On Location, Hallway

We are on location with Yulia. Jessica & I continue photographing her. We (actually only Yulia) discard all clothing & work with Yulia in the nude.

We'll start with a favorite image from this sitting. The afternoon sun is moving, so that shaft of sunlight moves from the floor and flows down the stairs. Yulia positions herself on the staircase & basks in the warm sunlight.

I like the geometry of this image, the peaceful expression on Yulia's face & how she pops out of shadow.

The light is very bright. Although there is essentially a single light source, the light is bright enough to bounce all around, off the white staircase wall, off of Yulia's fair skin, even off of the floor. Frequent visitors to my site will know that I like light & shadow -- here is pure lighting in its natural form. I like the reflected light on Yulia's leg & hip.

The sunlight is a bit intense, so Yulia steps across the hallway to this door. Without the direct sunlight, the lighting is soft & even.

I've always maintained that the "near misses" are more instructive than the "hits". I've got to say that I'm not liking these images by this doorway. Why? I'm not sure. Yulia is providing us interesting shapes & poses. But somehow those poses are a little forced & unrelated to the setting. The light is flat & even, but it isn't overly exciting.

Under different circumstances, this axis light can be very interesting. But the light is just a tad too soft for me, in this case.

This is not my sitting exclusively; Jessica is working, too. I wait until they've explored their concepts together, then we shift position.

How 'bout here? I'm standing in the corner room, looking out to the hallway & the staircase. There are large windows on two walls of the corner room, letting in plenty of light. I like the sense of space behind Yulia.

Frequent visitors to this web site will know that I like eye contact with the model. Getting that eye contact is problematic during a multiple photographer sitting like this. These kinds of sittings are often much more demanding for the model, because her focus is often split between all the photographers. Also, when one photographer is ready to take a break, the other photographer(s) are often raring to go, so the model rarely gets a break. Fortunately, Jessica & I are working well together.

Again, here we have only natural sunlight coming in from large windows on all sides. Yet, I would find it difficult to craft such lighting in the studio. I like the shadows of the banisters & the highlight on Yulia's chest. I also like the lovely light on Yulia's lovely face on the image on the right.

Here's a humbling thought: add Jessica's age to Yulia's age and then add 10, and you'll get my age. These young women are full of energy. Not satisfied with the light in the corner room doorway, we move back to the hallway. The sun has moved & the light has changed. It's different, but still nice.

I like this light a lot -- it's one of those rare circumstances where light that is lovely for the figure is also lovely for the face.

We ask Yulia to return to the stairway. The sun has moved some more, and there no longer is a bright shaft of it illuminating the stairs.

It's a little bit of a strange perspective, especially how the line of the top of the wainscoting is parallel to the image's "horizon". But I like it -- it's a bit twisted.

While I'm on the top of the stairs, Jessica is working through the banister and above Yulia. I take a moment to climb the stairs & take a step back. Here's Jessica at work, and below is something similar to what Jessica saw.

While I'm there at the top of the stairs, looking over the railing, Jessica moves to the bottom of the stairs. I can't imagine what that was like for Yulia, with the two of us walking all around, going in two directions at once.

To be honest, I was getting pretty tired at this point. I split my attention to photographing Yulia with photographing Jessica while she photographed Yulia.

And here's a bit of what Jessica saw at the bottom of the stairs.

Yes, I'm following Jessica around a bit. Like I said, by this time, I'm pretty tired, and we are sharing ideas.

Jessica bounces up & returns to the top of the stairs, and I create my favorite "Jessica photographing Yulia" image.

One final image from this sitting, back at the top of the stairs using wonderful window light. The house was Victorian-like, with large, tall windows. Those Victorians knew how to create good light.

To me, it is always interesting to me to see how two different photographers can see the same subject at the same time differently. Jessica is a wonderful talent behind the lens. I hope you enjoy these images.

With this, we run out of time. The store downstairs is closing & we have to vacate. I'm pretty beat. We stand around outside trying to decide what to do next, and it took us forever to decide to drive back to my house. Yulia takes her leave then & drives back to Seattle while I walk Jessica to the light rail that will take her home. After this, I grab some fast food that was bad for me, drink four very large glasses of water, and fall asleep in my comfy chair before 8:00pm. I guess that's a sign of a good & exciting sitting.