From Prague with love (Patreon)

Imagine standing on the Charles bridge in Prague. Probably one of the if not the most crowded places in Prague. Not even was it a Friday afternoon, but also valentines day. The most ideal place to snap a photo with your beloved one on this particular day would be the Charles bridge of course...

Standing there in the middle of the crowd was me, waiting... Waiting for my model who due to several complications that day was running late. We were supposed to do a shoot early in the morning when it was still quiet at the bridge. Unfortunately fate had decided otherwise and Sara was running late. At this point there were loads of tourists and locals visiting this historical bridge. I was standing in the freezing wind as it was only February when I got a message from Sara saying: "I'm here, I have parked my car. I only need to change before I can shoot. What should I wear?"

I replied: "The long black coat is of high importance to me to achieve the look that I want."

I got a text back: "What should I wear underneath? A skirt and a shirt or... any other ideas?"

I wasn't too concerned about what was underneath as the coat was really the most important thing to me. It was freezing after all so I figured she would be happy with keeping that on anyway. So I replied with: "yeah skirt and shirt will do."

I had asked her to put on a long black coat as I wanted to do something 90's fashion/ portrait look. The environment really was the perfect spot for that look after all. So I waited a little longer, trying to see if I could sport Sara in that heavy crowd that was slowly moving across the bridge. And all of a sudden she appeared out of that big mass of people. She stood out of the crowd so I immediately saw her and waved. She noticed me right away and approached me. We introduced ourselves, had a small conversation and then got to work.

We started shooting, but there were people walking by all the time, so every few seconds we had to wait and continue. I decided to move in closer and started shooting portraits so the people wouldn't be walking in our way anymore. But still I noticed Sara being distracted and feeling uncomfortable. So I suggested to go to a different spot and she happily agreed. The other spot was just underneath the Charles bridge by the water. It was less crowded so Sara could feel more at ease now. We shot a couple of shots but then it started to get more crowded there as well, so we moved to another spot. This was a little street that ended up at the square underneath the Charles bridge. I thought the lighting would be good there so I placed Sara where I wanted her and we took a couple more shots. Not knowing that there were loads of people constantly walking by from behind me... But we were like "Fuck it" let's continue.

I noticed Sara was still uncomfortable so I asked her what was wrong. She said to me that she had never done a shoot like this. So I asked what she meant by that, I thought she meant out in public and that she maybe was a bit shy or something. But her reply surprised me. She said: : No it's not the crowd, it's the clothes..." So I was a but stunned by her answer. And I told her I wanted her to be comfortable. Her eyes just sparkled when I said that and she said: "Really?! Should I takte it off?" And I laughed a bit and said: "Well... I always thought it would be cool to do a nude shoot in the streets with just a black coat on..." On which she answered: "Yeah that's why I asked what should wear... Shirt and skirt or... ANYTHING ELSE?". We both started laughing and I was like "Ok, let's do it!"

So Sara undressed in the middle of this super busy street. She wanted to go all the way but I had my concerns as it was very very cold and didn't want her to get hypothermia. And also because it was super busy with tourists walking around almost every second and didn't want to end up in jail. So she took her shirt and skirt off and started shooting again. This time I could tell she felt more at ease. All of a sudden her facial expressions became more determined, her poses became more bold and strong. I could tell she really was in her zone right now. I was still a bit nervous with all the people walking by but she literally didn't give a fuck.

My strategy now was that of a Russian sniper from WW2: location, location, location. We just kept changing locations after a couple of shots so that not too many people got suspicious. Here I share the first shots at the location where Sara decided to strip in the middle of the street. The other locations will follow soon!

For now please enjoy and catch you at the next one!