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.
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)
we are taking pre-bookings for those that participated in my survey last week.
And my interns have a days head-start to invite their friends to the shoots for the days they’re in charge of.
There should be plenty of spots available up to 60 canyon spots and more than enough Studio time.
I will help with scheduling but I am not in charge of scheduling.
If you send the email it will get to the right place… maybe even doing a comment on the post will work… but no guarantee.
To double check you are official make sure your name is on the online calender.
The schedule is now set
Every day mon-friday 10am-1:30pm = Studio shoots in North Lehi
CANYONS = Fall Colors
Monday 3-7pm = Little Cottonwood canyon
White pine trailhead parking lot – it’s 5.5 miles into the canyon -.5 miles before snowbird
This is only the second time I’ve been up Big Cottonwood Canyon.
The first time was on a film set at night in winter, so that probably doesn’t count.
I went with a friend Beth and another photographer Jeffrey.
You can see Jeff’s work on flickr
All of my pictures from the event, keeping in mind I don’t know how to be selective are on SmugMug Gallery
I have set it up so the first 40 and then the first 80 are the ones that I prefer the most. So that way you don’t need to look at all of them.
We made 3 stops and throughout the canyon the fall colors were in various stages of brillance, but in most spots the trees were now devoid of leaves for the year… sad.
Lots of pictures of Aspens changing color
A Bunch of Pictures of the Storm Mountain area
I went crazy on taking pictures of this frost on the grass
Silver lake up at Brighton was partly frozen over.
This is where I actually placed the camera on the lake to take a few pictures.
The moon when we set off on our adventure was still full and hadn’t set yet.
Finished up a photo shoot at the Canyons and was heading home and decided to take advantage of the first fallen snow of the year (a light dusting) and the unique light that was shining through on the fall colors.
Taken accross from the Timpanogas Temple. I was so amazed at the amount of families that showed up while we were there to take pictures. There was at least 5 groups at one point and they were constantly coming and going.
One thing that amazed me about how many people came is that the light was less than good.
That is why I was very happy to have brought a friend and my new favorite toy… my 42″ reflector. It worked wonders and brought my editing time down so dramactically that I almost didn’t know what to do. I had my same impulses to touch up and make the pictures better and unique, but most of the time I was grasping at the air… as there was little to improve.
If you are listening and you are a photographer don’t put off buying a reflector as long as I did… get one now! (And get a good one)
These girls were amazing and the landscape was beyond words.
Ferns changing to orange and yellow and trees of every shade of fall.
Mountains in the background and beautiful Aspens everywhere.
The girls were into it, didn’t take excuses and worked the camera.
It was funny, silly, and a bit over the top for them at times…
but…. heh great pictures came out of it all so it worked out nice.
From funny, to sad, from sassy, to sweet they did it all.
This has probably been one of my favorite photo shoots to date… after doing this I thought I could do this full time and leave the weddings behind. But weddings pay the bills.
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