Train tracks and graffiti - a surprisingly interesting location for portraiture

Last two weeks, I was doing a location portrait at one of the very unique locations.  At MIT, we happen to have these train tracks close to our dorm.  Behind the MIT police department, there is also this old storage that is covered with very cool graffiti.  It is one of those spots that most people won't consider their first choices for location protrait.  After passing by this spot a couple times on school shuttle, I decided that I need to give this location a try.  Thanks to my model for her willingness to experiment at this set.

While planning, I was thinking about the compositions of the pictures for this set.  Clearly, a formal dress probably won't do for such a unique place.  I remembered that I only told my model to wear 'chic' clothing and I really have to thank her for doing such a great job on choosing.  What she had was a loosy shirt, trendy skirt and a pair of hot shoes.  I think the contrast of all the garments create a casual yet sophisticated tone that  ends up playing very well with our set.  Because we had quite a brief time for the session right before sunset, I did not use as many strobes as I wanted, mainly using a big silver reflector to bounce back some light to the subject or an off-camera handheld speedlite.  I have to say that I am very pleased with the results we got at the train tracks.  When we later try to shoot some photos with graffiti wall, I was trying to make some strong, high-contrast and vivid pictures.  We tried to play with a few posture but only a few blended well enough with the background.

So, the slideshow below is what we got.  One lesson I learnt from this experiment is to never use your prime lens fully-open because it will result in unsharp images. And unfortunately for this set, I was thinking too much about composition and forgot to try a few more apertures.  Regardless of this trouble, I hope you may find a couple of these pictures interesting.  Overall, I do love this location and would highly recommend anyone to try out.  Many thanks to my model again.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens used:
- Canon 85mm f/1.8
- Canon 28mm f/1.8