WAK PHOTOGRAPHY: Kira at Glen Clare

Welcome to my photoblog. This here is my first post.

I just want to say a big thank you to Kira (Raveness) for travelling to Limerick from Cork for this shoot. It's been a pleasure meeting her. Very nice person and a fantastic model to work with. Highly recommended.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/714678

This is one of those shoots that just evolved and evolved by the hour. That's because I had no idea what kind of shoot I wanted to do with Kira until we got to the location. Never worked with her before and no idea what her wardrobe would be like or how she'd look in person. I'm rather sceptical of portfolio pics these days.

This was our first time visiting Glen Clare. As I didn't want to keep Kira waiting, I had to make snap decisions on locations as well as clothes to wear. So whenever ideas pop into the head, we just rolled with it. She's a class model and she made life real easy for me. When I found out she did ballet for a while, I couldn't be more pleased. Hence the ballet type poses in some of the shots.

She had this 'can do' attitude about her too. So when I asked her to cross the river, climb a slippery slope, stay out in the rain for 2 hours, she did it all. What a trooper!

Below are some of the shoots we did.

The ballet session.

There's actually a knack to throwing them fabrics. You need to fold them a certain way so when you throw them in the air, they unravel. The fabric we used was a cheap curtain liner.

Earlier, I had decided to go for some darker themes. I kept thinking witches for this.

After the fabric / ballet shoot, it started to rain. I had two choices. One wrap up and go home or two, bring out the bin liner and start covering all the gear. I went for the later.

The alien looking lighting device below is a nikon sb 28 flash covered by a bin liner with a hole in it. The flash fired thru that hole and the bin liner was velcro'd to the flash. My camera was under another bin liner and the other flash also had the same setup. One thing I've learned is that tripods are better than lightstands when you setup in uneven terrain due to the fact that you can adjust the length of the tripod legs.

I was going for a drenched look so we continue to shoot in the rain.

However, I learnt from this shoot that even with drenched look, there's probably a secret or technique to make them look good even when wet.

1st, you probably need a model with thick head of hair. Failing that, ya just have to 'burn' the hair in post processing.

2nd, drenched hair doesn't equal untidy hair. Ya still have to make it tidy. Should have asked Kira to take her hair brush with her when she crossed the river.

3rd. All manner of debris will stick to your skin when wet. Best to just wipe em off on site and save yourself a lot of touch up time afterwards.

As for make up, you probably still need it but don't ask me what the industry people do because I have no idea. If you have any tips, let me know.

Then I spot the luscious green slope that would make for a great back drop. I suggested to Kira she climbed it and off she went.