Winter Wonderland

On Sunday December 30th, I spent the afternoon in Brazil, Indiana with Lillian Grey. She is a model that I have worked with many times over the last year or so, and we have a great working relationship together.

For me, the working relationship is just as important as the shoot itself. Lillian's husband Joe was with us on the shoot. He helped me set up and tear down my studio stuff, and is a great guy to be around. In fact most of the shoot was done in a historic second story studio that Lillian and Joe are working on.

The highlight of the day, however, was shooting in the snow!! We are on our second year without a major snowfall where I am at in Illinois. There are a couple of inches on the ground right now, with grass poking up through the snow and bare in some spots. Not really beautiful winter weather. A few days before this shoot it dumped about a foot of snow in east-central Indiana and parts of Illinois just south of here. So I knew I would have to drive a bit to get some nice snow photos.

Driving to Brazil was an amazing transformation. As I drove further east and south of my home the snow started piling up. The hills in Indiana, with snow covered tree trunks, snow drifts and frozen rivers were just amazing to look at through the filtered light of the afternoon sun.

Lillian was going to wear this beautiful white wedding gown. I knew that white on white was going to be a challenge. We waited until about a half hour before sunset to make the images, so the dynamic range of the dress and snow would work out without blowing out the highlights.

It was a balmy 35 degrees during the day, but the temperatures fell and the wind chill became wicked cold by the time we started shooting. Lillian of course was a true professional, and she handled the shoot with amazing grace, poise and focus. We spent only about 20 minutes on this shoot before the cold and the setting sun took away all the available light. It was quick but so worth it!

The shoot was a success, and we both spent about a half hour in front of the heater to warm up but it was worth it! If you would like to see more photos from this shoot, follow this link to my Facebook Fan page. If you like what you see, click the "like" button and get automatic updates to your Facebook feed as I add photos to my site.

I am open for bookings to schedule fun and creative portrait work. I love working with new people especially in locations I haven't photographed. Just send me a message if  you are interested.

Take care, and enjoy the new year!!!