Monochrome Falls with Tricia (Patreon)

Every once in a while a shoot changes direction before you even press the shutter.

When Tricia and I got to this waterfall, the sky was filled with smoke from the wildfires. Normally I'd be excited to photograph a location like this in color, but the haze completely flattened the light. There wasn't much separation, and everything felt muted.

Rather than fighting it in post, I decided to embrace it.

Converting the entire set to black and white completely changed the mood. The contrast between the dark rock walls, the flowing water, and the delicate details of Tricia's lingerie created something that felt far more timeless than the original scene. It almost reminds me of old medium-format fine art prints where texture matters just as much as the subject.

One thing I loved about this session was letting the location dictate the posing. Instead of treating the waterfall as just a backdrop, we used the rocks, shallow water, and different elevations to make every frame feel unique. As the shoot went on, the images became less about the lingerie and more about the atmosphere surrounding it.

Sometimes the best photographs happen when the conditions aren't ideal—you stop chasing the image you planned and start making the image that's actually in front of you.