Britni, Part II: Meadows (18+)

Nikolai

The entire shoot happened as a chain of coincidences.

I rarely go to SB, and I wouldn't this day, if it were not for David TO who kindly invited me to spend some time Saturday afternoon with him shooting wild flowers on Mt. Figueroa.
Since our shoot was only gonna start at 1pm, I thought that I'd better get me some local model and spend the morning shooting the nice scenery rather than suffering noon traffic on 101.

Anyway, this is where it all started... We were looking for the hot springs, but took a wrong turn on an unmarked trail (duh - later I couldn't beleive that we missed the sulfuric smelling stream coming from another direction) and ended up in an huge meadowy hill slope with tall grasses (in some places more than 6ft tall), covered with a lovely morning mist that was just about to lift up and was already letting some morning sun into our scene. When I saw this magnificently lit natural stage I simply told my model "We'll deal with the hot springs later. Now, take it off and go walk this field for me". And we got this:

#1: Misty Meadows



#2: A girl in the grass



#3: Tranquillity



#4: Joy



5D3 + 70-200/2.8 IS

Funny story: she never shot nude before. Yet we ended up shooting mostly nude primarily at her requests. And this is what she wrote me the next day:

"I had such a great experience with you! I told [my bf] yesterday now I never want clothes on, it was just way more natural and clothes feel weird now:-)!"

This post was made with the assistance of Star*Explorer

CoreyD

Love these, and especially the story! Fun to get lost some times! (see my signature)

Nikolai

CoreyD wrote: »

Love these, and especially the story! Fun to get lost some times! (see my signature)

Thanks Corey!
Well, that's how we discover fabulous new places. Hey, I remember an entire continent was discovered by mistake, like the guy's navigational gizmo broke down or something... The Portugese fella, was looking for an alternative route to India... Textbook story... What was the name of that continent?

Dick on Aruba

Awesome! The 2nd is an absolute framer for me.

Nikolai

Dick on Aruba wrote: »

Awesome! The 2nd is an absolute framer for me.

If you don't mind my asking, what's yuor rationale behind your assessment? Why #2 and, say, not #3? Just trying to learn from my mistakes, you know :-)

novicesnapper

Haha, I think #2 also. The DOF is so right on, the foreground is a beautiful blur, and the BG is bluured/ bokeh'd nicely. She looks like she is really enjoying this. #3, the yellow flowers behind her are rather distracting to me, on the left to us. I'm torn on #1 for cropping, but the field presentation is so nice, that honestly it's toss up lol. Maybe crop out the flower on the far left, just to tighten the scene on her? Lol, it's nice to learn from some really awesome photogs here. Some of my best shots are spur of the moment shots. Nice series, thanks.

Nikolai

novicesnapper wrote: »

Haha, I think #2 also. The DOF is so right on, the foreground is a beautiful blur, and the BG is bluured/ bokeh'd nicely. She looks like she is really enjoying this. #3, the yellow flowers behind her are rather distracting to me, on the left to us. I'm torn on #1 for cropping, but the field presentation is so nice, that honestly it's toss up lol. Maybe crop out the flower on the far left, just to tighten the scene on her? Lol, it's nice to learn from some really awesome photogs here. Some of my best shots are spur of the moment shots. Nice series, thanks.

Thank you for stopping by and for the detailed feedback, appreciate it!

Dick on Aruba

Nikolai wrote: »

If you don't mind my asking, what's yuor rationale behind your assessment? Why #2 and, say, not #3? Just trying to learn from my mistakes, you know :-)

The others are certainly no mistake! My personal choice of "a favorite" is mainly based on taste.

Here under my personal reasons why #2 and not 1, 3 or 4:

#1: Here I'm distracted by the yellow flowers on the far left. If you crop them out you will notice a whole other picture.

#3: Her ribs poking out. That gives me an uncomfortable feeling and makes it a focus point of the picture.

#4: I assumed that you try to create a sense of "lightness / weightlessness" or light dancing. I see no room where she can be / do or feel that way. She's doing her thing while there is no space to do so.

#2: Here I can enjoy her beautiful face, lips and body. She looks very comfortable with herself and in peace with her surroundings. This is certainly a picture to hang in a study room or in a bedroom.

Nikolai

Dick on Aruba wrote: »

The others are certainly no mistake! My personal choice of "a favorite" is mainly based on taste.

Here under my personal reasons why #2 and not 1, 3 or 4:

#1: Here I'm distracted by the yellow flowers on the far left. If you crop them out you will notice a whole other picture.

#3: Her ribs poking out. That gives me an uncomfortable feeling and makes it a focus point of the picture.

#4: I assumed that you try to create a sense of "lightness / weightlessness" or light dancing. I see no room where she can be / do or feel that way. She's doing her thing while there is no space to do so.

#2: Here I can enjoy her beautiful face, lips and body. She looks very comfortable with herself and in peace with her surroundings. This is certainly a picture to hang in a study room or in a bedroom.

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback, really appreciate your time....

Nikolai

So, I take it that the most critique was originated by the fact that the meadows pano had a visual stopper, and the "joy" image had no room to enjoy, so to speak...

How about these versions? Better/worse/same/who cares?

#1: Walking the meadows (infinity crop)



#2: Joy



This post was made with the assistance of Star*Explorer

Dick on Aruba

Nikolai wrote: »

So, I take it that the most critique was originated by the fact that the meadows pano had a visual stopper, and the "joy" image had no room to enjoy, so to speak...

How about these versions? Better/worse/same/who cares?

#1: Walking the meadows (infinity crop)

...

#2: Joy

...

This post was made with the assistance of Star*Explorer

Personally I find these much better but I think that it is more important what you think.

Good job Nikolai!

BrettDeutsch

The second version of #1 is my favorite of the mix. It has a beautiful, unposed naturalness to it. It's a beautiful landscape with a dreamlike image in it.

Nikolai

Thank you Dick and Brett!

eoren1

Glad to see the reworked 1st image. Had the same thoughts and it really pulls together nicely after the edit.

Nikolai

eoren1 wrote: »

Glad to see the reworked 1st image. Had the same thoughts and it really pulls together nicely after the edit.

Thanks Eyal!