Lessons

Lesson Info

Concept Shoot: Mother in Water

Now I got a whole new can set of problems because thank you just the water's warm britney what are my problems reflection right in that water I can always edit it out but I have to be very cognizant of it when I'm shooting with it okay um there is soft fabric in here there's about six inches of water I don't want it to cover her completely now I am going to bring some towels and there is my fact I might just um use a dark scarf or a dark blanket that I have to help her support her head because I can always take that out later so I want her to want to have to hold her head up the whole time in the water okay, so what? I'm going to do it since I have to think about lighting direction right? So I had her facing this way with the light correct so I better repeat that in the final image and since we're flipping okay so I need to have her pointing that way but in fetal position correct isn't that the direction we had the light lives coming towards her so we want to keep that the same otherwi...

se it's going to end up looking really screwball when we try to put it all together okay, so how's she doing how are you doing? You ready? Shall we get this show on the road here okay. Does anybody have a hair tie? I can put my hair back. I'm startinto who sweat. Oh, you're amazing, bri. Thank you, dear. Okay, you ready? Get wet, my dear she's like, sir home game, by the way. Thank you so much. Okay, so what I will dio is have you hopping it's warm. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and take my boots off, too, and I need to get in there with her. Okay? Okay. So let's feel good. Feels nice and warm, huh? Okay, so I don't want the half of your dress to get wet that was dry at the top. So you're going to be facing this direction field position. Okay, so when you're ready, I can't have you going and try to lie down on ly get that right side of yourself. Wet makes sense and I don't care if your hair gets wet, but I do care. Yeah, you're doing good. Perfect. We might need to put um some and I know that this part of the dress is going to get wet, so don't worry about that. I'm just kind of worried about this part. So go ahead and pop your shoulders and if you can feel good lord did you give birth yeah did you give birth in water you knew you had her at home you didn't do a water birth okay so killed because the water too much is it to deep ok so go ahead and lie down there you go on your shoulder perfect bring your knees up to your chest just like you were good girl and if you can't do it that way just a touch that would be fantastic there we go okay hope this works okay so now you're you're but needs to come down your knees need to come up and you are going to put half your head in the water if you're okay with that yeah so I'm gonna have you yeah scoot down this way you still need to get you in the right position there we go I'm trying to repeat what I just did basically they're beautiful okay and let's go ahead and put something underneath her head so she's not let me grab something that is dark wait least have easier time put those towels down first and then we'll cover them with this you're going to pilot one of them in there and then we'll cover it with this way have anymore tells here some way look over there okay so she can and then I'm going to do is just put this dark thing over it so it's not quite so intense of a color contrast okay wait go go ahead and because that okay put your head down okay so the um the pool is a little small so I'm going to try to get you to go south a little bit if you can move your butt down a little bit more if you can towards the can you go yeah you're head is like running into everything and so I'm trying teo there we go and go ahead and just lie down you're like ok I can now get water in my ear all right perfect that's what I wanted beautiful now this hand has to go in that position I'm going to start with the bulk so I think the bull is going to be more successful so we're going to hold the bowl exactly like we did before okay that's not good her hair looks really dark in here but that's okay sorry to get you all wet okay I knew I was gonna get wet this process okay my dear feet up there we go I wanna be able to see your feet from above beautiful this hand yeah like that perfect beautiful okay camera and stool or uh ladder for the latter go forget it sweet how you feeling? You're such a good sport this's a I mean this is that's the mom of that I mean talk about asking her to be vulnerable okay so there is a seam split in this black which now I need the burlap keep it in its tide position perfect thank you um yeah please we're just going to take this part you know it's not tight okay that's okay no worries I don't need to worry about what's in the bowl because the baby's gonna get put in the booth now if I yeah way believe she was on the other side yes but the light is over here so you're going to be able to flipper yes ok the light remember how we shot over here and the light was coming in towards her body remember that so I'm gonna flip her and photoshopped does that make sense okay right there the ruffling aside right there right but when she was flipped around yes on your right to be the the bull might be covering that it might not but it will make a difference once we go in photo shop because all I'm going to extract off there is the baby in the bucket okay that's all I'm going to be taken off of that image you're doing it wrong but seriously I'm glad you told me because if I had been that would be such a travesty if I don't because you mix these things up in your head you're like left right loba make sense so remember that baby's head in the image is up here right and the light is coming from this direction so I have to make sure I maintain that in this image so yes, I simply just flipped because the lights stay on the same side. I could have kept her in this position I could have, like, put her head over there. No problem if I wanted to but I would have had I would have had to like flipper this way that makes sense. Not this way. Does that make sense? So always look at your light direction. Okay, so the light is coming from, like, towards her face that's all I have to worry about right now, I don't have to worry