More Weather Woes

Kim in Chains

Okay, having to cancel not one but two shoots due to weather in the middle of July just sucks. Usually by this time of years the skies are clear, the temperatures are in the mid-80's and the humidity is low. Along with the cold, wet spring we had this year, apparently we're having a cool wet summer to go along with it. I've already pushed through two shoots in cool weather and I'll shoot with overcast, but there's simply no way to shoot my concepts outside in the rain.

I was supposed to shoot with Kim again today, but we both decided to cancel after looking at the weather report on Monday. We're hoping to reschedule for sometime in August in hopes of warmer and drier weather. This shoot is one that I'd really like to complete as it would finish part of a three part arc of shoots and would be the only outdoor session of the three sets.

I've also had to reschedule with Lindsay for our barefoot glamour shoot. She was one of the models that pushed through a shoot earlier this summer despite the clouds and the cold, but I was shooting her in tandem with another model and I really want to shoot her one-on-one so I can concentrate on her expressions and her poses as I think she is an excellent model and can provide me with some compelling images when we next shoot. Alas, it looks like the earliest that can happen will be the end of August.

The weather forecast calls some improvement later in the week, but I have many other commitments later in the week and even the first couple of weeks of August looks pretty busy with non-photographic activities.

Will Spring Ever Arrive??

This has been the coldest, wettest April I can remember since moving to Oregon in 1996. The ivy that covers the wooden fence around my house should be covered in fresh green leaves, but is instead only just now budding. The Japanese maple should full of color, but is bare and covered with moss.

Although this weekend has been nice with dry weather and relatively warm temperatures, it has been nothing like our normal April. We're all hoping that May will be better and we'll actually get more than two days of nice weather in a row.

The long term forecast calls for a hot dry summer. One can only hope, and I certainly do, as I have a number of outdoor photographic projects I plan to shoot with various models this summer. I'm giving up some of my normal faire and festival events to concentrate on expanding my portfolio to complete at least three more shoots in my fairly project. I've lined up at least three models already, including a lovely Asian girl, a Latino beauty, and blond-haired, blue-eyed lovely who will be my Winter Fairy (you've seen her in my portfolio already as I've done a couple of shoots with her).

So, although the weather has been less than conducive to photography, I've been working on planning for these projects (gather costume material, visualizing the images in my head, and getting the locations planned out for the shoot). I do need to find someone interested in being my photographer's assistant for the shoots, but I don't think that will be too difficult.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to post-process the images from my last few shoots. The model above, Lisa, has a very natural look, is very fun to work with, and when we finished our shoot, left me with over a 1000 images to sort through. Of course, not every image will be used or processed, but they still need to be reviewed and the best poses tagged for use. That should keep me busy until the weather gets better.