The beauty of the holidays…(besides the obvious) is that I have time to work on some creative and no-pressure projects (i.e. no one is paying me or taking a once in a lifetime step – so i don’t have to worry about screwing it up!). Today I brought over two gorgeous friends of mine, Beth and Erin, and set em loose in front of the camera – and look what they did:

Honestly – give these ladies minimal guidance, set up some lights like the SB 800 as the main light in the lastolite 15×15 softbox – and they created such astounding beauty. Erin is here playing in my curtains, backlit by the sun – frontlit with studiolights and Sepia done in post.

Here she is looking uber-tough – done with a SB800 gelled with full cut CTO – taped off to create some irregular shadows (off high camera left) and a SB 600 dialed down three stops from the main light set about 5 feet off camera right and shot into a gold reflector that is in front of her face. What I love about this shot is that she is clearly on the move, and the reflection in her glasses gives a sensation of urban life.

And Beth – sat her down on a rickety old porch chair in the freezing cold with some directional natural light filling in her face – evened it out using the softbox 45 degrees camera left and up high – and look at those eyes – gorgeous –

And Erin in fur…

And the pair. Too bad I made Erin look like Santa Claus here – but hey – she’s pulling it off.

our parting shots today – getting cozy – erin in her usual spot – curled up with a book – what I love about this shot is of course the lines, but also that you are spying in on her – capturing a fleeting moment of sun flowing in on a Sunday afternoon –

beth making coffee look sexy…she thought this should be a Sanka ad. Anyone out there remember Sanka? I don’t think it ever looked this good…