It’s one thing to view an image, whether that be a painted representation or a photographically-produced image. It’s another to know the story behind the scenes. In this post series on Intimate Portraits we’re going to go behind the scenes of a few of my most favorite, and most liked Instagram portrait images. It’s personal, and as you might know, there is always a story.
I’d like to try something a bit more sensual.
Like many of my models, this one came to me through friends. I have been friends with her since that time, more than five years-ago. Up until recently, I had never asked her to model, even though I did throw out subtle hints. Out of the blue she contacted me to ask if I would photographer her for a portrait. She had never had one done by a professional photographer. We set up a a time and date for the session, and when she arrived she immediately informed me that she was nervous. I get that!
To alleviated her nervousness I just started talking about normal life subjects: job, home, friend’s activities, recent travel, etc. After about five-minutes of small talk, she said was relaxed and ready to go. She was unaware that I had already been shooting during that whole time with a remote release. I had music on so she couldn’t hear the shutter noise.
Once we started, after she shed the nervousness, she was relaxed and “ready-to-go!” We worked for about an hour-and-a-half and got some tremendous images. She was a pleasure to work with and was very pleased with the results, one of which hangs in her home. Toward the end she indicated that she wanted to try a few more intimate and sensuous poses, one of which is the one pictured above.
The lesson with this session is that when you have someone to photograph and they indicate they are either nervous, shy, or anything else that might be a negative signal, just start an easy conversation, and have your remote release ready!