I know. It’s a little bit of LeahAndMark.com overkill to have the name written ON photos ON our site – and I promise not to do it that often (especially since in this set it’s a pretty big corner watermark.) But when I was putting it onto these photos I noticed how they turned into ads and less like plain photos for a portfolio. I’m not saying they’re good ads, but they take on that quality… a little… alright? ha.
(Edit… well – actually, I’ll throw the label on there when I think I need to have it there…)
(CLICK HERE FOR REAGAN’S GALLERY)
This whole week’s been pretty busy. Event shoot on Monday, shoot canceled on Tuesday (but I still prepared for it), event shoot Wednesday – rest on Thursday night – and then photo shoot with Reagan last night (Friday.) And it’s not like Leah hasn’t been busy – because she has – really busy. She’s in her 2nd year of Grad school and with classes, an internship, and then also her research assistance (job) – she’s working hard. I suppose we both are. I mean, I still have a day job and things are getting really busy around there too.
Now I haven’t really addressed my recent onset of focused photography efforts. There was no grand announcement of I’m going to be a photographer now – and I MEAN IT. At least there wasn’t anything said on here about it. One day I just switched wordpress templates to a more ‘photography’ focused design and I started learning how to make photos. I’ve been shooting like crazy lately because not only am I trying to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can – I need the practice and I actually want to be somewhat good at this.
These photos are from last night’s shoot with Reagan Michelle. I met her through Clarissa (Krog Tunnel Shoot) and then friended her on Facebook. I met her in person for about a second at the Club Life event, but we hadn’t really talked until last night while she was fixin’ her makeup. The actual makeup artist got tied up down in Atlanta (we were up in Alpharetta) – so it took us a while before we actually started taking some shots.
Before each shoot I’m still nervous. I don’t know how things are going to go – I don’t know if it’s going to take me a while to warm up. Mostly, I’m still not completely sure if any of my lighting ideas or set ups are going to work – even the basic 101 sets. Who knows until I start shooting – and it’s not really until I start shooting off some clicks that I start to get comfortable – everything up until then is kind of just nervous anticipation.
The latest thing I’ve learned? That I can make a bare wall in a house look like a clean studio background. Sure I can’t do the head to toe shots (because they’re usually standing on carpet and I’m not going to go to the trouble of photoshopping in a seamless clean white floor) but I can make shots that look like I have a white seamless background hanging there (almost). This wall had large, framed jigsaw puzzles hanging on it and the wall is actually a kind of pink color. Seriously.
I lit it with two lights – one on the ground behind her with my homemade diffuser and then a shoot-through umbrella at camera left.
I’ve been working like crazy at this and I’ve booked some paying gigs. A big party event, a couple of portrait sessions, and happily – a wedding. Believe me – I’m going all out for that wedding. Since I’m not technically trained in photography (schooling or apprenticeship) – I spend a lot of time looking at photos and deconstructing them. Lighting, posing, f/stops, shutter speed and composition. Especially the lighting.
And although I think I know a good amount at this point, the other day I was all excited about the lighting in a photo, but when I asked the photographer if he used a softbox, or beauty-dish, and other various details – he simply replied back with “It was actually just the flourescent light outside of my office – sometimes we make it too complicated don’t we?”
Yeah. Sometimes we do.
(CLICK HERE FOR REAGAN’S GALLERY)