The photographers I work with in Mt Dora that are working on the book of beautiful nude models in nature and on the lake have brought down some wonderfully talented photographers to do mini-workshops to help improve the book. This day they brought down John Paul Caponigro. To be completely honest, I didn’t really know who he was before the shoot, but he really is quite amazing. If you don’t know who he is, you should google him. Not only is he incredibly talented, but he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with. It was wonderful getting to work with someone of his caliber.
The day started like any other day, but this time I was the only model. For some reason (still unknown) the other model scheduled completely flaked. I’m used to being the only model at shoots, but for these sunrise lake shoots I definitely appreciate the break that comes when I switch with the other model and she poses. For 8 or 9 hours it was just me posing. My back definitely was not happy with me for a few days after, lol. But it was completely worthwhile.
After shooting sunrise on the lake, we went and had lunch together and JP did some teaching about composition and such. Then we proceeded to change locations to a pseudo studio they’d set up at a 2nd place they use for shoots. Part of what he taught was taking shots in a studio setting that wouldn’t be possible to do while actually on a tree and then using Photoshop to put the model into the tree. It was a definitely a great learning experience for me and I had a great time doing some of the crazy poses I got to do. 🙂
Oh! And according to John Paul, I “make really uncomfortable poses look like they’re the most natural thing in the world”. I guess that’s a quote I can take with me. 😛
I really hope I get the chance to work with him again. And if you have the opportunity to take part in one of his workshops, I highly recommend that you do so. I’m only just getting into photography, but even in the few hours I spent listening to what he was teaching the others, I learned so much.
Here’s one of the shots from the studio shooting. I hope I will get to see more once the book is published. 🙂
Chelsea Christian 