Photo assignment – No talking allowed!

In general, many of the people I know and associate with are more reserved or held back when it comes to approaching or speaking to a stranger. This doesn’t only apply to photography but if we take for example, street photography…there have been plenty of occasions where a fellow photographer and I are walking around and capturing images on the street, but as soon as the subject they’re shooting looks over at them, they quickly lower their lens. Why is that? Because we think that we’re upsetting the person by taking their photo? We all know that it’s not an issue of rights because in a public place I’m free to take a photo of just about anyone doing anything.

Now what if we see someone who looks interesting? Let’s say there’s a person walking down the street with a sign and you’d like to stop them and capture their image. Do you come up to them, talk to them, ask them? Surprisingly of the many people I’ve asked and gotten feedback from either take the candid approach in capturing someones image or simply never make the effort or approach.

Let’s take a look at the images below…
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I have more images like these, but just a small example, what these all have in common…is that when I approached, posed, and snapped the photo…I didn’t say a single word to any of these people. And in image #3 after demoing that it could be done, Snezhana gathered the courage and did it herself!

Didn’t say a word to them? Not one? From start to finish? Nope. Not one word. I would approach people by either putting myself in their path or tapping them on the shoulder and capturing their photo after making gestures that basically implied I wanted to capture their photo, then get them to pose the way I wanted, and give them a thumbs up after capturing the image and then leave.

So why bother doing this or what’s the point? The point is that it doesn’t matter what you say to a person when you approach them. Well let me correct myself there, I’m sure you can say some totally odd and off the wall thing that might send folks running for the hills. But the point is that the majority of your approach is in your own confidence and body language. And this stems to just about any general social situation, not just photography. When you see the guy or girl who’s the life of the party, are they the life of the party because they’re necessarily saying something interesting or is it that they are perhaps exuding confidence, a positive attitude, good body language, etc…? We pick up a lot more on the general vibe of a person rather than WHAT they are saying. It’s the reason I’ve seen really bad pickup lines work at a bar and really good lines fail…body language.

Anyone who’s been doing photography for sometime has heard of the bad stories. One photographer I know was taking shots of his kids at a park and one of the mothers at the park started yelling at him saying that he was trying to just take pictures of her kids and that he was not allowed to do that, so on and so on. And after we hear things like that, it can become discouraging. But that’s not the norm, that’s not what happens on a daily basis. You hear about the single plane crash on the news, but not about the other million flights that landed safely…we forget that many of the oddities, tragedies, and negative things we hear, are not the norm. So that little voice in our head can very easily say “put that camera down” if someone looks over. Or the voice will tell us to keep on walking if there’s an interesting image of a person we want to capture since that would involve interaction.

But it shouldn’t. I believe that we are all capable of capturing an image without saying a single word. In fact when Bryan Allen, a fellow photographer and mentor told me about it, I was in disbelief myself. I asked him “So you went around to a bunch of people and tried it. Well what happened?” His response was “Nothing. It was no different than approaching people and saying something. All but one couple let me take their photo and even then I saw them a few minutes later and they changed their mind and decided they’d let me capture them.” And sure enough when I built up some confidence, made sure I stayed positive and had good body language it worked the same for me. Not one person has ever said no to my silent approach in capturing their image in my 40 or 50 attempts.

So your assignment, should you choose to accept it is to do the same. The next time you’re out walking the street with your camera and see someone or something interesting, give it a shot! Of course once you’re comfortable with the silent approach then coming up and speaking to a person is good I’ve met some very interesting people in simply taking some time and having a conversation.

The Mindful Eye

Of the many photo sites I visit, one of my favorites is http://www.tmelive.com/ (The Mindful Eye), where the people and environment is positive and supporting, especially for new photographers. In fact I personally feel that one of the biggest keys to succeeding in just about anything, is the people and attitudes you choose to surround yourself with. Not just with my photography, but as I have eliminated negative or naysayer people and ideas from my life in the past, my photos have also seen improvement from that. This doesn’t mean that you can never have negative feedback of course! However if something is wrong with an image that you’re getting critique on, the important part is hearing what the other person thinks will improve it. Saying “I don’t like it.” vs “I don’t like how the angles here or there are not working with each other, maybe X would improve it.” are two totally different things. So keep in mind that while the feedback at first might sound worse than what you’d like to hear, listening to the technical elements of someones feedback is a big part of what’s going to help you improve. From there you can filter off what works for you vs what doesn’t. If I would do something different in framing a shot, that doesn’t mean that it will automatically work for you or your style.

It’s not often that one of my photos gets selected for a critique let alone the photo of the week, but in being very excited I thought I’d share! Recently one of my images was selected as the photo of the week. If you’d like to see the critique, you can either watch the below video or click on the link to the site. Any feedback or critique are welcome!!

http://www.tmelive.com/index.php/articles/view/346.html

How did you do it?

