tricky for Ingrid to find a comfortable space to work in on the edge of the angular rock shelf, but when the pose came together, and she threw her head back, everything came together!

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Overall, the session was really pleasing - Ingrid got to work in a new space, and yet I was revisiting a location I'd seen so much potential in. I work in such a limited number of spaces that being introduced to a new one, especially one as rich as this one, really hold great potential for future images!

September 13, 2021

Return to the Northumberland Shore 2/2

After finishing with the waterfall, we took a break for dinner, and then headed to the coast for the final images of the day. Jessica had told me of this location during my last visit, but we didn't get a chance to visit it then - so it was the logical place to finish up this session at.

On the walk in to the coast, we passed through a number of twisted, bare dead trees, bleached white by the constant onslaught of the nearby Northumberland Strait. Given the wonderful soft light on this side of the hill we were about the climb, I suggested we stop and work with the trees for a time - and was really pleased with the results.

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Each model spend some time working with the trees - both focused primarily on one tree in particular that lent itself to posing, and was perfectly situated for maximal access with a camera. One of the most positive elements of switching to mirrorless cameras (Canon 5R) over the past year is how suddenly practical hand-held infrared photography is. The ease of accurate auto-focus, coupled with the incredibly broad range of focus points makes the focus issue that was constant with DSLR infrared photography non-existant, and the incredible image stabilization makes a much broader range of shutter-speeds usable - total game-changer.

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The work Ingrid, Jessica and I made on the old tree was so thrilling to make - each pose worked well from multiple angles, and both models really enjoyed the posing flexibility the space presented. If there was a problem, it was on the editing end - I had so many good images, with such subtle variation between them that it took significant effort to distill them down to the best. Probably the biggest difference between working hand-held and with a tripod is how many more images I take hand-held.

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The real goal for the location was the crest of a large rock outcrop, right by the ocean. The afternoon was bright and sunny, which made for some harsh light on the top, but thankfully it was getting later, and the angle at least was low and pleasing. Unfortunately, just after we started working, a young couple came by....we spend some time waiting them out, but eventually Jessica just went over and asked them if they would mind if she modeled nude....which the pair found amusing, and said wasn't an issue. So we resumed working with the low, angular sun and a disinterested audience.

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By far the best image of the day however, was made just after sunset (as had been the trend for the past 2-3 years, since I made the decision to never photograph in bad light). We'd worked our way down to the shoreline, and initially I had a plan for an image of the two models against a large rock, surrounded on three sides by the ocean...but I caught sight of a small glint sunset on water over a rock further down the beach. Leaving the models behind, I went to investigate, and found a lovely narrow rock pool, with a perfect low rock-outcrop for the two models to pose on. After signaling to them that I wish them to join me further down the beach, I frantically set the camera up, and worked out the composition. After initially composing it with my 17mm lens, I realized it would work even better with a narrow crop - which meant I could use a longer lens and stitch it. 

By the time Ingrid and Jessica arrived and found their pose, I had everything ready, and began to photograph. I made four sets of images of the models, exploring subtle variations in their posing. Once that was done, they moved out-of-frame and dressed (it was getting cool), and I finished the full width of the stitch. The resulting file was over 200mp in resolution - now I need an excuse to print it BIG!

Return to the Northumberland Shore 1/2

 After my first visit to this waterfall with Jessica, I was keen to return when it had water flowing over it - and to this end, Ingrid and I headed up to the North Shore for an afternoon, to work with Jessica. Sadly, though it had rained in the previous couple of days, there seemed to be no change in the slow flow of the falls - it may be early spring before this space runs with water in the way I can only imagine it must!

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Still, water or not, the space was amazing to be in, and very quickly the two models started exploring its potential - given that Jessica and I have been here 6 weeks before, I already had a number of images in mind when we arrived. The first set to really resonate with me was the two women working with the lower drop, with the camera angled up towards the sky - this gives some impression of the majesty of the space, and the poses worked well with the drama.

