Emilia 284

This encore portrait of Dublin based freelance model Emilia Char posing in blended myodisc glasses concludes her marvelous photo shoot at the Esplanada in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Emilia is the 41st Lady behind Crystal Veil.

A total of 284 published portraits is quite prolific for a photo shoot and even more so when considering the time spent on the actual photo shoot. I met Emilia and her lady companion around 11.10 am at Bray station and we did the ten minute walk to my B&B where some 75 glasses laid waiting for selection. Emilia selected 40 pairs including a dozen cat eye glasses which I had brought along upon her request. We carried two chairs to a white construction on the grass adjoining the beach. Here we found some shelter against the wind and a roof to protect us against direct daylight. We started shooting at 11.50, took a break after ten minutes, then went on shooting for a quarter of an hour. After a 40 minute tea break we resumed the shooting in front of the B&B at 13.05. It took us exactly one hour to produce all the portraits with the blue background. At 14.05 we ended the photo shoot and I walked the model and her companion back to the station.

This means that the 284 portraits were taken within an hour and a half. In fact, what I just posted is about 50% of the photos. These figures show that we worked fast and concentrated, especially in the final part. Emilia showed great stamina. She kept saying that she did not need a short break and that the posing was not difficult. It's clear from this portrait documentary that the quality of her work did not suffer from the absence of breaks.

Emilia has a consistent, self assured quality in all her posing. What struck me is her quality to produce portraits with a directness in the eye contact that is second to none, regardless the prescription in the lenses.
It was a concentrated photo shoot with few words and lots of excellent posing. Emilia was quite fast at picking up my frequent instructions when we started. Especially in the second part of the photo shoot it seemed to go all by itself. I only gave instructions when the glare in the lenses of vintage glasses forced us to choose some different vantage points. One might say, Emilia was in focus from start to end, even when the glasses were completely out of focus.

Emilia, I am impressed by your capacities as a model. You added a unique, alternative flavor to the project and I am grateful for that. May you have a brilliant future in your modeling career!