Yoga with Cindi

Cindi, whom I met at a yoga class, teaches at Black Dog in Sherman Oaks. We became friends while sipping coffee after each class at the local MStreet Cafe next door and a few weeks ago she asked me to take some shots of her, doing yoga, to upgrade her website.

She wanted to do 12 poses, one for each month of the year (we ended up with about 50), so her students could follow a routine, have some kind of structure to follow each month.

Once I set up the lighting, it was a matter of just finding the best angle for each of her poses and pretty much staying at even height with her. The lighting changed from my original concept (what doesn't these days) and I ended up with a high key look which actually I like quite a bit. I flooded the back walls with two umbrellas to blow out the wall behind her, and all the light that spilled wrapped around her, beautifully. That pretty much became my key, and for fill I use two soft boxes on each side. That was it!

It amazes me what yoga teachers can do with their bodies, the extent they can bend and twist and stretch. It's absolutely beautiful! I have done some yoga for the last few years and I know how impossibly hard some of the poses are... especially when done with such ease, precision, and accuracy as Cindi is doing.