In all honesty my friend Ella is probably part of my inspiration for this project. During lockdown the only person I would really see was her due to the fact we lived so close. Even though it was at times against the rules going for walks with her truly kept me sane. 

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I chose the meadows as a location as often we would walk through them in on our daily walks- even before the third lockdown we would inhabit these fields as it was a half way point between our houses and also a really lovely place to sit and talk.

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Green spaces- like the meadows are supposed to improve your mental health as walking through grass reduces the hormone cortisol which is linked to stress. So by choosing to walk in less urban areas you are supposedly prone to benefits like better sleep, improved skin and less greasy hair. 

 

My love for this place aside I shot these photos on (as usual) my Sony A7r2 and my trusty 50mm lens( which never lets me down!). As you most likely know by now I love a shallow depth of field so kept the aperture high and the weather was so sunny and bright I could keep the ISO at 100 which lead to very clear photos with minimal blur on the subject. The lighting was so great all I needed to do was enhance the images and turn down the brightness for some of the over exposed shots. 

 

The six photos that made the cut I selected because I tried to vary Ellas expressions and movements as much as possible so the photos above had a similar vibe but are visually differentiable. 

 

Like the rest of my shoots for this project I wasn't asking any of my models to wear anything in particular as my aim was more about my mental connection with them. However Ella wore a brown velour tracksuit which really went with the naturalistic background.

 

I was super pleased with the outcome of the photos- I think by now I've realised what my favoured angle is and I want to invest in a 85mm lens as its meant to be great for headshot portraits and will really get my subjects to frame in my images.