The model had great natural poise, a fun spirit, and was a pleasure to work with as a photographer. She was only seventeen at the time, so she brought her brother (a really great guy) along to help keep the wolves at bay. We had a crew of just a few people and some basic traveling studio lighting and grip equipment, but we still attracted attention from passers by, and the brother was able to discourage any innapropriate comments with a stern look and firm word.

To give the photograph a little extra snap, we used a studio flash unit with a large softbox. Many people (who are not professional photographers) believe that using flash with photography can make a picture look harsh or fake. They are used to taking pictures with a point-and-shoot digital camera with a built-in flash, or an SLR camera with an on-camera flash. It is true that these small flash units connected to the camera usually give poor results, but that's a completely different animal than doing a location photo production with proper professional lighting equipment.

This image looks very smooth and natural, but it has just enough supplemental flash, shot through a very large light modifier, to give it a little extra brilliance, depth, and color saturation.