Meichelle is an awesome model. Her online portfolio shows a variety of work, the majority of which leans towards really high-fashion stuff. She does have the figure and a fantastic look to do just that, but I felt that she had a really great “girl-nextdoor” look too, so I went with a more casual approach.

So we went to a little park close to my house. Nothing fancy, but I’d never shot a model there with snow on the ground, and I figured her blue eyes would really pop there.

This is exactly the shot I was after:

Then she put some glasses on. I’ve never done this with glasses before, but I figured “Hey, why not include myself in this shot?”

And then… we decided to do something stupid.

There was a relatively large basin-like area next to where we’d been shooting, normally just a giant patch of grass, but at that particular time of the year, it was half-covered in snow.

And that’s an important distinction; half-covered. Because the part that wasn’t covered in snow was covered in knee-deep water.

That’s where we wanted to go.

What?! It looked cool!!

So we started heading down. Not thinking much about how we’d get there, we went through the grassy area to get to the mini-lake. It looked dry enough when we started down that path, but before we knew it, we were navigating through ankle-deep water, little streams of water running through here and there, trying to step on the tiny little patches of grass that were poking out of the water. It wasn’t any use, our feet were soaked. And the cold… Oh man, it was cold.

And the whole time, I’m thinking “Is this really going to be worth it?” Because honestly, I wasn’t even sure when we first looked out to the water. I mean the water looked cool, but would it work with a model in it? Not to mention that since we came so unprepared, I wasn’t expecting to have much time to find my groove and get what I wanted before we both froze to death. Meichelle especially.

We stopped in a little patch of snow just off the side of the mini-lake, I made sure I was fully ready to shoot as soon as she was out in the water, and off she went. She didn’t go too far, but who could blame her?

This isn’t a particularly strong picture, but I just had to show the bravery.

And this is my favorite of the ones we shot. I’m still not sure that it was worth it to be honest. It sure was fun, but I’m not too crazy about the shot itself.

And then we went back to finish the shoot:

Day 72/365

My son doesn’t clean up his Lego blocks too well…

Day 73/365

The stack of padded enveloppes that are ready to go out to my models: