I shot Lauren Lubarski on the Roberto Clemente Bridge, and got a variety of images. I was particularly keen on capturing a long exposure in which Lauren was present in front of the camera, and very still, for only half the time the shutter was open. This produces a ghost-like image. I have done this with several models, and I call the series “More Than a Feeling,” with the Boston song in mind.
Lauren is an accomplished athlete (javelin, shot put, something else that I have forgotten), a state champion. Her specialty now is volleyball. She is lean. Her athletic activities have given her lots of pleasing curves, for example, in her upper arms and shoulders. Most of us don’t have those curves, because we don’t use those muscles much. When she came to the studio, I had in mind some low-contrast figure studies in her dark bathing suit, against a gray background, so that the tonal values of her skin would be close to those of the background. I might get close-up body shots, I thought, so that the viewer would not know exactly what he was looking at. I would apply a lot of grain to the image as well, so that the image might look even more like a landscape. We didn’t get around to that, but maybe we will in future.
She told me almost immediately that she had roughly circular marks all over her back and on part of her front, the result of cupping therapy. So we worked around that when possible, and I used Photoshop to get rid of the marks where it was easy to do and they were obvious. She said she will avoid that before the next session, and I’m grateful. 🙂 I did a fair amount of natural-light shooting in the window of the studio, using a series of lenses: RF 24-70, Lensbaby Spark, Lensbaby Velvet 56, 50mm prime, and the 85mm f 1.8 portrait lens. The Spark is a great lens, but you have to manipulate the front of the lens with two fingers to put what you want in focus: usually it’s the eyes and the mouth. So I took a lot of photos with the Spark, knowing there would be a lot of shots that weren’t focused as I wanted. The selective focus of the lens gives me as a viewer a sense of intimacy; I think it’s because the viewer feels he is up close to the subject, while the blurred background is far away, unimportant.
We got some shots with the volleyball and the kettlebell weight against a white background, images that show off her athletic frame again.
It was a successful shoot, and I look forward to repeating it, perhaps using my optical spotlight and all three of my flashes, for some subtle, low-key work. Thank you, Lauren!
Here’s the link to some of the results from this photo session. Enjoy!