I became acquainted with Nana through Instagram, and we did a portrait session last year at Osu Kannon, a popular city area in Nagoya, with many restaurants, shops and funky stores. Nana gets a lot of model requests year round and is popular with both amateur and pro photographers. I think part of her popularity is due to her ability to adapt to her surroundings, whether catching a sunset at the beach, walking around the city or posing in the studio. In our Osu Kannon session, she quickly blended into the urban environment, climbing on walls, squeezing into tight spaces, and leaning against buildings. Here are a few sample images from that session.
I did a second shoot with Nana last week. This time, we went to the local woods, Idaka no Mori, not far from my home. I’ve been to Idaka many times, and know it well. Having no streets or buildings to play with, trees and plants became our props. There is an elevated wooden path leading through an area that is often flooded, so we started off there. I used the path to create a leading line through the otherwise irregular natural environment. As the colors of the woods and Nana's clothes were muted, I decided to edit these mostly in black and white, to add some contrast.
Next, we found a tree for Nana to bond with. With Nana, I very rarely give her any instruction about how to pose. I choose an angle for the background, maybe point out the direction of the main light source, and then just let her do her thing.
We took a detour from the main path to walk to an area overtaken by bamboo. One thing people who have not spent much time around bamboo might not realize is that ungroomed bamboo groves are not easy to walk through. There are dead and fallen bamboo stalks jutting at all angles and thick looping bamboo roots protruding from the earth. They are not the light, airy, perfectly spaced lime-green forests that you see in photos, like the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in Kyoto. So, we had to walk carefully, and photographically, I had to choose shooting angles that didn't reveal all the clutter. I also chose a lot of tight frames to eliminate distracting elements.
We hiked up to a ridge with a fallen tree. Nana climbed onto the tree, and as she is wont to do, made herself comfortable, adapting her body to the contours of the tree, like a cat might.
I got in close for some tighter shots, while Nana played with her hair and did more of her thing.
After that, we walked to the lake. In the winter, they keep the water level low, so we were able to explore the perimeter of the lake.
I think Nana has beautiful hands, so I took some close-ups of her hands, using a shallow depth of field to add a dreamy feel.
Along the periphery of the lake is an area where the path dissects another bamboo grove. While the interior of the grove is similarly ungroomed, the area just either side of the grove has been partially groomed, so that the tall bamboo shoots create a frame for the path. It had started to rain a bit, so Nana took out her umbrella, and we incorporated it into the shoot. At one point Nana experimented with tossing her umbrella into the air, so it would appear to be floating away.
Finally, we made our way through the woods to another, smaller pond, with a tree extending out over it. With a different model, I might not have asked her to climb onto the tree, but I knew Nana would be game.
All in all, we walked maybe 5 kilometers, through woods and bamboo groves, around lakes and ponds, our shoes muddy and our clothes adorned with hitchhiker seeds and weeds, and were back at our cars in just under two hours. Nana is always busy with her full-time job and her active modeling schedule so it may be quite a while before we find time to schedule another shoot, but when we do, it will be interesting to see how she adapts to whatever location we choose to go to.
To see more photos of Nana, check out her Instagram account: