"Beauty is not caused. It is."~ Emily Dickinson

Elena was such an excellent model for the studio lighting assignment as she provided me pictures upon pictures of endless beauty, making it so hard to choose only three of my favourites. For the assignment, I wanted to capture the true beauty of someone, rather the posed and cheesy smiles you see models make in "The Bay" catalogs.  In the first photo, I caught Elena in motion as she flipped her hair back. I enjoy this picture because she still managed to keep that "beauty" on her face even when making a very frigid and fast motion. In the second photo, I managed to take a candid shot of Elena as she was preparing to pose for me. I think this photo shows such grace and patience which is part of my definition of beauty. There is also a small amount of 2:1 ratio of lighting portrayed as the right side was brighter than her left. The last photo, to me, is a summary of whom Elena is. As friends, I have come to realize her spunky and hilarious attitude, yet she still remains to have this utter beauty about herself, with the slightest ease. The catch light in her big puppy eyes are truly so intriguing and the flow of her hair is quite stunning (basically, she has the coolest hair in all these pictures). I believe I captured the essence and beauty of Elena with just two lights and umbrellas (the main light come from right and the fill from the left). 

(All photos were taken with an aperture of  f/14, a shutter speed of 1/100, a 18-55mm lens, with a Nikon D90.)