“Honey, I have an idea. Put her on the piano. Laying down on the top. Have her drape her arm down the side, towards the keys. Have her bend her knee, so her tattoo is clearly in view. then, have her hair cascade down. Do you think it will work?” ~Angie
It wasn’t hard for me to see where Angie was going with it. The discussion was really what to have Kaela wear. We started with a little black baby doll thing we had in our lingerie collection for boudoir clients, which really didn’t flatter her. I said “What else you got?” Kaela made a face and said “not much”. We decided on a sheer nightshirt that we had, to go with bra and panties she brought with her.
We had her climb up on the piano, and it was clear that the backdrop was going to be needed if I was to stick with the low key lighting vision in my head. There was far too much light in the room, and the room was too small for me to just close up the aperture and stop down the f-stop, there would be too much light pollution. So, we wrapped up Kaela in something warm and set up the backdrop.
We tried a couple other poses before getting to Angie’s original idea, and, clearly, that was the way to pose her. So we got the shot, and we tried a few more poses as well. We really didn’t review the images right off, we went on to another shoot, with another client, who was just about finished in make up.
After a few hours, we all had a chance to review the images. To say we were all stunned is an understatement. My team had delivered a killer shot. Kiera supplied the make up, Angie’s had the vision, and Kaela was brave enough to pose in something that, just two weeks prior, she would not have wanted me to see her in. (An aside: one of my first clients was a friend as well. Her logic was that “I wear less on the beach than this. This is no big deal.”) All I had to do was press the shutter.
Days later, I am editing the picture, just before my daughter came up with the Angel of Music title. I am raving about how nice it is. Texting back and forth with Kaela, and I am gushing how nice it is. I ask her if she’s thinks it would be weird if I put on the wall in my home office. She says she’d be honored. It arrived today, 20x30, and it is gorgeous.
I am grateful to my #teamstp for helping me make what I think is the nicest picture I have ever taken.
