Arts

My name is Natalia Wilson and I’m the portrait photographer over at Gypsy x Company for all the dreamers and lovers of love. I live near the beach in South Florida with my filmmaker husband and baby girl. Elopements and intimate weddings are my latest adventure, but moody portraits will always have a place in my portfolio. It’s pure art — and I like the things that make people feel something, to create a mood within a photograph people can interpret and connect with.

This photo comes across as intentional, both in pose and timing, but it was quite the opposite. It was spontaneous and unplanned, and sometimes that combination can make magic happen. The shot was taken during a modeling beach shoot. It was pitch black when we arrived on Jupiter Island, but within minutes the sky turned deep blue with a bit of magenta on the horizon. I’ve done enough sunrise shoots to know you’ve got to prep while it’s still dark. I assembled my Canon gear together: 5D Mark III with my favorite lens, the 50mm f/1.2L. I have more equipment in my camera bag, but intuition tells me this is all I need. A few minutes later, the light has become an assortment of pastel colors, and we shoot without pause. As the sun starts to rise over the ocean, I have the model lie down on the sand to do a few poses. The tide ebbs and flows, leaving pretty traces of sea foam behind. She looks like a mermaid out of water.

I was in the middle of adjusting my shutter speed when we both saw the wave. It hit before we could move. The cold water covered everything but her hair. I repositioned myself for the sun to backlight her as she held the bed sheet around herself. The settings were left the same after the water receded to get the shot: ISO 100, aperture f/1.8, shutter speed 1/3200. Later in editing, I noticed every element in the photograph connected with one another. The mood is a vulnerable calm — and I was left assured with this: even when the tide turns, sometimes you’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

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