Drea Castro

SHANTA | THE WOMEN OF NEPAL | PORTRAITS OF INSPIRATION However, the one thing that really moved me was the women I met through a volunteer program I decided to work with during the trip to Nepal. Here are their stories: Shanta is 34 years old and one of the most successful farmers in her village, Jitpurphedi, Nepal. Her life was completely altered through a farming educational program that was facilitated through the Volunteer Initiative of Nepal.

We made it just in time for sunset for that perfect golden light. I moved them to where I had placed the light before – to my left because I wanted a different background Since the sunlight was now to my right, my subjects would be lit perfect already, but I wanted to add a little more pop to them, so I had my strobe light come from behind my subjects on MY right but behind them, which created more of a rim light.

Casey Washington and Jake Head are two comedic actors with an upcoming comedic crime series coming very soon. A lot of my photography uses a lot of rim light/background from natural sources of light. Poor Casey and Jake had to lug up to my favorite hike to get to this particular location with my assistant Julie Benard, an amazing photographer herself! That gave us enough time to prep the actors with their wardrobe, props and actually getting to the location for the actual shoot.

I wanted to try some portrait photography where I would shoot what they call, “Day for Night” with a bluish undertone. It’s obviously not the complete dark/night effect For those of you non-photo/filmmaker people, who don’t know what Day for Night is: Day for Night means when you are trying to achieve the evening look with broad day light shining down on you. I wanted to create almost a eerie feeling and to achieve the semi “Day for Night” look.