A Morning Walk

Digital original

A definite side-effect of spending so much time teaching photography is that I now spend much more time photographing casually, either during the photographic workshops I teach, or just to create more material for my classes. On this particular afternoon, I was leading a field-trip for a 10-week photo course, an exercise more focused on helping the students work through the process of working with their cameras than making stunning images. All the same, it is quite surprising to me how easy it is to make strong images if one is just open to the possibilities.

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The field-trip was spent walking along the side of the Petiticodiac River in Moncton, though my eye was not drawn to the landscape but rather to the new bridge across the river and the rusted, discarded remains of the old span. I  have always had a fascination with abandoned and ruined architecture, and these spaces had everything I look for in a visual abstract.

Digital infrared original

Over the morning, I vacillated between grand, sweeping images of the underside of the new bridge, and close up details of the paint peeling off of old rusted pilings. In some ways, such images are sketches, designed to keep the eye nimble and open to varied possibilities visually, but regardless the results have an edge to them that really draws me in; a thread that runs through all my images is present in these as well.

L_ Models in Toronto

L_  and I didn't manage to meet up the last time I was in Toronto, but fortunately this trip had a little more time (as the Naked in the House exhibition was at night). After meeting up with her at the exhibition and crashing on her couch for the night, we had most of the next day to work together.
The real issue was not finding the time to make photographs, but rather a location. You'd think in a city the size of Toronto these would be a dime a dozen but in early March it was far from warm enough to work outdoors,and L_ only had a limited number of indoor places she had access to model in. As luck would have it though, a friend of a friend of mine in Moncton, whom I'd met at the Naked in the House 05 opening the night before, offered us access to a house she was house-sitting for a friend who had moved to Japan.

Digital infrared original, 19 frame stitch

With the choice of working in an unknown location, or not working at all, both L_ and I took up the offered location and, as strange as it was, began working in the house of a stranger, three people removed (half way to Kevin Bacon, I'm sure.).

As it turned out, the location was fabulous to work in; while the house was small, it had some wonderful architectural features, including a wonderful, railing-less stairway, which was the first location work worked with. After a couple of sketches, we settled on an elongated pose, with L_ 's head disappearing behind the ceiling - it both worked with the space, and with the lighting, creating a beautifully delicate image with a strong pose and composition.

Digital infrared original

The last part of the session was spent making a series of portraits on a couch in the living room. L_ has such a wonderful presence in front of the camera, and every time I have a chance to work with her, I set aside some time for portraits, seeking to build a series of portraits stretching over the years of our work together.

Digital infrared original, 4 frame stitch

While I am terminally frustrated that L_ 's moved to Toronto (in regards to how that limits our ability to work together regularly), it was such a treat to work with her again, and see such strong images come out of our time spent together in the house of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine.

Naked in the House

The culmination of the Naked in the House event was the exhibition of the 36 photographs produced by the 12 photographers, and the selection of the three top photographs. Scheduled a little more than 100 days after the photographs were made, the exhibition was the first chance for any of the photographers to view the work produced by the other competitors during the event.

After spending the morning working with Colleen, I wandered about downtown Toronto, eventually finding my way to "This is London", the venue where the exhibition and award ceremony would be held. The treat of arriving early was being able to see the exhibition without the inevitable press of people, who would flood the place once the doors opened to the public.

The 36 images were displayed in sets of three, each set representing the images of one photographer. The display method, hanging them on large sheets of transparent plastic mounted in metal frames worked wonderfully, always permitting the viewer to get a sense of the room beyond while being able to easily focus on the images themselves.

A Second Session with Colleen

Digital infrared original, 10 frame stitch

As soon as I had the confirmed dates for the Naked in the House exhibition, I got in touch with Colleen to see if she'd be available to work with me during my visit to Toronto. Our first session had gone very well and I was looking forward to building on those earlier images.

Digital infrared original

Colleen was able to spend the morning working with me and, after an early morning flight from Moncton, I arrived at her door with camera in hand and just half an hour later we were working. We began the session with a series of portraits but swiftly moved onto more abstract images, working with her body on a couch the couch had been delivered shortly after our first session together, so we didn't have the chance to work with it before).

Digital infrared original, 7 frame stitch

The most engaging part of the session began when Colleen began to work with a piece of jewelry she thought might be interesting visually. Normally I don't use much in the way of props in my work (apart from skulls, which I have always loved combining with the Nude) but, in this case, the flow of the necklace, combined with how the dark red stones looked in infrared made all the difference. We began working with the necklace around Colleen's neck and then finished experimenting with it on the small of her back - both yielding interesting results and while I can't quite see an entire series of Nudes with jewelry developing out of this discovery, it certainly was a surprising success.

