Jordan McLaughlin Jordan McLaughlin

Shadows & Beauty

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea. Last spring I was at my parents farm in Norther Missouri. It was a beautiful day, great for shooting. I was wanting to do a project with water and natural shadows. My niece Isobel who is always willing to be my photo subject offered to model.

One thing about photography that I always find the most interesting is the photographers process. The end result that the audience see’s is just this great photograph. But what goes into creating those images is a lot of the time really entertaining. In the portrait Isobel looks like she is in this really deep pool. In fact she was in a very shallow pool, and it was tricky to get the photographs at certain angles. There is an illusion that there is more depth to the photo than there actually is.

The photo was not taken in black and white. I shot this image in color and then changed it in post production. I often find that I do that just because I like to have more control with the black levels in my images. The shadows in this images turned out very nicely it was exactly what I was going for.

I love projects like that. Projects where you brainstorm with the subject and create amazing images that make them look and feel great. That is why I love this job.

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