Leah 214

This excellent portrait of Leah in makeup glasses on Bray beach concludes her epic photo shoot which lasted almost three hours. The unfortunate passer-by in the background is beheaded for privacy reasons :). Leah is the 50th Lady behind crystal veil.

Compared with most models, Leah and I exchanged many messages before the actual photo shoot. She was clearly motivated but in a more articulate manner than most. Leah also came with some good ideas of her own, like using bubbles. I always appreciate it when a model goes for a thorough preparation. This also included the selection of her outfit, the black dress, the pearls, the hair style. From my side, a lot of work went into the selection of glasses because of the narrow PD but this really paid off eventually. It was a good occasion to bring over a number of glasses that had not been used in any previous shoot.

It was a most rewarding photo shoot in many other ways, too. Over 700 photos were taken and no less than four dozen glasses are shown in this documentary. The Rx of the lenses in the glasses varied from +7 to -25 so there is an incredible lot of variation in styles, prescriptions and overall feel.

My standard procedure during photo shoots is to start with at least some glasses that match the model's own prescription so that the model has a mild start. Leah was different. She saved a lot of time by simply picking out of the box what happened to be on top. From the first pair on, there was no strain. Within a minute she delivered fine, natural and above all, credible posing in glasses of minus twelve. This goes especially for the impression of direct "eye contact" towards her photographer although she only saw me in a massive blur.

Most of the portraits and other photos in this documentary are in black and white, for two reasons. Leah has an outspoken preference for black and white photography. Light conditions at Bray beach were different from previous photo shoots there. The weather was overcast and the light rather diffuse. During the editing process it turned out that the black and white versions often had a better definition than the colour versions.

Leah has almost a decade of experience in modeling and the influence of her early experience as a child model was visible throughout the photo shoot. There was an endless amount of variation in her posing. I have yet to come across a model producing the whole gamut of moods and expression without any visible effort the way Leah does. Much of this variation seemed to come quite spontaneous. There is always a bit of acting involved in any good photo shoot but Leah has acting capacity in glorious plenty. On the other hand, Leah showed great patience and discipline, taking directions quite well when required. Great stamina as well. Leah was indefatigable.

A word of thanks goes to Leah's companion Jack for his pleasant company and advice about the glasses. Jack had three functions. He was a beacon for Leah, her one man peer group and also her target and even catalyst. Jack's very presence clearly stimulated Leah to pull everything out of the hat. Intense posing, acting bordering to drama. Excellent team work and lots of fun as well. Thank you, Jack!

Leah, you have great talent as a model and I would not be surprised if we hear more about you in a future career as an actress. You have the free spirit, the dedication but also the fantasy and imagination. All these are qualities needed for an acting career. I really enjoyed working with you. Our photo shoot was an event all by itself and it yielded many beautiful nostalgic portraits. Thank you for sharing your list of favourite portraits from the shoot. This was helpful during the selection of the material for this documentary. I wish you a brilliant future.