I met this beautiful young lady last Saturday. Her name is Lauren and she has never had her photo taken outside of the annual school pictures. I suggested she chose the wardrobe and she found a nice dress on the rack and we got started.... The start was actually pretty rocky, she was nervous and didn't really know what I expected of her. She had a natural reluctance to model and was unsure of herself. The shoot wasn't going extremely smoothly - yes, she was doing everything asked, but she was uncomfortable and it showed in our work. We decided to change things up and put her in some of the clothing she brought to the shoot. We chose these cool skinny jeans and great Zoo York t-shirt.

Not knowing that she jumps on a trampoline in her spare time, I asked her to jump and spin and kick -- she came alive! We were able to catch these beautiful images showing her natural beauty - she was obviously comfortable in her own element.

The lighting was relatively simple. I put a single octabox (ABR800 Moon Unit) above and in front of Lauren and went with a pair of beauty dish Grids on either side behind,  so that  there were smooth edges.  This is basically similar to a 3-light grunge setup that is quite the rage right now, but I throttled the rim lights back so that the main light was the brightest by abotu a half stop. The bacground was lit with one additional light (not shown).

This shoot reminded me how important it is to focus on the model and be in touch with their feelings on the shoot.