salty morning yoga photoshoot
We have fifteen minutes before the sun rises and since we still need to get to the rocks, where we will be photographing, we practically jog as soon as we park the car at Spanish River Beach.
As soon as we step off the wooden boardwalk and sink our toes into the sand, the salty ocean air gives me a grand sense of calm and at the same time energizes me. There is a topless forty-something man with long hair who greets us with a huge smile,
"Good morning. What a gift!", as he gestures toward the ocean.
We have fifteen minutes before the sun rises and since we still need to get to the rocks, where we will be photographing, we practically jog as soon as we park the car at Spanish River Beach.
As soon as we step off the wooden boardwalk and sink our toes into the sand, the salty ocean air gives me a grand sense of calm and at the same time energizes me. There is a topless forty-something man with long hair who greets us with a huge smile,
"Good morning. What a gift!", as he gestures toward the ocean.
A gift it is indeed, Tisa and I agree and jog toward the rocks.
"My yoga journey started three years ago," Tisa says. "I was very depressed during that time. I just started meditating and doing yoga, and it lifted me. I learned with YouTube videos practicing in my living room. I also go to free yoga classes in Mizner Park on Saturday mornings. I apply the things I learn on the mat to life in general - things like patience, not focusing on the aesthetic, but on the feeling, the essence, of something."
Tisa is originally from the Virgin Islands, where she is planning on returning at the end of the year. Right now she works as a doula, and is preparing to take a yoga teacher certification course.
"Where I am from, people run track, they are not much into yoga. I want to bring yoga with me to the islands, I am really excited about teaching it to other people."
Once we finish photographing, I realize that my parking meter is about to expire, so we quickly pick up our things and, again, practically jog back to the car.
The man with long hair is still there, playing Frisbee by himself.
"What a gift," I smile to myself.
a singing yogi
Imagine taking a hot yoga class that makes you feel like you have worked out such DEEP muscles in your body that you didn't even know existed and all the toxins evaporated from your body leaving you light, sweat pouring down your face which you gave up wiping, and you are feeling proud for having shown up.
Imagine taking a hot yoga class that makes you feel like you have worked out such DEEP muscles in your body that you didn't even know existed and all the toxins evaporated from your body leaving you light, sweat pouring down your face which you gave up wiping, and you are feeling proud for having shown up. And when lie there on your back, in a corpse pose, and your mind has left your body, you hear the sound of an accordion that vibrates through your body and the entire room, making you resonate with the bodies of all the other yogis who joined you for this ninety minutes of practice. And in unison with the sweet and grand sounds of accordion you hear an angelic voice singing that sounds like something between Sanskrit and Brazilian Portuguese. That was my experience with Jessica, who teaches yoga at Anuttara Yoga.
It wasn't until later that I discovered that there are yoga lessons with live music, but Jessica gave me a glimpse of it.
We photograph in Sanborn Square in downtown Boca Raton on a Thursday afternoon, and the fruits of our labor can be seen here.
She talks with a sing-songy Brazilian accent and literally FLOWS from one pose to another so fast at times that I ask her to go back to this or that pose so I can take a better shot of her.
When the sun almost gone, we decide to play with a dress or a non-yoga outfit. With the words "I have this sari, you gonna die when you see it", she goes to her card and brings out a huge basket filled with colorful outfits and dresses. When she pulls out this golden five-mile sari, my eyes start gleaming. She wraps herself in this sari and sits next to the fountain while I click away, trying to find THE SHOT. Afterwards Jessica said that her mom almost had a heart attack when she saw this photo:
Then we play with another Sari, a green one, and just as we are both about to leave, she - to catch a movie with her boyfriend and me - back home to my babies, she changes into this simple and elegant outfit of black top with open back and wide flowy blue pants. She looks like a ballerina and she confesses to me that she is also a dancer! I ask her to dance on this huge stage of Sanborn Square. And when she starts jumping up high in the air and leaping in effortless pirouettes, I realize that the next photoshoot we will be doing with this goddess will be a dance shoot!
Get to know this Goddess for yourself - attend one of her classes and see what brilliant light she shares with the world.
tough stuff
"Give me some time to get into better shape and we will do a photoshoot", were his words before I left for a long vacation spanning two countries. Having come back hungry for work (photographing places and things does not give me the same high as a photo session with a person, a photo session with objectives to capture a certain mood, or something special about that person), so I was very psyched to have an opportunity to photograph Kerem.
"Give me some time to get into better shape and we will do a photoshoot", were his words before I left for a long vacation spanning two countries. Having come back hungry for work (photographing places and things does not give me the same high as a photo session with a person, a photo session with objectives to capture a certain mood, or something special about that person), so I was very psyched to have an opportunity to photograph Kerem.
It was an indoor photo session with one light, tons of coconut oil (to enhance form and give the skin a glistening look), and lots of fun, as always. As many other clients that I work with, Kerem was concerned about how to pose himself in front of the camera for a natural look. To alleviate this anxiety for him, I suggested some poses which he openly tried and we also improvised a little.
Side by side comparison of the photo straight out of camera and the final edit. As you can see, the abs are really his :)
Originally I had planned Kerem's final photos as high contrast black and white images, but when I started editing them, I decided to try a brownish/golden tonality and am very pleased with the results. As you can see from the side by side comparison of the two photos below, the only things that I changed in Photoshop were color and contrast and no alterations were made to the actual body of the model. By the way, the response to my request to provide some insight on how to get a body like that was simple: work out and watch what you eat, especially eliminate carbs. Sounds easy enough, right? ;)
These are the final images from our photo session. Hope you enjoy them!
