Behind the scenes w/ Scranton model, Karli Michelle!

Good evening/morning Steemit! It’s late. Midnight on the east coast. I’m here in Scranton for another day before flying back to Minneapolis early Tuesday morning. I’m beat. This trip has almost broken me, but I missed so much time posting here, I feel compelled to share something from this adventure before going to sleep.

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve recently upgraded to an iPhone 8 Plus. I wasn’t feeling the size, but the camera, especially portrait mode, was enough to get me to bite on the larger model. As you know, I shoot a lot, and with that comes BTS [behind the scenes] photos. Having something that can take passable 50mm BTS pictures in my pocket sounded incredible. You can visit my previous iPhone 8 Plus portrait mode experiment in my previous post “Nikon D750 vs. iPhone 8 Plus w/ @vermillionfox!”, where I tested the iPhone against my Nikon pro level camera. 

This is the first time I’ve had a chance to take my iPhone 8 Plus in to the field and I did so with Scranton, PA based model, Karli Michelle. Karli had contacted me a year and a half ago to book her shoot. She had plans of moving to LA, and intended on a Minnesota detour for our shoot together. Plans changed. She didn’t make it, and we rescheduled. This was our chance to finish the shoot that was so long in the making.

We met in Scranton. Karli did her own make-up […which turned out extremely well] and brought an eclectic collection of lingerie. She had a location in mind. An abandoned warehouse near where she grew up. As we went off road, walking through thick brush with bags full of wardrobe, we came across an open field. In the middle of it stood a dilapidated skeleton of a building. The prefect backdrop for my photography. 

Karli and I had an immediate creative chemistry together. She modeled slow and gracefully. It just felt like two old friends hanging out, telling cynical stories of our hometown of Scranton. We ducked in and out of small rooms filled with collapsing bars. Some overgrown with foliage. I captured several portrait mode BTS shots as we went.

Finally, we made our way to the open field, overgrown with tall, dead grass. It was the prefect element to hide her for one last bohemian-style set of photos. We packed up, cut back through the woods and thus ended 16 shoots in 12 days on the road throughout the east coast and Canada.

Thanks for reading. I post daily unless I’m traveling, so for more photography, art, illustration and the stories behind the work, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!