OK so i’ve photographed in rain plenty before… but something I haven’t done was shoot with the rain ONLY behind the subject but not at all in front.
See the problem is the rain can sometimes be in their face and you have too shoot a bunch of shots to make sure you have one where the rain isn’t ruining the picture . Granted these were small drops.
So we are on a sidewalk downtown logan utah under a large awning, the rain is falling just inches behind her. So it works. I can actually back up a pretty good distance and well her hair isn’t even wet. Oh but I suppose my backlight is a bit wet on the ground behind her, but like I said it wasn’t raining hard, I guess I could have used a plastic bag.
So next time I want some shots and it’s raining I’ll probably think of overhangs.
Really what can I say here to do this picture justice? … what can I say to do the whole evening justice?
Both of the models… (Yeah you can’t wait to see them, I know… me either.)
This Picture!?
Am I just caught up in the epic-ness of the evening and the photoshoot and the wonderful people… or is this really as awesome as I hope it is.
Just don’t hate me for having the best job in the world… a chance to be an artist and to make others feel beautiful… to share and give and to be appreciated.
I haven’t even checked all the pictures… I have no clue if this is even one of the best pictures.
So Dustin Izatt organized a little get together where photographers were going to take pictures of other photographers.
“Headshot Exchange”
Side note: I never knew there were two different sections of Pierpont Ave in SLC
I went and took some pictures of the others.
And here I’m showing them. See all the ones I edited here –
If you’re one of the photographers and want more of these let me know and I’ll gladly upload more. (Assuming I have some)
Oh and you should go and check out their photography.
I’ve been enjoying doing mini-shoots here at the house.
I’d love to continue with them… either Inside (studio) or outside.
Just know that while studio can be fun I’m more enjoyable to work with outside because I’m not consumed with lighting setups.
They’re fast, easy, painless and correspondingly because of these things very inexpensive.
But they are usually on my terms… and if you want more of a real shoot these won’t take the place.
Often they’ll be used to teach my students (which happens to mean you’ll probably get more pictures)
What’s good to do?
Senior Pictures
Headshots
Individual Portraits
Pet Photography
Roommate pictures
Married Couples
Children
Short Model session (test session)
Pics for mother’s day
Actor headshots
Want in?
So if you want a mini-shoot let me know, I’ll try to schedule one day a month to do them, or get on a list and I’ll email people when I have a free afternoon.
I will charge pennies on the dollars for these, since they don’t require me to go anywhere, since they’re much much shorter, and since they’re a whole lot less stress. When I say less time, I mean there should be no expectations of time, you’d be surprised how many good pictures I can take in a very short period of time. Then after I’ll get them online and you can order prints or save them for use on facebook for free.
Who knows get on the list maybe some day I’ll offer a shoot to the first person to bring me a nice dinner.
I’d love to stack the portfolio with all sorts of pretty models and expand beyond wedding photography.
Get a small patch of cool stuff and don’t look at it and say “Darn, I wish there were more so I can get this cool shot I have in my mind”
Realize for a moment it’s not going to happen you can’t make another acre grow real fast… deal with it.
Make what you have work to your advantage. Don’t live in what could have been. Start dealing with what you have.
In actuality this section of cool plants was plenty large enough to get the pictures I wanted.
The angle I chose was to make the plants look more plentiful, but not just that but because I didn’t have a never ending supply in the back.
This is the big reason why she’s down on the ground.
If the field were bigger or I could get up on a ladder I would have shot from on high but with her standing as well.
Then of course I got down because we all know I love shooting in through stuff.
I also felt a nice up close portrait was in order.
Brooke asked her mother what she wanted for Mother’s Day and I’m told this is it.
Sounds perfectly understandable… I think everyone should do it.
I expect to be booked up for… forever! haha
But really I can totally understand not only does the mother benefit from getting the actual pictures but she also gives her daughter a chance to feel beautiful in front of the camera and beautiful for years to come each time she looks at the pictures.
What a good mother!
