Senior Pictures, part 8

Ok, just one more post about the senior shoot...

A few more of Kayla's outdoor shots. As I said earlier, she's modeled for me before so these came easily and she's very comfortable in front of the camera.



I suppose the senior market is a field of photography where I could market myself more, but it seems like people have certain expectations of how these kind of pictures should look. As I look around at other photographers web sites, most of them look the same. I can't tell one photographer from another. But this is what pays, so I can either jump on the boat or go somewhere else on a life raft.

Money vs. artistic freedom...I faced similar choices back in my musician days and we always chose to be artists rather than join the bandwagon. It didn't make us money, though, and I sure would like to get my hands on a 5D Mark II.

Senior Pictures, part 7

To finish off the session with Kayla, we went to a park in Plano to do some outdoor shots. This was in early November so the trees were still mostly green.

The picture above is one of the last shots I took. I was able to catch the sky's reflection in the pond that made an "s" curve right down to where she was sitting.

Something else I tried doing was using a fill flash in almost every shot. There were some very scenic but shady areas, and the fill flash helped balance everything out.

Senior Pictures, part 6

While Kayla was in the green dress we tried a white background. It gave the photo more of a high key look.

Senior Pictures, part 5

Working with Kayla was a little different. She had more time so we were able to do more shooting. I've also worked with Kayla several times so she's very used to my shooting style and comfortable with the camera.

After we did her cap and gown series, she changed clothes a couple of times and I tried a couple of different backgrounds. The lighting stayed basically the same through most of the shoot.

Senior Pictures, part 4

THIS was the picture I was after. I knew as soon as I took it I caught the expression and attitude I wanted from Haleigh.

Again, trying to highlight her new class ring, I had her move her hand up to her face with her head turned slightly. I suggested afterwards that we try it in black and white, while keeping the ring in color.

To end the session, we went to Towne Lake in McKinney to try to get a few shots before the sun went down. Unfortunately for me, my best shots came when I was starting to lose the light. There was enough light to do pictures, but my Nikon D80 doesn't do well in low light. For the picture below I used my SD-600 flash. The results aren't bad...I think the catch light from the flash help bring her eyes out.

Senior Pictures, part 3

Haleigh is a cheerleader, so we obviously had to get some appropriate shots. The one above is one of my favorites. The problem we had was that it was taken in the fall and the grass had already started changing color. Unfortunately due to Haleigh's schedule and time contraints, this was the only time we had to do the photos. This is the greenest I could get the grass to look without making it look fake ...even after pushing up the green channels in Lightroom and Photoshop.

The picture below was taken a few weeks later in the studio (my garage). Haleigh's Mom wanted to try some indoor cheerleader shots.

Senior Pictures, part 2

My second senior, Kayla, with the same cap and gown and background. Out of the backgrounds that I do have, this one seemed to work the best color-wise. The girls did have other choices but both agreed this one was their favorite.

I didn't photograph the lighting setup I used for both shoots, but I had my 48" softbox behind me and to the right, and my 24" softbox behind the subject on the left. I pointed it toward the ceiling to get a bounce just to fill in.

Senior Pictures, part 1

It's that time of year....actually if a senior is just starting NOW to think about senior pictures, they're running a little late.

I don't market myself as specializing in senior photography, but if they like my work and want that style I'm happy to do it. Last August I was approached by two families interested in hiring me to do senior shots for the daughters, both seniors at McKinney High School.

For the cap & gown shots, I figured I'd just rent the cap & gown, but that proved easier said then done. Wanting to get the school colors correct, I approached the school and I approached the company handling the class rings, yearbooks etc. who I was told rented out school accessories for photo shoots. What I was told is that they only work with "certain photographers." In other words, if you wanted a cap and gown shot you had to have it done by whatever photographer they had some kind of arrangement with. Not cool in my book, so I bought my own. I found a company on line that had the color combination I needed so I bought from them. I'm not sure I got the right information about how to rent caps and gowns since I don't normally rent them. But simply buying one for $40.00 seemed like the best way to go...plus I can use it again.

Here we have Haleigh in a few slightly formal poses in the cap & gown. She also had just gotten her class ring which I tried to highlight.

WANTED! part 2

BOOT SCOOTIN' JAMBOREE was the name of the event. The folks at one of the elementary school in town, including the PTO, teachers, staff and volunteers, did an unbelievable job. I was hired to take the pictures to be placed in the WANTED frames that I talked about here.



