The title says it all. This shoot was a experience, a good one. I was excited to work with Irene, because of her look and graceful posing. I wanted to push her to step out of the box and myself step outside as well, I think we achieved that. Going into this shoot I really had the least bit of idea of how I was going to pull of my vision, woman on the Atlantic Ocean escaping from Spain?!

In the back of my mind I knew I was going to get dirty and completely soaking wet. I was worried it would be too cold for everyone involved but fortunately, mother nature was on my side and it was a cool 60 degrees outside and the sun blaring. So, we pulled up to the riverfront and immediately got dirty, I’m talking covered in wet mud.

We started on the shore, then I kept pushing; “Let’s get in the water”. So I took of my shoes, socks and rolled up my pants, soon enough I was up to my thighs in freezing cold water. Nervously, I stuck my strobes in about 5 feet of water, every time a wave crashed in I prepared to jump, hold my camera out of the water and grab that stand before the strobe would touch the water(pictured below). But, I got lucky. Within about 20 minutes in the water, I had grabbed all the shots I needed. Cold wet and covered in dirt we dried off and took a break in the heat for about 5 minutes, then prepared to walk to our next location…which was a bit of a walk.

Let me tell you, Irene Mukibi was a trooper, she was doing all the shots barefoot, so I did as well. For the rest of the shoot I was in my wet cold socks, I gave Irene my shoes while we walked. It was about half a mile to our next location, which little did I know was blocked by a mud mountain that had been caused by a nearby construction zone. So instead of giving up, we tackled this mountain and I sunk in like quicksand and nearly got stuck several times(pictured below). The location changed 100% from when we last scouted a couple months ago and I was worried that we would be doing all this climbing and walking for nothing, but there was some cool brush, that resembled reeds down near the river shoreline. It was completely worth it. Irene was a true professional and I don’t think many models would of done what she did that day. Thank you Irene.

Strobist: For most of these shots I had two kicker strobes a.k.a bare speedlights on either side and the main light camera right with a 22" beauty dish diffused with a sock. The sunset camera left really REALLY helped the look of the shots and added a nice fill light on Irene’s face.

After all was said and done and we we’re ready to move on to the next model, I reviewed my shots and just knew the work had just begun for me. In order to create the vision I had, I had some post work in-store. The next day I dove into Photoshop with these shots, brought down the exposure, cut out the Louisville skyline and de-saturated everything mostly the water, which I wanted to look black as night. I worked with the curves more then I ever have and learned quite a bit. Took some work, but the results made me proud and excited for what’s in store. 

So this concludes my “Bond Girl - A Portrait Series”. Again thank you to the ENTIRE crew and team that made this vision possible. Scooter, Chris, Nick, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Lee Ann, Armina, Imelda, Amanda, Donnie, Whitney, Briquelle and Irene. YOU ARE AMAZING. Each and every one of you just portrayed perfectly and worked your tails off for this.