For the past year I've been looking for somebody really colorful to photograph that would add a lot of pizzazz to my portfolio.  When I went to Jacksonville to see Voltaire a couple of weeks ago, I struck gold.  The second that I saw the lights bounce off the pink hair on the dance floor, I knew that I had found the perfect person.  As soon as Voltaire wrapped up his show, I ran over to meet my next model, Austin.  She looked me up before I got back to Tallahassee, and from there we started planning.

Coincidentally, the Cruxshadows were playing at the same club a week later, so I made plans to head back over for the concert on Saturday night with the shoot scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

For camera setup, I did the entire shoot digitally with an ISO of 80 because there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was VERY bright.  I used apertures of 3.5 to 8 depending on how much depth that I wanted, and I let the camera set the shutter speeds.  I actually did something that surprised me very much for a light skinned girl.  Before we started, I hit her with a white flash, a silver flash and a gold flash (Using a Lumiquest pocket bouncer that has interchangable inserts of white/silver/gold)  We both liked the results from the gold insert, so all flash was bounced off the gold pocket bouncer, and we had her friend hold the big gold reflector disc.  Normally I prefer the look of pure white skin, but the gold reflectors really gave her a nice glow, and I'm pleasantly surprised with the results.

Enough babbling about how we did the shoot, now I'll start posting and I'll probably comment as I go. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:  Austin

Ok, now we'll do a bit of digital trickeration.  I isolated the pink on her leggings and set the camera to shoot all other colors in b&w, so her hair and leggings would stand out.

I had to have her look down and away for this one because the sun was WAY too bright for her to look upwards or in my direction.  So this was the "contemplative pose." 

I can't decide between these next two.  One has the better facial expression, and the other has the better coloration.  I literally couldn't see her at all when I shot these because I lined her up directly in front of the sun, so it was hard to give her much direction.  She did great on her own.

Now for a few headshots...

Before wrapping up we moved over in front of an azalea bush.  It wasn't as colorful as the ones here in Tallahassee, but it made for an interesting background.  We put the "synthetic" girl in front of the natural setting.

And I'll close out with a cutsey shot that we took when we first got started.  Thanks, Austin.  It was fun!

Here are some black & whites that I shot and didn't get processed until a week later.  I used a red filter, and it turned her pink hair silver.  I was concerned that it would be a bit darker and look gray, but I'm pleased with the silvery appearance.