My setup was the usual 2 softboxes. The background was already provided, and it was more than I could have hoped for (and better than anything I could have thrown together). An old shed with a wooden fence, haystacks, a saddle, etc. All the kids really wanted to sit on the saddle but it was not steady on the fence, so I limited it to kids who were under school age.

It was a pretty steady crowd for the 2 hours I was scheduled, but was still half expecting to sell more portraits than I did considering 500 tickets were sold.  I've been working these types of events for a couple of years and I've definitely seen a decrease in the number of pictures people seem to be buying since the economy got into trouble.  I'm still appreciative for the business I did get and will definitely do more of them. Hopefully it will lead to a few extra clients.

Sculpting The Promise

"The Promise" is a sculpture "in the making" that is located in front of the Bell Tower at Adriatica. When it is completed it will depict the dove that brought the olive leaf to Noah surrounded by a fountain and will be dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. 

I can't help thinking that it's a bit inappropriate to have a sculpture dedicated to hurricane victims resting in the middle of a fountain, even though the fountain is meant to represent God's promise that he would never allow the world to be destroyed by water again.

Also strange and a bit humorous is the disclaimer on the sign with a rendering of the finished sculpture that says, "Artists rendering may not accurately depict finished development. The information heron is subject to change at any time without notice." With all due respect to the artist(s), who are not mentioned on the sign, I'm guessing it means that if they mess it up they reserve the right to turn it into a birdbath.  Based on the progress made so far, I think it will look just like the picture. Is there a law that says they have to include a disclaimer that says it may not look exactly like the artists rendering? It is a rendering, after all.

Bell Tower Of Adriatica

The nearly complete Bell Tower is the centerpiece of a development here in McKinney known as Adriatica. It's modeled after an actual bell tower in Croatia and stands 128 feet tall. It will house office space and possibly a museum on the top floor.

Here's another view after the sun was a little higher in the sky.

Unhappy Jpegs

I've been increasingly unhappy with the appearance of my images after I load them to the blog.  They lose a lot of resolution when I covert them to a jpeg on my computer, but then when I upload them they seem to be losing even more. It's especially apparent  on my black and whites. 

I've started hosting my files on Photobucket and it seems to make a difference. Not only in the size of the file I'm able to post, but in the resolution.  It's also easier to to cut and paste an html code when you're using a Mac than it is to try to move the images around once you've uploaded them to the blog.

I've noticed lots of bloggers host their pictures at different locations, so I'm guessing this is common knowledge and maybe I'm just a little late in realizing it. I've only been blogging about 3 months.

I've also begun posting pictures on two other blogs; The World In Black & White and Pic A Theme. Pic A Theme just started and I've been enjoying The World In Black & White for some time. Very happy to be able to contribute. It also gets me thinking even more about shooting photos which is why I started blogging in the first place. 

The picture above is a b&w version of a portrait I made of my daughter last fall. Her school pictures were developed so poorly that I couldn't stand not doing a better one. 

2000 Pictures, part 5

I haven't included an entry about this exercise in over a month, so here's a quick review.

Last year I took a class about thinking creatively in photography. Our first assignment was to take 2000 pictures in one week. Sounds easy, but it wasn't.

I decided to follow our dog around one afternoon in an effort to get some more shots since I wasn't even halfway to 2000.

Our dog's name is Pepper and he's a Carolina dog (also known as the "American Dingo"). We found him at the local SPCA in 2003. He's great with the kids and is afraid of house flies if they're actually in the house. If they're outside he usually eats them.  

For this series I followed Pepper around the backyard. I just took random shots of him doing whatever he happened to be doing. It made me just sort of observe his behavior. An interesting life this dog leads, as I imagine all dogs do.  One thing I've noticed about trying to take pictures of an animal...they don't like to pose and never smile. Every shot is a candid shot when you're taking pictures of a dog. They don't even mind if you take a picture of them while they're fertilizing the lawn. At least Pepper didn't mind.  He seemed to enjoy my company and never seemed to mind me taking pictures.

I managed to grab a couple of interesting shots while he was shaking himself off after running around (is there a word for that?).  I was able to catch his head in these strange contorted positions that the human eye can't really isolate when it's happening.  

What a hard life a dog leads. All the free lunch you can eat and you can sleep whenever or wherever you want.