Webster somewhat diplomatically defines the word “gypsy” as: “A member of a traveling people with dark skin and hair who speak Romany and traditionally live by seasonal work, itinerant trade and fortune-telling. Gypsies are now found mostly in Europe, parts of North Africa and North America, but are believed to have originated in the Indian subcontinent.”
Well, I was in Pushkar, India, so at least I was more or less at the point of gypsy origin. Some people in India associate gypsy lifestyle with thievery and many perceive young gypsy women as being “butterflies of the night.” About such things I have no knowledge. I just take pretty pictures for my pleasure.
Dark skin she had . . . and intriguing eyes. I lifted my camera.
“Can I take your photo?”
This was the third time Rekah posed for me. She seemed very gypsyish. Her Hindi was fluent as was, of course, her own version of tribal gypsy language. And her English was almost fluent, as well, but she had never heard about Romany. Rekah seemed to relish in her unique gypsy type of beauty and she charged me accordingly for the photos.
Well . . . sometimes I’m a pushover and, yes, I don’t mind paying for a model release when I know it’s a salable image. Naturally, marketing value plays both sides of the equation and Rekah seemed to know. Besides, all the gypsy girls at the Pushkar Camel Festival come dressed in their best finery to earn extra money by posing for the hordes of photographers on hand.
Compare lighting results in the before and after views below.
Before After
Both photos had the ambient exposure set to minus one f/stop. In the “before” image on the left the only strobe firing was a Canon 580EX II mounted into a 10×14 inch LumiQuest LTp softbox, which my assistant was holding up above on camera right but it was pointed only at the sack of flour balanced on Rekah’s head. You can see how dark her face would appear without supplemental strobe lighting since I had lowered the ambient setting for a better exposure in the background. Three Speedlites were used for the image on the right. The LTp softbox was pointed lower this time to properly expose her face. Off to the right and from slightly behind was a 430EX II fitted with a LumiQuest Snoot to provide the kicker light on her shawl and the resultant glow on the righthand side of her face. For a tight grip I used a LumiQuest non-slip strap to attach both the LTp and the snoot. Mounted on the camera was a Ray Ring Flash used for fill light that was set three stops down from the key light. All flash units were triggered by a Pocket Wizard TT5 radio transmitter using the AC3 Zone Controller.
In the end, Rekah delicately painted my hand with a traditional gypsy henna motif that faded in a couple of days . . . but my memory of her lingers.
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Glen Allison
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