Editor’s Pick: Botanical Beauty by Jess Petrie

August 24, 2015

By Laura Brauer

Photo © Jess Petrie Photographythless. It was taken inside a glass house at the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, England, surrounded by lush greenery and flooded with natural light to showcase designer Claire Pettibone’s Still Life collection for a local bridal boutique. Many words come to mind when I look at this photo—romantic, ethereal, dreamy, breezy, natural, youthful—and I just love that it is in black and white.

“When shooting digital, I like my photography to look natural and have plenty of detail,” says Petrie, who graduated in 2004 with a degree in film photography, “and when editing, I like my work to embrace a film-like quality and feel to it.” Petrie, who photographs weddings along with her husband (and second shooter) Rodrigo (check out my recent pick of their work for Wedding of the Week), shot this image with a Canon 5D Mark III and an 85mm Sigma lens. She opened up to f/1.4 at 1/320 of a second, with an ISO of 400. 

“Although the concept for this particular shoot was to showcase bridal wear, I always feel it’s also important, as a photographer, to let the moment take you and to capture what you see in your vision and how it makes you feel as an artist,” she says. “I saw this image in my mind before I took it and I felt it taking shape. I got the model to face the light, and I stood at an angle and shot slightly from above and very close, allowing all the light onto her face. I also chatted her up, and when I knew she felt comfortable, I asked her to close her eyes.”

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