Exposures were anywhere between 8-20 seconds in a pitch black studio, lit only by a small LED Maglite.

I’d probably scream too if I was cold and naked in a freight elevator.

UPDATE: Justine is on Twitter! Follow her!

Clamshell lighting — one umbrella each above and below. The glasses were $1 sunglasses at Dollarama that I popped the lenses out of.

Justine stopped by the studio one day after work and we got up to all sorts of fun. I always fear shooting at the studio at night — not because I’m afraid of the dark — but because I have no natural light to rely on. Things worked out splendidly here, though, as my lighting is reminiscent of the typical Playboy style.

Here’s the break down:

Justine was on a dark brown leather bench, with matching couches in the background. She was lit with an Alien Bees monolight in a medium softbox with gold inserts, positioned really close and to camera left. The highlight on the right side is from a bare Nikon SB-900 in the background, to camera right. All of the background light on the wallpaper is from the table lamp.

These were shot with a Nikon D700 and a Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED IF AF-S VR, which might be my new favourite lens. Though the 85mm f/1.4 is really, really fantastic as well, and to this point has been my go-to lens on a D700.

I snapped a few photos of her and then went about my business around the rest of the club, later posting them on Facebook. As I was posting them and had a closer look, I thought to myself, “I need to photograph this girl.” But how?

Patience and luck, that’s how.

Some 10 months later, the guy on the right side of the photo somehow found it on Facebook and made it his profile picture. The lovely young lady, who I now know to be Justine, saw it and commented on it. What a stroke of luck! I sent her a message right away and when she replied, I was surprised to find out that she had already previously lurked my photos on Model Mayhem and expressed admiration for them.

We immediately tried to set up a photo shoot, but life got in the way. After an excruciating five month wait, Justine texted me last week to see if we could squeeze in a sunrise shoot on the beach before the weather really started going downhill. Mere days later, we found ourselves on the beach at 7am, shivering in the 14 degree cold. And while it’s not the coldest bikini shoot I’ve ever done, it’s certainly the latest in the season.

Justine was a trooper for sure. Just look at how little she’s wearing in such cold weather, all with a big smile on her face. I don’t know about you, but getting up at 4am and driving an hour from Port Perry to Toronto sure makes her happy. This was shot with just natural light.