June 23, 2020

A River Session with Hailey (South Shore, Nova Scotia)

This session was intended to be a follow up to the first session of the year, but when I arrived at the coast, though it was hot and sunny in the city, it was foggy and cool. After a short discussion, Hailey and I decided to try to work in an inland river; we'd worked there two years ago, and at the time, Hailey was a little disconnected from the experience (preferring the ocean), but she'd decided it would be good to revisit the whole "river thing", so off we went.

Digital infrared original

I've worked in this location since 1996 - in fact, it was the first place I combined the Nude with water in my work, so it has long been a creative touchstone. The river level was lower than usual (by about 18"), but that provided a number of lovely locations for Hailey to pose in. The first set of images were made with the camera on the shore, but within about 10 minutes of the start of the session, I was clambering around in the river, working closer to Hailey with wider lenses, and enjoying how that opened up the compositions.

Digital infrared original

The light at the river was absolutely perfect - by the time we arrived at the river, a low, thin cloud had rolled over the sun, providing soft, even light throughout the session. Bright, high contrast sunlight is challenging to work with at the best of times, but with water and river settings, it is particularly challenging. The added advantage of the soft light was it made it very easy to reach longer shutter speeds when combined with neutral density filters. For the entire session I used 1.8 filters (64x darker), which provided me with shutter speeds between 1.3 and 3.2 second - just perfect for the look I sought.

All in all, the session was lovely, with some striking images being created, and Hailey thoroughly enjoying herself.

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