Personal work is great, it lets you break free and become a bit more creative than you might be when shooting an assignment. So when Chelsea agreed to this series of shots I was pretty happy! I had scouted this location beforehand and it worked out well for us, it’s quite a bit north of San Francisco but sometimes you need to go that far to escape the fog.
Chelsea was great to work with, she stood in that long grass for ages while we took a series of photographs. On the subject of the long grass, if you have visited before you might recall on an earlier post I said “I’ll still take the girl in the long grass shot as soon as I have a girl to shoot and some long grass to shoot her in!“, well there you go…I delivered on my promise!
I think this was my favourite spot at this location, the trees, the road, the sun all just came together for about 10 minutes and Chelsea just shone!
And then we did this…
I’m not going to explain the photographs. There’s a lot of different sources of inspiration for these photographs; a song by my favourite band ballboy, a photographer, a beard, desire for personal growth….there will be more in the future.
These few images took a lot of work, a lot of preparation and organization to set up and take but it was a lot of fun! Working with a team with a single goal was a great experience. Many thanks to our super talented makeup artist Melanie Paulina, if you need an extraordinary makeup artist in the San Francisco Bay area you can find her at www.melaniepaulina.com. I also have to thank Chelsea for being so amazing and free and open to my eccentricity!
That’s all for this post. I can’t end without thanking everyone that made these photographs possible.
Model: Chelsea Rose Gascon
Make Up Artist: Melanie Paulina
Photographer: Leo Coral
Fantastic guys…..my favorite —> the last one.
Thanks Will. Next time you have to come OK!?
Cheers
Paul
i know said you won’t explain the photographs, but can you explain the blue ribbon? just kidding. great work! look forward to seeing more from you.
Thanks Bitna.
The ribbon, umm it came with the flag. It was rented so I had to leave it intact!
Cheers
Paul
Crikey Paul, this is a lot different from the bridge in the fog! I absolutely love this set and your continued work with models in general. The sheer difference between locales and subject is awesome. I’m useless at photographing people, mainly because they don’t often interest my eye before I get behind the lens but I think your work is beginning to ignite something in me to get decent flashes and lenses and do it properly. Thank you for this!
Hi Rich
Back when I was shooting landscapes (that site is going to reappear soon) I would continuously talk about this “style” of photography I was interested in. I didn’t know what it was called (I still don’t) but I knew in my head what it looked like. Well, this is kind of it!
I can point you to some places I have found really helpful in learning lighting if you do get some flashes.
Cheers
Paul
I would have never guessed you used lights for these photos, you balanced ambient and flash really well!
Photo #4 is amazing. I’m such a sucker for lens flare. hahaha
John
That 7ft Octa is insane, it’s just so soft. Also I was shooting a lot “lighter” i.e I was purposely letting in more ambient than I normally do because I wanted a real contrast between the light and dark shots of this series.
Cheers
Paul
This is such a beautiful . It’s a pleasure to work with you, I’ve learn a great deal about what it takes to take a GREAT photograph and I will always be thankful.
My favorite would have to be between the last shot and the opener. It shows how crazy your ideas can be but very inspiring for sure…
Keep up the great work!
Lighting Diagrams pleeeaassse… Great work once again Paul! Did you use the trustee 24-70 for the shots?
Cheers
Mars
Mars
I knew you’d ask, I was waiting…. it’s at http://www.paulpratt.net/lighting/lighting-diagram-fourteen/.
The bedroom shots were either the 24-70L or the 17-40L depending on how wide I needed to go. When we shot in the trees/grass I mainly used the 24-70L but there are a couple where I used the 135L.
Cheers
Paul
Powerful picture. Very bold political statement. This Pic belongs on the cover of Rolling stone, or better yet Time. magazine. It is the condition of our country, battered and bruised , worked over .,almost dead But lady liberty is still breathing. And she is still beautiful perfect under the tattered flag . I thought it was very moving, evoked strong emotion from me . And as a gold star wife. I appreciate how it is Respectfully done .
Hello Paul,
Amazing photography! Nice to have found a really good blog again! No making-off-photo’s?
Hi Dennis
Thanks! I generally don’t have time to take many behind the scenes shots when I shoot and I don’t have a big crew of people with me either so I grab whatever I can to document the behind the scenes process. Usually I post a lighting diagram which in this instance can be seen at http://www.paulpratt.net/lighting/lighting-diagram-ten/
Thanks for visiting.
Paul