As we promised yesterday, we wanted to give some more information on Tiffany’s photoshoot from a couple of months back. This was a significant shoot for us, for several reasons.

First of all, we had been wanting to shoot our friend Tiffany for a long time. She is such a special lady, and so beautiful. I had been dying to see what we could come up with. For those of you who don’t know her, Tiffany has struggled with Crohn’s disease, among other health problems, for most of her life. An often debilitating and sometimes deadly intestinal diesase, Crohn’s afflicts between 400,000 and 600,000 people in the U.S. The pain can be tremendous, and there is no known cure, only treatments for the symptoms. It’s not uncommon for Tiffany to be in the hospital several times a year battling Crohn’s. Through it all, though, her faith and beauty shine through, and lately, through some new treatments, she has been managing the disease a lot better. I think that her optimism and attitude come out in these photos. Oh, and another reason they are special to her is that the cowboy hat she is wearing belongs to her dad. Kind of her way, I think, to say thanks for standing by her for all these years.

Second, we wanted to try to find an out-of-the-way, rustic location for some of our upcoming senior shoots, and this may fit the bill. It’s a farm belonging to one of Tiffany’s aunts, and the inside shots were in an old tobacco barn. The late afternoon sun was coming in through the gaps in the side walls, and the quality of this light was just incredible. I can see us shooting here again and again.

Also, this was one of the first shoots where we had a second assistant. Usually, it’s just the two of us — Tony and LaDonna — but this time we brought along Wayne Phillips, an amateur photographer who is doing some really good work. Wayne is contemplating a career in photography and is showing fantastic promise. He was a huge help in moving the furniture, gets the sets ready, assisting with flash and other equipment. He even took a few shots of his own, and almost broke his neck climbing into the loft of the barn to get one from a high angle. Look out for him, he’s going to be a good one.

Speaking of flash, we wanted to touch just a little on the technical side. All of these shots were taken with our Nikon D700 at ISO 400. Most of the time, we were using a Sigma 70-200mm, f/2.8 lens at anywhere from f/4.0 to f/2.8. We used off-camera flash — either a Nikon SB-900 or SB-600, sometimes both — on most of the shots, even the outdoor ones, to even out the light. These were shot in late afternoon on a pretty cold day (Tiffany was such a trooper being out there in that thin dress) and while the natural light was very pretty, having the extra oomph of a flash from different angles really helped.

Anyway, here’s some of the better shots. Hope you enjoy!