Sunny Girl

Сонячна дівчина

Some photo sessions are especially memorable to me, leaving a pleasant mark on my memory. And one of these shootings is the “Dressed in light” photo session.

Olga was a friend of one of my models, who accidentally introduced me to her. When I saw Olga for the first time, I was fascinated by her freckles and naive and kind smile. Without postponing the matter until later, I immediately offered her to participate in photo session, and she agreed. However, she was a little embarrassed by my offer, since she had never tried herself in the role of a nude model before.

It was summer heat. As for me, Olga's appearance was associated with something simple, dear and close to my heart. Therefore, I imagined Olga in the form of a simple naive girl from the recent past. I really wanted to show her natural beauty, these charming freckles and that magnetism in her eyes, which is difficult to describe in words... All I needed to create her image was an ordinary skirt and an old knitted jacket.

I decided to hold a photo session in an old country house, where I had prepared a location in advance. In my photography tutorials, I often say that finding a completely finished ideal location is difficult enough. And you have to prepare it yourself. It took me a couple of hours to make a wonderful place out of the small veranda for the work to be done... I removed all unnecessary things, hung up the lace curtains, took out an old wooden table from the barn, and brought a pot of wildflowers.

For shooting I used my recently purchased Nikon D600 and a standard Nikon 50 1.4 lens, as well as a reflector that is always with me.

The first shot always takes much time and it is always difficult. As it always happens, in all my photo shoots I choose a perspective, a shooting point, a model's pose for a long time. I can move furniture, move accessories and much, much more. I remember well that Olga was a little embarrassed that I didn't take a single shot in the first 40 minutes. “You don’t like how I look in the frame? What's wrong?” – Olga said to me. I hastened to calm the girl down, saying that it is always like this with me... And here is the first shot. And after comes  the second, third, fourth one... The work has started.

The girl posed, not ceasing to tell her childhood adventures with her grandmother in the village with a smile. I listened to her, admired her charm and continued taking pictures.

Many have probably heard that there are photogenic people. Well, the ones that look great in pictures from all angles. Olga seemed to be the one of them. I can't even say that she somehow tried to pose. All of her positions (standing, lying, sitting, from the side, from the front) looked very good. About three hours of photo-session flew by like an instant.

I was very pleased with the result. And after a couple of days I chose the 10 best portraits for retouching. This photo session will be remembered for many years. And when I look at these photos, I immediately remember that warm summer day, her smile, the sun's rays and the scent of apples...