Again not a huge section of awesomeness to play with but when you’re shooting straight down you don’t need much.
Which makes me remember to say get them in all sorts of positions (sitting, leaning, lean-sitting, you know… everything) why?
Because they’ll feel more comfortable in some than others…
(unless your style is a total posed style. Well then don’t listen to me if that’s not your style and your not intersted in bringing out their personality… move along nothing to see here)
Backlight… Create your own, or put them in positions where it already exists.
OK so honestly I’m not sure if the location really is as amazing as I hope it is or if I just had such a good time and such a wonderful subject.
I know I’ve been to more exotic and strikingly gorgeous locations but I’m thinking still this might be my new favorite location.
UPDATE: Why is this my new favorite location?
Because it was all at my house out in the yard. It was soooo nice, to just walk downstairs and outside and just shoot. Focus on making Katy look awesome and my interaction to bring out her personality. I didn’t have to lug my bag around either… but i came back to it a couple times to use a couple of lenses. The lighting was just fine and I didn’t need to use flashes… but had I I could have easily got the lightstand out. I could have grabbed the extension chord and put up my studio strobes outside too. Talk about awesome.
When Katy first saw the yard she was skeptical but hey the pictures speak and in the end it’s about the subject and often a nice blurry background. I have a pretty awesome view of the mountains, but I didn’t use them quite as much, but with some lights I could easily match the exposure and get them in there nicely.
So yes my yard and my studio is my new favorite location… I can always go inside and do studio shots as well. So this is making me think of doing short shoots more often. Perhaps I can decide some day and say on facebook first 2 people to respond get super discounted short shoots later that day at sunset, or twlight, or on cloudy days maybe any time.
It certainly doesn’t replace the need for nice locations and longer shoots, but sometimes people need a less expensive option and this is perfect.
This was a test shoot to see how well “Short Sessions” could work out for me. I don’t do headshots or other short shoots, but I’m considering it.
I’m thinking 1 day a month I could do a bunch of simple short shoots. Maybe I’ll call them “Scott’s Sensational Super Short Shooting Sessions” or something like that.
Otherwise they’d need to do more of a model shoot or a senior shoot and often that price isn’t doable for some… specially without a purpose like a model or a graduating senior with a mom and dad to help.
So if you’re amongst those that would like to see this idea of an inexpensive short shoot… well let that view be heard and I could make it happen sooner than later.
As you go through these pictures and perhaps the FULL GALLERY – think to yourself these were all done in 22 minutes of shooting.
yes that’s right 22 MINUTES – Great photographer and Great model… uncomplicated location… that’s how we roll!!
So what do You think of the location?
Let us now turn our attention as it should be to the pretty girl in the pictures who’s set for graduation from college.
She deserves all the praise you’ll leave on the blog comments.
It was a free saturday and I woke up at 3:30am!! What’s wrong with me?
Oh and I hosted a photography workshop the night before and had people over afterwards until midnight.
But it’s all worth it.
I went to pick up the model in SLC and then we drove down to near delta to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes.
It wasn’t terribly cold but the wind chill did make things interesting.
We didn’t have a lot of time to think, we were on a tight schedule to get the model back in time for work at 10am.
Meaning we shot for just over an hour.
And yes we got her back in time.
Ingrid is from Brazil and is amazingly beautiful and a lot of fun to work with.
The fact she got up at 4am to go shoot 2 hours away for a short period of time in 35-40 degree weather and not have a coat on… that should tell you something!
There are about 300 more pictures I might post sooner or later. But for now this will have to suffice.
The fates aligned and the photo angels have blessed us with the coolest thing ever.
At the Photowalking Utah event today. See their website. (Organized in part by Rich Legg)
There were a bunch of lighting setups (at least 10)
I wandered around with one extra. My ring light on my sb-900 flash.
I set it to manual and figured out good manual settings and let everyone use it even the canon shooters were shooting with the nikon flash on manual.
Enter 8mm
At the end of the event a friend (Jeremy B.)
