First, a fairly straight-up bikini shot:

Now let’s do the same thing, but moodier, with a little backlight and some monochrome processing:

Outfit change! Get wet:

How about no outfit at all? Unless seashells count:

And finally, one of the nicest headshots I’ve ever taken:

Though you can’t tell in this photo, Christine is a ginger kid. Pale skin, freckles, and red hair. In the three years or so that I’ve known Christine, she’s successfully transitioned from a popular nude art model in Halifax, Nova Scotia to a popular photographer. I feel lucky to have photographed Christine three times before she got out of modeling, and this shot was done the last time I saw her in Halifax.

I very much adhere to the “keep it simple, stupid” philosophy while shooting. I shy away from studios, large sets, assistants and even lights. These shots with Christine were done in a university dorm that I was renting, and I laid down a giant plastic tarp purchased from a local home improvement store. I got a ridiculously large bag of flour from Sobey’s across the street (they had no small ones!) and then poured it on Christine to get her battered like chicken. Or something. As I wasn’t traveling with any sort of lighting set up beyond a hotshoe flash, Christine brought over her Octabox for lighting. I fussed over the position of the light so much that Christine was ready to punch me by the time I actually started shooting photos.

Clean up was a breeze! Christine showered off the flour; I just folded up the tarp and threw it away, and left the bag of flour behind in the dorm for someone else to wonder, “what the hell was going on here?”.