sandbars (above, left). Sandbars are great in that you can pose your subjects
in just an inch or two of water. Here, Jess’s facial angle is feminine; note the
marked head tilt toward her high shoulder. The main light was balanced to
match the reflected light coming off the water. Placed about 45 degrees to
camera right, it crosses her body and puts the catchlights in her eyes, the
sparkle in her teeth, and the highlight on her lips. Otherwise, her face would
have been quite shadowy.
The wet-look image of Ilicia (above, right) is another attractive portrait,
and it was also shot at midday. Ilicia was posed hip-deep in the river, while I
stood on a boulder to get the high camera angle. This was important to the
image, because it gave her face command of the image. A lower camera angle
would have brought her wet top into prominence, but we wanted viewers to
notice her face first. The pose is a C with a basic facial angle.
Waterfalls.There’s something very primal and comforting about clear
flowing water—and when you add a beautiful woman, there’s a sensual syn-
ergy that’s hard to describe. That’s why we’re going to take a look at a few
examples. The rapids along the Eau Claire River is one of my favorite settings
for glamour portraiture. At Big Falls, during low water conditions there are
a number of spots where it’s possible to pose clients in just a few inches of
moving water.
The black & white image of Teresa (next page, top) is just such an exam-
ple. Because this location is in a deep canyon, sunset here is about an hour
earlier than elsewhere. This gives me quite a bit of sweet-light time to shoot.
In this case, though, we were past the golden hour and more into blue light,
so we decided to make a black & white image. It was shot with natural lightGLAMOUR ON LOCATION 81LEFT—If an image is too tame, it won’t de-
mand attention, yet if it is too threatening, it
will turn viewers off. This kind of seminude,
based on my clients’ and viewers’ opinions,
strikes that balance. RIGHT—A flash, set to
match the intense sunlight, was set high and
about 40 degrees to camera right. This gave us
a bit of a short light and a narrow loop light-
ing pattern. The image was then slightly over-
exposed to give her complexion a flawless
appearance.