I’ve left my favorite for the last of this series of six posts featuring my portrait session with Kami. During our exploration of Old Havana, we happened upon an abandoned building taken over by nature. The entrance was wide open, and we walked in to investigate.

Inside was a glorious mix of raw industrial steel and wildly overgrown vegetation. It allowed me to combine two elements I’ve always wanted, a model shoot in an urbanEx setting. It’s a decidedly odd place for a model shoot, and I don’t know if Kami entirely understood my fascination with the space. Still, she was more than happy to oblige.

The first two pictures were on the far side of the entrance. I was immediately drawn to the worn, colorful metal supports. It almost looked like a set, complete with chunky, blocky stone-covered moss, but with a smooth concrete floor.

Then I turned around to see the lushness behind me.

I shot with multiple focal lengths from the same position. The third photo is at 35mm, and the fourth at 28mm. You can see the sky in the photo above, which explains how the overgrown interior remains lush.

This fifth photo is at 67mm, nearly at the maximum focal length, which more effectively blurred the background.

However, this final photograph at 42mm is where I nailed the look I was going for. Kami also appears like a goddess on a pedestal—statue-like. There’s enough environmental context to create interest with a soft defocus. At 42mm, this is how the eye sees the scene without any wide-angle or telephoto distortion.

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