Polytunnel Portraits

Nuala wearing the Inver Pullover/ Sailor Collar version
Leica CL + Voigtlander Skopar 35mm f2.8

In the winter months, I get approximately 3.5 hours of daylight between the time my daughter leaves for daycare and the time it gets dark. Photoshoots are scheduled during that window, and are arranged in advance based on models’ availability. At least half the time, when the model arrives it is either raining heavily, or the wind is so strong it is impossible to photograph outdoors. So not only is there a scarcity of daylight to begin with, but the existing daylight is often unusable because of the weather. And I cannot easily cancel or reschedule, because the models’ availability is quite limited and I typically have a deadline for when I need the photos.

Last winter the weather was so consistently bad, I took the majority of my knitwear photos in a makeshift attic ‘studio’ under a skylight, using bedsheets as backdrops. This worked, but after a while I found it boring and limiting - not least because the low ceiling made it impossible to photograph the model standing up, and the small skylight restricted the positional possibilities even further. After a while the repertoire of sitting and kneeling poses became quite repetitive!

This year my solution has been the neighbour’s polytunnel, which they conveniently built a couple of months ago and are allowing me to use. It is not a perfect setting, and I am still experimenting with how/where to best place the subject, but at least it allows me to photograph in a variety of poses, and in natural light - while being sheltered from the elements.