Ashlee

Ashlee and I have worked together before and she is a joy to work with. This was no exception. She had been wanting to update her images but had been carrying a busy schedule and not able to book a session. Finally, she had a clearing in her schedule, and contacted me the evening before, to shoot. We both had a small window in the afternoon so we scheduled a shoot in a near by park. We wanted to capture a loose outdoor feel for her shots. I knew of an area with high grass that would make a great location for her images but it was a little bit of a hike. Between our window of opportunity and also coordinating hair and makeup last minute, we found ourselves chasing daylight. The sun was low on the horizon and I knew we would never make it to the area I had intended for the shoot to get the results that I wanted. Ashlee being gracious said not to worry we can reschedule for another time. I agreed but why let this go to waste. Lets shoot! So we did. These images were taken on the side of the road on Parker St. in Orange. They were shot with the Canon 5D at 400 ASA f2.8 @ 1/30, hand held. The top image was one of the first frames shot. That warm edge of sunlight on her cheek was only there for a moment. That was the last kiss of sunlight before it was gone.

At this point, it was literally getting darker by the minute. I turned Ashlee around in the second image and got her out from under the trees to get more light on her. I was already shooting wide open and at 1/30 of a second hand held. I didn't want to shift my ASA any more because I didn't want to pick up anymore noise. With my Sekonic hand held light meter I moved out toward the street until I got my exposure back to 1/30. With the sun behind her and below the horizon, we got a really nice wrap around light and because the light still had direction, it gave her hair separation from that background. Placing Ashlee in front of the treeline gave me a nice edge in the shine of her hair. If she was placed with sky behind her, that highlight would've bled right into the sky. We shot until it was too dark and we couldn't take the mosquito attacks anymore, which didn't take long. It was a short and fun shoot and we were happy with the results.

Ashlee is great to work with and if you're interested in working with her you can contact her via:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/ashleenicolem