One of the models I've shot before, Joyias, raises critters. Her critters include snakes, tortoises, tarantulas and various other crawlers. I've been lacking to take her with a pair of the critters, a serpent in particular, and I finally got the chance a few weeks ago. After discussing the shoot possibilities, we settled on 1 snake and 1 tortoise.
Joyias had an estimate for a particular shot she cherished to do that was redolent of an old Ivory Soap television commercial. Sounded good to me, so we loaded up and headed up to the SOPHA studio, in Manchester, NH, for the shoot. My friend Kelley-Sue came on to assist, act as creative director, and of course. wait for it, wait for it. herd turtles (well, a tortoise to be exact)!
For the concept shots that mimicked the TV commercial we used an antique chase lounge that is one of many props at SOPHA. Allison changed while I set up the lights and touched the chase onto the set.
For the shots on the blank background I used and AlienB in a 7 foot Octabox softbox to get some nice soft light.
For this scene I was lying on the base to get my perspective eye to eyeball with the tortoise, and have him (yup, this one is a male) the main topic of the picture with Joyias in the background. By doing so the tortoise looks much bigger and has a commanding presence. In reality, he is near the sizing of a football, and dang near as fast!
BTW, the guy is a Redfooted Tortoise, and yes the red spots are pretty cool.
The next shot also mimicked the commercial. However, for this one Ichose to take a landscape version to establish a lager view of the wholechase lounge and I only loved Joyias' smile.
Throughout the shoot, Kelley-Sue was literally herding the tortoise tokeep him on the set.
This guy was headed for the edge all the time.He was often quicker than I thought a tortoise could be. Those stubby little legs can actually move.
We all had some good laughs at Kelley's expense. Thankfully she has a keen sense of mood and hardly had fun with it.
Psssst - I heard a rumour that she now has her NH Turtle Herder's license!
Well we could not provide all the sitting to the tortoise so it was time to play in the snake. And this is no little snake, it is an Albino Burmese Python that is about 8 feet long. Makes for a handful when you are stressful to sit with him (at least I suppose its a him).
So Joyias changed costumes and proceeded to let the snake wrap itself about her. Joyias takes modeling direction very well, but the serpent was more disposed to simply do whatever 8 foot snakes want to do, so I simply looked for good opportunities for nice graphic designs as Joyias hit lots of poses for me. One thing that makes this shot, below left, more interesting is that snakes tongue flicking about trying to clean up scent.
By locating the lights so it put a light, diffused shadow on the ground I added some depth and attribute to the photo. I also like how the light wraps around her leaving some shadows to add depth as well. I don't consider the serpent was very concerned in those subtle touches though.
Next we decided to apply the snake some scale by comparison it to Joyias.As said before, this guy is sort of long. I care how he is wrappedaround her foot and doesn't appear to beware that he's being held up likethat. Very quiet and collected critter if you ask me.
The next shot ispretty much how I had conceived it and envisioned it in my head before arriving at thestudio.
For this ground I used an AlienB shot through a 4 x 8 foot part of blackcorrugated plastic that had a serial of 3" or so holes in it in rowsfilling the whole sheet. I set up the AlienB about 8 feed from thesheet with barn doors on it to manipulate light spill and exploited it bare bulbfor harder light. I set the whole matter up at an oblique angle to thewall, knowing that the holes would create weak and shade that wouldhint at snake scales by the form it would make. For the foregroundlighting, a softbox with another AlienB was set up to camera properly and athird AlienB was set on the story to clear the snake. I was onceagain sprawled on the deck to get the proper perspective.
Two more shots for your enjoyment on a dark background. For these, the short set up was the Octa to camera left on low power with Joyias about 8-10 feet from the black cyclorama background. Rim lighting was with an AlienB in a stripbox to camera left as well. For the snake/tortoise the stripbox also provided light low to the story to clear the critters.
This was my first hit with critters of this kind, and I give to say I'm dying to do more with them as well. I'm not a big fan of snakes, having grown up in the South (Alabama) where there are poisonous snakes. I'm proud of myself for not run from the studio flailing my arms around and scream in terror! I think Joyias and Kelley-Sue might only be glad about that too since I didn't embarrass them that way. I actually had a big time with this charge and take notes for the next shoot now that I get more live with slithering and scampering models - and of form the beautiful Joyias too!
It only happens that Joyias raises all those critters for her own pleasure but she also rents them out for shoots and movies. So, if you are in want of a lovely model, and critters for your shoot, you can contact Joyias on ModelMayhem. Tell her Dave Headley sent you. That might not get you a discount, but it might only get you a very interesting photo shoot. You won't be disappointed.
If you get ideas for a portrait, portolio or themed shoot of your own, contact me and let's discuss possibilities. I'm open to any idea, concept or paper and can do location and studio shoots both. See the Contact page for my all my contact information.
Expand your horizons, test your fears (I've almost quit shaking from the snake encounter) and almost of all have fun with your photography.
dkh
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