Taji Mag Volume 29 – Water

One of the most amazing displays of colors play I was able to produce in a single session. The theme basis is water, if that weren’t already painfully obvious; but what may not be obvious is the fact that this elemental shoot contains 3 very distinct looks. Usually Taji Mag makes sure to have a specific theme per quarterly publication. I was contacted to create a cover concept that would coincide with the theme. To say I was overly excited would be an understatement. As per usual we had to call on Honey for this shoot and we were none disappointed.

Water is the giver and bringer of life and in this particular session we wanted to display this in multiple ways. The first item up was to be able to identify what would be the most explicit way to do this and then, what would be the most indirect way to express it. Our first go to for the explicit direction was to use an inflatable pool, fill it with a certain amount of water and lay Honey in it. We did this but ran into the problem of head positioning.

We needed to elevate her head so that it was the focus of these set of images. To do so, we propped her head up with a dark blue towel that was placed in the water. This towel then blended in with her dark hair. Though the initial shots were looking great, I wanted to add a bit more to the texture of the image. There were not enough reflections or ripples to give off the appearance of water. It was time to bring out the gobo. I used abstract shapes and the strobe to cast what would appear to be various light reflections onto the subject and the water. This made for a much more believably digestible scene.

Out of the water

Once we finished “pool side”, we set up a wet look in order to continue alluding to water. Using this, I wanted to create a more sensual look. I took to the gobos and leds as a combination to achieve this. Using deep purples and magentas I was able to use gobos to break up the light and shadow in scenes. This combined with the wavy look provided a very sensual and romantic feel that I loved.

For the final set of shots I wanted to try green. I am not a fan of the color green by any means but decided to challenge myself. What happens in the moments after changing the leds to green color combination, is nothing short of amazing. The green by itself lent to the visual of a sea green; however, when I shot with my gobo, due to the nature of the lighting and where I was using it, it reacted in a very iridescent rainbow way. The light became a beautiful complementary and non-linear color strip over the eyes.

These colors, combined with the wet look, and the chosen gobo lighting presented us with a sea creature vibe that we were extremely satisfied with. One of the images in the last set became our choice for Taji Mag Volume 29 – Water cover!

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