My friends are some of the coolest around. Any time I need test subjects for new techniques I have learned or just want to have some fun, they are always willing and able to get in front of the camera. This shoot was another fun time being goofy with my friends Candice and Steve. Let me begin by stating that THIS WAS A STAGED SHOOT and that CANDICE AND STEVE ARE NOT MARRIED. Just had to get that out there. Candice and I talked about staging wedding portraits with a "Twilight" meets "GQ" type of feel. Not sure if we nailed that exact look but I think the pictures came out great.
Did I mention that these were fake and staged? Just checking :-)
A few months ago I joined Model Mayhem. It's a cool site where photographers, models, and make up artists can network and work together on various projects.
Eliza is the second model I have had the opportunity to work with and it was a lot of fun. I have been practicing more editing techniques for portraits and wanted some practice and she just wanted updated pics for her portfolio. We decided to meet up at Sly Horse Studios in Rockville. If you are in need of a space to shoot I highly recommend them. For $35 an hour you have access to all sorts of equipment and space to do some amazing pictures.
Overall this was fun and I look forward to working with Eliza on some projects I have in mind like, "Trash the Dress" which will be a lot of fun!
This weekend was a non stop weekend of shooting. SOOO many pictures to go through.
Let's start with my engagement portrait session with my good friends Mark and Hannah.
Mark and Hannah are a couple that ooze cuteness. I have known Mark for a number of years and have always wanted to see him with a special girl. Hannah is that girl. Her and Mark are so in love and I really enjoyed being able to do their engagement pictures. I can't wait to second shoot at their wedding with one of my favorite photographers whom I also look up to; Kenny Kim. I will definitely feel like a rookie shooting with him but I know I will learn a lot.
Okay, time to go through more pictures from the weekend.... a wedding, a studio shoot, and another eSession.... STAY TUNED!
So for the past two weeks I have really dedicated a lot of time to lighting techniques and incorporating more Photoshop into my editing (Thanks Israel). There is so much to learn!
This past weekend I got to shoot with my friend Marnie. A Lululemon educator by day, Marnie is making the jump into modeling. When she emailed me to ask if I would do a shoot for her I was happy to do so. Not knowing what to expect, I packed my entire trunk of goodies that included my 4 light Speedotron Kit (now powered by my Elinchrom Skyport wireless kit... I couldn't help myself), 10' x 12' backdrop, softbox, multiple umbrellas, and I even busted out the D3. We converted her apartment in DC into our very own photography studio. The two of us really didn't know what the shots would look like but I must say these are some of my favorite pictures to date.
I love, love, love shooting with my friends. It makes the experience so much fun and this is one of my favorite shoots thus far. Thanks Marnie for making my job so easy and fun! Here is a "sci fi" version of my favorite shot.
So recently I have gotten into golfing. My dad has been playing for quite some time now and he really wanted me to learn so that finally after all of these years we could have some father & son bonding time. How many times have we played in the last month? Twice. I am enjoying the sport and really like the mental challenge it presents.
I met Andrew Lee at Caddie Master; the shop where I buy my gear. It's a cool shop and you should definitely stop by if you are looking for golf gear. In talking with Andrew, I wanted to use him as a sports model and take pictures of him on the green. He agreed and we went out at 6:30 in the morning to shoot.
I was joined by my good friend Peter Bang on this shoot. I am always happy to work with Peter. He was also so kind as to let me use his "Alien Bees" portable strobe for this shoot. The lighting came out great!
Inspired by an old poster I have seen of Tiger Woods, I turned the shots of Andrew into a mock poster and I am looking into getting it printed. Maybe the shop will use it. Who knows? I had lots of fun and hope to do more shots like this in the future.
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.
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.
A few months ago, thanks to the power of Facebook, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with my old friend Bonnie. Bonnie is another person I grew up and went to school with. When she found out I was doing my own photography and trying to build a business, she was one of the first to want to work with me.
It was a pleasure to hang with her and catch up. This will go down as one of my favorite shoots. Thanks Bonnie!
This past year and a half has been quite the interesting ride. There have been some amazing highs and some tragic lows but an overall learning and growing time for me.
Along the way I have had the opportunity to reconnect with a lot of my old friends from my childhood. Alex is someone I have known for practically half of my life. When the opportunity to take her pictures came up I gladly took on the shoot. I am still getting comfortable with posing people but I think this shoot is really starting to show vast improvement from times before. 'Ya gotta love having friends to test your techniques out on.
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