Height

THINKING:

When working with a model both of you have to pay attention to safety. When Freya was sitting on the ladder in this shot I felt comfortable. But then she started leaning out on it, balancing on just the top step - then I felt very uncomfortable. I had to keep checking that Freya was OK and that she was entirely safe - I had to rely on Freya to be sure about what she was doing.

At other times the model will rely on you ensuring everything is safe and sound. This is a great responsibility and not one to be taken lightly. It is ever so easy in the heat of the moment of an exciting shoot for both parties to be carried away and attempt something really stupid.

Just because you can does not always mean you should.

SEEING:

This image relies on the large negative space to create its sense of height and scale.

The clearly lit edges of the ladder absolutely point to Freya right at the top. In addition, those lines take up a lot of the picture - especially relative to Freya - and this builds the height.

There is just a hint of floor to ground the ladder and provide a little measure of balance with Freya's lit body.

DOING:

It was shot in an abandoned sports hall. Very large, with the back wall very distant. The light source is relatively close to Freya and so the back wall falls into darkness (inverse square law and all that).

The light is well below Freya's position so the upward point shadows reinforce the sense of height.

Camera height is at standing position - this reveals more of the floor than I would normally choose, but the ladder needed a base to "stand on". Otherwise, it would appear to be floating.

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