Photoshoot with Perilune - 16th January 2012

Perilune and I have been discussing doing what we call a cold shoot for some months now. Basically whatever the weather we planned to do a shoot out on location in January. Originally we planned to use some derelict buildings for the shoot but on the morning of the shoot it was one of those beautiful frosty sunny days. Over a cup of tea we chatted about different ideas and thought in fact it might be better to go to Thrapston lakes so we could capture the frost on the ground to really show how cold it was.

We started shooting in a field close to the lakes, once we had found a spot where it was not to open to people walking past, as it was very close to The Nene Way a very popular route for walkers. As we wanted to do Art Nude I first got Perilune to stand in the spot I wanted to photograph her, clothed I might add, so I could get the lighting right before exposing herself to the elements. I used a single strobe with an umbrella, setting the camera to expose for the sky (as I hate a burnt out sky) and then used the flash for fill light.

Once I had taken some test shots Perilune got undressed and we started shooting. I had Perilune stand with her back to the sun so it created rim light around her body and the flash just filled in the shadows. As I was shooting into the sun I was very careful to ensure my shooting angle didn’t let the sun come into the lens, though I also tried shooting right into the sun on a few shots to see what would happen and in fact really liked the effect as seems to give the images a very soft milky feel to them as can be seen below.

Just before we moved on from this location to the actual lake I asked Perilune to lay down on the frosty grass and for some reason she called me evil! Which I have to agree withJ I think it was worth it though for the final image.

We wandered over to the lake and used the same lighting set-up a before. I wanted to capture the ice on the lake behind Perilune so took a lot of wide angle shots. I also showed my evil side again getting Perilune to lay down on this small fishing pier at the lake, which was covered in frost. It was worth it though as I think it was my favourite shot of the day.

Whilst normally I convert the majority of my images to Black & White, I decided a lot of these needed to be colour to show the coldness of morning as in the frost on the ground and frozen lake.

All in all although a short shoot due to the cold, it was very enjoyable and looking forward to working with Perilune again.