Here are some shots from the remainder of the shoot with Courtney Kibler at Milburnie Dam in Raleigh, NC. After shooting some in the water and then under the shade of the trees beside the river, we moved back to the waters edge. Courtney changed into another outfit she had brought. We were not certain about this because it was fairly transparent. The idea for this shoot was deep thought so that you wonder what the model is thinking. After seeing how the light went through the white dress, we were curious of the effect with this dress. The results came out great.

There were some technical issues. The sun was very strong and reflecting off the water which was to the camera right, in front of and behind Courtney. I still wanted a shallow depth of field and opted for shooting at f2.8 which is crazy hard to focus on eyes from a distance with. Combine that with the fact that I was using a neutral density filter to get rid of some of that light (and allow a wider aperture) and the fact that I could not see the images on the back of the camera very well and I was shooting blind. It kind of reminded me of shooting with film.

At the end of the shoot, we crossed the river and shot closer to the dam. The place was nasty with broken glass everywhere. Still, I think it was pretty cool. Hopefully Courtney did not pick up any glass in her foot…

So after the shots in the water, Courtney switched dresses and we moved over to a tree in the edge of the woods with the most amazing root system. While Courtney was changing, we had to hastily remove a ton of fishing line on the base of the tree and dispose of beer cans, bottles and lots of other nasty stuff. Take your trash out people!

I really liked this location. It was in the edge of a dense grove of trees with a dark background. It also kept the direct light off of her. The river was directly in front of her for most of these shots which acted like a big ole soft box for a really soft light. As with most of the shots, I shot close to 2.8 to really blow out the background. Enjoy and I’ll try to get more from this shoot up tomorrow.

BTW, if you click on the image, you get a larger version. All images copyright 2008, Keith Warren.

The shot above has the river in the background and thus it is washed out. Big soft box, remember? We did use a reflector here.

Actually between the water and the tree shots above, Courtney saw this tree hanging over the water. She got a gleam in her eye and just smiled looking at it. The she asked if she could climb out for a few shots. I said sure, but had my camera ready to drop so I could chase after her if she fell in. If you read the earlier posts from this shoot, the water was high and running REALLY fast. I have a model out on a dead tree over rapids. OK. Seriously, it was fun like all of this shoot.

So after introductions of the support staff (Amber and Richard) and the model (Courtney) we were ready to begin. We scouted out the river below the dam only to find the water was extremely high. I have gone to this location multiple times over the last 15 years and have never seen it so high. But, you work with what you have. Courtney chose her white dress first. We shot a few beside a tree. Richard aimed the gold reflector at her and I positioned her so that the strong sun was behind her. This offered excellent hair light with no strobe. The gold reflector warmed her skin to an extreme. That was fine because as I cooled the image in Photoshop, the water and such shifted towards the blues.

We shot at a few different locations and also at the generator on the dam. I’ll add more photos and descriptions this week.