Down By The Sea

This title is sooo poetic & reminds me of many event from my past while growing up & living by the sea. I consider it a blessing & a gift from my ancestors to secure me this privilege be born & raised by the sea cause it gives some more opportunities & more relaxed life, special air value & extra romantic moments. Anyway, this time I connected a photo shoot with this by the sea concept & the musical personality of the model who is a flute & a piano player. She is actually a professional & educated musician. Her is Josipa & she encountered my add on Facebook where I was offering photo sessions to the model. She needed some extra photos for the future music education projects that she aim to start with. So, here we were again on the Molo longo or the Long pier in Rijeka, Croatia, catching the special sunset light.

It was a really beautiful Sunny & warm winter day which offered a really special light conditions to play with.

Josipa actually hadn't have much experience as model so she was a bit shy but I tried to break this with acting normally like we are friends & already know each other for a while. This resulted in her managing to relax fast &, I believe, together we made some really nice & usable captures for the purpose of her project & for further promotion of my photo work.

I really like how the Sun is reflecting from the silver flute making it shine & emphasizing itself in the image.

She wasn't even extra preparing for the photoshoot, just wearing her casual clothes, minimal make-up & she only wore the sunglasses while the Sun still shining. As soon as the Sun set behind the horizon I proposed her to take off the glasses to change a bit & to make her eyes visible what you will see in the following photos...

This was the rare occasion when I was using the flash for daily outdoor shooting.

The last moments Sun light gave us huge contrast between shadows & highlight & actually not easy moments for making good photography. I'm not even sure if I am really satisfied with the work I've done & somehow I feel I can do even better but still not so bad.

The use of flash was really minimal just to lighten Josipa's face which was in constant shadow while I was shooting against the Sunshine.

Let's break the article with some music from Morcheeba that often associates me with the magical life by the sea - a lot of truth said in this song:

As the Sun went fully down behind the mountain in the distance across the Kvarner bay, we changed to position just a bit introducing a bit more of the man made background using the port ambience such as the lighthouse & the cranes with the next pier. Here are the results:

Different conditions, different results.

With her serious & a bit dreamy face expression it seems like she is maybe expecting for something or someone or just enjoying the moment of existence standing alone with all the bliss down by the sea...

I like how is the line of the flute parallel with the line of the crane in the background.

...& smiling of knowing the blessing of here situation gratefully & with satisfaction of being who she is, in that special time & place not expecting anything more.

The next two close-up portraits for me are real success of capturing great photos. Josipa has extra white & pale skin with pretty dark hair, eye brows & lashes which is a naturally welcomed contrast for my photos.

She played a tune blowing some air becoming which is turning into the sound while whirling through the metal pipe, the tune for the Sun down by the sea... The eyes are telling a story of an artist giving her soul for creation, displaying her emotion to the audience...

My best shot I left for the end - no words are needed - just look at it:

I wish this shot would enter this round of monomad challenge.

This is my entry to #monomad challenge. Thanks @monochromes for keeping up this great photo challenge! You can choose any of the photos from this post as an entry to the contest.

The upper shots I made with Nikon Z6 with Sigma 105 mm DG Macro HSM & Nikon D800 with Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70 mm lens & for the self-portrait below I used the older Nikon D800 with Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70 mm lens.