Eowyn and the bridge (Patreon)

When I shoot on location, I have an acute awareness about two things:

• Light is unmovable
• Location is unmovable

These factors mean that the only freedom I have is where I shoot from and in which direction, and where I place the model.

When shooting this with Eowyn Luna, we had just passed the bridge, and there were 3-4 other cars parked at the overpass.

I liked the waterfall, but it was impossible to shoot with good light on the model on the bridge's other side. So we went down to the outflow of the stream.

Since the bridge is relatively tall, all the light was coming down from above, so placing the model in a way where the light would hit her from the side was the obvious choice.

I realized that I couldn't use the waterfall as the background became very noisy and did not provide adequate separation between model and environment.

So I went for an approach where I used the bridge as framing and a very narrow depth of field to blur the background. This approach also meant I had to stand in the middle of the stream - and you can sort of see on the last behind the scenes picture.

And this nicely sums up how I go about locations outdoor:

I look for places with an exciting background, ideally in a place where light is directional, by way of a rock, trees, or structure. 

Then I start out placing the model in a way that works with the light - and from there on, I freestyle.