Marie Antoinette

Here's another collaborative shoot with some amazingly talented people.  The concept was based around the historic figure, Marie Antoinette.  Our goal was to use a blossoming orchard as the backdrop in which our model, Jillian would pose in and around the rows and lines of the trees.  Unfortunately, we were a couple weeks off from the blossoms being in full bloom.  I had a tough time deciding what color design to give the final images and still maintain the elegance and beauty of the subject and have the trees not appear to be too gloomy.

More after the jump

The Perfect Catch- Tips for Photographing Newborns

A couple months ago, I blogged about shooting my long time friend, Christina's Maternity session. Well her son Ryder finally arrived and I also was given the honor of shooting his Newborn Session.  These were all taken on location in Christina's living room and kitchen table. 

I absolutely love photographing Newborns.  A great tip to consider is that generally the best time to shoot newborns is within the first 7-10 days of their birth.  Newborns are usually sleeping most of the time during this period which allows us as the photographers to easily pose and "shape" them without disturbing the peace.

More Tips and Photos of Ryder after the jump:

Simplicity and Rock n' Roll

I consider myself on the advanced side of artificial lighting and design.  Whether it be lighting a scene for a local independent film or playing with off- camera strobes, lighting is "my thing" and I love every minute I get to experiment and work with it.  After all, Photography literally translates to "the study of light."

I finally splurged and purchased some studio lights to assist me in times when small speedlights and flashes won't get the job done.  This has been a long time in the making and I have done hours and hours of research in finding what would work with my workflow and niche.
In the near future, I'll post a blog about the strobes and went with along with a complete review and examples.  I am not gearing this post about it simply because I haven't shot with them enough yet to gauge an opinion.

For this week's blog, I going to recap one of my recent shoots in the studio with Mckenzie, a young and ambitious model with true professionalism and mutual respect.  This was our first shoot together, hence the images are clear, concise, and clean cut showcasing her natural beauty and personality. 

More images and story after the jump

Growing Up...

I had the opportunity to have a quick session with Carson and his little brother, Carter.  We were kept in the studio as the Utah weather still hasn't made it's permanent turn in to Spring.  It was a fun time and the boys behaved long enough to capture some great frames.

See more images after the jump

The Basement Strobist: Episode 1

With all my Behind the Scene Strobist and Lighting Videos on YouTube, I have been overwhelmed with emails, comments, and personal messages asking me about the basics of off camera flash photography such as what flashes do I use, what light stands should we buy, and how to trigger flashes wirelessly.

With that said, we created a new web based series geared toward answering viewers' photography and strobist questions.  We affectionately call the series "The Basement" as it is filmed in my basement home-studio.

Take 6 minutes and learn.  I would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavor and spread the word out to all photographers or photo buds you may have and are searching for answers or have technical questions they want addressed in future episodes. 

Recapping Help Portrait 2010

This was my second year volunteering for Help Portrait. I must say that it keeps getting better and better every year. This go around, the weather decided to cooperate and caravans were organized to shuttle our subjects to and from the the Road Home Shelter. The turn out was great and the day has been the highlight of my holiday season. An amazing group of photographers, hair and makeup stylists, and support staff spent the day turning a downtown night club and dance studio in to a full fledged photography studio where families and those in need could come get a hot meal, a warm coat, and a personal photo session with some of northern Utah's talented photographers.

A special thanks goes out to all those who made this happen, especially to Dave Brewer for stepping up to be the local organizer for the second time. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet the new ones too.

See the highlight video of this year's event.
Video 1
Video 2

Run with the Wild Fashion

Animals have been involved in Fashion Photography as long as I can remember. I've seen everything from polar bears to snakes and even lions implemented into ad campaigns for clothing lines and fragrances.

Robin came up with this concept when she met the owner and driver of a sled dog team. Arrangements were made and the concept of this shoot was born to where we could create a fashion motif with the dogs. Winter had already started and most the canyons/ mountains had already received several inches or feet of snow. This would work perfect for our theme since we associate Huskies with snow and winter.

We set out to Little Cottonwood Canyon and found a nice area which had some large standing rock formations, dead weeds, and enough forested area to block out whatever sky might creep in to my shots. It was vastly overcast. For you photographers out there, this is great for lighting since nature has provided its own natural "Soft Box" or diffusion from the sun's hard and harsh light. With that said, lighting was simple and straight forward, with only a single flash and umbrella needed to light the subjects appropriately.

I forgot my sandbags and needed help balancing my boom arm containing the flash and umbrella. Luckily, I brought my assistant Trevor in as a V.A.L. (voice activated ligthstand) to hold everything. Without him, we would have been in some real trouble.

The shoot went off without any deaths or accidents and I was pleased with the final images.

Fall Leaves

The Wasatch Front of the Rocky Mountains can produce some of most vibrant Fall Colors I've ever seen, given that the snow doesn't arrive first and the temperature doesn't freeze too soon. Unfortunately this year we had a vast cold front move in and "shock" all the leaves into their dead winter state, causing them to fall to the ground before their colors peaked or halting their chromatic change in a mix of a pale yellows and drab greens.

You now have clients running to get their family portraits taken with vibrant Fall Colors. What do you do?

Improvise. Scout, scout, scout, and scout some more. Move to lower altitudes to the wooded parks located in your backyard and valley suburbia. With luck, you'll find some trees with some color left. Utilize some camera magic and shoot with a large aperture and shallow depth of field to turn the background into a creamy, blurred bokeh of Fall color, avoiding the details the drab leaves are displaying.

Anthony is a paramedic / fire fighter I used to work with when I was still full time in EMS. Anthony is an outstanding medic with great skills and a genuine compassion for those who need help. I was excited to shoot his growing family. Their daughter, Claire was a natural in front of the camera and we captured some cute and fun images.

Beach Blanket Bingo?

The longer I live, the more I tend to believe I was born in the wrong decade. For this week's blog, I'm sharing the latest Pinup concept I photographed. I went back to Crystal for this one because she has the "look" and true form of what the vintage pinups used to be back in the day.

We headed out once again to the shores of the Great Salt Lake and started shooting away as the sun dropped behind the mountains and eastern shores of the lake. Lighting was minimal and included only a small Flash coupled to a silver reflective umbrella mounted to a boom arm and light stand. Some behind the scenes video was captured and another Strobist Lighting Tutorial should be done soon. As always, stay tuned.

-Ben

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.

Street Bridals

Theses were taken earlier this spring during a cold sunny day in March. I love when a bride has an open mind for some non-traditional concepts when we get to ditch the normal "bride in front of the flowers" or staircase shots.
Karina was one of those brides who placed her complete faith in my hands and said "do whatever you think will look good..."
I decided to shoot a urban concept where we explored some of the older industrial areas of Salt Lake City. Despite the cold March weather, we captured some great frames. Most of these images were accomplished by using only a single off camera flash coupled to an umbrella in one way or another.