Archive for September, 2009
The Palliser Motel
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 26, 2009
Isn’t that a great name for a motel? It instantly evokes vague memory, history, and maybe even regal things. Sounds like the setting for a movie made before I was born. The Palliser is in Truro, Nova Scotia, on the bank of Salmon River, which is one of the best places in the world to see a tidal bore. According to Wikipedia, a tidal bore is a “tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travel up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the current.” In other words, you can watch the flow of a river reverse directions rather spontaneously.
In 2007, I came for the tidal bore.
In 2009, I came for Kristen.
The following photos were all shot in my motel room at the Palliser in a very limited time frame. Although I was expecting to spend a lot longer shooting Kristen, she had to attend to another matter that night… which meant I rushed to get in all the scenes and setups I had in mind. The purpose of my trip to Nova Scotia was solely shooting models, so I was pretty annoyed to travel all that way and then have it cut short.
But I digress. On to the photos!
First, the bed:
Then one against the fabulous wood paneling:
And finally, on to the bathroom:
The bathtub shot in particular was difficult to get. I had badly sprained my ankle five days earlier; it was swollen and weak and I had to balance myself on the edge of a chair to get high enough. I was shooting blind, holding the camera at arm’s length in front of me, hoping that it was fairly straight and the lines would be parallel. All this while shooting at fairly slow shutter speeds due to using the incandescent light in the bathroom. A light, it should be noted, that I had to make sure not to block with my head or body as I teetered on the chair. Luckily I sustained no further injuries and I think the results were totally worth it.
Aren’t those shoes fabulous?
To see more of Kristen, check out her profiles on ModelMayhem and deviantArt.
One Year Ago Today
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 24, 2009
This is a previously unseen photo from my September 24, 2008 photoshoot with Brandi Latimer. This was three days after Brandi’s first fitness competition. Much like this September, the weather was amazingly hot when we shot — I somehow think this is Mother Nature’s way of rewarding us for our hideous winters.
Swimwear: Mayra Collection.
Samantha Saturday
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 19, 2009
I’ve posted a lot of Samantha before, so why not a few more? First, two shots from our Toronto Islands swimwear shoot:
And then two new photos from our recent lingerie shoot on Labour Day weekend:
This last shot on the bed was particularly amusing, as Samantha’s top was about two sizes too small and provided some interesting post-production challenges in Photoshop. 
All shots done with natural light except the first, which was with an Alien Bees 1600 in a shoot-through umbrella. All shots done using my 85mm f/1.8 lens.
Swimwear September: Samantha III
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 15, 2009
I talked about the mad dash that Sam and I made to the Toronto Islands in my last post about her. This photo was towards the end of our very abbreviated shoot, but turned out fabulously.
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/3.5, 1/200 with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. Lighting in front from an Alien Bees 1600 with a shoot-through umbrella.
Lauren in Playboy?
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 11, 2009
No way.
Lauren, seen here on the blog previously, has never been in Playboy. But someone out there thinks she has. See, it’s funny — every week when I check my server logs, I see that someone has searched for the term “lauren potts playboy” in Google and landed at my site as a result. The search always comes from the same place — Maryland. I can only deduce that it’s the same person, week after week, searching and clicking on my site.
Now, I’m not naive. There could very well be some hot girl in Maryland named Lauren Potts that this person is searching for. But it ain’t this one.
Here’s Lauren in her underwear, which is as close as she’s gonna get to Playboy. Sorry to disappoint.
Swimwear September: Randall II
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 11, 2009
Last year, Randall was a part of a small promo for the fashion label DSQUARED², and there was some hope early on that I would photograph it. That fell through, but it prompted Randall to note that had we worked together on that, we could have called ourselves RSQUARED. Ryan + Randall! We’ve used it as an affectionate nickname for our shoots since then, even though they have nothing to do with DSQUARED².
Randall is wearing a purple one-piece swimsuit from my collection of H&M items.
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/10, 1/200 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens set to 90mm. Sunrise in the back, Alien Bees 1600 with standard reflector in the front.
Swimwear September: Shannon II
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 11, 2009
Shannon is a hideously awkward jumper and happy to admit it. It took a good 50 or 60 jumps to get this one, which looks pretty good. Next time with Shannon: a different wig (she has a collection).
Amy in Blue
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 7, 2009
My day job is working in a photo lab and occasionally a roll of photo paper gets exposed or damaged and becomes unusable. I took one of these damaged rolls with me on my road trip to Nova Scotia this past July and put it to good use in a photoshoot with Amy. Amy is one of my best friends on this planet, despite living a million miles away from me. We trekked up to a gazebo on the top of a hill overlooking the Halifax harbour. This wasn’t the best idea, as the higher elevation meant stronger winds, which temporarily wreaked havoc with my umbrella lighting setup until I found a way to secure it.
Here’s the setup… Amy builds our paper nest as her superhero alter-ego, “FujiFilm Girl”:
Amy was a trooper, on the mend from a bad cough and sore throat. She did her own hair and makeup, and wore the H&M party dress that I brought along with me from Toronto. I foolishly forgot the matching black gloves to go with it. For lighting, I put a Nikon SB-800 in a shoot-thru umbrella to camera left and triggered it with the SB-900 on my D200. The result:
What does one do with 180m of unspooled photo paper? We couldn’t just leave it there. See for yourself:
Swimwear September: Randall
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 4, 2009
I don’t see very many sunrises. But when I do, I always make sure I have a pretty girl to stand in front of them. This pretty girl is named Randall, and she’s the best model I know for a couple reasons. One, she met me at the beach at 5:45am even though she lives 45 minutes away. Two, she got chest-deep in Lake Ontario for me even though it was freezing. The air temperature was 12 degrees that morning when we started shooting!
This shot here was at 6:19am, well before we got in the water, and just slightly before the sun started peeking over the horizon. I’ve never seen anyone so chipper at 6am as Randall was. She was bouncing around, jumping up and down — frolicking, if you will. She was so excited and so cute doing it!
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/5.6, 1/125 with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. Sunrise in the back, Alien Bees 1600 with standard reflector in the front. Or maybe with a shoot-through umbrella. I can’t remember!
Swimwear September: Samantha II
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 3, 2009
Oh Samantha, how I love thee. And it’s a good thing she loves me back, otherwise our photos together would suck. I picked up Sam at Hooters in Whitby and we braved the rush hour traffic to make it to the downtown ferry terminal. We had a long walk to the beach at Hanlan’s Point after getting off the ferry, so we had to scramble as there was only about 20 minutes of sunlight left. We fired off about four different looks until it was too dark for the camera to even focus on Sam’s lovely face. The shot above is early on, before the sun went below the horizon.
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/2.8, 1/60 with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. Natural light. Cold water.
A bonus shot from the beach:
