Happy Holidays....

Hope everyone had a great day... Here is my annual Christmas Card from our Kareoke Band, The Metric Ton.

Help-Portrait wrap up

Help portrait was a major success, especially it being Salt Lake's first year to attempt to put such a large scale photo session. We had over 30 photographers and 8-10 complete studio set-ups. I met so many talented people I surely was in "geek" mode with all of the amazing gear. I learned a lot observing everyone's studio set-ups. Although we had a significant amount of downtime, we did manage to get some of our target subjects to come in a get their portraits taken.

One of those people a 6 year old named Isaiah. He came with his mother and in all my time shooting at a professional level, I have never laughed so hard! Isaiah had a big smile and even bigger imagination. He worked the camera as if he was a professional model, and I'd have to say that he as more "looks" than half of them.

As I mentioned above, with downtime and so many photographers, what else would we do? Shoot each other! Here are some of those shots:

This is Megan of Clandestine Images. She is an amazing photographer and artist and I believe she could even model. She was playing in front of the camera and this is one of the candid shots captured.
You can see Megan's work at Clandestine Images


The above image is yet of another photographer, Travis Hougland. Travis and mine's studio were set-up next to each other. Travis was kind enough to assist me in getting all my gear prepped since I was lacking an assistant for the day. When Travis was posing for this shot, I told him to play up his long hair and find his chi. You can see Travis's work at his website at Hougland Imagery

Life's Turns

It has been a while since my last post. Things have been a bit crazy lately and the normal flow of life has led me through some crazy twists and turns. After working nearly 4 full time years as an EMT-I for Salt Lake City, my employer has not been able to secure financial stability and has made the decision to leave our great state, which will render me unemployed and laid off 4 day before Christmas. This is a first for me as I have had continual work since I was 13. I will miss serving the citizens of Salt Lake and running an ambulance on the street. Working within the 911 system of our capital city has been a life-changing experience.

To raise my spirits, a good friend of mine contacted me on Face Book about Help Portrait, a growing national movement where photographers get together on a set date and take professional studio quality photos of those who cannot normally afford to have them done. This included everyone from families, single mothers, and the homeless.

The day was amazing and while the number of subjects was limited, I met some great new photogs and captured some great images. This was Help Portrait's first year here in Utah, so next year will only get better. During downtime when we were not shooting our designated clients, we spent our time shooting each other. It is very rare to find me in front of the camera...

My next post will highlight some of the great photographers I had the honor of meeting and include images and the stories behind them as well as some of our subjects that came in for their portraits... Stay tuned.
-Ben
http://www.help-portrait.com
KSL News Article

Seduction

I often shoot for Chic Elite Models and this is one of those shoots. These were shot on-location at the Circle Lounge in downtown Salt Lake. Because the very nature of any lounge, club, or bar, the lighting was nearly non existent with the exception of some small colored LED's around the walls and the ceiling. This is good and bad. The good is that I can very easily control the amount of light of the scene without needing a lot of power. I easily manipulate the scene utilizing several speedlights with modifiers. The bad is that is is so dark, it becomes difficult to direct, pose, and communicate with the subject. Not to mention that even as great as my Nikon is, it certainly struggled to obtain autofocus at times.

The lounge had large soft, curtains wrapping around each booth and seating area. A large white curtain particularly caught my attention and I decided to utilize it in shoot as a giant diffusion screen by firing a bare flash into it. It worked out perfectly, and I believe the end shots would have not have turned out as great as they did without it. As always, please click on the images to see the full-size.

What isn't a Baby Cute?

Before Winter comes in and leaves turn to fertilizer, My nephew Dave and his lovely family commissioned me to shoot some simple family shots. The latest addition to his family is Lucy, which of course, had my camera's attention through most of the shoot. We set out on a warm Fall afternoon to a local park where I knew the leaves still had enough saturation and vibrance to give us the look we were after. The session went quick and so did Lucy's attention span. However, we captured some great shots...

Fall Snipits

Since I focus most of my time talent, and energy into shooting people, I felt like I should attempt to branch out and work on some of my weak points which would have to be Still Life and Landscapes. The Fall colors were in full swing and and large thunderstorm was rolling in. I knew I had only a few minutes before the storm would start drenching my equipment, so I drove to a nice spot along the Union Pacific RR which is located 10 minutes from my house. Here are the results... And yes, they are all HDR images

Not your Typical Family Portraits...

While having the perfect setting with grass, trees, wildlife and sunshine on our shoulders is nice and appealing to most families desiring group portraits. Sometimes it is a breath of fresh air to break away from tradition and the norm to create something completely different. The Bangash family wanted just that, and I became eager and excited when their oldest sibling approached me in shooting some non-traditional photos of her family.
They wanted a hard, crisp, and flattering look with a grudgy and atypical theme. Downtown Ogden was just the place to accomplish this "look". We had a productive shoot and the images were a sure bet not to disappoint.