Charlie Grieco and I did a photoshoot at her family home. Their house is surrounded by fields, with a little river floating by. Our plan was to do some dance photos, and I had also brought with me some talcum powder left over from my last visit to Cambridge and some smoke pellets that are used for checking chimneys.
We did a quick walk around in the garden and I was immediately drawn to this old gate framed by trees. Charlie climbed up and I exposed for the background to get her in silhouette.Right next to the gate was a birch tree so we played at trying to mirror the lines in the tree.They have several little houses and sheds around the garden, and I am not sure what Charlie thought when I suggested that we might get some nice photos in one of them. There was a transparent plastic roof that let in soft light and an interesting backdrop. Writing this I realised that this particular shot was actually taken just outside the shed.Charlie mentioned that she had an old photo of her on this swing, so we decided to do a similar one.My favourite spot, the garage. There was a big open space behind me, letting in soft light. Perfect! Here I have cleaned up the background since there were lots of other things in there. I am not what you would call fashion conscious, but that outfit looks good.One more portrait in the garage, this one shot from the side to get a bit more shadows.We asked Charlie’s little brother to help us out, and by using an aluminium plate he provided a bit of wind.Last shot before the lunch break.After the lunch break, we brought out the smoke pellets.Here again I played with varying techniques to clean up the background.After we ran out of smoke pellets it was time to bring out the talcum powder. This is a composite shot of two photos, one with and one without talcum powder.One thing I love about the talcum powder is that it allows you to capture motion in a unique way.The downside of course is that it is hugely messy, and you do not want it in your camera or eyes for that matter.Charlie handled it like a champ. Here we had a fan to the left as talcum powder was poured into the stream of air.Ending the blog post with my favourite shot from the day. I love the pose.
It was great fun to take a trip out of Cambridge and visit Charlie and her family. If anyone wonders about the title, the village is called March.
For more dance photos, have a look at the dance category on the blog.
Be First to Comment