2010 has been an amazing year for us in part due to the influx of really, really good fashion photography sessions.  While I absolutely adore shooting in our new studio, I've always felt most at home shooting outdoors.  Natural light is unpredictable, flattering and the tapestry of an outdoor setting makes for a dynamic shoot filled with intense color hues and rich, moody shadows and eye catching backgrounds.  Best of all, working with natural light requires little setup and almost no downtime, allowing a photographer to focus solely on angles and zoom lengths. 

You'll often hear me gripe at how difficult it is to shoot outdoor fashion photography in Las Vegas.  Any type of portrait photography, especially fashion or boudoir photography (and even wedding portraits!), is best shot without an audience watching and the sheer volume of people in Las Vegas presents a challenge. To compensate, my locations tend to be a bit exotic and out of the way, but the payoff for a little bit of driving is huge and the only other people we saw during our entire shoot were a couple of folks on quads, riding across the desert almost a kilometer away.

We met our bikini model Melissa some time back for an in studio family photography session and the confidence and poise with which she carried herself was uncanny.  Shooting with her was like shooting a magazine cover with a top supermodel; the angles she made with her body, her expressions and the intense look in her eyes were beyond stunning and if it wasn't for the sun disappearing from the sky, I easily could have shot for another five hours!

There was so much traffic going out of Las Vegas that I was initially worried that we'd arrive to our spot too late in the afternoon, but my fears were allayed when I saw how the golden rays of the late afternoon sun complimented her skin tones.  There was also a bit of a breeze, which eliminated the need for the fan and generator I had brought along.  For most of the shoot, we stuck to 100% natural light, but for a few of the closeup shots, my partner Sarah made excellent use of 32" and 60" (5 foot!) reflectors to fill in the shadows a bit and at the very end, we even threw in a little off camera flash. 

I often say that color makes a shoot and the vibrant colors in Melissa's outfits pulled her out of the background and complimented every stage of the afternoon sun and into sunset.  A wonderful shoot with a talented model with the natural ability to brighten an entire room!