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After making images embracing the entire falls. I shifted to focusing on Ingrid and Jessica along the lower part of the falls - the stacked stratification in the rocks was beautiful to work with visually, and gave the models lots to work with, in regards to posing. I shifted to working with a longer lens for this, but opted for a mid-range aperture to ensure both models were in focus.

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For the last images of the session, we moved up onto the second level of the falls, and I asked if would be possible for the models to work on the actual wall of the falls themselves. I initially thought it wouldn't work, as the wall was wet, and many parts covered with moss & lichen, but with little effort, Ingrid and Jessica found a couple of spaces that worked, and the final image set was made! The wide lens was the only option, as showing the small pool at the base of the wall was so important!

September 08, 2021

Working in a New River!

After the success of Brittany's first session, I was keen to work with her again, but between our schedules and the weather, it wasn't until two months later that we were able to build on the foundation we'd begun. For this session, I let her select the location, a "secret" river location that she thought would appeal to me.

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Her intuition about the location was exactly right, and within a couple of minutes of arriving at the river, we were making our first set of images. A low line of rock was at the edge of a large patch of dark, deeper water, and seemed to be the perfect space to place Brittany. After some experimentation with the pose, and selecting a long lens to flatten the overall perspective of the composition, we made the above image, which set a great tone for the session as a whole.

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As we moved further along the river, there was this wonderful spot where an offshoot of the main flow raced through a gap between two rocks, and over a smaller rock between. It seemed a perfect spot to place Brittany. I switched to a wide lens, to enhance the drama of Brittany's pose against the swirling water around her.

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By far the most dramatic space in the river was just a little past where we made the previous image. The river divided, and one portion dropped a full 2 metres through a steeply angled fissure in the rock. Brittany carefully worked her way into the fissure, and was able to bridge it with her body. I made a broad range of images of a variety of poses in the setting, but the above, made with my new RF 85mm f/1.2 lens at f/1.2 is by far my favorite - the shallow depth of field is just lovely, and helps focus the frame upon the figure in the centre.

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The last set of images of the session further explored the potential of the rock fissure, this time with me working much closer to Brittany, with a wide angle lens. We quickly explored a variety of poses and compositions, with the above being my favorite. 

All in all, this was a fabulous session - the river space recommended by Brittany was just fabulous to work in, and the work we made build on the rapport established during the first session, and the rate of success clearly showed this! I look forward to seeing what ever can be created - both in this space, and in future work with Brittany.

August 03, 2021

A Final Pregnancy Session

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What a difference almost 7 weeks can make! For Stephanie's first pregnancy session we went to some military ruins close to Halifax, and worked there, and in the woods around them - where we came across the above erratic. The image we made at that time (at the bottom of the above blog entry) was good, but almost 7 weeks later, Stephanie's belly had grown and dropped, and her whole line had changed, resulting in a richer, more elegant image.
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After we finished revisiting the forest image, we moved into an abandoned engine room, to make a final set of photographs. The light in the space was low, forcing some very long shutter speeds, and high ISO settings, but with Stephanie in poses with lots of support (leaning or sitting on things), we managed to work until the light was near unusable, and made the last compositions of her pregnancy.
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As a last minute, end-of-pregnancy session, this was a great success - the first image is exactly what I sought to create, and the second set of images, in the old building, are really pleasing, and provide some variation to the small set of photo sessions we were able to make in the last weeks of Stephanie's pregnancy!
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Stephanie gave birth several weeks after this session, and mother and child are doing well!
 

July 30, 2021

A Water Pregnancy Session (on a rainy day!)

When Stephanie and I first talked about me photographing her pregnancy, I showed her the images I made of Miranda in 2019 - and her first question was "Where is that bathroom, and can I work in it?" Sadly, it was no longer available, but I beat some bushes, and came up with an alternative bathroom to work in.

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In an odd sort of irony, it was poring with rain on the day we had to work in the bathroom - this provided a more even window light, and made it easier to balance the exposure between outdoors (natural light) and the bathroom (which I lit with a single strobe). The resulting images looked very natural, but would have been impossible without using the flash. The other tool I employed was my 17mm tilt-shift lens. The bathroom was so small it was really hard to get the entire tub, and Stephanie, into one frame; using the tile-shift lens, I kept the tub from being distorted, but also managed to keep Stephanie within the composition. It would have been really hard to get a similar result without such a specialized lens.

