New Family
Last weekend I had a great portrait session with a young family. They have a six month old son, who as you can see is just about as cute as babies get. A real trooper too, because it got a little chilly. He kept smiling until the sun went down, and only started crying when we were done.
I’ll let the images do the talking…
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Gardens of the World
Last week I took the portraits for a family at Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, CA. This was the first time I shot at this small formal garden, which is owned privately but open to the public. They allow portrait photography there with a reservation, and apparently it’s pretty popular. And what a wonderful family to work with! Everyone was so sweet…one of the girls said to me “when we’re done I’m going to give you a hug.” And the little boy insisted on holding my hand back to the parking lot when we were done. It’s those little things that stick in my mind for a long time.
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Kristin at Port Hueneme (Model Portfolio)
I did a model portfolio shoot for Kristin last week at Port Hueneme Beach here in California. I must admit, the idea of a beach shoot was not my idea of a great location! Man was I wrong…
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Playground
I was hired by a company called RecWest to shoot some images of a playground they had just installed, at Oxnard Beach Park in the city of Oxnard. Originally they had envisioned hiring a lift truck to get me up high, so I could shoot the entire playground from above. However as we planned for the shoot, it became apparent that the city was going to ask too much in terms of permits and insurance. It quickly became impractical to use heavy machinery. The company was about to give up and cancel the shoot, when I hit upon an idea. Ever the DIY guy, I remembered reading about “pole-cams”…stick your camera on a pole and shoot from on high. Sure you can buy or rent super fancy versions of these, but that would have been as bad as the lift truck. So instead I set about making my own pole-cam based on this DIY version (link).
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Sunset, California Style
For awhile now I’ve known that sunset photographs are a dime a dozen. Heck, the sun sets just about every day around these parts. Sunsets are wonderful to experience in person. But to make a really good photograph, you need to put people in front of them.
Last weekend was a great opportunity for just that! I had taken this family’s Christmas portraits last year around this time, and we had a similar experience. Perhaps they’re lucky? This family didn’t bring their two australian shepherds this time, but that’s ok. Nice dogs…convinced me to get one of my own in fact! It’s great when wonderful people, nice light, and the right timing come together. And that’s what we had!
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Small-Strobe Lighting Seminar
Well I’m no David Hobby, but a couple of weekends ago I conducted a small-strobe off-camera lighting seminar for a professional organization I belong to, Channel Islands Professional Photographers Association (CIPPA). I had originally planned to conduct it in a city park, so that I could demonstrate the use of ambient sunlight and balancing flash. But it rained that weekend, so at the last minute we moved it to the Mystique Studio. Thanks Leanne and Brenda for letting us use your space! I don’t remember the exact number, but we had roughly 10–12 attendees.
We also had two models help us out for the seminar. Cassie and Laura were very gracious and professional, even though there was a fair amount of sitting around while I talked. Much thanks to them as well!
All of the shooting was done with one or two lights. I started out with a single hard light (below). Hard light like this gives a very 40’s movie-star portrait look.
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Four Girls at Home
Last week was a busy week! Three shoots in three days, and I also taught a lighting seminar. I’ve been working nonstop to get everyone’s images ready, and then it’s back to more shoots starting tomorrow. It is that time of year after all, and it’s exhausting…but a lot of fun. Last Thursday I had the distinct pleasure of photographing four very charming little girls (and their mother) in their backyard.
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