Lauren and I have just returned from a little Easter break at her late grandparents’ place in Normandy. My inherited French family is a smorgasbord of passion, humour, wit and character and they all make for great photographic subjects.
The family house, known as Bois Remy, is a beautiful Normandy cottage set in lush green countryside near Nogent. Its location truly sets it apart from other homes in the region. But not only is location key for a house, but it’s key for photography too.
Whether you choose to shoot a portrait in a white studio, on top of a windy hill, or on a beach, the location clearly marks the photograph in almost as important a way as the subject. Whenever I visit Bois Remy, my mind races with ideas for photographs; it’s just one of those amazingly inspiring places.
So, with this combination of great portraiture subjects and a great location, I set about creating some new portraits of my family. On one of our previous visits, I shot this sequence of images in the garden. It was a simple setup: one chair and a flash with a shoot-through brolly. Each picture took about 20 seconds.
Easy peasy. However, on this most recent sojourn I decided to repeat the exercise, sans chair. I came across this old set of shelves in one of the many rooms:
Now it’s worth mentioning that among Lauren’s relatives is a chap called Jean-Paul. Every photographer needs a Jean-Paul. Why? Well, he’s an ex-pap! And with that, he brings a wealth of anecdotes, tips and techniques (in fact, he’s still shooting – his main client is the Dutch royal family). I showed him the shelves and told him my idea (which was to place it in the garden) and after a little walking around the house, we came across a patch of tall green bamboo growing in the woods. “How about you shoot it in here? Make the shelves look totally out of place in this jungle-like setting?” Bingo!
So, we hacked away nettles and brambles to clear a pathway to the bamboo and set up the shelves. Then Lauren chipped in with, “And shoot it from this angle so you can see the shelves’ structure better” Great! And following my little chat with Noah Kalina (he nudged me towards using as few lights as I could get away with), I decided to shoot this with one flash. The sunlight coming through the bamboo gave me enough ambient and backlight anyway. Nice.
In the evening, as the sun was setting, we moved the shelves to the garden for a few more, just to see if my original idea would’ve worked out. Lola was itching to be my subject, and we caught this one:
Again, one light (bare, this time) with the sun giving me my ambient. It’s definitely harder shooting at sunset because the ambient is dipping rapidly, but Lola was a fast mover and never tired.
I just wish I could go back tomorrow; I’ve got my eye on the massive garage at Bois Remy – it would make an awesome outdoor/indoor studio space..