Fujifilm X-T4 + XF35mm f/1.4 R: 1/8000s, f/2.8, ISO160

Change-up! My buddy Ryan invited me to a tandem photo shoot with yogi Rachel. It had been a while between portrait events, so I definitely had some rust to shake off. Ryan made things easy by sharing his lights and modifiers so that took a figurative and literal load off my back. I searched Pinterest for as many photogenic yoga poses I could find and created a board. Of course, on the shoot, my phone’s reception was spotty so I wasn’t able to access the board half the time. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF23mm f/1.4 R: 1/8000s, f/2, ISO800

For starters, Rachel woke up ridiculously early to meet up with Ryan and I at the location. She has super feet that survived much of that morning’s rocky terrain bare! 😳 To the contrary, I have “princess feet.” When I walk on rocky terrain I reflexively utter a quiet “ow” with every step. Pictured here is Rachel holding a pose all-day-long with no yoga mat like a boss.

Here Rachel is holding a head stand with no yoga mat all day. I love the long shadows of the early morning light. I was less aggressive with the Photoshop on this one… I wasn’t sure if the wall rocks were more distracting or more natural-looking. One thing I realized while reflecting on this shoot while editing is I don’t need the aperture to be wide-open for portraits. Good backgrounds give context and add to the majesty of a photo, which is why we chose this location to begin with. I have a bad habit of automatically going for that blurry background portrait look without a giving it a second thought.

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF23mm f/1.4 R: 1/250, f/8, ISO160

I talked with my friend Allan about this photo shoot and he mentioned that when he sees yoga photos, he likes either a very wide landscape showcasing the vastness and oneness with nature, or very tight lifestyle photos that isolate the techniques of the yogi. I hadn’t even considered those perspectives, so it’s something I look forward to trying on a future shoot.

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF23mm f/1.4 R: 1/250s, f/1.4, ISO800

Since Ryan kindly allowed me to use his lighting equipment, I decided I should get some practice using lights as well as the tools are very similar to what I use on-location. The reason for the discrepancy between the title and this post date is the time it takes me to edit photos. I’m very slow. In fact, there are more photos from this set I’ll append to this post at a later date. I was simply over-eager to share these photos with you all. In the meantime, enjoy these behind-the-scenes photos captured by Ryan!

03.14.2021