Portrait sessions

This post will be a break from the usual travel theme.  Most of these pictures are from outdoor adventures, but the hikes are not the main subject.  We already described these hikes in previous posts about a trip to the western Shawnee and the Ozarks and a trip to some Shawnee waterfalls.  

Instead, Laura is the main subject!  And the post isn't so much about solely celebrating nature's beauty, but rather Laura's beauty!  Having learned that she is pregnant, Laura asked me to take some nice portraits of her before and during she started to show.  

These portrait series also compose my first serious foray into portrait photography. We both studied up beforehand: Laura learned posing tips, I focused on portrait photography.  Here we will share what we considered to be the "PG13" photos that resulted from the sessions.

First, we hiked about an hour to a waterfall in the western Shawnee forest.  We had the place to ourselves for several hours and the conditions were perfect.  The temperature, the lack of biting insects, and the lighting worked out great so that we were both comfortable.  Laura started out dry and in clothing, but eventually went au naturale in nature.










Our friends Kate and Sadie (the latter a dog) accompanied us on an off-the-beaten path hike to a hidden waterfall with really neat rocks.  I took some portraits of Kate while Laura got ready and then we shot for about an hour or so.  Once again, we had the place to ourselves and the conditions were really pleasant.  We nerded out a bit with the crawdads in the pools below the falls too.



It was getting late by the time we got back to the truck, so we drove to Burden Falls, which is usually a popular destination because it is very close to the road.  After some precarious climbing, we set up at the bottom of the tallest fall and shot some more.  It was a bit darker by this point in the day, so I struggled a bit with the photos, but we still had some fun.






I love photographing Laura in the wild, but I also wanted to make some "fine art" pictures using my homemade attempts at high-key and low-key lighting techniques.  We executed the former by draping a white sheet over our doorway and using the early morning light to illuminate it.  I complimented that with a work light from inside the house.  This worked far better than I had expected and I was really happy with the results.  





The low-key, high-contrast photo session was a bit of a struggle.  I was inspired when I took a picture of Laura silhouetted in the harsh window light one morning and was able to get a really neat edit out of it using just my phone.  


Then we set up a backdrop, lighting, a table, and used the good camera and weren't having the same luck.  I have since spoken with the man who wrote the book on lighting, who just so happens to be an SIU professor, and received some useful tips for the next attempt. Even with the struggles, we did get some that we were both satisfied with, but only one suitable for this blog:

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