An Hour for Ourselves: Dana at Mild Studios
The photographs in this story came from the hour we’d kept for ourselves. Dana and I had booked two hours at Mild Studios in Toronto, with the first devoted to a jewellery shoot for a brand. We’d allowed a little extra room in the schedule, and planned to use the remaining hour for something personal.
I wanted a relaxed boudoir and lifestyle series with the feeling of being at home. Dana and I had worked together before, so I already knew how she moved in front of the camera and what we could comfortably make in that time.
A room that felt like home
Mild appealed to me for its interior: the bath, the books, the large window and the beige walls. With the wood and warm colours around them, those details gave us much of the atmosphere I was looking for.
We began with a white shirt and soft, long socks. It’s probably my favourite series from the shoot. I like how the simple clothes and the room sit together, and how feminine the closer portraits feel. There was something cosy about the whole look that suited the photographs I’d wanted to make.
Colour, texture and a change of clothes
Dana brought a green lingerie set, and it fitted the room beautifully. The colour picked up the plants around the bath, while her skin, the warm floor and the beige background kept the palette connected. I liked how naturally it all belonged in the same photograph.
We worked on the floor near the bath, by the furniture and on the couch. Some of my favourites are the simpler moments in this series: her smile, or the pose where she’s sitting with her hair gathered up in her hands. The clothes changed the mood, but I still wanted the photographs to feel easy and lived-in.
Jeans and a sweater took us a little further towards everyday clothes, while keeping a playful edge. The loose neckline and the way the sweater sat on her shoulders were enough to suggest that mood. It was another version of the same idea: something comfortable, with a little sensuality in the details.
We used the couch and the window area for these portraits. Keeping the setting familiar let us make a change through the clothes and Dana’s expression, without building a completely new scene.
A morning scene to finish
At the end, we made a few photographs on the bed. We were imagining the feeling of a slow morning: waking up, wrapping the sheets around yourself, with soft daylight in the room.
The last smiling photograph is a good example of the mood I wanted. There’s a little light on Dana’s face and in her eyes, keeping her expression clear within the softer scene. I believe I used a mirror to reflect some daylight back towards her. It’s a small lift in the light, but it helps keep her face from disappearing into shadow.
Direction, with room to move
Throughout the session, I gave Dana the broad direction: where to sit or stand, which way to turn, what I wanted to see in the frame. She took it from there with her hands, movements and expressions. We already knew how to work together, and her experience helped keep the photographs natural without needing to direct every small gesture.
I worked mainly with window light, raising the ISO a little as needed. A touch of reflected daylight helped in some frames, but the room’s soft light was already close to what I wanted. The aim was to keep that warmth and the feeling of an ordinary, slightly playful moment at home.
That extra hour gave us quite a different set of photographs from the jewellery work we’d started with. When I return to this session, it’s the white-shirt portraits and the uncomplicated expressions in the green lingerie series that stay with me most.
These photographs show the studio as it was for this shoot. For current rooms and interiors, see Mild Studios’ website. If you’re drawn to this quieter, more everyday approach, you can explore my boudoir photography and we can plan the setting and pace around you.