Digital infrared original, 7 frame stitch

The final part of the session was dedicated to working with Colleen and some toe shoes she had suggested posing with. I was initially hesitant to work with these, as they seemed a little cliche, but given that the only thing an experiment took was time (one of the joys of working with the digital cameras) I decided to see what would come of the combination. As it turned out, the shoes worked surprisingly well, giving Colleen a focus to work with in the images, and while perhaps not the most logical combination, it certainly made for some engaging photographs.

Alexandra & Liam in Moncton II

The morning after our studio session, Alexandra and Liam joined me at a friend's house for a short available light session, before they resumed their drive across North America. I had been helping with the renovation of the home and, from my first tour of the house, had known I wanted to work with the pillars in the front hall.

Digital infrared original, 24 frame stitch

My usual approach to working with the Nude in a specific location is to find a model and then a location but in this case, it was the reverse - I'd known about the pillars for about a month before Alexandra and Liam's arrival but as soon as they indicated their timeline, I'd asked if they'd be available for a morning session, specifically to work with this location.

Digital infrared original, 3 frame stitch

Fortunately, the two didn't mind delaying their departure, so early on Sunday morning, we arrived at the house, turned up the heat (as it was still in mid-renovation, there was no one living in it yet) and started working. As I had hoped, the morning light was perfect, with soft even light coming through the blinds and lighting the front hall.

More than any other session since switching to working exclusively with digital, I missed having the flexibility of a view camera for this session. To get the angle of view that I sought with the models against the wooden floor, I had to work from fairly high up (on the stairway), which had the side effect of causing the perspective of the room to become seriously skewed.

Digital infrared original, 4 frame stitch

With a view camera, overcoming this would have been easy, shifting the front lens lower to compensate for the higher angle. With digita,l however, while there are specialty lenses which can do a similar thing, they are expensive, and not really functional with my multi-image stitching technique. All is not lost for digital photographers though, as it is possible with Photoshop and similar programs to digitally correct the perspective in an image and, while this is much more time consuming than making the original image with the corrections as I could have done with a view camera, in the end I could achieve much the same effect, keeping the pillars square and level, while photographing from above the models.

For all that I only had one specific image in my mind's eye when we began (the one of Alexandra perched between the pillar and the wall) between the three of us, we managed to come up with a fair number of other compositions, including some very successful poses working with the two models together between the pillars. If I ever have the chance to work with the space again, I would change some things, but given what we had to work with, I am incredibly pleased with the results.

Alexandra & Liam in Moncton I

Digital infrared original, 7 frame stitch

When I heard that Alexandra and Liam would be passing through Moncton, and would have a chance to work with me, if I could put them up for the night, I was overjoyed. Though they arrived later in the evening, after some relaxation and tea, they were more than keen to model for a short session, before they headed to bed.

Digital infrared original, 19 frame stitch

Being well after dark, I had to use studio lighting, but I set it up to mimic my preferred back lighting, and off we went. One reason I prefer this approach is that it places the emphasis on the pose and composition, and as opposed to constantly refining and adjusting the lighting, I just worked  with what was there (as one would with natural light).

Digital infrared original

Alexandra and Liam are such a joy to work with - their comfort with modelling, and affection for each other both contribute to the strength of the images.

An Orchid

Digital original

With the surprising successes of my first serious attempt at photographing flowers, Joy began searching Moncton for a source of orchids which could be pressed into modeling service. As it turned out, one of the local building and home renovation stores carried them and late one afternoon, Joy came proudly in the door, carrying the next model for me to photograph.

Digital original

It was surprisingly different photographing the second orchid - with the first, there was the naivety that came with working with a new subject; anything was possible, and the successes, as they came, were both surprising and wonderful to behold. In contrast, with the second flower I knew I could make strong images, and the fluid, almost magical process of photographing the first flower was replaced with a much longer session, trying to take the same approach as I'd first used (shallow depth of field, and very close compositions), while avoiding repeating the same compositions with the second orchid. In the end, I did make a number of very pleasing images, but the spark of the first session seemed to be missing. This could be because of the stronger colours of the second flower (I think part of what I responded to with the first flower was the delicate white of the petals), or simply because I was trying to hard with the second flower, but for whatever reason, I think the second session went astray of what initially had caught my eye.

