Luverly
Weather
Having
finally taken the plunge and given up my studio, there seemed no other
way to get me out of its cozy confines, I booked Meg for a location
shoot. The weather forecast promised a bright and sunny day with odd
local shower and the blue sky looked promising as I pulled up outside
her flat.
I've
worked with Meg quite a lot so I knew she would have her make up done
and a choice of outfits laid out. We selected several that would make
her look sexy without getting her arrested; along with matching shoes
and accessories. We also tried to pick clothes that she could do a
quick change of outside or put on easily in the back of the car. At
least one of the locations I had picked was reasonably secluded so
I also included a white dress that buttoned down the front making
it easy to slip out of and put back on again if we got the opportunity
to do some figure work.
I usually
tell the model to bring sensible shoes or trainers for the trek from
the car to the location but Meg's choice of flip flops seemed OK since
the weather was good. I was traveling light with my Nikons and a couple
of lenses, my Cannon G10, a lot of spare cards, portable hard drive,
tripod, lastolite reflector and a variety of accessories such as insect
repellent, drinks and first aid kit. The car was also loaded with
an umbrella, a blanket and sheets of plastic for wet weather shooting.
Having
left Meg's flat in bright sunshine we arrived five minuets later at
the first location, the bandstand in the local park, under a cloudy
sky. The idea was to shoot some stock pictures for possible book covers
on the steps and, by cropping in close and using Photoshop to remove
the graffiti, make it look like the veranda of a southern US mansion.
If that didn't work I'd use the graffiti to make a nice urban background
to the evening dress Meg was wriggling into in the back of the car.
By the
time we got started the sky had completely clouded over and the light
was horrible; grey, flat and overhead. At least shooting under the
bandstand roof meant that Meg was lit from the side rather than above.
I must have been subconsciously missing the studio as the first twenty
or so shots were done with the colour balance set to tungsten. This
actually produced quite a nice moonlight effect but, as I was shooting
RAW, this can be achieved, and fortunately corrected, when converting
the RAW files. Cursing myself for not checking everything twice I
reset the Nikon and continued under darkening skies. As the first
raindrops started to fall we hightailed it back to the car.
Unfortunately
the zip on Meg's dress jammed and the sight of a bloke draped in cameras
trying to wrestle a model out of an evening dress in the car park
caused much amusement to the guy having a coffee break in the next
car. Meg was finally freed and she disappeared, giggling, into the
back of the car to change into the next outfit.
With
Meg now in a gypsy style dress and sexy top we headed for the next
location; hoping that the weather would listen to the bright and sunny
forecast. The second location was a bit of a gamble. It's a great
spot by the river with a weir, a ruined pump house and water meadows.
Unfortunately it is also very popular and the summer holidays were
in full swing so I hoped we wouldn't attract too larger audience or
end up with picnickers in the background.
Fortunately
it wasn't too crowded and the sun was peeping through the scattered
clouds by the time we arrived. As there was plenty of activity around
the weir we only managed a few pictures there before wandering over
to the river bank where the only other inhabitants seemed to be a
herd of cows. Meg confessed that these weren't her favorite animals,
unless they are jammed into a burger bun, but was reassured when I
pointed out that they were on the other side of the river and happily
munching grass.
There
was a loverly wooden slipway on the edge of the river and Meg stretched
out on this in the sunshine. Suddenly the session clicked. The sun
was slightly behind Meg and the scattered clouds were giving me a
choice of hard or diffused light and I had a fill in flash and lastolite
reflector to lighten the shadows when I needed. Meg sensed that things
were going well, she is an experienced model who continually feeds
ideas into the session, and she happily dangled her toes in the water
and moved around the slipway and river bank.
I'd liked
to have done some figure work but the herd of cows was occasionally
being supplemented by passing holiday makers and a dog walker was
having an awfully long rest on a bench nearby so, having exhausted
the location, we moved on.
Things
looked good as we pulled into a deserted car park adjoining some woodland
which is generally private enough for some figure pictures in its
depths. Meg quickly changed into a plain white dress that buttoned
up the front. Hopefully we would be able to do some glamour shots
of her in the dress and then, as she was wearing nothing underneath,
she could whip it off for the figure work.
Two paces
from the car the first raindrops fell; by the time we were back inside
it was coming down like a power shower. We both stared through the
windscreen as the rain rapidly turned to hail which bounced off the
bonnet. As the hailstones got bigger I began to worry that they would
actually dent the car. I was picturing the insurance claim; 'I was
sat in the car in the middle of the countryside with a woman in nothing
but a white dress when it hailed – in July.
“We'll give it ten minuets to see if it stops” I said without much
hope.
Fifteen
minuets later someone turned off the tap and the rain abruptly stopped.
Cautiously we got out of the car and paddled across the car park.
We didn't realise that, although the rain had stopped , the trees
were still laden with water and the first stirring by the light breeze
dumped a couple of bucketfuls on us.
We tried
a few pictures but despite umbrellas we were still getting soaked
and I could see Meg's teeth chattering so we trudged back to the car
through the mud. Meg, the ultimate professional, never once complained.
In fact as I dropped her back at home she admitted that the day had
been rather fun
Things
I learned from this day:
