La danse des rochers

This past Monday Emma Oldin Lazaroff and Ellinea Siambalis joined me for a photoshoot at Stenhamra quarry west of Stockholm. I stepped on the bus at Danderyd, and Emma and Ellinea were joining in Solna. The Solna bus stop had moved, which they discovered a bit late, leading to a sprint worthy of olympians carrying all their bags, but they made it and we continued the journey to Stenhamra on the bus together.

The weather was fantastic, and after a small detour we arrived at Stenhamra quarry. This place has some amazing rock formations, and we were excited to get started. Emma and Ellinea had brought along lots of different outfits, Emma had a yellow dress that she had bought in New York on her trip last week, which she was really keen on using.

Ellinea Siambalis

There is a pattern and a rhythm to the rocks, almost like a dance. Even though they might appear still to our eyes, on a geological timescale they are moving and changing, “La danse des rochers”.

The rocks add another layer to the photos, giving Emma and Ellinea some context to work with. We were looking for patterns and lines that we could incorporate into our compositions. Both Emma and Ellinea enjoy photographing, so they have a great visual eye for shapes and ideas for composition and we were having fun finding different angles and poses for each location.

Ellinea Siambalis. Here we try to incorporate the strong diagonal made by the rocks with Emma’s pose into a composition.
Emma Oldin Lazaroff
Ellinea and Emma
Emma Oldin Lazaroff
Emma Oldin Lazaroff
Ellinea Siambalis

The rocks had started in shade, giving us soft shadows, but as the sun slowly made its way across the sky the first rocks started getting hit by the sunlight. By sitting on the tip of the rock Ellinea got lit by the light, while the background was still in shadows. I moved to the edge of the sunlight to get a bit of haze in the corner of the photo to add some more atmosphere to the pictures.

Ellinea Siambalis. I was really happy with this setup. Getting the first rays of light on the rock meant Ellinea was lit while the background was still in shadows. It was also great that she had her white suit on for this set of photos as it helped her pop out in front of the shadows.
Ellinea Siambalis
Emma Oldin Lazaroff in her new gorgeous yellow dress from New York. There were so many layers of cloth that gave the dress volume and picked up the light.
Emma Oldin Lazaroff. Here we have Ellinea standing holding the silver reflector for Emma on the side, giving us almost studio lights while outdoors.
Ellinea Siambalis. The pink outfit really makes her stand out against the background.

Many thanks to Emma and Ellinea for a fun photoshoot!

Instagram: Emma, Ellinea, Johannes

— Johannes

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