I seldom perform “model” shoots anymore, just because I am so busy shooting for clients and my other personal projects. I had photographed Micha Young for a client a few years ago and always wanted to work with her again, but the opportunity never came back up. We are Facebook friends and over the past couple of years I figured out she was a great mother and wife, and also a great person to work with. Micha came from a small Oklahoma town and had only 14 people in her high school graduating class. Later she went on to serve in the Army, then marriage and kids. I had been wanting to shoot my 4×5 film camera in studio so I invited Micha in for a free shoot. She brought along friends for makeup and hair and wardrobe – good thing, because I have the fashion sense of a frog.
We started out shooting in my friend and fellow photographer Scott Laske’s studio, then moved outdoors and on up to Guthrie, spending the day just having fun with cameras. I shot digital as well as film, both my Pentax 6×7 and my Toyo VRX-125 studio view camera.
Micha has nearly perfect skin so I knew I could easily use hard lighting with her. I like shooting with hard lights. It allows me to shape the face and create hard shadows and striking features. Often women are photographed with nice soft lighting to blend in the skin, take away wrinkles, and create a soft, airy feel. I wanted a more dramatic look with old style Hollywood lighting and I knew Micha’s features and skin could hold up to the task. These images are basically unretouched – just Micha, the way she is.
First up, here are a few black and white digital images from our day. I will post some digital color images and film images a bit later.
Leave a Reply