Here Comes the Rain …
In May 2011 I was set to do a couple of glamour sessions in an old abandoned winery west of Sydney. One would be of my wife Belle, and the other was work colleague and friend Janine who had engaged me to shoot a set of glamour/boudoir photos.
I’d already shot a couple of times at the winery, so it was a bit of a shock to get there and find that it was being restored/converted, and there was absolutely no way we could get in. A quick call to Janine to stop her from driving all the way down, and Belle and I started driving all over Western Sydney trying to find somewhere decent to do the shoots.
First potential was in the industrial area just south of Penrith, NSW, where we tried some basic portrait shots to see how the environment would work for us. Nice enough, but not really the slightly grungy look we’d been planning to offset the femininity of the glamour.
Then one of us hit on the idea of shooting at the Lennox Bridge, the oldest bridge on mainland Australia, second oldest in the country, and very handily just a couple of kilometres from home!
We tried a few shots up on the bridge itself …
Before heading down under the bridge to see what we could do …
and then the real fun began …
Janine had given me an idea of something she wanted to try, based in the original winery location: being photographed as if she was in the rain. To achieve this I had brought along a watering can and a large water carrier with about 40 litres of warm water. This was something I hadn’t done before, so testing it out was crucial to ensure that it would work when she arrived, and Belle was super enthusiastic to give it a try.
I set Belle up in position under the bridge, tripod-mounted camera in front of her, and put a flash on a stand just out of frame, aimed back up to the top of the bridge, and connected it all together with remote triggers.
From the deck of the bridge, about 15 metres/50 feet above, I “casually” poured a couple of cans worth of water over her head, all the while banging away on the remote as fast as I could. I had no idea was I was getting on camera, trusting that Belle was looking to camera, and yelling basic modelling instructions down to where she was (though she really didn’t need them)`.
And I don’t think we did too badly!
Despite the water being warmed, by the time it had reached Belle it was fairly cool, so she did well to keep a happy face on, and to keep having fun with the session.
Possibly my most favourite image from the session is this one.
Called “Rain Girl”, it was entered into the 2011 International Loupe Awards, missing a Bronze award by only one point.
Cheers,
I totally love this last pic and the very first you shared… what a hotty!
Great work guys.
xxx
Sandra