Summer Never Ends

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)!

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Purple one-piece swimsuit and pink cashmere sweater by H&M. Bikini bottoms by Wicked Temptations. All from my collection.

Swimwear September: Randall II

September 11, 2009

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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: Randall

September 4, 2009

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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!

One Year Ago Today: Randall

May 13, 2009

This is my fourth post about Randall, which means I pretty much worship her.

Last year on this day, a mild spring evening, Randall was kinda enough to drive out to my hood for a few photos. We headed down to the parking lot in the beach and waited until all the cars cleared out before we began shooting. There were a few hoots and hollers from lingering folks, but nothing she couldn’t handle. This shot was done with a Nikon SB-800 on a travel tripod to Randall’s right, triggered with the Nikon CLS system in my D200. In the left shot, I find the reflecting lights in the water a bit distracting, though I like the effect. In the right shot, Randall pulled open the jacket to reveal the pattern without any prompting from me. This is what makes her an awesome model.

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I tried to work elements from my brand new car (then a week old) into the shots, including using the headlights to light Randall. Those experiments failed, but this interior shot was a happy accident that I loved. The only lighting was from the overhead dome light.

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One Light Wonders

March 25, 2009

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I shoot almost everything with just one light. Whether that light is sunlight, a window, a bounced hotshoe flash, or a studio strobe with an umbrella or a softbox… it’s almost always just one.

It’s not that I can’t or won’t shoot with more lights, but as I’ve described here before, I keep things as simple as possible when I shoot. I’d rather spend time interacting with the subject than spend gluttonous amounts of time setting up half a dozen lights, only to use them for five minutes worth of shooting. Some might say that means I care stunningly little about the process and just want the quickest means to the end. But for the type of photos I do, it simply wouldn’t benefit the final product.

Randall, above, was lit with one Alien Bees strobe in a Photoflex softbox. In fact, most of everything on the blog so far has been lit with a single source. It wraps her face nicely and there’s just enough light to highlight the exposed eye, which I love.

Christine, below, has called me out on her blog. We’re gonna have a bit of a blogging war it seems. Stay tuned…