Third day in a row that I force myself to make a portrait. It is so funny, when commissioned, there is no fear. I gained the trust of the client and I will deliver. Now, when I need to ask for a portrait, the feeling is different. I am commissioning a person for a portrait instead of the other way around. Anxiety. I could talk about this for hours, but I won’t.

At least, today my subject was shy as well. I’m not alone. To her, a portrait was ok, if she could hide behind her hands. I loved the idea, so I accepted. This time I took more time, using pure window light and a plain wall in my office as a background.

Meet Jelena.

This time I used a custom made acros setting, which is less gritty, more soft to our skin. It’s base I used already with the normal monochrome settings of fuji, but acros really rocks. Raw is only used now as a backup in case I need colour while shooting b/w. Though I thought I’d shoot only 6x6 with my new cam, I do enjoy - and shoot now - 6x7. May be I should try 4x5? Afterall, this is the base of large format.

Regarding the GFX, you can’t notice it on the resized images, but quality is insane. If I crop on Jelena’s eye, I see myself reflected in her pupil. Amazing.