In this week’s video, you can see how we worked on a beach shoot with one of our models in a village on the Costa Brava and how we dealt with the inclement weather. You can also listen to our model explaining her impressions of the shoot.
We planned a weekend for a beach session and we chose Cadaqués as our destination, a very beautiful village on the Catalan Costa Brava, with turquoise water beaches all around.
It is always risky to go to the Costa Brava outside the summer season because it is usually very windy and sometimes quite bad weather. You also depend on the sea being flat and calm and that is not usual in that area on the dates we went.
For this reason, we chose a good hotel where we could also take part of the photos in case the weather wasn’t good and we couldn’t take them on the beach.
The first day, as it couldn’t be otherwise in a year in which 80% of the sessions were marked by bad weather, we woke up with cloudy skies and rough sea so we started taking pictures in the hotel. Shortly after starting the indoor session, a last minute problem made us have to leave the hotel so we went directly to one of the beaches we had chosen and started taking pictures even though the weather was still quite cloudy and it was a bit cold.
Shortly after starting the session on the beach, the sun started to come out and there were alternating moments of sunshine with beautiful light and moments when it was cloudy again. In both cases, the sea was calm, which allowed us to take good pictures and to take advantage of the light at times. These days of changing light every few minutes make photography quite complicated, as you have to be constantly adjusting the camera and be very aware of the changes in light, otherwise you get some photos burnt and others very dark and the changes happen in seconds. Due to the changes in light, it may also be necessary to change the model’s clothes, as sunlight is more cheerful and favours photos of happy subjects, while a cloudy sky is more suitable for sad subjects. The colour of the clothes should also match the light and the expression. Cheerful colours for smiles in sunny and warm light, black, dark or grey colours for sadness on a cloudy day.
In this changeable weather, we took photos of various subjects, wearing a white dress and little by little we took the planned content until we went to lunch. It is important to note that the summer content photos, which will be sold in summer, have to be taken in winter, as advertising campaigns are always taken in good time and have to be ready by the time summer arrives. This guarantees, with few exceptions, that the models will be a bit cold.
On our way back from lunch, with the van parked in front of the beach, we saw a family of wild boars with their little boars right in the car park. They completely ignored us and at one point they even came towards us and we were able to take some videos and photos. We are always excited to meet animals as the whole team loves them and this wild boar family was a very nice surprise.
As always, the session took place in an atmosphere of apparent leisure thanks to an environment in which it is difficult to feel that you are working, and above all to the many laughs and the complicity that characterises us.
In the afternoon we took some portraits of Lili’s amazing eyes and went back to the hotel.
The second day got up much more cloudy and with the sea much choppier than the previous day, which forced us to improvise again and go further north in search of beaches under what seemed to be clearer skies. The chosen destination was Port de la Selva, the town next to Cadaqués, but when we arrived we found the sea very rough, which made it impossible to take photographs of summery and happy subjects as we had planned. In these circumstances, we improvised a series of photographs in which our model was frustrated at not being able to enjoy her day at the beach, and some expressions of sadness.
After a while on that beach, and seeing that the sun was rising again in the area of Cadaqués that we had left in the morning, we got back in the van and returned to the point of origin, where this time we had good weather and were able to take all the photographs we were missing.
At the same time and during the 2 days we were recording the impressions of our model that you can see in the video and in which she explains what she thinks about working with us, how she felt during the session, which photos she likes the most and many more details about our particular way of working.
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