A cold-December-Saturday-morning-nature-photoshoot with Izzy. She’s into fashion, is brave and has adventure in her soul… Awesome to work with! We submerse ourselves into NATURE to get some, some-what intense shots. I hope you enjoy them for their artistic nature and beauty, as well as the pure adventure of their making!
Thank you, Izzy for doing such a great job posing, collaborating, and bringing a vision to life!
*There are landscapes, nature and water photos down below too!
From the park and ride, we drove for about 20 minutes discussing the shoot and getting familiar. After arriving to the snowy dirt road destination, we pulled to over and headed down the rocky pathway. Soon, there was a small but nice wooden bridge to our right, so we used it quickly to take some photos to start, then kept on down the path.
Walking along the brook high above, we looked down for potential spots to shoot. Izzy found a nice open area with lots of interest… icicles, a small waterfall, and an incredible amount of exposed rock with moss, leaves, and snow layered upon them. We had to jump down 4 feet to get to this spot, but once we were down there, we became inspired by all that we saw!
These are the icicles that were around the corner. I love seeing this type of thing, you never know what type of formations you will find, and they are always impressive in some way or another.
We managed to climb our way back up the drop. First, I set my camera up there, then with both arms I lifted myself up the rock. Izzy followed and I gave her a hand. We headed further down the brook, coming to another beautiful area that I had shot photos at before. We found a safe way down, and gazed our eyes upon a rounded rock as a centerpiece.
Izzy was going to attempt to hoist herself up onto it as I went around to the back and greeted her as she was thinking about how she would get up.
“Should I go around?” she asked. “You should go around,” I replied. This was one of the many amusing moments we had. It’s one of those moments where you need to do complete a task. It seems difficult at the time, like you might not be able to do it. Then suddenly it hits you and is a hundred times easier than first expected. That’s when you laugh it off and just do it!
This rock proved to be a valuable spot. All of the snowy elements around it, plus the red sweater Izzy wore, worked really well together.
This next one, I tried to create more depth by lowering my camera into the foreground snow.
After many photos taken on this rock, we decided we would head back up the path, as it was getting a little chilly. After a few minutes of trekking back to the car I spotted another area that sparked my eye. It was a long stretch of water with small falls, and lots of space to photography. I asked Izzy if we should go down. She agreed, and mentioned the walk had already warmed her up! So we carefully walked downward. I had picked up a small branch along the way and gave it to her as a prop.
We were soon done with this branch and came to the conclusion that would have to cross the narrow brook in order to get to a mossy spot across the way.
Worth the trouble? I think so. Adventurous moments like crossing an icy brook make it all the more exciting and gets photos like this!
She was by far a champ with this shot. This is the part we had to leap across to get to and from.
Once we got back to her car, the plan was to drive to her father’s house so she could switch outfits. During the car ride, passing farmland with Mt. Mansfield far ahead in our sight, we discussed other possibly locations. I mentioned how I’m into old cars, even junked. She came back with saying that there’s a little junkyard of old Saabs and VWs on her property. I got excited at this because shooting at a place like that was high on my list.
While headed to her father’s home, we were driving up to an area that that we mentioned before for how wonderful the scenery was.
We had discussed that the scenery would make a great landscape photo, but probably wasn’t worth taking portraits at, since it’s better to submerse your subject in the scene, rather than put them in front of it. This is what gives feeling, depth, and purpose to the photo.
But as soon as I saw the red gate, I wanted to at least get a few shots. After I quickly brought up the idea of stopping to take photos at the red gate, Izzy pulled over without hesitation and we began taking some photos. The sun was behind her, so it wasn’t the most idea lighting, but I got some nice shots of her and the scenery anyway.
I think it’s important for a subject to sometimes interact with the environment that they are in, so the red gate was great for this, and Izzy did a great job doing so!
We made it back to her father’s home, where she was able to switch outfits. I was also able to warm up a bit in there as well as take some photos of their Siamese cat, Florence. She is a very sweet cat who has many years behind her, but you may not notice that!
Izzy wanted to wear a dress, but it couldn’t be a summer dress. I think she was able to find one that worked well, along with a fur lined sweater that once belonged to her grandmother. 🙂 For the sake of sentimentality, we took photos on the tire swing in her front yard. There were a lot of distractions in the background, so I decided to seclude her into the sky so her and the tire swing be the only focus. It gives a different feel, but I like the look.
Once I had taken a couple dozen of her swinging back and forth, it was time to move on. We were headed to the junkyard. We drove a short distance, and soon I could see the oddly beautiful sight of wrecked, mangled, and piled vehicles.
There were two that caught our eye especially, one red VW rabbit and one a military green unknown.
Izzy cheerfully volunteered to climb in the trunk of the Rabbit. This became one of my favorite spots quickly. I don’t know if I could say the same for her for the sake of comfort, but the photos that resulted speak for themselves! The ice and snow on the window, all the junk laying around made for a unique atmosphere.
We then moved on, taking a few at the mangled orange VW beetle.
We still looked around, and ended up being led to an extremely large rusty tube that could be walked into. So she went in and I walked around to the other side where the sun was shining.
There was a birch tree grown directly next to the rusty tube. I’m unsure of which was there first, but I’m glad they can coexist, because it really made these photos special!
I also took the opportunity to photograph Mt. Mansfield and Smugglers’ Notch in a unique way.
We decided to drive a bit to warm up some more, and we came to this stone archway that we had driven past an uncountable amount of times in our lives. Since we had to turn around to go to our next location anyway, we stopped for a super quick shoot. I would have to stand in the road in order to get enough of the arch in the photo. Cars coming up and down the hill at 35mph, proved this to be a more challenging spot, but I think the photos came out well considering that.
Challenges like these really are a big reason why I love photography. It puts you in situations where you have to think on your feet and work with what you got.
As quickly as we swooped in, we swooped out and drove back up the hill. We took a left down a narrow grassy road into the woods nearing the river. Snow dusted the ground, contrasting with the green of the trees and moss. The wooded trail we ventured into was almost magical. I was really glad we chose this spot for our last location.
It was a little darker, so I had to bump up my ISO pretty high, but we still came out with some usable photos that showed off Izzy in this little wonderland full of pinecones and moss!
In this one, I wanted to create depth and movement by taking the photo as she stepped past the large tree root. I think it worked alright, though there is always room for improvement!
How did we do? Every photoshoot is a learning experience for me, so I know there are things I should have done differently, but there are also many things I learned as I was going. Always looking forward to the next!
Please share with anyone who enjoys the outdoors, nature, pinecones, art, photography, birch trees… the list goes on. Comment with any feedback you can think of, and most of all thank you for making it to the end!
P.S. I apologize for any grammatical errors or unnatural sentences; I don’t have much time to write these out, and I’m always wanting to get them out as soon as I can. I hope that doesn’t distract from it at all.
art.of.a.rock 