Miss Erica

So today i photographed one of the girls i work with ... she was my willing victim ... uhhhh "client" & it was awesome. Ok i know i should really hold back but WOW did i have a good time. We were going for a more fashion look, something i have really never tried & everything went fantastic.

I was lucky that another photographer, Chett Collier of Reserve Photo acted as my "assitant", & he has agreed to allow me to assist him in the future, teaching me more about the business & in particular lighting. This is something i am incredible excited about & i can't wait to learn everything he has to offer.

So anyways we went into Landstuhl for the shoot, taking photos around the little park & in an alley way a little down the road with Erica looking every bit the superstar she is. Moving through the locations & with Chett's support, plus a very active subject i grew more & more confident. We experimented with lighting, using an umbrella, flash & reflector all new to me, the flash creating some fantastic lighting, very Hollywood.

So now i have something new to add to my portfolio & a whole new world that i both love & can't wait to experiment with more.

Monique & James

August 5th ... the weather was perfect, & i was meeting up with Monique & James for my second outing into portrait photography. They wanted some images to take away from Germany with them, & also some engagement photos. Monique gave me some ideas & on talking with her we decided to go for an urban setting, a local town.

So i had previously scouted some suitable locations for taking their images & on the day in question i took a walk around with further ideas in mind & found some more places of interest.

The shoot itself was fun. Monique & James were easy to work with, just relaxing & doing their own thing allowing me to get on with taking photos. I understand that being asked to act "natural" whilst someone is taking photos of you can't be easy, but they managed to "ignore" me as best they could. As well as listening to any directions i gave them.

We were able to move amongst the locations no problem & as we got into the shoot i found myself relaxing more, giving directions were needed & of course experiementing & starting to find my own way within their genre. It's important that should i decide to go down the road of portrait photography i stand out from the crowd. As a whole i've never been a fan of this kind of portrait photography, often posed & unnatural it looks fake & isn't what i feel these kind of portraits should be about. As a photographer i need to be able to adapt to the subjects themselves but also bring out their personalities within my photos.

Overall i found the shoot to be successful, & the clients are happy with their images. This gives me something to work from, & new images for my portfolio.

Editing took place at stupid o'clock last night as i couldn't wait to see the photos. Editing to me is one of the most tedious parts of a photo shoot but it can also be the most interesting. You never really know which images are going to work the best until you view them on the computer screen, & some surprise you whilst others you thought were great really don't stand out so much. But it was fantastic to be able to see all these images, & i was incredible pleased with the results.

& now i have areas i know i need to work on & the idea that maybe this is something i could have a serious go at. & of course i had fun.