When we
went for a whole-day photo-shooting with Maria, nothing had prepared me for the
person I would meet. We had our time
with the previous photo-shooting at Polilimnio lakes, but meeting a person in
depth for the whole day is another story.
Maria seems to be the happiest person alive and she makes everyone around her
feel the same. Despite her being
reluctant at first and that we started very early in the morning in order to shoot
with soft light and flash in shadow, the day went very well. She was a delight to watch and photograph,
very co-operative and full with ideas and suggestions, something very valuable
when the photographer runs out of ideas.
I had planned the morning well, but had no idea about the afternoon or
night. The thing is that when you plan
something it never goes the way you want, so you have to improvise and we improvised quite well!
The
lighting in the Railway
Park was just beautiful!
No shadows, green grass, no harsh sun and the photo-shooting went great! The theme was “EVE” and having some people occasionally
stare at us as they were taking their strolls through the park played its role in the outcome. Keep in mind that it was very early in the
morning, that we touched a theme that it could either success or fail completely and that
Maria is not a professional actor (she qualifies in my book, though!). Primary
colors were Red vs Green, an apple and grass.
We were lucky to shoot these photographs that day as the next day the park
flooded when the plants were watered!
We spent
around two hours in the park. Next stop was a beach I had scouted the previous
day, but between the park and that location we made a stop in Filoxenia shore
to look around and decide if this was another possible location for
shooting. We resulted in having a long
conversation for big and little things of our lives and I found out a little
more about Maria. Then we headed for the
beach near Kitries where our main summer shooting took place. I had brought some props with me (a laptop
and a remote controller) to add to the scene, but what really added to the
scene was Maria. In every photo she was a
different character and handled the props with fresh ideas improving the
original thoughts we discussed. We spent
several hours trying new angles, new ideas and I was trying to balance the ever-changing
light with my external flash until noon arrived and heat made shooting
unbearable.
It was high
time to leave the equipment and dive into the sea, so we tried to find a quiet
beach to rest. After all, these were dead hours for shooting.
We ended
our search at the cool waters (the coolest available) of West Beach
in Kalamata and as soon as the clouds came over and the wind begun to blow, he
headed home for a nap as we were dead tired.
We met
again some time in the afternoon and went to the tower of Kapetanakis
near Sotirianika where we spent time learning the light rather than shooting. I couldn’t revert easily from teaching to shooting,
so I went with the flow and started explaining some aspects of photography to
Maria, who is a multi-skilled person. Having
my 32 GB SDHC card almost filled with beautiful material made me also feel relaxed
and unwilling to shoot more, even though I had several ideas around a “Lady of
the Tower” theme, which was never shot as the light went away very fast.
I wish Maria
every success in her studies and I hope she never changes her character, as she
is one of the few nice people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I felt like I knew Maria for a long time and
that smile she never erases from her face made the day pass surprisingly
fast.
Thank you
Maria!
