This blog post has a wintery feel about it, hence the post title, but the images are actually from a trip in June to Iceland with the rather amazing Lulu Lockhart and good friend and talented photographer Randall Hobbett.
The models I work with often have to endure varying levels of discomfort to get our images, for which I am eternally grateful and I try to show that gratitude at all times, to them personally and whenever I display our images anywhere.
Given what they put up with, usually completed naked, there is then quite a lot of pressure on me to get the shots, which can be quite difficult as I often have to be quick, change composition as the model changes poses, take account of any changes in the light, and also look out for members of the public.
For the first three images, I was standing in the water as well, socks and shoes off and trouser bottoms zipped off at the knees. I was absolutely frozen, so I can’t imagine what it was like for her. We spent quite a lot of time planning the shot, far more than the shooting time, seeing where she could stand or sit, and taking test shots for composition and exposure. The more preparation we do the shorter time she is subjected to discomfort, I also usually shoot wider than needed as it’s quite easy to get wonky horizons as you are trying to protect the camera from the waves, and you lose a bit when you correct this.
The first two images are very similar, but I love the waves and reflection in the first one, whereas the second one looks great with all the water lapping round the mini-icebergs. I don’t often edit more than one image in a set, but with Lulu going above and beyond to get these images I think more of them deserve to be shown.
Lulu looks so serene here, I cannot imagine how she does this while sitting on a huge lump of freezing ice.
For the next shots my job was to wade out to check the depth of water and stability of the mini-iceberg she would sit on and lean against. Again I can tell you it was mind chillingly cold for me, yet she not only endures it he pulls off beautiful poses and expressions. Th reflection of the water on her torso also makes nice patterns, which is a good job as they would be a pig to remove in PhotoShop :)
And I quite like this one giving a view of the glacier in the background.
On the advice of friend who is a guide in Iceland I would like to point out that the beaches and glacier lagoons in Iceland are very dangerous, and tourists get injured there or worse every year. Lulu and I are very experienced in working together, and at working on location in potentially hazardous areas. In all of these images we kept very close to the shore, and I checked the stability of the ice and depth of water beforehand. While some of our images look spectacular and dangerous we would not do any that we thought unsafe, and indeed walk away from many shots for this reason.
I love this set of images, plus the many more we got on our Iceland adventure. Thank you Lulu for all you go through to get our images, I’m fortunate in that I’m pretty sure that she knows how grateful I really am. I will also have to research other goddesses as fortunately our other shoots are in warmer climes, and you can’t be human posing in these conditions :)
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