As my photography slowly inches in the direction of being ’somewhat better’ (or so I like to think) I get the questions that I mentioned in my last posting of “How did you do it?” So I’ll break it down in more detail about a walk down Michigan Ave that a few of us took for the Light Fest for a number of shots…

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So what drew my eye here. As we walked passed this alley, simply noticing the darkness of the fire escape vs the light on the bright bricks drew my eye. So the first thing that usually goes through my mind is “This looks neat!” After that I try to get what I see in my brain to appear on the back of the camera after pressing that shutter button. This does not always happen on the first attempt, so capturing more than one shot and angle is key.

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One of the things about shooting people is the framing and/or choice of backgrounds that you use. And most of us know that, it’s why you see sometimes small groups of people lined up at some scenic spot to get that same shot. But don’t forget to think outside of the box. While we were right along the river, we came across these huge windows that I thought might make for a neat image. It’s something different to try and see where it goes. The window is nice and big, but it needed something more, a more exciting pose. So I suggested this and a more or less ‘fun’ shot came out of it. I’m not sure that this will be inducted into the photographic hall of fame, but it’s just a different type of shot to me, nothing more and nothing less.

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Here I went for combining two subjects into one. The big problem for me is to make it interesting. There are a few things to think about here. Do I shoot the sign and just get the building in the background without the sky or do I try to make it one big shot building and all. There really is no right answer. Sometimes you need to put that camera up to your eye and move around a bit to see if you can capture the shot that’s in your mind. You don’t always have to push that shutter button, it’s ok to wait a bit longer to compose your shot rather than simply ’spray and pray’ that you get the right image just by clicking that button.

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Wait………for it. This idea ties in to what I mentioned above. Michigan Ave was packed. Hundreds of people near the intersection at each light. But as with traffic out on the road having a break every once in a while, the same holds true for people. Every once in a while you have a second or two of an area that’s empty. I composed the shot, which was me down on one knee…and then simply waited. I waited until a girl standing next to the guy moved out of the way and when the last couple pedestrians left the frame and THEN pushed the button. The bonus being that the speaker had an expressive face and pose. I didn’t make the shot, I simply waited for it. Again this is not the absolute way to compose this image. Maybe you want to have the speaker with a sea of people walking passed him with a blur effect which might require a different angle. The beauty of it is that there are lot’s of choices, this is simply what I saw in my mind, then the job became to accomplish it and not sacrifice because the group I was with continued walking…I can always catch up

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Look around, look around. In almost any location you can pick from thousands of different images to capture. And sometimes when you see something like two people hugging or a reflection in the wall then you don’t have to automatically point and click just to capture the moment. But instead, pause and let your creative side flow. The first image I noticed as I walked along that as Snezhana was waiting for me (from a previous shot I’d held the group up for ), that she had an interesting expression in the reflection of the wall. So we took a few minutes while I tried a number of different settings to eventually came up with a pose and exposure that I liked. And the same goes for the mirror. It’s just a slightly different flavor on an image. On image #2 I changed the background, and on this image I changed the foreground. Put your head on a swivel and just keep looking around for new ideas.

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In this image the girl caught my eye as I walked by her and then I headed back to see if I could capture an image of her with maybe a car or two whizzing by. It took about 3 quick attempts to get this image with a bonus on the Disney Store being there which I like being in the frame. So it’s also ok to go back and capture that image that came to your mind. I could have kept walking, but instead decided to make my way back through the swarm of people just for this image. Again, it’s not a masterpiece, but a fun little shot that I liked.

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You never know what might come out of a shot. Every so often as we walked through the crowd I would set my camera settings and simply pop my hand up and snap an image of the people around me. Why? Well no specific reason really. I had two things in mind. One being just to document the number of people around me and the other to simply see if anything interesting would happen. So in this shot as I loaded the images on my PC (I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea lol)…I noticed the girl looking in the direction of my camera and decided to play that up in post process by darkening the scene except for her.

So that’s a brief look at how and why I compose some of my shots. One key element I picked up from my mentor BRYAN ALLEN was that you need to feed your brain. Look at lots of images and study shot after shot. When you find one you like…see if you can go out there and create it yourself with your own flavor on it! To see the rest of our walk around Michigan Ave, go here: http://public.fotki.com/biggy/michigan-ave-light-/

Walking in Glencoe…

But do I really feel the way I feel.

In recent times I’ve been mostly doing photography where the person is the main subject. And I believe that photography has many different aspects. Someone who’s a phenomenal wedding photographer may not be such a great commercial photog or some other area. So one thing that is important to me is to get out there and just take photos for no reason other than for myself. I always appreciate input, especially constructive criticism that will help me improve, but there are times where it’s more about just me. Why this is important is because much of the time when photographing people, my goal and purpose is to bring my vision to someone elses memories. I enjoy that aspect a lot…in fact there’s almost no better satisfaction that an image I created can bring a strong emotion to someone else. But it’s important to not forget that this is a hobby and passion that I love and that I need to do things just for myself sometimes.

