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.

Making Maternity an Enjoyable Time

Maternity photos... Either you love them or you despise them. It's a trend that is nothing new, but becoming more and more popular as looking pregnant is "in".
Just a few years ago, women tended to wear loose, baggy, and concealing clothes to disguise that bundle of joy maturing within them. Nowadays, I see more women wearing tighter fitting, almost what is deemed "fashionable" outfits to celebrate and show-off their current state.
Whether you feel it is appalling or amazing, I enjoy shooting maternity photos for these reasons:
-Just as any photograph does, it captures "that" moment in your life in "that" state.
-It gives me great joy watching the expectant mother and father react, pose, and share a special bond in front of the camera.
-Wouldn't be great to have the child see those memories of their parents once they are all grown and an adult?
-It allows the parents celebrate the miracle of birth in a different and fun way.

Let's face it, pregnancy is a challenge and trying time for any women. Even for us men acting in a support role, it has it's challenges. Create an enjoyable time during your 9 months of love, happiness, and hell and get some images taken.

One Light Can Work Wonders

A couple of weeks ago I set out to do some test shots of Emily, a lovely and outgoing local who is considering getting into modeling. I was asked to do some "test shots" too assist her in finding her own level of comfort while being in front of the lens as well as gauge what type of photography and modeling she would be most suited for.
We started the session in the studio with some simple head shots. We later ended up taking a short 10 minute drive to a small field and rural back-road for some more charismatic themed shots during the last minutes of daylight.
All that was used was a single speedlight coupled to an 43" relflective umbrella placed at various axis around the Emily and the camera. Once in post processing, I gave the images a bit of lomographic curve (which I tend to do lot) and crushed the blacks a tiny bit. Here are the results...

Getting Cultural

I recently did a collaboration with a fellow photographer and artist Kelsey Beacco of Kel Z photography. I met Kelsey last winter during a benefit for Haiti at a local art gallery. I became an instant fan of her work as well as her personality and abilities to exhibit creativity both in front of and behind the camera. We had been wanting to collaborate for a while and finally a day came where both our schedules were congruent enough to hit the streets of Ogden for an afternoon.

The concept and credit goes to her on this one, for she came up with the entire concept and theme of this shoot. All I did was pick the locations, capture the frames, and make the edits.

Kelsey was cool enough to help me step out of my comfort zone and go for a complete natural light setup... If you know me, I always drag my flashes and umbrellas around with me no matter where I shoot. The sky happened to be completely overcast, eliminating all harsh shadows and creating the perfect "natural softbox" to utilize at our discretion. Cloudy days are great for shooting natural light portraits, as long as we are careful not to show the gray sky itself, since it is so flat and boring.

I love the end images from this shoot and I am glad to have been able to collaborate with someone as talented as Kelsey.