Trash the Dress

75 miles from my home in Provo, Utah there is a group of photographers, models, and makeup artists that get together monthly to share their knowledge, time, and have some fun.
This past meetup was a Trash the dress theme. We had nearly 30+ photographers show up and close to 10 or so models. It was a bit crowded with such a high photographer to model ratio, but most photographers utilize these shoots for networking and fun rather than building portfolios and getting one on one time with a model.

For my setup this meetup, I took a simple one light setup with an old Nikon flash coupled to a convertible 43" reflective umbrella. I hung a sand bag from the light stand to keep from loosing a good flash and radio trigger to the murky depths. We were shooting at depths of knee deep water at times. A strong footing a trustworthy camera strap were a must.

In all, I had a great time and I am excited to join them next month as we head out to the Salt Flats for a shoot.

Kids are Cute

The concept of this week's post is simple. Children... Children tend to be one of the photographed subjects there are. Parents, amateurs, and box stores are constantly capturing images of children. They are always cute, draw the viewer, and parents are attempting to "preserve" that moment in the child's life since they won't be that age forever and most likely will outgrow the shoes their wearing within several months.

These images were simply a few candid shots taken in between setups of a family portrait session of 19 people. These ended up being my favorites of the series.

Shelly + Josh

I have been given the great honor of shooting one of my long-time friend's wedding. Josh and I met nearly 14 years ago in Jr. High School where we used to spend most our summers and weekends fishing the local suburban ponds and rivers in our backyard that makes up the Wasatch Front. While most young men were spending time at Lagoon or the mall making failed attempts at picking up ladies, Josh and I found our leisure hitting the rivers and making attempts of catching fish, all while being surrounded by the pristine backdrop of the Rockies in which we call home. Josh is an excellent sportsman although I've always given him crap about using bait and spin tackle while I pride myself as fly-fisherman and a "purest". However, it always played out that one method proved to be more successful than the other on any given day.-The fish were taking only Josh's lures or only my flies, never both. So usually one of us would get skunked while the other would gloat over their successful day's catch.

Enough of memory lane, lets delve into Josh's and Shelly's Engagement photos. From our consultations with the bride and groom, I found out they desired something a little less traditional than the flowers, greenery, and heavenly sunsets. We opted or a more modern and contemporary look in an urban street setting. We set out to the streets of Ogden one late afternoon. We found some cool walls and some great stairwells to utilize as backdrops. Lighting varied from On-Camera Fill to several umbrellas. I designed their invitation to match the same "feel" as the engagements as well as their wedding colors.

Getting Emotional

Hayley contacted me months ago while I was still working on the Disney film in southern Utah. We finally worked out a schedule to where we could take a few hours during mid-day and head out and shoot.
When I asked her what concepts she was interested in, she made mention of shooting something with emotion. I knew this would be a fun concept since it could potentially give us more latitude than setting up your typical glamor or fashion motif.

While being a Strobist has its perks and advantages, it also has its problems, one of them overpowering the sun in the middle of the day. We were shooting close to noon, and the sun was directly overhead and not a cloud was to be seen in the sky.... So our options were to shoot in some open shade or find some dark, sun-less areas where I would be free to sculpt and create my own light with my speedlights.

We traveled a short distance from the homestead to a pedestrian tunnel that runs under a bridge and went to work. Each frame was captured with the concept of conveying an emotion. I gave Hayley no coaching and told her to simply "feel" what she wanted to convey, which was mostly dark and dreary moods and emotions. This went well with the dark tunnel and the final images are some of my personal favorites of this year's sets.
Enjoy

NOTE: All images were shot with a single speed light coupled to a Beauty Dish.