I debated over and over how to process these photos. This wa..
Added 2020-11-18 03:20:36 +0000 UTCI debated over and over how to process these photos. This was the day I knew that the fires were going to cause another shutdown for me. @duckfanaccount and I had been planning this shoot for a little while, and this ended up being the last of my true summer shoots. The air quality was still moderate, and we hadn't reached the point of being warned to limit our outside activities, but the entire field smelled like standing inside a bbq. My initial photos were so orange, and so contrasty due to the smokey haze, that I actually switched to a soft focus technique just to minimize some of the incredible artifacting.
I won't lie I was panicked. I've shot with a ton of gels, incandescent lights, even fire, and I know that you can only push an image so far when color correcting before it starts to fall apart.
I wanted to make this shoot work, I wanted to keep some sort of proof of what was happening in my life, but I also wanted to create amazing images for her as well.
I think I found the balance in the toning. I still feel stress when I think about this day and the ones that followed. It felt like our world was on fire. We got evacuation warnings only a few days later, and I had to pack up all of my things in anticipation of fleeing, and not knowing where, but at least we were able to create something lovely before it all got to be so bad.
