Model: Daisy Jo Lucas.
Victoria Park has never struck me as a particularly good place to shoot: The landscape is flat and uninspiring, the trees are widely scattered; and when the sun shines everyone decides to crowd the same space. For all it's faults though it is convenient, just five minutes walk from my front door. In the past I have lost myself - and sometimes, my team - in the rolling hills of Hampstead Heath, where just walking to a location can take twenty minutes. One is rewarded though with a huge variety of pastoral backdrops. If you squint your eyes and filter out the rumble of distant traffic, you can transport yourself beyond the city to a vast wilderness untouched yet by man.
Last week I spent a day with actress Daisy Jo Lucas. We took some photos at my studio in Hackney then moved outside for a series of more natural shots. Victoria Park may on the whole be rather bland, but there is one tiny enclave of interest: The earth dips downward and the trees huddle against the sun. Above and to the west there is an open sky. Come evening the glow of dying sunlight floods the trees and kisses the ground.
I knew we wouldn't have long to get the shot so I packed light. Aside from my camera all I took was a white bounce board. Now that summer has arrived I am able to use natural light far more freely. There is a wonderful simplicity that comes with using the sun - the ratio between key and fill is almost entirely down to the distance one places the bounce board from the subject. Just one variable really. All that's left is to set a suitable exposure and do the best with what's given.
Even at sundown the sun is very strong. One trick is to use the sun as a back light, and turn the bounce light into a key:
