Or not. The weather in my state is a filthy, lying bastard that changes on a whim seemingly based on what would be the most devastating to anyone with any kind of sensitive sinuses, such as Yours Truly.
So in an attempt to placate the metaphorical Ice Queen, let's give winter a fond farewell by keeping this week simple and talking about one of my favorite photo sets of recent memory.
Definitely my favorite set taken in temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, at the very least.
Today's model is Daisy Jay, a good friend and wonderful performer who hails from the cold, snowy mountains of Maine. Naturally, this made her an easy choice for an outdoor location shoot in the middle of winter. The fact that she also brought a walk-in closet's worth of clothing with her to pick from on the day of the session was a nice bonus.
For the most part, we approached this sesh with the theme in mind of a European winter fairy tale; harsh, bitter cold surrounding something (or in this case, someONE) that is inversely warm and inviting. If you haven't caught on yet, I'm a bit of a sucker for anything with contrasting elements.
To further divide the difference between Daisy and the environment, I set my white balance to Tungsten, which adds a blue hue to your photos in order to offset the harsh yellow-orange light tungsten lightbulbs cast. This would mean, however, that Daisy's skin would be more akin to a Smurf than some sort of Wood Nymph. However, I fixed that by adding a shitload of Color Temperature Orange gels to my flash, which was stuffed into an Octa Softbox and held at about a 45-degree angle down at Daisy from camera-left.
(Bryce's Note: a "shitload" refers to about 2 full cuts of CTO gels, for those that want specifics)
As you can see in the picture, the background is a deep blue while Daisy remains enveloped in a warm light, leaving her skin looking natural and radiant and further serving to push her out from the harsh cold all around. This is dreamy effect, and might not be the best look for something more grounded, but for a look emulating an illustration from a folk-tale book, it sure as hell does the job.
Our time in the woods allowed us to pick out two solid outfits, the second of which being an absolute knockout of an elaborate red dress. Nearby our location was a long wooden staircase that served to connect a river to the nature trail, which, when paired with the dress, immediately gave me a "rustic noire" vibe. Think "Sunset Boulevard" in the forest and you've got the idea (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, for the love of Bogart, watch "Sunset Boulevard" and get some art in your life).
We took a few shots like the above, with the Octa light again to camera left, and while Daisy and the staircase were beautifully lit, I found that there wasn't enough detail in the shots to emphasize the setting. Even the snow on the stairs didn't do enough to set the outdoor scene, but I found the tree branches above and behind her, with their dead limbs spiderwebbing from left to right, made for a compelling addition, though they were far enough away that they were completely overtaken by black.
Curious how it'd look, which is how most of my favorite work happens, I put a bare flash down on the ground behind Daisy, put it in slave mode (as in when it senses the light from a flash going off, it goes off as well), and aimed it straight up into the branches. I also zoomed the light to 200mm, which makes more of a beam of light rather than a gigantic, wide cone, in order to keep a sort of vignette around Daisy and keep the focus of the photo around the center where she resides. Gotta say, crazy happy about the results.
(Bryce's Note #2: While I come from a mid-Michigan hunting family and am used to clothing using animal hide, it's now occurring to me that Daisy would want me to assure everyone reading this that the furs she is wearing are faux-fur and 100% cruelty-free. Personally, if fur is a by-product, I'm okay with it being used in clothing, but I will state that I feel no animal should be slaughtered exclusively for fashion.)
I find a lot of winter photography to be enchanting, but most of the time they embrace the warmer aspects of it. Which is awesome, don't get me wrong, holiday pictures that capture the essence of warmth, peace, and whimsy are wonderful and I feel that my own portfolio should include more of it. However, Winter is also a season of cold, and dark, and danger, but these qualities have their own beauty and without them, we wouldn't evolve into Spring, the season of new life and beginning.
Don't be afraid to embrace that, and play with it a bit. Use the cold and contrast it with vibrancy, or embrace it fully and create something dark and mysterious. It's a season that deserves more experimentation.
...that being said, happy it's over. Bring on the Springtime, baby!
