Power Couple

CAN YOU SAY POWER COUPLE!!!! THESE TWO BELONG IN A MAGAZINE! Love Love Love overcast days when working outside! I get to bring as much drama as I want into the scene when I'm not battling the sun. Here it's done with a simple Nikon Sb28 speedlite camera left with a cto gel for a little added warmth. The key was provided by a large Octa camera right. This is why you put you subject in position before you ready and let them stand naturally. More times than not, by the time you look up they're in a great starting position if not a perfect one. Only small adjustments made to this pose. Way to go Ben and Angela! Thanks Again Darren! http://flic.kr/p/p88GPX

Agnew Family

Gorgeous Agnew family at Lincoln Park a few weeks back! Are you kidding me with these little girls! They were never short on smiles, and had me crackin up as well! Good family photos are all about laughter, appreciating each other and enjoying yourself! http://flic.kr/p/nCs6RS

Agnew Family

Gorgeous Agnew family at Lincoln Park a few weeks back! Are you kidding me with these little girls! They were never short on smiles, and had me crackin up as well! Good family photos are all about laughter, appreciating each other and enjoying yourself! http://flic.kr/p/nUPbvN

Agnew Family

Gorgeous Agnew family at Lincoln Park a few weeks back! Are you kidding me with these little girls! They were never short on smiles, and had me crackin up as well! Good family photos are all about laughter, appreciating each other and enjoying yourself! http://flic.kr/p/nUWt2T

Agnew Family

Gorgeous Agnew family at Lincoln Park a few weeks back! Are you kidding me with these little girls! They were never short on smiles, and had me crackin up as well! Good family photos are all about laughter, appreciating each other and enjoying yourself! Lit with single Einstein 640 with 64" silver PLM with deffuser panel camera right. Sun provided hair light. http://flic.kr/p/nUDrrD

Agnew Family

Gorgeous Agnew family at Lincoln Park a few weeks back! Are you kidding me with these little girls! They were never short on smiles, and had me crackin up as well! Good family photos are all about laughter, appreciating each other and enjoying yourself! http://flic.kr/p/nURuGW

Grandma

Happy Belated Birthday Nana!!! She's always been the rock in the family! Love this woman! Lit with a single Einstein 640 through a shoot through umbrella camera left. http://flic.kr/p/nsruq9

Bright smile

Lit with Einstein 640 with a blue gel through an umbrella camera right. The blue gel was used to warm up the cloudy and blue temperature outdoors behind the subject. Reflect low and camera left to fill in the shadows. http://flic.kr/p/k2nCxU

Mysterious Hot Pants

This photo was toward the end of our senior shoot. We photographed around Alki Beach and the water taxi in West Seattle until it started raining on us. I have no idea how her hair is as perfect as it is in this photo because it just spent the last hour or so being blown this way and that by some pretty powerful gusts of wind! Ok, let me address the tittle of this photograph (Mysterious Hot Pants). They were, most certainly, pink. Not crazy bright but everything else she had going on was darker. Almost 2 full stops darker! I took advantage of a little trick I keep preaching about, which is convert your image to black and white. Then see where your eyes take you. Straight to the pants and legs. I needed to tone these hot pants down and did so using the burn tool in Photoshop. It Really helped to even out the image as far as lighting was concerned. The Mysterious part is all in the eyes and slight covering of one of the eyes. I can't quite tell what she's thinking but she seems pretty confident about whatever that might be. shot with a beauty dish boomed directly overhead, rim lights on either side with gridded strip boxes, gridded and nd gelled x800 through silver reflector low and camera right. http://flic.kr/p/i8gC27

Mind your surroundings

-The more you take portraits, especially locations portraits, the more you learn to really see your potential background and potential light. You also discovery the capabilities and unfortunately, at times, the limitations of your equipment. Location work, more often than not, forces you to push your camera to it's limits. I just finished editing 60 headshot images for my client and I'm proud to say I didn't exceed any limitations of my equipment, only expectations of my photographs. Photographed with a single Einstein 640 through an umbrella with a warming cto (Color Temperature Orange) gel. http://flic.kr/p/i2NNPG

Beautiful Bokeh

Just finished editing another set of headshots for Group Health. I twas fairly dark outside today I needed to bump my iso up to ISO400 in order to balance the ambient outside. This also meant that there was a fair amount of ambient light coming from light fixtures nearby. It was critical that I white balanced correctly so as to keep the tones natural looking and consistent with other images I've done in different conditions. The building behind is outside while we are in and on the other side of the street which creates the nice bokeh (blurriness) in this image. Tis the season for headshots. Got yours? http://flic.kr/p/hFUNQv

She's a natural

I love the feel to this image taken a couple weeks back at Group Health in Olympia. The sun was just setting behind us and to the left. I used a cto(color transfer orange) gel on my main light to help balance the warm tones of the sun. The sun was only hitting the background to the right and, of course, outside. These shots are difficult to maintain as I had quite a few employees to get through and golden hour lasts, well, for an hour or less! I just kept adjusting my shutter speed as necessary which changes the ambient only and leaves the light from my strobe the same. Due to space restrictions I used only one key without a fill and a hair light camera left just behind the subject. http://flic.kr/p/hnj5Yx

Towards the Light

It's been a while since I've posted images because I've been so busy but that doesn't mean I haven't been taking them! Here's a fun Photoshop edit of David in between children at a school shoot. Playing around with some lighting effects (render lighting) and atmospherics fog(render clouds) with a touch of lens flare (render lens flare) Simple tools put to good use with a layers mask and a few tricks, compliments of Aaron Nace from Phlearn! Lit with a single x3200 super high and camera left with a grid to tighten the beam of the light. It was a long exposure to let the ambient light from the light fixtures in and worked well since David Jumped during the exposure. His transparency is not Photoshopped. http://flic.kr/p/hjmZjX

Centered-

Here's a fun shot of David at the school we were photographing student portraits at. Lit with a single 64" PLM (Huge silver umbrella) directly behind me. I love the way the light falls off to the edges. I would have loved to have added a little hair light but the wide angle didn't really allow for one to not be in the frame. It was shot at 17mm on a full frame. The more I think about it the more I wish I would have used the giant spot light behind him and the camera right and pointed it at him while placing a strobe in front of it. This way I would have an excuse to have a light in the photograph! If stage lights were on it would have really added as well but I didn't want to go poking around the school when we were really just there to photograph the children. Thanks David! http://flic.kr/p/gNsmxQ

Leading Lines

An image a couple definitely in love! I love the leading lines of the bridge in this image. They draw your eye right to the couples embrace. It was an overcast day which was great for lighting but challenging to keep the background bright enough. Shadow recovery to the rescue with Lightroom! Photographed with Large Octabox boomed overhead with Einstein 640. http://flic.kr/p/gH4Lw9

Cool Blue

One of Christoph Mayr's picks from a while back at Bothel Landing Park. Gotta be one of my favorites as well! The sun was coming in pretty hot in this image and I was lucky enough to have another senior along for the shoot to hold a defuser panel and knock the sun down a bit. The Heavy lifting was done with an Einstein 640 through a large Octabox camera right. An AB800 was behind and camera left for rim and hair light. http://flic.kr/p/ge77Yp

Bridges of Love

Victor's pic of the session with Yesica at the Arboretum. Been incredibly busy with other work and was excited to get to this image and add some finishing touches. This particular day was very cloudy with a few moments of sunshine peaking through. Using a large modifier really helped to mask the use of flash and keeps the image a little more natural looking. Lit with a single Einstein 640. http://flic.kr/p/gcniha