Pia - Photo Session V

My fifth photo session with Pia was as fun as the others. She is so easy-going and patient, two important prerequisites for a good session.
We had agreed to meet in front of the opera house, which I thought would serve as a nice backdrop to some of the pictures. As a matter of fact, I had made a list of pictures that I had visualized beforehand and I wanted to try to make these visions into reality.
Some of them worked, though they didn’t quite meet my expectations on account of lacking props or time. It takes time to set up a picture so that it comes out exactly as you had planned.
Other pictures, however, came out even better than planned because I wasn’t aware of some of the treasures that our location was hiding.
And another set of pictures were a result of spontaneous inventions based on the circumstances. You have to stay open to improvisation!

This is my favorite picture from the shooting. I was standing a few feet above her in order to use the beautiful grass checkerboard as a background. She willingly hopped up onto the railing and sat still for me. When I look at this picture, my vertigo kicks in!
 

While we’re at the checkerboard, I’ll show you a short film we made of her using the stop-motion film technique as she danced from square to square. The camera was on a tripod and I released the shutter each time she moved to a new square. The music here is by the one and only Sonya Kitchell.
 

 
Then she and I exchanged places and she moved up near the door of the back of the Neues Schloß. I had wanted to take a picture of her looking into her little make-up mirror. Reflections provide an entirely new range of possibilities in photography. This is one of the pictures that came out better than expected on account of the appearance of the beautiful evening sun (it was around 8 p.m. a week after the longest day of the year). I especially like the way the reflection in the mirror completes the arc of her head.

We used the reflections in her sunglasses while at the front of the opera house.

 Back in front of the opera house, I focused on her profile and had the columns in the background provide the contrast to her contours.  

This picture was fun to process. When you are making pictures, you are supposed to ask yourself who your client is. What magazine are you (supposedly) taking the pictures for? I wanted to do a sassy commercial shot for Apple, highlighting their iPhone. I knew Pia had one, so I placed her on the steps of the opera house and had her bend over in an “in your face” pose.

Before we ended our two hour session, we took advantage of the last rays of sun that poured over the Börse. A bit of fill flash finished off this session. 
It is always good to have a list of shots you want to take beforehand, but you should also stay open to the moment.