This wonderful looking woman is local sculptor Melanie Chmielewska. Melanie loves the water and is in fact an open-water swimmer as well as an artist. This was taken at one of her favourite spots by Loch Fyne and I chose this as my first picture of her as she tells me she loves pools in the foreground with open-water in the background. The additional fact that Melanie looks confident and enigmatic, with dramatic lighting makes this perfect.
You all know my love of natural backlighting. We only had a window of 20 minutes or so before the rapidly advancing autumn darkness removed the magic, so we only got a small set of images on this shoot. This one has such strong and warm rim-lighting, balanced by remote-umbrella flash to my right held by Melanie’s lovely daughter; thanks!
Sometimes the simple and direct pictures are the most powerful.
And finally. If you don’t fall in love with this smile you are probably tired of life. Everything about this picture including the playful little swish of Melanie’s dress bottom delights me.
Thanks Melanie. It was a short but great shoot. Hope you like the portraits?
Check out Melanie’s sculpture:
http://www.artmapargyll.com/?portfolio=melanie-chmielewska
Very natural shoot. Loks good. I prefer the colour to the black monochrome. Well done