Nude, Seated on Rustic Table

Simple nude study with indirect window light on a rustic table.

Scan and cropped from a 4×5 Ilford HP5+ Negative.  Developed in Kodak D76 resulting in a beautiful, creamy, nearly non-existent grain.

Model: Caitie Marie
©2016 scott nichol
no unauthorized use without signed parental release form

How Much Longer

I’ve always loved the idea of shooting from above and when I had the chance to shoot in a large studio space with a custom built table like this, I needed to make this happen.  From a technical standpoint, it was a bit complex to set up and execute.  The camera was mounted to a boom stand with a 15 foot USB cable tethering the camera for remote shooting.  And it was surreal to see the live view from the camera displayed on my laptop screen, working mostly with my back to the model.  The other novelty of the setup was that the model could see herself on the laptop screen as well, so she could form her pose and see in real-time what it would look.  The connection between model and photographer is always crucial to creating a compelling piece of artwork and while this certainly created a much different connection, I think the result can speak for itself.

Model: Caitie Marie
©2016 scott nichol
all rights to this are held by me.  hands off unless I say so.

New 55 Film – Round 2

I’m finally getting back to shooting a bit more and had an afternoon scheduled with an art model yesterday.  I wanted desperately to give my stock of New 55 Film another chance after I’d disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled my film holder.  The results I got were much better and far more promising than my earlier experiments, though getting everything to work properly wasn’t without challenges.  I was able to get one sheet into the film holder, get the sleeve pulled off to expose the film, and make an exposure.  The problems came when I tried to shoot another frame and couldn’t get the sleeve to release inside the film holder, thus making an exposure impossible.  This is not the fault of the film itself, more likely a problem with my film holder not grabbing the clip at the end of the envelope.

Ultimately, the result I got was very promising, but I think I might have fogged or solarized the film a little bit because I didn’t protect the negative properly when transferring to the fixer (I pulled the negative off the backing paper, thus exposing the unfixed negative.  The image is really sharp, especially considering it was a 1/2 second exposure.

Model: Caitie Marie
©2016 scott nichol
all rights reserved

Jen – Rossland, BC

Geeze, another color piece. From Canada? Who would have thunk it? I guess this is what happens when you go through you work and find some old, hidden gems.

On some mornings, those of us who were brave enough got up before the first light of dawn and kindly asked our models to dip into the cold waters of the lake at Nancy Greene Provincial Park.  The results were normally nothing short of spectacular.  Almost all of my fellow photographers tended to work in black and white (either with film or just converting from digital).  But this one stuck out to me as potentially very powerful in color.  So that’s how I chose to work it.

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

enjoy,
scott

©2016 scott nichol
an army of flying monkeys awaits any unauthorized usage!

Rhus – Ferns, Rossland

The post holiday break has given me a chance to revisit some of my old work.  There’s a lot there thats been passed over in favor of the one or two I thought were perfect when I first looked through them.  But there are some that might be less than perfect (slightly soft focus in this case), that still hold some passion or emotion that shouldn’t be over looked.  Add to that the fact that I normally don’t work in color, but I thought that the greens here were just spectacular that it deserved a peek for the people who like my work.

Consider it something different for the year’s end.

These are from a trip I took to my friend Michael’s place in Rossland, BC in Canada back in (gulp, i feel old now) 2010.  Thanks to Michael and all my friends in Canada for such a consistently wonderful time.

Rhus - Ferns, Rossland
Rhus – Ferns, Rossland

Enjoy!
scott

©2016 scott nichol
all the rights reserved.

Keira Grant – Pabatco Hodaka

There are a lot of things that I like about this photo.  The graceful model, that interesting sign that I knew nothing about when I saw the side of the building, and the light is soft and light.  There’s real meaningful contrast between the model and the background.  It all comes together to form the kind of strong image that I love to create.  And they kinda create themselves.

But if there’s one thing I’ve come to remember about large format photography, it’s that a field camera is a cruel mistress.  The flexibility of having so many planes able to tilt and shit can undo a great photograph.  And having been away from this beast for a bit too long, I didn’t bother to check the alignment of film plane against the lens plane.  Something is out of alignment and the Keira’s feet are just slightly out of focus when compared to her face (which is where I’d focused on the ground glass).

And just in case you’re wondering, Hodaka is an old Japanese made trail motorcycle from the 1970s distributed by the Pacific Basin Trading Company, or simply Pabatco.  There’s always something to learn.

Model: Keira Grant
©2016 scott nichol
All rights right where they belong, with me.
So, that means you can’t use this image for anything unless I say so.

Torso Study

I haven’t had a chance to work with the new Fuji camera with my studio lights yet.  And given my setup at home, there’s very limited space, so we pushed the dining room table out of the way and set up a single small soft box with a grid.  The grid tends to give the soft light a bit more contrast and punch and is great for sculpting dimensional shadows.

Model: Auris
©2016 scott nichol
Unauthorized use not permitted, just don’t do it