In this week’s video, you can see how we worked with our best model during a weekend in la Vall d’Aran. You also can enjoy the amazing landscapes and our funny and special way of doing our job.
This is one of those sessions that I really wanted to do because one of the models was Carla, who is very special to me because she has been with me since the beginning.
We started doing stock photography together, we grew up together also with Mario and between the 3 of us we have made this business get to where it is today.
Nowadays she has her own job but from time to time she comes to do a session.
The idea was to do a weekend shoot with two models who played the role of tourists in different locations. One of the models was Carla and the other one, in the end, could not do the shoot due to a last minute problem. This posed a serious problem as with only one model, the plan was no longer applicable.
The previous week had been crazy and I hadn’t had time to prepare for the trip and even less time to improvise a full weekend shoot at the last minute, so with only one model and a weekend ahead of us I decided that we would go out with no fixed destination and no idea of what we were going to do. It had never happened before, going out with no plan for a multi-day shoot.
With any other model it would have been very complicated to save such an improvised session, but with Carla and her more than 8 years of experience working with me it was not a complicated problem to solve. Most of the shoots we have done have had to be improvised due to unforeseen events of all kinds.
We booked two rooms in a small hotel 2 and a half hours away in a mountainous area near Tremp to spend the night on Friday and we would decide on the way what to do the next day.
During the trip, while we were catching up on all our things since we hadn’t seen each other for a few weeks, we decided that it would be a good idea to go to the Vall d’Aran area, specifically to a beautiful waterfall called Saut deth Pish.
I knew this waterfall since I went there for the first time when I was 25 years old and we had recently been there looking for the outdoors with Auri.
On Saturday we would take photos on the way to the waterfall and on Sunday, already at the waterfall, we could shoot a lot of making-of videos and beautiful shots of the whole mountainous area which is absolutely beautiful.
On Saturday morning we woke up in the fog at the Terradets reservoir, a small but very beautiful reservoir with a beautiful road that runs very close to the reservoir.
As it was an improvised session in which in theory I didn’t have to get as much performance as usual, I took the opportunity to try out some of the new video cameras, a Panasonic HC-X1, a Sony A7S III and various lenses, tripods and settings for recording video, which is something that if I’m honest I still don’t have a good command of.
And as we had to shoot a lot of shots for the making of videos Carla was helping me with some of the shots.
As the fog dissolved and the weather improved, we filmed several shots on that road and in the reservoir and then we headed towards another reservoir, Mont Rebei, where we had already been months before doing two kayaking sessions with Carla and Gisela and Aurora.
With a completely clear day, something unusual on session days, we recorded several video shots and took some stock photos in these locations and we only had two hours left to get to the Vall d’Aran.
We arrived in the valley early in the afternoon after lunch, and drove straight up a very narrow but beautiful road to the Saut deth Pish waterfall.
It is a waterfall that at this time of year is best photographed at midday, as in the morning it is in the shade of a mountain on one side and in the afternoon it has the shade of another mountain on the other side, so in this case, we arrived late but it allowed us to calculate at what time it would be good to arrive the following day to find the waterfall completely illuminated.
After the check we took the van and continued up a rather tricky cart track to the top of the mountain where stunning views awaited us and we were able to take some stock photos and new videos.
At dusk we descended to the hotel at the base of the narrow road we had climbed.
However, thanks to a local forester who showed us the way he wanted, we ended up doing a one hour and 45 minute walk instead of going back the way we had come up, which would have taken us only 45 minutes to get back.
However, we have to thank the forester for the walk because the truth is that the views were absolutely breathtaking, and the situation led to many jokes which, together with the scenery, made the walk very enjoyable.
Back at the hotel, we had dinner and got ready for the next day when we would do most of the photos and videos of the session.
Sunday morning
In order to take advantage of the sunrise we got up very early and at 8 o’clock we were already climbing the mountain. We had to take into account that the sun at the top of the mountain rises much later than at the sea and therefore we had a little more time and it was not necessary to get up very early.
As we couldn’t take the photos first thing in the morning at the waterfall because of the shade, we went up the path to the highest part of the mountain to take advantage of the sunrise and take some pictures of health and wellbeing in a natural environment.
Easy photos in good light went smoothly until, at the time we had calculated that the sun would be shining on the waterfall, we went back down the path to the waterfall car park.
We picked up the equipment and walked along the path to the plain with a small pond just before the waterfall where we were also taking pictures and videos waiting for the sun to finally illuminate the long awaited waterfall.
It was cumbersome to move all the equipment to the area, since from the car park where you leave the van to the waterfall there is a path that you have to walk, and if you do it loaded with a lot of equipment and tripods for video and photography it can be a bit heavy.
Finally the sun fully illuminated the waterfall and its surroundings and we started to take stock photos and videos. First at the top, at a lookout point and then at the bottom, at the base of the waterfall.
Another major problem we had was that as it was a weekend, in this case a Sunday and the beginning of September, there were a considerable amount of people visiting the waterfall and they were constantly getting in front and behind the shot. This made the session go a bit slow but we still managed to get all the photos we needed.
As it was a totally improvised session, we couldn’t get as much out of it as we usually get out of a session and there were many photos left over that could have been taken if we had been able to plan it well.
As for the video recordings for the making-of, there were so many landscape shots that we were able to make 3 landscape videos, the first of which is of the mountains. We also made a video of the Terradets and Mont Rebei reservoirs and finally a video of the waterfall and the lagoon in front of it.
You can see all of them here.
I hope you enjoy them.
In the end, the weekend became a real pleasure in nature and enjoying the session in very good company, with all the complicity that a 9 years relationship is able to give.
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