Shooting beauty with a blurry lens

For the first half of my Studio Photography final I was privileged to shoot the blonde bombshell Heather Johnson. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to convert the pictures to black and white. This would add high contrast to the shots and complement Heather's golden hair and fair skin tone. Once I had the lighting in place and the model ready, I thought it would be a breeze, but alas all things in the studio can never go as planned. My camera had a very hard time finding my subject in the low lighting, Even though I tried to manual focus, it was difficult to make the images sharp. The soft focus gave the pictures a glowing look reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Here are a few of my favorite shots, and thanks again to Miss Heather.

The picture above will be submitted for my final grade

The picture above is a happy accident i had while adjusting my shutter

Paul and Andy go to the Mayor

Over the last few weeks my friend Andy and I have had the privilege of working with the Mayor of Champaign Don Gerard. Don is running for re-election on April 7th 2015, I couldn't have worked for any other candidate or politician for that matter. Don is a very different type of politician, available to the public on social media, he is very personable and has a great sense of humor. Here is the final draft of the ad we shot. GO TEAM GERARD 2015  

Another head shot shoot / Escobars work shoot

This week was filled once again with a lot of time spent in the photography studio and also a little time at Escobar's restaurant, where for a change I wasn't waiting on tables. The shoot at Escobars was especially challenging because I had to shoot during business hours . It wouldn't have been a problem but when I started shooting an intoxicated patron decided that he wanted to be involved. I was not pleased to say the least. It didn't matter much because as soon as he had arrived he had gone, and the show must go on.I also had another head shot shoot as well, my instructor told me that I am a little too "Fashion photographer"... I interpret that as "you're having too much fun" but thats how you get good shots, right?  And as always, here are a few of my favorite shots.

HEAD SHOTS SHOOT

Studio fun / head shots

For my most recent Studio Photography assignment I was asked to take head shots for a local actress, the beautiful and charming Cheyenne Drew. I have to say that this was my most enjoyable assignment yet, and its easy to see why. Cheyenne is easy to work with and the camera adores her. Working with someone that is comfortable in front of the camera takes a lot of pressure off of the photographer and overall the shots turn out much nicer because of that. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot

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                             I told her to be "Kim Kardashian"

Slash / G'n'R / Jack Daniels / Gibson Les Paul, more (or less) studio time

 skip to 8mins in to see the most awesome guitar solo EVER
So today in the photography studio.... My project is a still life that pays tribute to the most rockin guitar god of the late 80's and early 90's .. Slash. The project required us to make a still life of our choosing, using the studio lighting equipment, using images straight from the camera without the use of Photo Shop. Once again our time was limited to 1hr of setting up lights, adjusting the lighting, and then finally getting the shot. Working with tight time constraints in the studio I tried my best to get the shot that I had envisioned, but nothing could measure up to Slash rising out of the ocean. I used as many Slash inspired props as i could get my hands on ... here are a few of the shots, enjoy.

In the studio , sometimes things weren't meant to be

For my first "in studio" project, a group project, we were to recreate a picture that our group had chosen from a magazine. We chose 2 pictures one with a model, and one still life (as back-up) One of the group members had convinced her lovely daughter to be our model (she is a news anchor for C-I Living on one of the local news channels), although she was on a strict time schedule because she had to be at work immediately after the shoot. So after a hurried set-up and a few broken props we tried to correct the lighting, and get the shot, we were unsuccessful in doing so due to our time constraints.In the end we went with the "back-up shot" which was a still life of a white rose, in which we were successful. Overall this was the most difficult shoot that I have been a part of, working with a diverse group of strangers to recreate a professional shot was an extreme test of patience.  I have a few shots I took in the studio of our set-up with the model and I will update this post with the final still life and the reference pictures when they become available.

      in the below shot you can see the picture we are trying to emulate, and also the patience of our model slipping away

Origami, Studio Photography project 1

The semester is officially underway, and as such I have completed the first project for my Studio Photography class. This project is an exercise in white balance and exposure, also lighting arrangement. The subject matter had to be still life and (white on white/ black on black/ organic shapes) so I employed the skillful hands of my friend Debbie to make me some interesting origami objects to arrange. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the project. ( the funny thing that happened was that for the assignment we were only supposed to take about 30 shots per arrangement so 90 shots total and I ended up taking around 400, honestly I haven't even looked at them all)