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Having
seen Natalia's graceful
movements, I decide to do some
simple figure studies.
While I am changing the
lights, Natalia takes the
opportunity to put on a few
bits of clothing in an attempt
to keep warm.
I
ask Natalia if she was a
dancer, and she said no.
Her stance says otherwise.
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Well,
if she is going to put clothes on
between setups, I'll get another
disrobing sequence for the
sitting. You'll just have to
suffer through it -- I promise it
won't last long. |
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It
was just around now when I
became fully aware of
Natalia's grace. She's
simply removing her shirt, yet
you couldn't get an experience
model to strike this pose as
well.
Note
to photographers:
shadows are your friends.
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I'm
not sure if I could tell you why,
but initially I like the little
puddle of discarded clothing at
Natalia's feet. She moves
like a three ring circus --
there's a lot to look at, and the
action never stops.
I
should mention that Natalia has a
"real job" that involves
a bit of creativity. I like
her fashion sense -- it's casual
but not random; it has
style. She is
also very artistic in her posing
-- I hardly have to explain
anything: she immediately
"gets it" and is
tireless in her movement. In
retrospect, maybe she's moving
constantly to keep warm. For
my taste, it is quire warm in the
house now, and the space heater is
going full blast, but the model's
comfort is paramount to me, so we
keep the heat cranked up.
I
switch to the film camera &
make some more exposures. |
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I
move in closer. I like
how the tip of Natalia's
ponytail sometimes pops out in
this light.
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At
the moment, I was enjoying working with Natalia
& liking how she was moving, but I wasn't
happy with the lighting. I had wanted the
background to be darker, and with the medium
sized soft boxes, it was just too difficult to
keep the light from falling onto the back wall.
That's why I like to think about lighting setups
well in advance of the sitting itself -- while I
can fine tune lighting setups, I hate
interrupting the flow of the sitting to solve
major problems. Be prepared -- that's my
credo, too.
I
always have a few generic ideas in the back of
my mind, many of which are areas where I feel a
little weak. One of these was my reduced
ability to photograph models lying down. I
quickly change the lighting, give Natalia a
blanket to lie down on, and move on to some
different exposures. |
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Natalia
continues to be a three ring circus. Even
lying down, she is constantly moving, rolling
over, lying back down, moving her arms &
legs. It is pure joy for a photographer to
work with a model who moves. |
It's
hard to keep Natalia (lying) down
-- she keeps working herself
up. We have a little battle
of wills, but I eventually change
the objective. Another thing
on my mind is to try some unusual
proportions, possibly with wide
angle distortions.
It
is my experience that usually when
you get young models nude in front
of your camera, they tend to give
you glamour poses; it's relatively
rare to get some nice fine art
poses, especially from someone who
is as gorgeous as Natalia.
So, I think about doing some more
unusual artistic photography. |
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Here's
another favorite. I like
the grace & power.
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I
like the simple elegance of this
image. It's rare that I
include a model's feet, but I
wouldn't have been able to crop
them out with this pose. |
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Someday
I'll write an essay about the
"keeper ratio", which is the
percentage of the exposures made
during a sitting that are worthy of
sharing here on the web pages.
Nearly all sittings are scheduled to
last three hours, and during that
time, I can make anywhere between 100
and 400+ exposures. Of those,
how many are worthwhile? I'll
have to think about that some more,
but I do know that I was aware that
the "keeper ratio" for this
sitting was going to be high.
Natalia was showing me a great variety
of poses & moods, and I was
enjoying what I was seeing.
So,
I pull another idea out of my
head. When in doubt, give the
model something to do with her
hands. Using blankets & the
gauzy backdrop, I ask Natalia to work
with some cloth props.
This
sitting continues with Draped
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