Full Body Available Light 4x5 Shot

I did not take many of these full body shots in available light but more and more of these images will be made in the future, hopefully starting in November. I have to improve the way I interact with the subject, posing etc. I used a reflector with this shot and placed here face on Zone VI with the spotmeter. She was the cutest girl and got all embarrassed when I asked her to pose for me but she was a good sport and came over to be photographed, she had braces which you can just see barely in the image.

Usually what happens when you ask a Thai women working with her friends (old or younger women) to pose there is a big shy moment, where they laugh and say "No no I can't". Then it takes a bit of smiling and convincing on my part to get them to agree to be photographed, usually less than 1 minute of convincing time. The subject usually enjoys the attention of being photographed. I think thats the power of the large format camera on a tripod, the whole thing becomes a major production, your not just shooting away with a 35mm or a digi camera, your composing, metering, focusing, inserting film holder etc. the making of the portrait just seems important, it is complex, multi stepped and flattering to the sitter, "This man is doing all this to take a picture of me!" Making the portrait makes the sitter feel wanted, needed, important, which they are!

I really enjoyed making the photos of Oon and got to use a reflector off camera for the first time to fill in some of the shadows (thanks Jock), making photos like this in the future should be a blast! Am looking forward to years of making pictures for the "Common Livexs" series. To be able to enter these peoples lives, to be able to get tho know them a bit and make their picture, whats better than that! Ain't Photography Grand!

Oon 22 Construction Worker Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok 2011