One of the more rewarding aspects of shooting fashion and beauty is finding and nurturing new talent. Sandy Shaw was my daughter's dance teacher. Susan and I coaxed her into the studio for a few test shots and our clients loved her. This picture was part of a beauty series I shot where I had the models scrunch up on a tiny stool. Lighting is Broncolor strobe, two heads with flood reflectors on the white seamless paper background and a single head in a special beauty rig I built with foamcore and gaffer's tape to give a soft spot effect. I was trying to figure out how Irving Penn was able to achieve the stunning beauty light he was using at the time and this picture is as close as I every got.
Technical: Leica M2 from 1961, Leitz 90mm f2.8, Agfapan 25, Broncolor strobes, f/11 @ 1/60s. Print on Agfa Portriga Rapid, toned in Kodak Rapid Selenium toner 31:1. My grandfather gave me his M2 and M3 Leicas when his eyesight failed due to cataracts when he was in his early 80s.
Other photographers have remarked about this, too, but I tended to shoot with more DOF with the Leica than with SLRs. Maybe it is a subconscious distrust of rangefinder focusing. I can't say that I miss loading film into the M2, but shooting with a Leica is pure joy.
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