The second set of images was surprisingly challenging to make; in addition to the lovely bathtub, there was a large walk-in shower, so the plan was to make some shower images of Stephanie, before we make the final set of images of her in the bathtub proper. The first challenge was lighting - I had hoped to get some direction to the light, but with such a small room, no matter where I put the flash, the reflections off the other wall filled in the shadows. In the end, I put the strobe in the top corner behind the door, which gave some modeling to the light, though not as much as I had hoped. The other consequence of lighting from this angle is that it put all the shower hardware behind Stephanie - and while digital retouching is never an issue, it is frustrating to have to do it to a whole set of images.

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The second challenge was the condensation on the shower walls; all my other shower images were made in bathtubs with shower curtains - in those the condensation was not an issue (except for on the lens, which is easily cleaned off), but in the walk-in shower, within a minute (well before I was ready to photograph) the glass was covered with condensation, and try as she might, Stephanie was unable to clean it off. The lighting and condensation issues didn't stand in the way of getting a couple of really pleasing photos, but the were far from the images I had in my mind's eye.

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The final photos of the session were made in the tub (inspired by the IR images I made of Tanya in a tub in 2007). Again, the room size played a major role in what was possible, and with that in mind, I began with a portrait lens, focusing on breast and belly details, and the liminal line, which has always fascinated me in my work with water.
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Overall, the bathroom session was a success; the first images of Stephanie standing in the stark white tub where what I was really after, and as much as the shower images were a source of frustration, they worked well enough to be worth making!


July 29, 2021

On the Northumberland Shore (4/4)

The final location for the day was along the Northumberland Straight, looking towards the sunset. Jessica had found the most amazing water-carved outcrop of rock to work upon - a space I could spend a month of Sundays working on, without running out of locations to work in.

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When we first arrived, the evening light was harsh and direct, making it challenging to work, as in addition to refining the pose, I had to take into account the light as well, with several otherwise successful compositions being abandoned due to problems with the lighting. Eventually, however, we manged to make a number of really pleasing photographs which took full advantage of the dramatic light.

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As the evening progressed whoever, clouds gathered, and the light became more delicate; this provided the perfect light to explore the wonderful water-carved rocks, and Jessica and I took full advantage of it. In the space of thirty minutes, we moved across the rock, and made half-a-dozen compositions, of which the above is one of my favorites.

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In the middle of our rock explorations, Jessica invited her partner Thomas to join hee in a pose, and we created the above composition. This takes full advantage of my infrared camera, providing luminous, smooth skin tones, and inky black shadows around the two entwined figures. My only regret was not asking Thomas to remove his glasses...something I would retouch out in a finished print!

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The last light of the day saw Jessica slipping into the ocean, and posing along side the rock we had explored for the previous 90 minutes. The sunset was delicate and soft, with subtle colour, and little drama, so I directed Jessica into a rather static pose, lying back directly on the stone, and mirroring the simple outline of the rock above her, and paying attention to the water surrounding her.

Over the 9 hours Jessica and I spent together, we worked in 4 locations, and made a wide range of images (and took some breaks, and even ate some schnitzel!). I am truly amazed at the richness we created, and look forward to returning, to continue building on this work!

On the Northumberland Shore (3/4)

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The third location Jessica had proposed for the day was a broad field, high on a hill, overlooking the Northumberland Straight. Open fields really don't exist around Halifax, where I live, so the chance to work with one was quite exciting - but also brought with it one concern - ticks. In years past, I have worked extensively in forests, but over the past decade, as ticks, and more specifically, tick born diseases such as Lyme Disease have become more prevalent, I have mostly avoided the locations ticks prefer - fields and forests.
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That being said, with assurances from Jessica and her partner that they had no ticks after their previous visits, I decided to risk it, in return for the chance to work in such a lovely setting. We arrived in the later afternoon, and the sun was low enough in the sky to provide some lovely light - and the infrared response to the grasses provided a lovely setting for Jessica to pose in.
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All told, the visit to the field was short - both because of the posing challenges (it was, after all, just an empty field, which made it a little challenging to work with), and the march of time. With one location still to work in, after making what I was certain was some striking photographs, we headed back down, in preparation to move to our last setting.

