I recently attended the Perl conference YAPC::EU::2009 in Lisbon. Apart from learning a lot of things about Perl and meeting a lot of interesting people I haven't seen in quite some time (my last YAPC was six years ago), I took the opportunity to set up a photoshoot with a stunning local model named Ana Tomás and the very skilled British expatriate makeup artist Laura Hamilton. Working with both of these wonderful women was an absolute joy, and frankly I would have been happy if the images we got from the shoot had been half as good.The idea was to create some images that one might find in a glossy travel magazine. One of the tricks I've seen magazines use is adding interest by featuring a model or two in their photos of scenery. People are attracted to images of people, especially images of beautiful people in fabulous clothes.
On the day, everything went really well except for two small regrets. It would have been better to get a really early start to the day, but scheduling didn't permit that and we ended up shooting towards midday, rather than during the magic hour. Since I didn't have my full kit with me (my second regret), that meant that I had to direct Ana very carefully relative to the main light source, i.e. the sun. Harsh shadows were also partially mitigated by the light reflected off the sand. It also did not hurt at all that Ana has lovely skin and that Laura improved on this with her amazing makeup skills. I say it's her theatre experience that makes her so fast.We shot three different outfits which had sourced the day before: a hot pink silk dress from India, a cotton summer dress, and a pink and white gingham retro dress, all of which were acquired at Truz on rua Augusta after hitting a load of other shops along the way.
At the beach, we had to deal with a few problems, apart from the harsh sunlight mentioned above. The wind was very, very strong and carried salt spray quite far inland. Since salt spray does not help with photo optics, this can be considered a major drawback. Needless to say, I had to clean my lenses quite a few times during the two and a half hour shoot. Another problem was people. This is a beach in Portugal, in summer. There were a lot of people there and a few of them were in the way. Luckily, most of the people we encountered were very considerate.
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