One thing I get asked quite often from new photographers is, “How do I find subjects to practice lighting skills?” I tell each person the same thing, ask your family members to pose for you. 9 times out of 10 they will say yes. A few years back I had been watching a lot of tutorials and reading books about lighting and was eager to put into practice what I had learned. I asked my granny and all of her siblings to pose for portraits. They all said yes and over the course of three months, I had done a portrait session with each of them. In the end, I ended up with hundreds of great portraits of them and created my first portrait book. The cover was comprised of a composite of them from each of the sessions.

These sessions taught me so much more than just what I had read and watched online.

I recently asked my granny’s cousin to pose for portraits. He was more than happy to participate and we set the session date. I love to photograph in overcast days and always love going out to Cataract Falls. I thought that it would make the perfect backdrop for his portraits. I am so happy with how these turned out. I had three cameras on me, my Canon R6, my Hasselblad H3D-ii and my Yashica 635. I used one Elinchrom One light and Photek SoftLighter as my modifier. This is my usual go to for these types of portraits.

Enjoy!