Sometimes when the weather is not cooperating during a photographic outing one really needs to get creative. Or you just need to get lucky. When these photographs were being made the wind was bitterly cold! The temperature on paper wasn’t really so bad, just a mild day in the late fall here in the Pacific Northwest. But the wind… The wind was making it feel fifteen to twenty degrees colder than it actually was.
Anyone who has ever tried to operate a camera with bitterly cold wind howling around you, not to mention anyone who has ever tried to remove their clothing under such conditions can tell you - it is really not fun!
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.
I was actually ready to call the day a bust when we found a strange tree growing near the ground along the shoreline that had a perfect opening. I was able to stand out in the windy cold while the model was able to take shelter at the opening and didn’t have to endure the wind at all. The branches and foliage on the tree were so thick it felt like climbing into a sturdy tent.
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.
Our options for posing were very limited given the small opening, but I think we made do with the difficult conditions we had before us and I’m quite happy with the results. I was only able to expose one roll of film in this spot before it was physically impossible to continue. Sometimes one roll of film is all you need though.