The first natural beauty model shoot I did on Monday (9am-11am) was of 13-year-old Mo... yes 13! In fact, she just turned 13 a week ago! She currently lives in Atlanta but is up modeling for VNY model agency in New York. Her mother accompanied her during the shoot. I knew she was young when I saw her-- she has beautiful skin, not a wrinkle to be found, but her personality was very mature. I thought she was 16 or 17, which is not unusual for beginning models. This is the youngest model I have photographed so far. She is tall (much taller than me) and extreme relaxed and confident.
** Please see previous post for images of Julia, another girl I photographed this Monday. I'll be posting the third model's photos (Giulia) this week or next.
This was not her first shoot, but one of her first in NY. As you might imagine, it becomes a bit more challenging to photograph such a young girl. I directed her poses and she did fine with that, but I always had to be sure that none of the images could be taken as sexual. Even now I was hoping there wasn't 'too much skin'.
Because this was a natural test, we didn't do hair, makeup or wardrobe. If you notice, she is wearing the same dress as Julia. It is a great dress-- $12 at Forever 21 in Times square, and it fit perfectly with the environment.
With this first image I placed her in the shade of a tree in Central Park near my apartment. The shade kept both me and the model cool, and created beautiful pattern of background behind the subject. This image was shot with the Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens. Joel was off to the right of the frame (beside me) using a silver reflector to bounce light back onto the model's face.
Its always great when doing portraits or fashion photography to try to get the subject to interact with their environment. In this image I had Mo climb up in the tree and pose pensively. The lighting was very spotty on her face, so I had Joel (my boyfriend and assistant on this shoot) use a large scrim called a "Sun Swatter" to diffuse the light on her face. The result is very soft and wrapping light that is gorgeous for this scene.
For this image I used my 'voyeur' or framing technique. Using the Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens, I put leaves a few inches in front of the camera. By shooting at aperture 1.4 these leaves go completely out of focus and instead just become colored textures is the foreground. This gives the impression that I am peaking through leaves to see this girl hiding in the forest. I used the silver reflector again but this time above her head only serving to block out all lighting hitting her face from above.
This image is much more of a portrait where you can get up close and person with her eyes and expression. Out of all the images I feel that this one is the most youthful. Here she was in the shade of the tree and a silver reflector was used just out of frame to the right of the photo. This bounced light back into the eyes and created the large circular catchlights in the eyes.
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