Sometimes you just shoot for the fun of it!

Lately when I take my camera out, it is for something to do with my business. I am either working, practicing, or experimenting with a new lighting setup. It's easy to forget why I started my journey down the long winding road of photography. I LOVE taking pictures, not just snapping away at everything I see, but taking meaningful pictures with a purpose. My sister Susan and her family came to see me last Summer and I got one of my cameras out of the bag for some pool time. It wasn't one of my Nikon D300S's that I use for work, but a Nikon D40X, still a nice camera. While in the water with my camera about 2 inches from certain death, I had a blast taking pics of my niece and nephew as they played in the pool. Oh yeah, I love the pic I took of Susan spraying her husband Joe with sunscreen. 

Head Shots for an Actress, One Background, Three looks

Actress Evelyn Nardo recently contacted me about shooting some head shots for her. I wanted to give her different looks without having to do a lot of changing my backdrops, so I did all three of these shots on white seamless paper. It's not that hard to do and it's a good trick to have up your sleeve when doing portrait photography. In the above shot, I have my camera shutter speed set to 1/200 sec, and my ISO at 200 (that's pretty much where I start on most jobs), my aperture is set to f/11, white balance is set to Flash. I held my Sekonic L-358 light meter under her chin and fired my main light (one AlienBees B800)while adjusting for a f/11 reading on the meter. I adjusted my background lights (two AlienBees B800's) for a light meter reading of F/16. This caused the background to go almost perfectly white. A little clean up was required in Photoshop.

In the next shot, I turned off the background lights, bumped my aperture up to f/16 and adjusted my main light accordingly. This made the background go very dark giving this portrait a totally different look.

In this last portrait, I changed my white balance to incandescent, Adjusted my ISO to 800, shutter speed to 1/125 sec., and my aperture to F3.2 I turned my main light's flash off and just used the modeling lamp. This made the background go blue, and gives the photograph a soft feel. There you have it, three totally different portrait looks that can be achieved pretty quickly without the hassle of changing that paper. 

My Latest Swimsuit Shoot for Swimsuit Illustrated Magazine!

The first time Ambar and I tried to shoot for Swimsuit Illustrated Magazine, we had some bad weather roll in. We cut our shoot short, say that three times fast, and decided to reschedule sometime in the future.  Well it took a couple of months, but we finally did it. Some of these images were taken with natural light. I did however drag along my trusty AlienBees B800 and a beauty dish. That combo gets more beach time than a lifeguard.  I hope you enjoy the images below.

Senior Portrait Photography, My Top 10 and why I like them so much.

This may be my favorite Senior Portrait that I have ever taken. This image is not what it appears. It looks like Charis is pulling off a perfect glamour pose as the afternoon sun is shining over her left shoulder. Not so. It was actually rainy and cloudy. During a break in the weather, we dashed outside. I set up a Nikon SB800 camera left with no gel. I placed another Nikon Speedlight with a full CTO gel, camera right, slightly behind Charis. This is the result, a perfect sunset.

I love this Senior Portrait because Haleigh included her dog Clyde in her portrait. Her wardrobe matches the theme perfectly. 

One winter, a neighboring farmer planted rye grass in his field. This made for the perfect backdrop for this Senior Portrait. Amanda's blue dress looks great with the green background. The highlights in her hair are from the sun. 

This Senior Portrait of Jacob was taken in my living room. He brought his football uniform along for his session. I shot him on a black background. One flash in front of him and one on each side slightly behind him. My daughters assisted me by standing in chairs and spraying water to make it look like it was drizzling at a stadium. 

Caleb's parents behind him and out of focus show the strong unity of this family. I was glad he included them in his Senior Portrait.

Kate looks like a model in this Senior Portrait. Her connection with the camera is outstanding.

Color is the theme in Jacob's Senior Portrait. He pulls off the perfect pose in this all natural light image.

Here is Jacob again. This was another shot from Jacob's Senior Portrait session. I love the way the clouds and sun make Jacob a silhouette in this image. 

Meghan looks so happy in her Senior Portrait. I used the same field of rye grass at sundown and lit her with Nikon SB800 slightly camera right.

I call this Senior Portrait, the Corona commercial. Kate looks gorgeous standing on the boat dock. The boat house and single palm tree make the perfect background for this Florida themed shot. 

There you have it. My favorite Senior Portrait images from my portfolio. Feel free to comment and let me know if you would like to book a session.   

A New Year's Resolution, a Few Days Late.

Today's the 9th, I never seem to do things the conventional way. My resolution this year is to do more natural light photography. For the past few years I have been relying heavily on my strobes. I really like using them in direct sunlight with the sun at the subjects back. Sometimes I overlook a location that has great natural lighting because of an idea for a shoot I have planned already. The above image was taken with no flash, no reflector, no nothing except a beautiful model and light bouncing off a wall. For the bottom image, I used a reflector only. Stayed tuned for more natural light images. I am shooting Stephanie this Sunday and I plan on using almost all natural light. 

Teaching The Old Dog New Tricks

This is Stephanie. I met her while on a photo shoot for Swimsuit Illustrated Magazine. She is a Miss Florida Contestant and it's not hard to see why. She's smart, friendly, and  beautiful. She's about take on task that may try her patience and turn that smile upside down. She's gonna teach this old dog about blogging and Search Engine Optimization. We have a editorial shoot together Sunday, and when we finish, I'm gonna break out my laptop and she's gonna teach me a thing or two. I hope she still likes me when she's done. I met with my marketing consultant Tuesday and I think she had to be medicated when we were finished.

Get to Know This Face, You're Gonna be Seeing A Lot of It!

As a photographer it's always good to have somebody to work with, somebody to try new things with. I used to have a model in Orlando that was perfect. She was beautiful, easy to work with and fun to be around. She got along great with my wife and daughters, and that's a big one. It was really nice....until she moved to New York. I haven't had anyone like that for the past few years. I've tried to find someone, but it just hasn't worked out, until now. This is Jessica. I just shot her wedding. She is stunning, no other way to put it, and now she's in the family....by marriage. We're going to start working together on some stock photography. I don't think that she has modeled before, but after shooting her engagement pics, bridal portraits, and her wedding, I have full confidence that she is going to do an outstanding job whatever challenge we tackle. You'll probably be seeing her in an advertisement here and there. Who knows where it will go from there.