Lent me his 8mm fisheye… I’m thinking what in the world would I do with this lens… I wanna play with my flash.
Oh well… maybe I’ll just keep it on. (Read later for more of what I was thinking)
Well getting to the point… This is what happens.
A couple of inches away from their face. Short enough lens that it actually sees the ring flash.
“Jarvie Window”
Consider it shamelessly branded. haha
Really. I’m not opposed to calling it something else, but I do want it to be called something. And that something should be cool and memorable.
Before I posted the pictures (full gallery)
I asked what we should call it, so I could title the post and what not.
Only a few people spoke up but they came up with “Jarvie Window”
I figured it would be fun and catchy.
I assume others will continue to do this because it really is quite simple and very fun.
Now this being said… I like my last name and I’m not shy.
But it’s not like it’s a typical thing. And the literal “Through the Ring Flash fisheye” isn’t too catchy
Yes you will see me doing this again… often
Yes it’s very gimmicky and doesn’t replace being able to take good pictures otherwise.
But you better believe that I’m going to be doing this a lot.
A whole series of faces in square format, doing crazy stuff.
Up in the face… no personal space allowed.
I can totally see this as the hit of a party or wedding reception.
There’s something me and Bryan Jones just couldn’t put a finger on… something about it that makes it so endearing.
It has to do with shooting through the circle.
Yes the lighting is cool.
Yes it’s often more of a caricature Than a picture
I’m just someone somewhere has stumbled across it in a similar fashion… but they sure didn’t share it much, because it didn’t catch on.
More technical?
Put the flash on the lowest setting… i was doing 1/128th
Use a super wide that is short enough that it won’t actually go through the ring flash.
Use a ring flash like this Ray Flash – (Also available at OPGear)
Put the aperture up at around f/8
Be careful to focus on the eyes really well.
And then just get CLOSE.
And be creative.
Camera+Flash+RayFlash+8mm lens+Characters
This is the man! (Above)
He said “Hey Scott try out this lens”
And I thought I could be sensible and take off the ring flash.
Or I could be half lazy and half non-sensible and one more half inquisitive.
Haha you thought it was going to be the city. Tricked you.
They call him Boston.
He asked for some pictures and I saw that I did his shoot just a month or two before I started using smugmug… so I went back through his pictures and uploaded them to SmugMug.
I also re-edited his pictures some because I’ve certainly improved a bit in the last two years.
It is a good exercise for me and the student-interns to go over some older less essential pictures and play around on them.
Shall I Re-Edit your pictures too?
So I guess the offer is open to other people… if I took your pictures a while back and you’d like to see them re-edited let me know.
I’ll bump you up higher on the priority list if you’re interested in Buying prints of them as well… or at least if you’ll show them off to everyone, yeah but probably more so if you want to buy a couple prints
Dustin wanted some pictures while we were traveling around in Hawaii.
One evening after sunset (twilight) I decided I could take a break and do some.
I laid the flash on a few rocks pointed it in a direction and told him to stand in front of it.
I walked around him shooting pictures and doing some different poses.
After a while I realized I didn’t have move at all… he stood in the same spot the whole time and I just moved around and adjusted my settings.
In fact the flash stayed in the same spot on the same settings the whole time.
I did have him jump in that spot so at the end he did move a little.
Just goes to show what you can do.
Here are some examples
To change it up I shot through things.
Shooting away from the sunset/twilight made things much darker background obviously.
I believe in stretching yourself to such a limit that all the rest of the time everything’s a cake walk.
See how far you can go. I found out I can do 48 shoots in one week.
All fine until I’ve almost went crazy sorting them all then editing 3000 pictures in the last 3-4 days.
This is a long and yet very fun post… like 48 mini-posts all wrapped up into one.
The last day of the charity shoot went very well.
I was pushing myself to take new and unique pictures in a location I had done 10 shoots in 2 days previous.
