Category Archives: Portraits

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Joanna Bidwell | Family Portrait

March 18, 2010 – 10:40 pm

I met Joanna and her family at Duke Gardens to photograph her pregnancy, along with some family portraits. It was a beautiful day at the gardens, with a bright sunny sky, warm breeze and a very relaxed walk around. Joanna was in the final stages of her pregnancy, literally with time left to squeeze in the portrait session, we managed to meet up. Getting to know the family during the session, I soon realized the bond between them all. Walking around the park relaxes the most nervous of people for a photo session and it certainly did the trick.

Links
Duke Gardens
Gallery
Slideshow

Enhanced Images






















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Rachel McKay | Senior Session

June 11, 2009 – 1:34 pm

During the planning stages of this shoot, Rachel’s mother Rhonda had told me that her daughter loves fashion and making clothes. At that time, I knew I had to do something geared towards an edgy, fashion, hip style shoot. As with most shoots, I like to brainstorm a little and get creative before we get started. I knew there were a few locations in downtown Raleigh I’d like to use, so I scouted out the spots and the imagination took off.

Raleigh has some really cool locations, that capture a once developed scene that has fallen to the wayside, which is perfect for a fashion shoot. With run down buildings, streets, traffic lights, railway lines and a sunset. The locations, the time of day were perfect.

I have a fascination with movement captured in a single frame. Add to it an expression, mood, texture and light. With this session, I wanted to freeze her energy and confidence. In addition to movement, I am drawn to a cinematic composition and tend to steer towards panoramic dimensions.

The slideshow above are all the edited images from the senior session. The images that follow are a handful of fine art versions. These look amazing when printed on fiber paper and matted. Or printed onto a large canvas.

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Portrait Session | Charleston SC

February 9, 2009 – 2:40 pm
[caption id="attachment_164" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Day Dreaming"]Day Dreaming[/caption] [caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Date Night"]Date Night[/caption] [caption id="attachment_167" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="The Chapel"]The Chapel[/caption]

There’s so many amazing places to wonder around in the historic part of downtown Charleston SC. I really love this city, for the variety there is to be found. These images above are a few from the portrait session in downtown Charleston. This was a self assignment to demonstrate the use of a single, off-camera bare bulb flash, with the Canon 5D during the mid-afternoon sunlight. Looking at the images, you’d have no idea it was actually a lot brighter than seen in the images. The main goal with using the off camera flash during the day light hours was to demonstrate how to introduce darkness into the image. There’s nothing more exciting than creating texture with light and dark. Added with color, shapes and expressions. The image will convey a story to the viewer.

I love setting up self assignments, as it give’s me the opportunity to explore ideas I form during life’s general day to day tasks. I will form a image in my mind of what I want to achieve and then build on that image over time. I generally don’t write down notes, but treat it as a mind game, as I understand how I can get the results I want on the day of the shoot.

During the shoot, I used one Quantum QFlash T2, Canon 5D, with the Canon 17-40 wide angle lens and the Canon 70-200 zoom lens. I love both of these L-Class lenses as they are super fast and respond really well in many lighting conditions. Using a couple of pocket wizards, I dial in the exposure I want and start shooting. I tend not to take 100s of images, but carefully take the ones I do take. It just cuts down the editing time later!

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Portrait Session | Ohio

January 5, 2009 – 1:03 am

One thing I like to do on a regular basis are self assignments. At any point in time, I’m constantly inspired with images that I want to create. It’s not always possible to capture these images with a paying client as soon as I’d want to. So I write down the ideas and then set about organizing a self assignment. The locations are quite often part of the image I want to capture, along with light, texture, movement and mood.

This self assignment was designed to test my abilities to do a photography session at 2 pm, with no shade and using a flash. My assistant, the model and I wondered around a corn field for 2 hours in the blazing heat. Using the sun as a light source in one direction, I used a flash as a secondary source to create complimentary skin and hair tones. I really loved the challenge of working in hot conditions and capturing images I had previously envisioned.

Many thanks to Tiffany Schaefer (model), Janet Schaefer (assistant) and Tom Schaefer (for holding off cutting the corn until we finished).

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Stallings Family Portrait | Studio Session

January 5, 2009 – 12:46 am

Studio sessions are a great way to capture moments with a family under a little more of a controlled environment. It can be extremely useful to a family to have a bathroom handy or drinks on hand. Changing outfits too is easily accommodated with the changing room near by.

The Stallings came in for their 3rd session, this time with a brand new addition to their family, their baby boy. One thing I like the most are big colorful sweaters, hats and scarfs. They make the most appealing portraits, especially for the children in a family. One thing I always say when asked by a new client what should their kids wear is “let your kids pick the clothing and show their true personality”. Ok, I know, some children are going to select the most crazy clothes. But within reason, this is truly who they are at that age and the best way to remember them at that age too.

Many thanks to Craig, Kristy and their two adorable sons. I hope you have a wonderful 2009.

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