about because left right hand straight it doesn't matter because the only thing I'm taking out of that bucket is the baby and the wrap that she's in. Does that make sense? Okay. So as long as the lighting direction is consistent that's the beautiful part about photo shop is you going flip a cz much as you want. Okay, okay, how you doing down there? Okay, when my ears getting full of water, but I'm good. Okay. All right, I think we're good to go. Oh, great. I'm gonna put that on? Uh, yeah, let me just put it on first and I'm about to go up like that that's perfect, thank you. Okay, you are such a sport, good sport, okay, theis use I've got our that, um the the brown wrap is covering her right arm so I need you to tuck that under so I can see her arm otherwise it'll look odd there we go beautiful grand keep talking that under no, I don't see much of her hair because it's so dark against the background but I think I'm okay with that. Hey, britney, can you bring your knees to your chest a little bit more? Can you do it? You're such a good sport and lauren I'm gonna have you take this dress I really wish is it possible britney to move to the left a little bit my left so move forward can somebody help her learn I want the reason I'm asking for this is because the dress is flowing and I want to see it continue to flow behind her. So now lauren when I'm gonna have you do that's perfect that's just gives me stuff um I want you teo take the dress and let it flow out behind her. Here we go perfect. You can just be a little string like that. Yeah that's good and the same thing with that. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay, perfect. Now her hair is not really making me happy right now, but I can also do some things with the other here that we took so I took her hair over there I can add that in or painted in to create that sense that her hair is going the right way it's not lit very well because it's so dark in there it's kind of black hole but I can also light in those areas of the image in photo shop later yeah, thanks. You're awesome. Perfect! I don't need to worry about your hands. Good girl. Careful and bring your toes up for me. Perfect little bit more and there we go. Beautiful that's what I wanted then we're done good job. So obviously this is getting a lot of post, okay? And but I hope you see the process, I hope by explaining the ojai camera I hope they britney you are such a good sport. I hope that by mimi will tell you the visual, the pre visualization I had and how I borrowed from other people and took that concept out of a baby to it and an idea and now I'm going to take it further into post and make it even more my own. Does that make sense? So do you kind of see where this is trying to go? I don't know if the success for now, but we're going to try it. Okay, so any questions? Maybe you could just talk a little bit again about the the connection aspect of this theme? Well, there's a couple things going on here there's connection within my own experience okay I'm taking something that happened to me and connecting it into my art there's hope that that experience and that creation will connect to people around me with the message that it's trying to send there's connection through the symbols I'm using things were speak were picked very carefully what perfectly I'm kind of playing around like I said I don't know if this is gonna work or not we're going to play around with it tomorrow and see it could be a total bomb it could be one of those things that I shelve and go this sucks I got it hold off duty to try it again later okay, so the other place that's connection is between me and britney she's really? I don't know britney I just met britney wonderful girl so what a great soul to trust me to do this image with her okay? So she that trust is connection I'm connecting with her, she understands that I'm trying to impart a vision and she's excited to be a part of it and maybe she believes the same thing and wants that topic to be discussed and talked about so she doesn't have an issue being in an image like this but you can see how a lot of most my go new way I'm not going there it's vulnerable it's a vulnerable place to be she just allowed us to see something and put her in a situation that made her vulnerable and that like is more than you can ask of any any client and how cool is that? So hopefully all these areas of connection me with my past in my experience connecting that to my art me connecting with britney to take that concept and make a reality well hope hopefully create connection in the people who view the image I also do we want to bring it back teo a lot of what you taught yesterday was how to connect with the mothers and a lot of tips for that. So if you were what if people were with us yesterday we talked about that phone call that you had I had a huge phone call with britney and I had to tell her my vision and I very purposefully connected with her and built her trust initially on the phone before I really told her what the whole thing was about and she kind of she knew it was a conceptual piece and she knew it was artsy fartsy and all that but she didn't quite know what the whole enchilada was about so I talked to her in a way that said, hey how's it going how is birth, birth and delivery labor delivery you know what your baby's name and we connected on her baby's name because I love the name alice and I've never photographed in alice and I that name made me feel like the feeling that I had when I photographed my son, dean. If I had a little girl, alice that's a great name, I probably would consider that highly because it's such a it means something to me, and I told her that we talked about it and she was excited that I've never photographed analysis. And then we just kind of just casual conversation, and then I started telling her what the pieces about in a very benign way. Here's. What happened to me? I'm an artist. I want to send this message. I don't think it's talked about enough, and I really want teo show that in my work and get people thinking and she's, like I agree that's a great idea, because that needs to happen. I'm more than happy to be a part of it, and so she trusted me, and to do that and my god, that's, um, that's, she's, your wife's amazing, she's, amazing.