It’s hard being single during the holidays. So many things are couple oriented. So many things are about finding the perfect gift to bring joy and happiness to your significant others face. I can’t even imagine how hard it is for a widow(er) this time of year. Layer that on top of Seasonal Depression and it can be rough out there. All that was the impetus behind this image.
At first glance it may look beautiful, but when you look a little deeper you see a woman alone, shivering in a snow storm, with the Spirit of Christmas looming like a monster in the distance, an effort to capture the feeling of isolation and of being overwhelmed that some of us feel this time of year.
This image is what’s called a composite, the blending of multiple single images together to create something new. It’s a bit like cooking in a way, where you need a bit of this and a bit of that, mix it all together and let it simmer for a bit and you end up with something greater than the sum of its parts.
In November 2021 I started trying to pull things together for this project. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted the final image to look like, but there was still a lot vagueness – in the initial stages things are very fluid and can change multiple times a day as you find (or realize you’re unlikely to find) a certain key piece for the project.
I spent a couple of weeks looking for the right look and stumbled upon this guy at a local antique store for something like $5. It wasn’t until after Christmas that we got some snow so when it came I snapped 15-20 pictures of him from various angles so I had some choices when it came time to put everything together. Some of those photos turned out really nice and I may use them for Christmas cards someday. This photo was taken on January 3, 2022.
The same day I took the photos of the deer I drove around for a couple of hours looking for the background trees. I knew I wanted some snow-covered pine trees and found this group of them right across the street from the entrance of a park that was closed for the blizzard. The final image is comprised of a couple of iterations so there’s some variety in the treetops due to the wind that was blowing that day.
I took some other scenery photos that day just to have some options – a snowy field, a collection of trees with no leaves, a walking path in the woods, and so on.
It took a little while for me to figure out what I wanted from The Single Girl – what did I want her to convey with her appearance and pose? It took a while, but I finally figured it out.
While casing for the model her overall look was important but so was the wardrobe she could provide. I have a number of red dresses in my collection, but none that are flowy and that’s something I wanted for this project. We did some other shots with a red sweater dress that I liked, but it wasn’t quite right.
The day of the session the model and I chatted for a bit about the project. While I had something in mind for the pose, I let the model give me some alternate poses that she thought might work. I’m glad she did, because when it came down to it, I wasn’t really able to communicate what pose I wanted from her – something along the lines of fight or flight alertness mixed with a martial arts style ready stance. I give her lots of credit for trying, but we just didn’t find the right pose/angle combination. Maybe in the future I’ll revisit this project, because the change in pose changed the overall tone of the final image. This photo was taken on September 17, 2023.
I went through a couple of iterations of the composite in late 2023, but it wasn’t coming together quite right. This is one of those times you have to just put something on the back burner and let it simmer for a while.
While it was simmering, I acquired a few new tools, learned some new techniques, and as often happens, stepping away and then coming back refocused my vision of what I wanted the final image to be..
Here’s a side by side of an early iteration and the final finished image. I hope you will agree that the final image is a much better image.
So that was the process for this project. Merry Christmas everyone! And don’t forget, the best gift you can give someone is to spend time with them; I guarantee it means more than you think it does.