These girls were flat out AMAZING. They were intense, emotive, beautiful...just amazing. They just turned 8 and are identical! They almost had a yin/yang thing going on - Zelda was very fierce and struck me as the protective sister, and Zoe seemed to be the more submissive, vulnerable sister. They were both very sweet and so fun to work with! Both girls are also autistic. I knew about this beforehand and was admittedly a bit worried about how things would go, but they were a dream. I shot this session in both Jerome and Sedona. Everything here is natural light and shot with both my 200L and 85L primes.
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8a A little sun flare and silliness...
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9a - Miss Zelda. I wanted to be sure to photograph them separately too.
9b - and Zoe...
10 - Just an environmental shot to show where we were at because it was so beautiful!
Lisa, you gave the parents of the girls fantastic photos that do not, in any way, illustrate their autism. While it is something that the parents clearly carry with them everyday, it must be a pleasure for them to see their lovely daughters captured as "normal" kids (whatever that implies). Thank you for sharing the work and the back story; I love seeing your photos.
Nice! Really appreciate the autistic girls, like Rich mentioned, no sense of it at all. Their parents are going to cherish it. I appreciate the environmental shot, too. Helps us see how you shoot. Also love 11 and 16! Great job, as always.
You are amazing! I can tell by the facial expressions which one is the protector and which is being protected. You tell the story without words. Just beautiful images.
I saw the red heads on Facebook. They're all terrific, but number 7 is truly amazing, everything about it. Lisa, for the life of me I don't know why you'd bother with the 135 given the tools you have and what you make with them now.
Thank you! @Sharona, I didn't end up buying it. I think I had a case of 'money burning a hole in my pocket' but I squelched it and put it away for a rainy day instead. I don't think the 135 could compare to the 200 in my eyes anyways.
Great images, as always, Lisa. I've had one occasion to photograph the staff of a center that works with autistic kids and their families. During that assignment, they asked me to get a few shots of some of the kids playing. I'm curious to know how you were able to maintain eye contact with the girls. I found that to be a very difficult aspect of photographing them.
Was going to ask about the lighting setup as it looked like natural lighting, re-read your post at top and confirmed.
For 8a and 8b, the aperture had to be opened pretty wide for the sun to diffuse so softly. How did you maintain the background exposure without blowing it out?
And #16, where did you get that beautiful rim light in her hair as the sun seemed to already set into the horizon?
