She's an Irish dancer who competed in the national championship, broke a bone in her foot, then had a try-out for Riverdance 3 weeks later. She didn't want to cancel, so she went over to Ireland and did well, but on the broken foot, she didn't do as well as she'd hoped, and didn't make the cut.
We shot this portrait about 2 days after she got back home, and although she's a trooper, I could tell she was a little sad - it had been her dream since she was a little girl to dance professionally, and she told me she believed that was over now.
She took textile design in college and is also an emerging designer - and her stuff is awesome - but here she's just wearing a piece of fabric my wife found at a fabric store in the bargain pile.
Steph is in her 20s, and since this is a more recent portrait, I was feeling more confident that the results would work, so we took it a bit more risqué than the other very conservative portraits.
Just fantastic! Only thing I'm not sure about in the pose is the near hand, maybe it could have been in better position but I'm no posing expert and this is just nit-picking.
What lighting gear are you using if you don't mind?
It seems to me, that for this series, some facial features lend themselves better
than others. This one, for instance, combines with your style to be one of the best
of them.
Well posed and composed, a stunner!
A beautiful, classic portrait. The expressive look in her eyes is haunting, so I can see the disappointment you mention. On a technical level, the posing, exposure and lighting are just perfect. You did a wonderful job, so I hope this young woman can achieve some solace to comfort her.
falconbach wrote:
Just fantastic! Only thing I'm not sure about in the pose is the near hand, maybe it could have been in better position but I'm no posing expert and this is just nit-picking.
What lighting gear are you using if you don't mind?
Just bog-standard elinchrom lights with a large soft box modifier.
You're intuition to be uncertain about the hand is well founded. It's placement breaks a number of conventional rules for portrait photography.
That said, I am quite happy with my belief that in this case, breaking the rules was the right choice. I think the hand adds a LOT to this image, and believe it would not be as strong without it. I do, however, reserve the right to be completely wrong.
