Portraits in the Wild

 Sev sits for a portrait in the clouds

  Found myself with a spare afternoon yesterday after finishing up all my Edmonton work so I set out into the mountains with my friend and fellow photographer, Sev. It was an overcast, drizzly day so I figured the odds of getting any sweeping panorama landscapes were probably pretty slim but hey, it's always worth a shot to go do some exploring. You never know what you'll find.

We decided to head deep into the Chilliwack River valley south of Chilliwack. A rugged peak filled valley that juts south across the boarder into the North Cascades of Washington State. We decided to try our luck at a random forest access road and found ourselves deep in the mountains, on a road so overgrown that the truck would barely make its way through. Needless to say, Sev's paint job is no longer pristine.

Knowing that the weather wasn't optimal, I had decided to bring my lighting kit with me. The cloudy, drizzly weather makes for great soft light that is perfect for portraits so I wanted to take advantage of the lush, green alpine conditions to create some environmental portraits that sum up what I love about living in this area. We also found some remnants of some old logging equipment that worked pretty well as a backdrop to photograph against. Here's a few of my favorite shots, I can't wait to go back to this area.

James

 Somewhere up in the clouds were some majestic, snowcapped peaks

Fresh bear poo was a reminder that we weren't in the city

Here's a set up shot for the lead in photo. It was a simple shoot, one flash into an umbrella

We found these old boiler pipes on the side of the road. I used my small Lumiquest Soft Box III

to illuminate Sev as he stood in the shadows

This is my favorite photo of the day. Sev stuck his head out of this hole, it was actually so tight he had to hand me his hat, stick his head through and then put it back on

Admiring the trees of the Coastal Rainforest