I did a few more family shoots which isn’t something I specialize in… but I’m learning to like it, and at the same time conform them to what I do like, which is the Family Lifestyle Photography format.
And of course I totally enjoyed getting the aspiring models to come take pictures. (As seen above)
Thanks to dad for coming up with this laugh! As the photographer you don’t know what will get the kids to errupt in laughter… or tears for that matter.
The whole family was crazy photogenic and that helped. Look at these two models!
No need to put a lot of effort into posing these kids up… they’ll do their thing and I hope to get them as they Are, and make them good pictures while i’m at it.
Nice big landscapes don’t mean the group has to be tiny, but sometimes a bit smaller in the frame can help show off why we drove all that way and make it not only a portrait, but a work of art.
Day 4 of the charity shoot had me in the Studio for only one shoot and outside for 11.
It’s a really amazing experience to take 11 shoots in the same location. seeing 4 hours of changing lighting affect one area.
I was doing really short shoots so I couldn’t go far so that incoming groups could find me. Therefore I didn’t wander around as much as I usually do.
It really stretches the photographic ability to keep shooting in the changing lighting situations and keep shooting in a small radius and keep things fresh and now just go with what you did on the last one.
Of course I focused on the highlights of the area such as the mountain backdrop and the sections of trees that were still changing color.
The Location
This location is awesome because the mountains start blocking the sun about 3 hours before sunset (on average) which means it was perfect lighting starting around 4pm
The above picture was about half way through the shoot and already the mountain was providing a great backdrop with only a little bit of light compensation on the subject.
(More examples when fully edited)
Below is the last shoot of the night when it was pretty dark and sun had already been set for a bit… we were working on twilight light by then with a bunch of external lighting.
STUDIO
But I did start experimenting even more with how to make studio interesting and new.
Since I’m not a studio photog and have never even read a book or watched a blog on studio setups I was just winging it.
I guess that’s how I did my whole photo existence just coming up with random ideas.
But I must admit I’ve heard of the idea of lighting the backgrounds and even seen a good friend David Terry setting up a studio setup at Suzanne’s house shooting through something colorful to get some background color.
So I had these filter strips perfect for my SB-900’s which I got from Pictureline for pennies (well worth a stop at the Draper pictureline to grab, even if you never use them… like me up until this point, at least you bought a photo thing for a couple dollars when everything else is too expensive)
So anyway I’m playing around and having people pick random pictures and shooting the backgrounds. I’ll continue to experiment of course.
The Seasoned Charity Shoot PRO
Ashley is the only one to have been to all 3 of my charity shoots… at the first one I didn’t even know her.
She’s a way awesome model when she’s sure of herself and not worried she’s acting to vain in front of Angie who acts it up even more than Ashley.
So having been to all 3 Charity shoot either she’s super duper smart and/or cheap… haha.
But in any case it has always been a fun shoot with Ashley and Angie around!
I was excited to do this shoot because I was offered to do baby shoots a while back but never could get the time or whatever, and I was happy to be doing pictures for a good friend, and even though this little girl is now a bit older I’m glad we could at least get some.
Model Photographers
Many might think Angela looks familiar and that’s because she’s featured in several parts on my blog ever since I did her wedding in California.
We refer to her as the “Beach Bride”
But angela is also a photographer and so is Liz the girl in the blue, and for that matter so is adrienne and Monica who came for shoots as well.
In fact yesterday 2 of my interns came with their families to get pictures taken. (We missed you Heidi and family)
In fact many people that took advantage of the charity shoot were photogs.
I think it’s an amazing learning experience for a photographer to have pictures taken of themselves, I think it helps to be in the shoes of the future clients.
Now you know the feedback you should be giving when you’re the photographer.
You can tell Liz and Angela know what a good expression looks like and are able to capture it in the pictures.
I’ve always enjoyed shooting angela because she’s so creative and I think that will make her a great photographer one day.
And Liz was a joy to take pictures of because she had so many looks and was so fun to be around. The Camera loves you all… (as the saying goes)
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