Photoshoot: Libby

In October 2013, I was asked to do an outdoor photoshoot for my friend Libby who is also a pole dancer and pole-fit instructor. The autumn colours up in our neck of the woods are always stunning and we wanted to take the opportunity to use this unique palette. We had fun experimenting both with the portable pole (in a somewhat marshy meadow) and myself with the camera – finding new and interesting ways to shoot her positions.

We had a lot of fun and got a wide variety of images. It was an incredibly sunny day which both worked for and against us. The colours were lit beautifully and I was able to get some dramatic portraits with the afternoon sun.

Shooting outside on a sunny day always poses challenges with very harsh shadows, squinting (both for the photographer and subject!), and over-exposure blowing out the image. Side note: Also sun and black metal do not mix on a hot day when skin has to come in contact with it....unless you want to fry an egg. In post I did find that some of the images had been blown out, but I never throw these ones out right away. Instead I worked that to my advantage in Photoshop by removing the colour and accentuating the contrast to make a heavily dynamic, almost comicbook-eque, aesthetic. I was able to take an image that was headed to the trashbin and give it a second life.

See more results from this Photoshoot on my Photography page.

Check out Libby’s Pole adventures on her blog If I Were a Pole and her YouTube Channel.