It's All In The Details.......

When I'm really in my zone with my camera, I just love shooting details.  They are easy to miss sometimes because of the "job at hand", trying to capture "the big picture" and make everyone happy but sometimes we as photographers need to capture a little something for ourselves in the process.

I took this shot last year during a shoot just because I loved the way the bangles matched the Saree and how the white background just sort of made them glow and come alive.  Most people will blow right past a shot like this but when I see this I see "Art" and I'm ok with this "Art" being just for me.  It might make it onto my studio wall so I don't forget the importance/significant of shooting details or another side of beauty that we often don't associate with beauty.......

Here's to the details.......

David

Not a Bad Shot!

I'd like to believe that every photographer runs into a client, bride, teen, child, someone or something that captures their eye that makes it impossible to take a bad shot.  Now we the photographer need to make sure we do the technical things in order to create a beautiful image but I still think it's somewhat rare. Well I ran into one of those rarities in Reagan.  I was able to get out with her a couple times and each shoot left me in awe!!!  This is one of those jewels I've been holding onto unless you've been out to my Facebook fanpage.

I have sooooo many stunning images of Reagan that it was impossible to choose my favorites so I closed my eyes and started flagging images for the blog and then limited myself to these few.  Enjoy these and don't be surprised if there is another post about Reagan...

David

Studio meet Angey, Angey meet Studio!!!

So the story goes that I was sitting at the bar at one of my favorite restaurants in town and was waited on by Angey.  We had never met before, things were slow in the restaurant so I mentioned that I was a professional photographer and had done some work for the restaurant .  Well she remembered me being there on a couple occasions shooting, said she loved my work and that she was a graphic artist and done the menus and other artwork for the re-branding of the restaurant.

As we spoke more I mentioned that I loved her "look" and that I wanted to get her in the studio; she was "all-in".  Now when I post the rest of the pictures, you will notice that she has a "few" tattoos.  Well believe it or not, I didn't at the time we met but quickly noticed them as we were getting her ready for her photoshoot.  My first thought was "that's interesting" but my second thought was "we're going to have some fun" and we definitely did.  I am showing you, in this preview, my second favorite shot from her studio session.  More to come on Angie and my catchup from the Spring/Summer.

David

Macy's Annual Fashion Show

This past weekend our Bloomington/Normal Macy's store hosted a fashion show for the local community.  I had the honor of being among three other photographers (Angel Sallade,Chris Sallade and Monte Holiday) to shoot the event which was coordinated by Mrs. Sofia Reed of Macy's.  It was an awesome fashion show and our professional models (Terrance McSwain and Isoken Uzamere) as well as the local models (kids and adults) did an outstanding job!!!

I was at almost all of the practices where I took over 2,000 pictures and have a lot of editing to do in the coming weeks.  As I was importing the photo's, I came across this one which I had to edit real quick and put on my blog.  The next few weeks are going to be a challenging as all the models want to see pics, I have a wedding to prepare for on Sunday and a trip back to the East Coast to see my family and do a shoot in Atlantic City.  For now, enjoy this picture from a practice the day before the show.

David

In My Spare Time

I have ave been pretty busy with my day job over the last couple months as well as some editing from 2009 shoots. I am looking forward to the spring where I can get back out there are start shooting more frequent then I get today. Been learning a new techniques with creating collages and other stuff which you will see over this post and others. Hope you guys enjoy and I promise to get back to blogging more frequent then I have.

David

Jessie - Could It Be I've Been Away Too Long!?!

I had the opportunity several weeks ago to do some additional work with Jessie and am just getting around to sharing this with my Blog family. Jessie has already seen these photo's and is eargerly awaiting others from the shoot. One of the things I am noticing about Jessie is that she/we are able to pull off a different look each time we work together and I think that is pretty cool. I hope you guys enjoy these.

I will also be headed to Pana Illinois tomorrow to shoot the wedding of Gwen and Joe so I am pretty excited about that as well.

Blog you when I Blog Yah!

David

I Got Sunshine

This is probably the best way to describe our shoot with Jessie. Having never really spent any time with her, we had to warm up to Jessie and she to us. So the first order of business was to figure out how to accomplish this and where to shoot. We started out at the Special Olympics Memorial for a few shots and to see what the light was doing. We told Jessie to get in the grass and she didn’t hesitate for one moment. Before we knew it, she and her black pumps were all over the place following our direction. We provided the jokes “I’m here all week”, the facial and posing direction and off she went… No surface was too high or too dirty for Jessie.

We then pulled up in the parking lot of Maxwell Parkand immediately noticed this Pepsi truck parked “all by its lonesome” so I said “let’s have at it”. From there we walked the park, took her over to this cool bridge and then the baseball diamond to finish up about 90 minutes of shooting. I love the warmth in several of these shots which was a result of the sun turning orange (golden hour) about 45 minutes before sunset; this is becoming my favorite time to shoot. I adore what I do and have learned a lot over the last 6-7 months. It helps when you have clients and subjects that take direction well and are willing to experiment; Jessie was all of that and more. Until next time...

David

Light Em Up!!

I just love this photo from a recent photo shoot with three ladies that I will now refer to as my "fashion angels". I had previously posted the B&W version of this photo but the color one looked so good I couldn't help myself. I hope you guys enjoy looking at this shot as much as I did taking it. Light Em Up!!!

David

Fashionable

Trust between a photographer and subject isn't something that is given but it is earned; especially when you are experimenting or trying something new as I was a couple of weeks ago with these three young ladies.

Several weeks ago, I got the bright idea of doing a “mini fashion shoot” to play with some different aspects of lighting and showcase these three very beautiful young ladies. I had worked with two of them in the past and brought a new young lady into the mix who is very eager to learn more about modeling. This would be all off camera lighting with some “make shift” backgrounds I made from foam core. I thought that if the seasoned pros can do it then so can I. Don’t let anybody fool you, it is hard work getting the lighting right, especially if you don’t have access to or a permanent studio setup.

I love photography and I like challenges so off I went with my oldest son in tow. Well I was a bit overwhelmed when everyone first got there but thank God for my oldest son who was a tremendous help to his Dad. Each model posed in three different outfits and we were hopping moving the light around, adjusting backgrounds, etc. While I’m not ready to call Glamour Magazine, I am pleased with how things turned out from this session and wanted to share some of the top pictures from the day. Being the person I am, I have analyzed my performance/work to the Nth degree and will be using what I learned as I move forward. This shoot was purposely done “in tight” based on my vision and what I had in the way of backgrounds. It was a great learning experience and I got some lovely photo’s for these young ladies. Not sure where I will go with this fashion thing but much of photography is about trying new things and learning from the experiences.

Kelli, Puja, Jo, outstanding work!!! Thank you for being my “clay” and allowing me to shape you.

David