P#11: An Exceptional Photograph of an Energetic Swimwear Model

You Get What You Give

Bruce Smith: This picture was actually taken on a beach in a place called Rottnest Island in Australia. It was one of three or four-hundred shots of swimwear that I took for a catalog a couple of years ago.

When you've got so many pictures to actually shoot, you can get quite bored with it so you've got to play with it. You've got to create little stories to bring the shoot to life. I created three or four different stories for each day's shoot.

With this one, we were down on the beach and it was a beautiful day, as you can see from the sunlight on the shelf. I decided that I wanted to play a sort of game of tick with the swimwear model. (click the image for a larger version)

I said, "If I catch you, I'm going to throw you in the water."

We literally ran around the beach with her dodging out of the way trying to get away from me because I was going to throw her into the water. I wouldn't have really thrown her in the water, but she didn't know that!

We were running around the beach the entire time I was shooting her. I was using a wide angle lens, and we were actually closer together than it appears. This allowed her to hear me directing her and see the expressions on my face. I kept getting her to laugh by making funny faces at her.

I put a lot of enthusiasm and energy into this shoot. That makes it fun, and that came through in the picture.

In Conclusion

If you want your pictures to have energy, you have to give them energy. That's Bruce Smith's advice and that's exactly how he brought this photograph of a swimwear model to life.