Light

Light is a glorious thing. Glorious in the way it shows colours, in the fact that I wouldn't have any pictures to show you if not for it - many things would cease to exist without light. The right light can make the mundane and ordinary transform into something utterly spectacular, giving the illusion of something magical. It can shine through water and make a droplet look like it contains an entire star nebula in its sphere.
It's incredibly fitting that we use variations of the word 'light' to describe people. How we can shine, glow, radiate and illuminate. How someone can bring out the best (or the 'light') in others much like the way the sun illuminates the intricate veins of a leaf or the strands of a spider web. 

Experimenting with light - particularly sunlight - is one of my favourite things about photography. I'm fascinated by the nature of some of the shadows it creates and I'm delighted by the way it's caught by single strands of hair, transparent materials and droplets of water. Different days, different skies and different light has all kinds of wonders to be experimented with and explored. 

So yes - light is a glorious thing. This post is simply a brief appreciation of that. All of the above images were snapped by me. The photo of flowers plaited into hair is of my mum and the second image is of my god-sister Jazz. All other portraits are of my sister, Ireland.

Perdita

First and last two images were taken with a Pentax k-x and the rest were taken with a Nikon L120
All images (except the black & white photo) are unretouched
Model is my sister, Ireland
Photos taken by me

I really enjoyed taking these photos of my lovely, elegant, semi-willing photography subject, Ireland (although she would call herself my "photography victim"). It takes quite a bit of begging before my sister agrees to do a photo session with me, although I can understand why: I'm very bossy when I'm behind the camera, I get her to lie down in uncomfortable patches of itchy flowers, it means she has to change out of her 'comfy clothes', and I put her in summer dresses whilst forgetting that it's almost winter.It was a surprisingly warm day today, so I didn't think the light dressing would be an issue, but towards the end of the photo shoot Ireland was getting cold and annoyed as I pleaded "Just one more...here, just look over there...no, that didn't work, again....wait, wait, wait, do this". So, big thanks to Ireland for these photos (and for putting up with me).

With the dress, flowers and garland, this shoot felt a little 'Grecian Goddess meets Perdita' although the garland was something I quickly made as an afterthought and the charity shopped silk dress (which in reality is greener than it looks in the photos) was haphazardly plucked from Ireland's wardrobe.