On the Northumberland Shore (2/4)

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The second setting that Jessica had found for us to work in was just magical - it was a dramatic waterfall just off the road...which sadly had no water in it. The summer has been so dry to date that barely a trickle of water was flowing down the cliff, but regardless, the space was fabulous - near vertical cliffs of rocks on two levels, perfect to pose against, or on.
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We started the session with Jessica posing on the lower vertical wall of the falls - here there was dark green moss, and plenty of rock shelves to pose upon. I had thought the moss would become luminous on the infrared camera, but it remained dark, which provided a wonderful contrast to Jessica's luminous
skin, and the couple of ferns and other leafy plants that grew in the area.

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Overall, impressive as the space was, it was challenging work with - the sheer scale of the upper rock face overwhelmed the space, and required a really wide lens to record - which risked distorting Jessica's figure. Once Jessica shifted to working on the second layer of the waterfall, things really came together; I suggested she pose along the front edge of the rock shelf, which allowed me to make a composition that took in the full height of the waterfall origin above her, while still keeping the focus of the photograph on her.

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The final images at the waterfall focused not on the rocky space around the not-so-wet waterfall, but on the roots of a tree to the side of the main (now dry) stream - the twisting lines of the roots were a beautiful parallel to the lines of Jessica's figure, and the soft diffused light, provided by the forest canopy above, provides perfect contrast!

On the Northumberland Shore (1/4)

I learned long ago (in 1999 with Victoria, in Alberta), there there is an incredible richness to spending concentrated periods making images. In light of this, when Jessica (who I began working with last year) suggested I come visit, and we work together for most of a day (afternoon to sunset), I was more than keen.

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As the session approached, Jessica sent me images of suggested locations, but one thing noticeably absent was architecture (which was not too much of a surprise, as she lives in the country), so I asked her if she might be able to find a barn or other sort of structure to work in...and in less than a day, she came back with news that she'd found a large barn to work in - and the photos she sent show significant promise.

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For the start of the session, the focus was on a ladder, with us making images of Jessica on it, and in the above image, beside it. I really liked working with the geometric lines of the barn - all of which were blended with an organic element injected by the material (wood) and time. The light was lovely too, turning the bright and sunny afternoon into soft, even light.
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As the session progressed, Jessica became more adventurous, and moved to exploring more dynamic poses, which interacted with the space. We were super cautious with the space, keeping eyes out for nails and other sharp edges, all the while testing beams and planks before Jessica moved onto them
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As we began to run out of inspiration, we finished up with a number of reclining poses, with Jessica working her way under and over some fence-posts on the second floor of the barn. The chaos of the space contrasts nicely with the fluid grace of Jessica's body, providing a rich result to end the session on.

July 27, 2021

A Studio Pregnancy Session

As Stephanie's due date moves closer, each and every session we manage to schedule becomes a gift, so with this in mind, when I realized I had this evening free, I asked her is she'd like to do a studio session, to add to the work we'd already done outdoors (here and here) - and less than a day later, we were in the studio, making photos.

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I have a real affection for dramatic rim lighting, and have used this in almost every pregnancy session I have done (since 1989) - essentially, if you find something that works, use it. For this session, the space I was working in wasn't a studio, so it was more challenging to get the lighting the way I wanted it, but with some experimentation, black foam board and duct tape, I got everything to work.

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All in all, the session was short and sweet; I had all the lighting set up and worked out by the time Stephanie arrived, so could just straight in to making images. I already knew pretty clearly what I wished to achieve in the studio, so it was a very focused session (where often I have no preconceived ideas at the start of a photo session).
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The last photos of the session brought in Stephanie's partner, to contribute hands to the images  - always a great way to end off a pregnancy session!