Della

One day I decided to browse one of the few networking sites designed to connect models, photographers and other professionals in their artistic endeavors.

There was very little planning involved in my head, I just knew I had “the itch” to shoot something. It wasn’t long before I came across Della’s profile and initiated a communication expressing my intent. Perhaps luckily everything aligned perfect, which is rare, but we would be able to shoot together a couple days later. 

We would start at the neighbor’s and eventually go back to my house. This post roughly follows our shoot from start to finish.

Entering the garden we followed the path to the little tea house.

My neighbor’s yard is the result of many years of cultivating the land, plants and trees. I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity of shooting here on and off over the years. I particularly like summer and fall here. 

It’s worthy to note that not every model has a symbiosis with nature. Della was natural and free, I just operated the camera capturing form and basic composition.

So off to the house we go. But not before one more shot.

My goal at the house was simplicity and minimalism. There were four spots we shot, all within 15 feet of each other. I would simply utilize window light here but had my trusty softbox and speedlight setup and ready to go.

One thing I’ve been appreciating more and more lately and for which I will strive to do, is to include clothing into shoots. It adds a nice element. My biggest issue in the past was that I didn’t really have wardrobe for shoots. Today though the landscape seems to have changed. Many models now do their own hair and makeup and often will bring wardrobe if requested. And all of that works for me, provided the hair, makeup and wardrobe fits my mind’s eye.  
Della had a few options to choose from and this outfit best fit my vision for this portion of the shoot. The brighter images above are taken on one side of the wall, the direct other side of the wall are the more shadowy images. The paint between the two rooms differ slightly as well.  

The third and fourth spots we shot in, which was at the end of the shoot, were confined to only 10-20 shots. These are the final photos.

My post processing workflow includes four different mindsets. I rarely stick to just one style of post processing because my mind doesn’t work that way.  I try and sometimes succeed to post process an image to what I want it to look like. I’m no wizard by any stretch but I am also a bit of a dinosaur having grown up in film shooting.

All in all, we spent 2 hours one fine summer day. Thank you for reading.