Their First

It is their first child together. They were both pretty excited for this event and asked me to come take some pregnancy photos of her.

I showed up with camera and speedlights ready to shoot. I saw a big open window and decided to use this for the lighting so we hung a huge sheet over it. The room didn't provide the ambiance I wanted so I decided to make this a backlit photo. This way, she would be the main focus. I asked her to put on some white clothes so her skin would really pop and be the main focal point of the photo. After all, it's her belly we wanted everyone to focus on.

I took a few test shots and immediately knew I'd need some more light. I took out my larger reflector and propped it against the couch to shoot some light back at her. This lit her up beautifully. We were in business.

Her husband soon arrived home and we asked him to join her. He was a bit hesitant but after a few minutes of uneasiness, he finally relaxed and we got some great tender moments between him and his soon-to-be child.

Vegas Vacation

It was a much needed vacation. Work has been pretty hectic and this have been getting pretty intense, so it was nice to get away for a few days. I took a few days off and took my girlfriend to the relaxing city of Las Vegas. Ya, it's not that relaxing, but it was fun. We got to visit some of her friends and I got to hang out for a few hours at the pool.

We did take my camera to grab a couple of shots of the hotel we were staying in. Yea, that's right, we stayed in the Bellagio! It was super nice. I was so excited because the fountains at Bellagio are my favorite part of Las Vegas. We even had a lake-view room. The shot above was taken from our room. We got to watch the fountains every night during our vacation.

She even indulged my eagerness to take some photos of the fountains. I wanted to get a great photo from the front of Bellagio to get a straight shot. I was worried it was too packed to squeeze in. Lucky, we got there just after one of the fountain shows (they go off every 15 minutes at night). We set up and started shooting during the 3 minute show. I was making adjustments the entire time to get a few different looks throughout the song.

I got two photos that I enjoyed. The one above I converted to black and white. I liked the details in this photo and didn't want the color to distract from the water. I liked the fountains in this next photo.

We had a great time and I'm sure we will return, I'm just not sure we'll get to stay in the Bellagio again.

Sunset Antics

It was nice to be able to walk across the street and snap some photos. It didn't take a lot of time to set up and he got to have lots of fun, past his bedtime.

We shot this photo during the sunset. Walked across the street, asked him to play in the tree, and got a cool silhouette of him trying to pull himself up. Tells quite the story even if you know how the photo was taken.

We liked it enough to print it and it looks great printed.

Complicated Light

A co-worker of mine may be losing his office in the near future. We all may be losing them due to growing needs. It's going to be a sad day when this happens. But to remember the good times, Antoine (pictured) asked me to take a photo of him so he would never forget the good times of having his own office.

He had a chocolate cigar that he wanted to use in the photograph. That immediately got my mind racing with ideas. I knew I wanted to show him in a powerful setting like a crime boss. This is quite the contrast to his real character that I knew it would make a good photo.

I set up in his office during lunch. I had just bought a new 430ex speedlight that I could use for a hair light so I knew I would be getting my most complicated lighting shot yet. I shot at 1/250 shutter speed at f/3.5. This knocked out any light from the horrible flourescent lights that are in the offices. I used my 580ex II to provide the overall fill light. I set up one 430ex speedlight on the ground and shot it through a plant. This is providing a little texture on the back wall, it was pretty boring otherwise. I then had another 430ex speedlight shot through a snoot and taped this on the book shelf. This was providing my hair light that would help pop him off the background. The last 430ex was shot through a snoot with a CTO (change to orange) gel that would hit his face and provide my key light. The CTO gel helps to add some natural skin tone back to his face and help it pop a bit more as well.

Wow, that was a mouthful. First time I've used 4 lights to photograph anything. When he returned from lunch, he sat down and we were cooking. I had to adjust the one light that was hitting his face since I wasn't sure where it would be when I was setting up. I shot for about 10 minutes and got some great shots. I then pulled back my setup shot then adjusted my white balance to fluorescent to throw the overall color blue. With that CTO gel, it knocked the overall room blue while keeping him quite natural.

I moved in with this new white balance setting just for fun and snapped my last photo. I knew I had some good shots so I didn't play on this mode much. But this last shot ended up being the best. The color just gives it a unique feel and I love how his natural skin tone contrasts with the rest of the photo. Not to mention, his expression looked the most menacing.