Senka is the sister of a good friend of mine (a friend who I've also shot in the past). Currently, she lives in Switzerland. However, she was visiting her family stateside and asked that I take some portraits of her to gift to her boyfriend and family (I'll let you decide which photos were for whom). She said she wanted to capture a feeling of the South in her images...


My first option--there was a beautifully run down house near where I used to live. Unfortunately, I couldn't get permission to shoot there. Then I tried to get permission to shoot at another location, but that fell through. So, I went driving...


While driving around I found a wonderfully junk-filled property. I stopped, explained to the owner what I was doing, and asked for permission to use his property. I was lucky--this man was friendly, kind, and generous with his property (as well as his time). He not only agreed to loan out his property, he told us to use whatever we needed (including electricity to power my studio strobes). And, on top of that, he even held a reflector (to block on the sun) during one part of the shoot. I cannot impress upon you how awesome this guy was. After it was all said and done, my favorites didn't really emphasize the interesting location--but that's alright.


Ok, on to the shoot. Senka brought two changes of clothes. We used all sorts of lights at one time or another, including a 580EX, a Vivitar 285HV, a White Lightning Ultrazap 1600, and a White Lightning x2400 (as a mainlight throughout the evening). We also used a reflector (to block out sunlight) as well as occasionally a CTO gel (for rim light). As much work as it was, it was equally that much fun. My favorites from the shoot are below. Strobist info for these shots can be found by clicking through to the source on Flickr.