The first time I saw Emily I thought she might sprout translucent wings and flit off into the sunlight, sparkling like some sort of magic butterfly. Very pixielike, I thought, and was absolutely thrilled to be photographing such a beautiful, photogenic woman.

It was so easy to take good photos of her, I barely had to try.

There are three major challenges to shooting portraiture in someone's house:

Lighting...
Props...
Backgrounds...

...and of course, a nervous model. Emily said she has never professionally modeled before, but she should. I barely retouched any of these photos- I cropped a couple of them, and removed an outlet off of the wall behind her. But basically, they are just as you see them- light, shadows, laughing, and all.

For lighting I positioned her fluffy chair across from a window. Fortunately, the day was overcast and so there wasn't a danger of crazy overblown sunlight bleaching poor Emily into a white blob. I shoved all her furniture over to the other side of the room, and pointed a small bowl light at her. With a bounce flash pointed up at the ceiling, I snapped away.

During the one hour shoot, she changed her clothes four times, if you count her putting on a jacket at the end. During the setup for the "looking up at Dawn" shot, I stood on a kitchen chair as she positioned herself in the seat, and I'm going to say that it's probably one of my more favorite shots, even though I hadn't yet moved the table out of the way, and she's moving.

Props, of course, are a problem. By props I mean furniture or things that are going to end up showing, like other furniture, plants, or the family cat.

This photo, with her looking backwards at me, has her bookshelf and footrest showing, but I don't find them distracting. I think it looks like she's about to tell you all about her favorite recipe in a magazine!

It's probably one of the best ones in the group, because you can clearly see the line of her chin, the graceful curve of her arm, and she was laughing at me so her smile is completely natural and her eyes are absolutely twinkling with merriment. Either I'm extremely witty, or, Emily is just a really happy person. I was just thrilled with how easy it was to talk with her and get her to laugh.

The last issue, backgrounds, can be absolute murder. One particular shot, with Emily draped across the chair, required me to move everything in the house practically into the other room. A bit of cropping, a bunch of "I really don't want an radiator in this shot" gimping, and voila- ready for a night on the town!

I wasn't actually certain on how this photo was going to look, because putting someone's entire body into a photo can be a challenge. You've got to be sure they're comfortable with where they have their hands placed, how their legs look, and that they're actually having as much fun as you are... otherwise, there is no photo magic!

Many people are very uncertain of how they really look in front of a camera, and it's an understandable issue. But with Emily, I think she did fantastically well, and I'm extremely pleased with my finished shots!