Sekaa at the movie farm (Patreon)

I was teaching at the Palm Springs Photofestival almost precisely two years ago. The location we were at was the former home, a farm of a notorious hoarder who had been collecting all sorts of items for over 70 years. They call it the movie farm.

It was 11 am and the sun almost directly above, so not ideal for model photos. One of my students was having difficulty finding a calm background and pleasing light and asked for advice. 

In this particular background, I agreed that that would be challenging indeed unless some clouds would appear out of the clear blue sky. 

So I suggested she'd make a virtue out of the disorder and use the shadows as abstraction instead. 

One person's obstacle can be another's solution.

So I picked out my iPhone and shot the mini-series you see above as an illustration.

In color, it is too messy indeed, but converted to monochrome (I think I used the iPhone's "noir" filter), it begins to look like art straight out of the phone.

Later I regretted I didn't use my camera to shoot this set as I think something unique could have come off it.