Grace

When I shoot with models, my typical style is to have a loose concept before we start shooting but allow the shoot go where it may and just let the photos happen. It almost always works out great. Lately, though, I've been trying to come up with shots in my head that I want to recreate at a shoot. Such was the case with Grace.

For this shoot, I wanted a very graceful, elegant look (just a coincidence that her name is Grace). I wanted lots of white, very high-key, but retained detail in the face and fabric. Think dreamlike.

Fortunately, Grace liked the idea I pitched at her, so I headed out to the fabric store and bought a bunch of sheer white fabric. Who knew there was so much white fabric out there! A big plus for me was that it's wedding season, so they had a lot of it and it was all on sale! I hoped for the best, picked a few that I thought would work and left with a big bag full of white fabric.

Now, since Grace was kind enough to indulge my wishes, I thought it was fair to ask if there was anything she wanted to shoot. She said that she wanted to do something with fabrics wrapped around her head. I looked for fabrics at the fabric store (yes, seems pretty obvious), but couldn't find anything I liked (seriously?). So, I grabbed a few of my wife's scarves and brought them along.

For my portion of the shoot, Grace was awesome. She just went to her own place and let me move the wind and lights around until I got the look I wanted. I love the photos and am happy to say they're almost exactly what I wanted. Almost? Yes, almost. I think they're even better than what I expected.

For her portion of the shoot, she got creative with the scarves, wrapping one around her head and another around her body, and we switched to simple, fashion-y lighting. I think the photos came out great considering she was wearing two scarves and shorts.

Although Grace has been living the good life in NYC for the past month, she just got back to town this week. I think I'll give her a call and see if she wants to shoot. My wife got a few new scarves. ;)

To see more photos from this shoot, click here.