White Bedroom Photo Shoot

My latest stock photo shoot was a "White Bedroom" session. The concept was to create a clean & wholesome look of a young woman in various scenes in her bedroom. To create the set we brought a small bed, night-stand, bedding, lamp, alarm clock and other typical bedroom items (predominantly in white) into the studio and set them up on a white seamless background. The reason I chose the white was to surround the model to allow her face to be the main attraction.



The model in the shoot was Alyssa. This was her last stock session with us before taking off for a couple of months out of state on her summer break from college. I have photographed Alyssa more than any other model and we work very well together. With my wife Michelle (above) assisting me with hair, makeup and the other little details I always seem to miss, we captured numerous scenes to add to our stock image portfolio.



Featured here are a couple of my favorite shots from the series. They involve a sleeping/tired girl and an old-fashioned analog alarm clock. This is an everyday scene that most of us can probably relate to.

Gallivan

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/6.3, ISO 100

Tables Turned

After photographing young model Kate on the streets of Salt Lake City last weekend, I handed her my camera on the way back (it was almost as big as she is) and let her shoot away. Here's a shot she caught of me 'working it' for the camera.

And here's one of my fellow photographer Julie horsing around after the shoot. I must say that Kate handled the camera well and captured some nice moments.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L lens - 1/1600 second, f/2.8, ISO 160

Kate with the Matching Cap

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L lens - 1/640 second, f/2.8, ISO 160

Where Tungsten and Daylight Meet

Today's image is another shot from last Saturday's photography class excursion to the Great Salt Lake. The combination of the blue background and the normally toned bride were achieved completely in camera by lighting the model with several handheld tungsten lights and adjusting the white balance to the corresponding temperature. The naturally lit background then became the wonderful blue tone displayed in the image.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/30 second, f/4, ISO 160

Photographing People with Kenneth Linge

This past Saturday wrapped up a three part teaching series that Kenneth Linge has taught this year called Photographing People, Parts 1, 2 and 3. I feel privileged to have spent time as a student in all of these classes. Anyone that has followed this blog for a while knows that Kenneth is a master portrait photographer that openly shares his techniques with the students that attend his seminars.

In part one and two of the series (held earlier this year), the students spent the majority of the time receiving instruction from and working with Kenneth (along with his wife MaryLyn) in a classroom environment. Part three was a departure from this setting, as we were given the opportunity to put our skills to work and venture out into the real world.

For the first part of the day, the students were paired up, given a model and instructed to head out into the downtown area of Salt Lake City to find locations to photograph. I captured the image of Brittanie (above) during this part of the class. It was taken just off of a sidewalk against a red door.

When the afternoon turned toward evening, the group of students, models and instructors headed out to the Great Salt Lake for some twilight shooting. As the sun set we had the opportunity to continue to put the techniques we'd learned to work in this beautiful setting.



By using a combination of natural light, reflectors and tungsten lights we were able to create some rather unique portraits. The above black & white image of Brittanie standing on the shore is an example of the use of a combination of these three methods of lighting.



Over the past year I have attended a total of eight days of training with Kenneth and MaryLyn Linge. Even though the teaching was aimed primarily at portrait and wedding photography, I can honestly say that the greatest skill I have received from them is a greater ability to see light as it relates to photography. This fluency carries over into ALL aspects of my photography and has greatly helped me in my stock photography business. I look forward to continuing to learn from them in the future.

To learn more about Kenneth Linge and The International School of Photography, visit his website at KennethLinge.com.

Thousand Dollar Flower

This simple capture of yellow flowers just became my first image on iStockphoto to generate over $1,000.00 in income. Regular readers might remember the dumpy surroundings in which this shot was taken (read about it here).

The overwhelming majority of my stock portfolio feature people in lifestyle scenarios and not nature shots since people photos simply sell better. iStock even discourages new contributors from uploading flower photos (they do so anyway), so I find it humorous that this shot has done so well.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 100

Through the Window

Yesterday's wedding shoot in Salt Lake City included rain, snow, wind, sunshine and lots of cold. In spite of the weather, I'm pleased with the images captured.

I worked with videographer Matt of Happily Ever After Video yesterday. It was great working with Matt again (I've worked with him one other time). One of the nice things about working with another artist is the sharing of ideas. The through the window pose featured in today's image was suggested by Matt. It is such a simple shot, but works quite well. I really like the voyeuristic feel that the window foreground adds.

It's several weeks before my next wedding shoot, so it's back to putting on my Stock Photographer hat and getting on to creating more images.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/4, ISO 100

Bethany

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/5, ISO 100