Archive for November, 2009
One Year
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on November 18, 2009
This very blog turned ONE back in October, and I forgot to celebrate!
Here’s Randall showing you how much she loves the number one:
Summer Never Ends
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on November 12, 2009
It was an uncharacteristically warm day earlier this week — 18°C in Toronto. I couldn’t help but let my memories drift back to all the swimwear shoots I did this past summer. I’ve already posted a couple shots (here and here) of my very last beach shoot of the year with Randall, but here’s a couple more that I finished processing recently. Unlike the last two I posted, all of these were shot with 100% natural, glorious, sunlight.
Enjoy RSQUARED (Ryan + Randall)!
Purple one-piece swimsuit and pink cashmere sweater by H&M. Bikini bottoms by Wicked Temptations. All from my collection.
Amy in Green
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on November 7, 2009
From my trip to Halifax last month: Amy tore herself away from her nuclear medicine studies for a nice dinner and photoshoot with moi. I got to try fried pepperoni for the first time, and Amy got to do a shoot at night — something that was apparently lacking from her portfolio. We headed to a wooded spot near an industrial part of Woodside in Dartmouth and I set up two Nikon Speedlights for lighting. I traveled to Halifax by air, which meant packing light was key. I couldn’t bring along my rather large Alien Bees, but nor did I have to. The tiny Speedlights did a fantastic job. Check out the diagram:
The rear Speedlight (an SB-900) was placed behind the trees, angled upwards, and covered with a green gel, using the supplied filter holder. The Speedlight in front (an SB-800 in a small umbrella) was placed to Amy’s left, but not directly aimed at her. I opted to feather the light by aiming the beam just in front of where she was crouching. All of this was triggered by the built-in flash of my Nikon D200, although not using Nikon’s CLS system since it wasn’t cooperating with me.
Amy’s blue eyes are insanely gorgeous, and yes, they’re really that colour! Oddly, this is the second time I’ve photographed Amy with primarily green tones. Our first adventure in green can be seen here.
Close-Up
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on November 7, 2009
This is one of my favourite headshots for two reasons.
- Light.
- Her face.
I was shooting S outdoors in harsh, mid-day sunlight, which is pretty much the least flattering thing on Earth. I had brought along an Alien Bees 1600 monolight to overpower the sun but I actually turned it off for this shot. There are two things going on here with the light. Firstly, I positioned S so that her face was completely hidden from the sun. All of the sunlight was falling on her hair, which shielded her face. Secondly, the sun was bouncing off the light-coloured sand and on to her face, which provides the highlights in the bottom half of her eyes. If you look closely, you can see a little orange speck in there — that was the ridiculous pair of orange board shorts I was wearing.
S’s face, of course, is fantastic, and nothing more needs to be said.
Labour Day Weekend
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on November 3, 2009
From two months ago, here’s Amanda, photographed on Labour Day weekend. It was quite possibly the worst shooting weekend of my life, as I had one model cancel on me, Amanda was hungover, another cancelation late one night, and then the discovery that another photographer used some of the same setups in the same location (I’ve already deleted my versions).
