Even when the weather is cool and damp, a natural setting makes for great photographs

Carefully distanced photography isn’t always as easy as I want it to be. If I use a long lens, which allows me to keep sufficient distance between me and my subject, focusing takes longer and sometimes means missing a shot or two. If I use a shorter lens, which is necessary for certain angles, I may end up getting closer than I’d like. Finding that perfect balance remains elusive with every shoot we’ve done this fall.

No more so was that true than with this week’s set of photographs. Ashley, our model, is a friend. We’re accustomed to chatting back and forth as we shoot and proximity isn’t an issue. This shoot found us both being a lot more careful and quietly paying more attention to what the other was doing. The distance affected her choice of poses and as we focused on angles and light direction our conversation had less banter and more construction. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but it is different.

Air temperature was a factor as well as the level of moisture. Neither of us need to be ill and running around in cool, damp air is a good way to catch something one doesn’t want. Despite waiting until afternoon to shoot, there was still a chill that kept us from being as comfortable as we would like. Copious amounts of petroleum jelly were put to use and still there were chill bumps to address in final production.

So dominant was the feeling that it was about to rain that we made it do so, in post production so it would actually show up in the photo. While I’m not big on spot color in a monochrome image, our natural production process pulled out the pink of the rain coat and I decided to run with that look. Yes, I could have stripped out all the color, but somehow the pictures feel better this way.

We’ve another set sitting in wait and we’ll show you those when the weather gets too uncooperative to shoot anything new. Ashley’s always an exciting model and spending time with a friend is an extra bonus.

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As always, click on any of the thumbnails to view the image full screen. Enjoy!