Beach Photo Shoot with Raquel

Today on April 24th, I had a photo shoot with Raquel at St. Pete beach along Redington shores. We were scheduled to meet at 7am and were hoping to capture the morning sunrise in our photo shoot. The one obvious thing about Florida is that the weather is so unpredictable here. And it totally has a huge impact on outside photo shoots. It can be totally sunny one minute, cloudy the next, rainy the next, and back to sunny again moments after that. So you have to be prepared to improvise with your plans and adapt to the changes.

And that's exactly what happened on this adventure. On my way to St. Pete from Tampa, it started to lightly drizzle rain. I had a good 45 minute drive to wonder whether or not sunny skies would be in our favor as I continued to look into the sky driving to the beach. In a way, I didn't mind if it did rain and began to hope for it. I was also hoping Raquel wouldn't mind modeling in it either. Because for quite some time I've been wanting to do a rain shoot. But unfortunately, as I have mentioned previously, the whether here is so very unpredictable, making it near to impossible to schedule a photo shoot for it unless you and your model live close enough and are spontaneous enough to run and gun a shoot from the hip by the very minute you see the weather change. And for me, that has not yet been the case.

On the way there, I had briefly spoke to Raquel over the phone and she was game for shooting under any weather condition. Whether it be sunny or rainy. Although, she had her hopes on a golden sunrise, she was still prepared to shoot against any circumstance.

By the time I arrived, the rain stopped but the cloudy skies remained. Which is kinda funny when you think about it, because neither of us got exactly what we desired, but still ended up with an over cast day that gave beautiful diffused even lighting with soft shadows. Mother nature called the shots on this one and directed the shots as we followed her for the photo opportunity moments.

(click on images to view larger photos)

Raquel proved to be a true champ, not only by waking up so early in the morning to meet me at the beach at such an early time of the day on a Monday, but also for making the best of the circumstance and still being in a cheerful and playful mood while modeling to make fun and beautiful photos. For me it truly was a lot of fun and Raquel made it seem as if dealing with a cloudy, windy day, and crashing ocean waves was all part of the game as she dealt with the smashing waves crashing against her body, nocking her over from time to time during her posing for the camera. She would get right back up and go right back into her pose. And I can't help but to respect that kind of attitude. Because that is exactly the way I feel we should be about everything in life. When the sky gives you clouds, the wind gives you crashing waves, get back up, play, have fun, and make it a beautiful day!