I recently had the pleasure of working with an experienced model who had been recommended to me by my photographer friend Doug. He informed me that Karina was a total professional, and easy to work with.

Well this sounded like just the person I needed for a shoot I’d been planning on the Toronto Islands using my Contax 645 film camera.

The Toronto Islands are one of the city’s treasured green spaces.   Originally formed from one of Lake Ontario’s largest sand spits, they are an archipelago of small islands, and only a 15 minute ferry ride from downtown.

After making contact with Karina, we discussed the kind look I was after, and set a date to meet.

On the day the weather was a perfect mix of sun and cloud, with a steady warm breeze blowing along the shore.

After we landed at Hanlan’s point and left the ferry behind, we took the 15 minute walk to the edge of the beach. Once there I loaded my camera with film and checked my settings, whilst Karina did her make up. Considering the fact that we’d just met Karina was a lot of fun and well prepared, with various outfits and jewellery accessories to choose from for the shoot.

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For this shoot I intended to use 100% Medium format film, but I did bring my trusty (Digital), Nikon D700 and 85mm f1.4 just in case… As it turned out I didn’t really need it.

I metered the exposure with a Sekonic incident light meter, shooting the Contax in Manual mode and from the 4 rolls of film I used, not one shot came out badly exposed and the hit rate of good pictures was surprisingly high…

I started the shoot with Fuji 160S, then moved to Kodak Portra 400, while Karina changed outfits on the isolated beach.

As the shoot progressed, the light got warmer, and the general feeling of the location was quite idyllic… Hard to believe we were only a couple of kilometres from downtown Toronto with all it’s noise and bustle.

Next I switched to a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 Black and white, and we moved to an area adjoining the beach…

For some reason I think I like these shots the best… Was it Tri-X black and white magic? or just the feel of the location? I’m going to say it was a bit of both.

Finally, as it started to get a little darker we went back toward the beach and I loaded a roll of Portra 800 into the camera and Karina changed outfits again.

The water was warmer than I expected; I know because I waded in too.

Well, I said I brought my Nikon D700 along just in case, and as the light grew extremely low I finished the shoot with a shot looking back towards the city…

Let me say thanks a million to Karina who was a great sport on this shoot, wading into the Lake, and feeling pretty cold at times due to her wet hair. Hardly once did she complain.

All in all I believe the shoot was a success and what’s more, a lot of fun too.

Thanks for stopping by!

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