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Having worked with a single subject for so long (I've worked with the nude for more than eighteen years now), I think I'd forgotten how difficult and challenging it can be to find a subject that engages the eye, but challenges the lens. With flowers, I can see the potential they hold, but it would seem harder than I'd expected to reveal that potential. I hope over the rest of the winter, and into the spring, to be able to spend more time working with these fascinating and elusive forms, and begin to take the spark that caught my eye and translate it into the visual image.

An Interesting Morning

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One of the most common axioms in photography is "always have your camera with you"; it is certainly something I suggest when I teach photography but, in reality, I must confess it is something I seldom do, primarily because of how I approach photography, not because it is something I don't believe will improve most people's imagery. On this particular morning, however, I was visiting a friend's house to photograph an antique piano that she was selling, so I had my camera along. My clear intention in having the camera there was to document her piano for potential buyers but then I saw the orchid sitting by the window.

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Flowers certainly have a long tradition as the focus of photography but, with a few exceptions, have never captured my eye. With this orchid, however, there was something in the contrast between the white petals and purple centre that really drew me in.

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Working with a set of extension tubes and my 105mm lens, I managed to make a whole series of macro images of the flower that really piqued my interest. The shallow depth of field, combined with the beautiful lines and flow of the flower really engaged me and, similar to my Thalamus images from several years ago, these two elements together combine to produce a very pleasing result.
Given how slow the winter months are for me, I suspect the orchid photos could be the doorway to a whole body of work; several people have assured me there are thousands of varieties of these flowers so there is certainly no lack of subjects. It is just the case of finding them and working out the process to build on this session's discoveries!

Kyla at the NBCC

Digital infrared original, 13 frame stitch

For the third year in a row, I was invited to present on working with the Nude to the photography program at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, in Fredericton. For this presentation, Kayla was kind enough to come along as a model (in the past, I have worked with Miranda and then Jessie). After a ninety minute audio-visual presentation in the classroom, Kayla and I moved into the studio to give the students a live demonstration of working with a figure model.

Digital original

Given that this was my third time presenting at the College, I was prepared for the oddly dysfunctional quality of the studio portion of the process. Because the focus of the afternoon was discussing the process and challenges of working with the Nude in the studio, more time is spent explaining the process than actually doing it. I had talked to Kayla about this as well, so she was not phased by my constantly switching from working with her to ignoring her so I could talk about what was happening with the students.

Digital infrared original

At the end of the session, it was almost exactly like the earlier presentations - I had a number of very striking portraits and nudes, but nothing close to a representative image set for an hour in the studio - as before, it looked more like a ten-minute warm-up to a full session than an hour of our life.

Kyla & Tom by Candle Light

While Kayla and Tom live in Moncton, it has been almost six months since our last session working together; this is indicative of how dependent my working process has become on transportation. During the summer, my only times with a rental car are weekends when I am teaching in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This inevitably means that the days in which I manage to get out and work with a model are spent 300km away from Moncton in Nova Scotia.

Digital original, 5 frame stitch

During the winter months, however, all this changes.To mark the beginning of a New Year, I asked if Tom and Kayla would be up for another session together (since their first time modeling together, they have become an actual couple, as opposed to two friends modeling together). Both were enthusiastic and Kayla proposed it would be interesting to work with candlelight so, as much as any session can be planned, the decision on what to do was made.

Digital original, 4 frame stitch

It cannot be overstated how much working by candlelight influences a session; the soft glow of the candles sets a pace and tenor for the session that is unique - a regular studio session tends to be well lit, technical looking and very "busy", while working with a couple and a single candle is about as simple as photography can get. This, in turn, influences the models' reactions to the process as a whole and leads to a very relaxed session. This is not to say that studio or outdoor sessions aren't relaxed but more points out that candle sessions begin this way and other sessions may become mellow by the end.

Digital original, 3 frame stitch

One unexpected element to this candle session was the number of images I opted to create using stitched images. I think, more than anything, this indicates how internalized the process of stitching has become to my workflow in general; as opposed to something exotic and occasional, it has pretty much become the default way to make an image, assuming the subject matter isn't moving too much or the light isn't changing rapidly. I keep wondering if the answer to my affection for stitches would be higher resolution cameras, but I suspect that, until I got up to the medium format 22-39mp cameras, I would find stitching preferable to single frames, almost regardless of the in-camera resolution.