My Sunday series on outdoor portraiture continues today with a portrait of Mia. She is a lovely model who I was lucky enough to photograph at one of the group model shoots that were hosted by Dawn and John Clifford in Northern Colorado.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
We didn’t know it at the time but Dickens was right. It was the best of times because of the generosity and kindness of John and Dawn Clifford who, for many years, hosted a series of group model shoots where they opened wide the doors to their home and property under the auspices of the Colorado Artists, Models and Photographers group. They did it two or three times a year and they did it for free out of the goodness of their hearts. There was no charge to the photographers or models and it was always a fun day.
It was the worst of time because these shoots are no more. Yet it was during several of these shoots that I first met and photographed Tia Stoneman. I think, it was also the place where I first met and photographed Kellie Alexander, oh she of the controversial magazine shoot. It may have even been during one of these CAMP shoots that I met Ashley Rae, Brenda—her twin sister Farrin— and Y’amie. I could go on and on… But it is also the place where I met a few models who I only photographed one time, such as the featured model, Mia.
How I Made this Photograph: Unlike other group model shoots that I attended and paid to do so, I seem to have made fewer images of models at these CAMP shoots. According to my hard drive, I only made twelve exposures during this session with Mia. I checked my archives which has backup CDs and DVDs of every model shoot I’ve ever done, or at ;east so I thought. It turned out—and I’m still checking—that none of the images of any of the models I photographed from that particular day’s shoot are in my archives. I plan to keep looking, however
The camera I used to photograph Mia in the Clifford’s back yard was a five-megapixel Olympus E-1 that was the first interchangeable lens DSLR the company introduced for their Four-Thirds system. The camera use the legendary Kodak KAF-5101C CCD sensor in the standard 13×17.3mm Four Thirds size, which is also the size now used by Micro Four-thirds cameras. The lens was an Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital (at 54mm or 108mm equivalent.) The exposure was 1/100 sec and f/6.3 and ISO 200. An Olympus F40 speedlight was used as fill, but I think I overdid it somewhat and tried to mitigate it somewhat in post-production using Vivenza.
I never got to photograph Mia again but I sure what like to have anther chance to make some new images of her, knowing what I know now, with this sweet woman.