Recent Favorites
Bridal Sari Photography
The picture is from a recent product shoot that consisted of 30 saris. I simply love the colors of the saris and the clean white background really heightens the very sharp and clean feel to the pictures. The project was for a great business (Saris and Things) and this second phase required a make up artist (Chay Bates of Challe' Artistry), four models (Kruti Mehta, shown above, Aline Fernandes, Alisa Chojnacki and Adriannag), all of whom worked very hard to make this shoot successful, and two sari dressers. On my blog I describe how I took these pictures.
Adriannag
Aline
Alisa
On Location Business Portraits
This is an on location business portrait. These kinds of pictures always create some challenges as the lighting is typically not the best. For this picture I wanted to accomplish not only a great picture but also to establish that it was an urban like setting (see the large building behind), and to establish a sense of authority or confidence (camera was below the subject slightly allowing the client to look downward). Anyone want to guess her actual height? On my blog, I will describe how I think about shooting a picture like this one.
I like this image because it communicates a bit more about the client than a studio backdrop would do, the catch lights in her eyes make them bright, there is very gentle short lighting and she has a relaxed feel and smile. The image portrays an approachable confident professional in an urban environment.
Getting cold feet
Not all of my photography is related to portraits or weddings. Sometimes I find interesting images that capture an interesting contrast. What you can not tell from this picture is how thin the ice is that the geese are standing on. In addition to the contrast of how man vs the geese use the lake, the geese form a nice strong line along the lower 1/3 line and the houses above are approximately on the upper 1/3 line. As I was watching them on the ice, the phrase 'Getting cold feet' as it might apply to a wedding, kept running through my mind.
This was a difficult picture to take because it was very grey without interesting light. In Aperture and Photoshop, I converted to B&W and pushed the contrast as much as I could to provide for a bit of 'pop'.
Holiday Cards
At this time of year, I try to persuade my clients to use their pictures from the year for holiday cards. Not the plug in a picture and send type of card from one of the commercial sites such as Hallmark or Kodak Gallery or Shutterfly. They do a fine job, but their templates are only modestly interesting. I offer highly personalized cards were every feature is designed as a collaborative process between myself and the client. Below is an example of a 5x7 card I did this year. Sound expensive? Well if I have already done a photosession for you through out the year or at some point in the past and you want to use those pictures, then the cost is in the $2.50-3.00 range with an envelope per card.
FRONT
INSIDE SPREAD
BACK
Newborn home session #2
Here is another example of a newborn portrait done within the convenience of the client's home. I like this particularly image for a couple of reasons. The first is the infant is very bright eyed, you can see a very nice catch light in her eyes, and the environment appears to be very snuggly and comfy. Nothing fancy in this picture: a pretty pink bow for her head and a soft fluffy pink blanket to wrap her up in so she was warm and comfortable. This highly sophisticated studio is actually the client's dark green couch. The colored image was converted to black and white with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
I will describe in another blog the details of the set up for this picture at a later date.
Newborn home session #1
I receive a lot of requests to shoot newborn pictures in the studio. Most newborns as well as young children have a strong preference for their home environments and I encourage clients to elect a photosession in their home environments. A client concern is the 'lack of tidyness' of their homes, and while it is not always possible to address this issue, it is usually pretty easy. Here is a recent example of a newborn (new family) session and hopefully you can appreciate the absence of a cluttered background. In a separate post, I will show a similar kind of picture shot in the studio as well as describe the step up for this picture.
I like this picture for several reasons but the strong emotional attachment between the parents and the newborn is clearly evident and there is incredible simplicity without any distractive elements. The baby's face is located at the intersection of two 1/3 lines and the parent's faces align along the top 1/3 line.
First Favorite Post
This is my first posting on in my Recent Favorites section on my new website. Periodically, I update this blog to highlight some of my favorite pictures. In most cases, I will try to explain why the picture is a favorite of mine. I like the crisp feeling, bright colors and the very clean, non distracting background of this picture.
To generate an image like this requires 1-2 stop brighter lighting to a clean white background (paper or vinyl) over the front lighting along with shielding the lights from the backlights so they don't add light directly to the subjects. This was one of several 100 images generated for a new website www.sarisandthings.com
