As many of you may or may not know, I really love clothes. My friends regularly make fun of how much I love to go to a store and try stuff on. I have, in previous posts, mentioned that one of my favorite stores is Lululemon Athletica. The clothes are so comfortable and they really do a good job of designing men's work out clothes. Aside from the clothes, I love the people who work there. That is where I met Kate Ochsman.
Kate is a local theater actress who has a love for connecting with people through entertainment. A few months ago Kate asked me to take some portraits of her for her portfolio. To my surprise her web site had regular, candid pictures that were taken with a point and shoot camera. I gladly agreed to jump in and offer my services. She told me that she would be honored to have me take her pictures because she really did like my work. That made me smile and blush. I guess I am still learning how to take compliments LOL. After a few schedule changes, we finally got together today and shot some portraits at Glen Echo Park.
Kate was so easy to work with. She is very creative and offered some cool ideas during the shoot that we tried out. Her adventurous attitude is one that leads her to try out anything, even if it seems a little silly. Being an actress made directing her very simple and she really did an amazing job of showing some good emotions for the camera.
It was a joy and honor to work with her and I know there will be more collaborating in the future.
You can read more about Kate on her web site. Be sure to catch her as "Lizzie" on the Obamanologues.
I have said it before, in this business who you know helps you land some fun gigs. My friend Carolina got me access to come shoot the after party of one of the biggest events in the Latin community; the Hispanic Heritage Awards.
It was truly an honor for me to take part in this event. There were high profile leaders in the Hispanic community in attendance, Latino music stars like Alex Gonzalez from the group Maná & recording artist Crisitan Castro, Latino comedians, television stars, a red carpet and everything. I got to meet some really cool people at this event and felt that it will go down as one of my most memorable experiences to date. Thanks again Carolina!!!
Here are a few samples from the evening.
A while back my friend Carolina asked me if I would do portraits of her mother, Marta. She wanted to have fun pictures of her mom and the family done as a gift to her mother.
As I have shared in the past, it is very important for new photographers to get used to, and comfortable with, giving direction to your model. As artists, we photographers have complete control over the look of the pictures. I have really worked hard to work on my direction during a shoot because I want to make sure that I provide the best images possible for my client. Let's not forget, however, that direction alone will not accomplish this. We must also aim to find a way to build trust with our models by connecting with them on a personal level. Emotions will be communicated through our pictures so why not aim to bring the best out of a person?
How do I do this? Spend the first 20-30 minutes talking with them about who they are, what they do, and what their passions are. On this particular day, I found out a lot about Marta including the fact that she used to run her own Modeling agency years ago. This made working with her very easy. I also used it as an opportunity to learn a little bit about working with models and how things are done in the fashion world. I definitely learned a lot and valued her input.