Glencoe, Illinois is an upscale town on the North Shore with some of your oldest and largest homes. It would be easy for me to walk around and capture images of big homes and luxurious cars. However that’s not what I see when I walk around. And recently there have been several people that asked me “What do you see when you’re capturing an image and how did you bring that vision to life?” Funny because when I look at photographers who are well ahead of me I often tend to ask the same question. It’s like man…I would never even see that shot! And then when a fellow photog creates that image it almost seems like magic. So when I went out for a walk around Glencoe, I took the camera along and just paused for no more than a few seconds to capture each shot. It took a bit of discipline to move from my comfort zone of finding a subject and snapping a dozen or more images over the course of minutes…to just see something, compose my shot, and snap one or maybe two photos before forcing myself to move on. Then later evaluate what I did and find spots to improve next time. Here are a few of the images I captured. To see them all CLICK HERE!

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An ‘eye’ for photography?

Man, I remember it like it was yesterday. Getting my first ‘real’ camera and attaching that lens to it. I had everything shipped to my friend Brian’s office since I knew I wouldn’t be around to receive it during the day. After walking into his office and excitedly seeing a bunch of boxes with NIKON written on them I opened them up and started charging the batteries and attaching the lenses. After a long time researching cameras, lenses, and anything else related to photography that I could get my hands on…I was finally holding in my hands my new joy…the Nikon D80 camera with a 18-70mm lens attached to it. Also I had the 70-300mm and 50mm f/1.8 lenses which I’d be trying out next.

Brian was sitting across from me as I opened up the boxes, put the charged battery in, followed by the memory card, turned on the camera…then raised the viewfinder to my eye and snapped a shot of Brian. Then with great pride I lowered the camera to look at the image as it appeared on the rear LCD. Thoughts began to run through my mind:
“How much would I charge when someone comes to me to do their modeling portfolio?”
“Should I begin doing wedding albums right away for my new client base or wait a while?”
“At what point do I consider leaving my job to do this full time? Tomorrow, next week, or next month perhaps?”
“Maybe I’ll call now I think and just resign over the phone…this way I can capture a self-portrait shot that will appear over me speaking during my interview with the Nat Geo TV people.”

Now before the next thought ran through my head, the image I had just taken had come into view on the LCD on the back of the camera. If you were there, I swear you’d be able to hear the sounds of crickets chirping as I tried to figure out what happened. It makes no sense! I checked the dial. Yup, the camera is set to AUTO MODE, so what’s the problem? How come this image doesn’t look like it should be worth millions and why hasn’t my phone started ringing with Time Magazine or even Maxim asking me to do a shoot or at least a small biography of how I climbed to the top?! I even got the lens which was better than that cheap plastic crap lens that I see everyone else walking around with which usually comes with the camera!! Hmm, maybe I should return this lens and go for that pro level one that costs $1200? Never mind, so I took a couple more shots that were unimpressive and figured I’d try another lens. So out came the big gun…the 70-300mm, which I slapped on and immediately headed outside with to zoom in and capture the beauty and joy of the first thing that I could lay my eyes on. As I walked outside with the big lens, it almost felt like Mel Gibson and the whole army from Braveheart were behind me and ready for the charge. And even further off in the distance I swear I could hear a Gaelic war song being sung. Come to think of it, I’ll bet that if Mel had a D80 with the 70-300mm on it, he just might have won in the end. Anyway, the thought briefly ran across my mind “What if someone sees me and asks me to do their corporate head shots for them and I don’t even have a business card, website, hair and makeup people, and a studio?” That’s ok, it’s a chance I have to take being a pro photographer now. I’ll get those things next week.

So outside there was a lovely brown sign on a brown brick wall with a company name on there that I decided to turn into my masterpiece. Ready! Aim!! FIRE!!! Now after pushing that shutter button I had to wonder for a moment if that brick wall would still be standing, figuring that the mere intimidation of a monster lens such as that one simply being pointed in the general direction of that wall could cause utter devastation. The Braveheart crew charged passed me towards the brick wall…all of them yelling “What’s in your wallet!!!” However, much to my relief the wall was still there. Now I again looked down at the LCD screen on the camera and there it displayed my image. Silence everyone please…as I try to figure out why that image just looks like a plain boring sign on a boring wall. What’s happening here? Why aren’t the images stellar? Isn’t that green A supposed to stand for ‘Awesome-photos-Mike’? What am I going to show Annie Leibovitz at the imaginary lunch I had already planned for us? And more important…who the hell is Annie Leibovitz anyway?

It was like one of those moments where it’s dark and raining outside and the main character in the movie makes some horrible discovery, looks up at the sky and yells “WWHHHHYYYY!!!!???” Now I can’t say that my photography sucked. It wasn’t photography, ergo it can’t really suck. What I was taking were simply snapshots. Sure the image quality looked better than the little pocket point and shoot cameras, but the shot itself was nothing special. In fact none of my images from that first day were anything special…not even accidentally.

Now today…people will come up to me and say “You have a good eye.” or something like “You have a good natural ability for this.” so on and so on. But the truth of the matter is that not only did I start off with virtually NO talent or ability…but even my images today which I feel are miles and miles from where I first started, still have a superbly long way to go. And for me to make this basic move to a point where people enjoy and look forward to seeing some of my work has taken literally thousands of hours! Practice shots, online images, figuring out lighting setups, reading camera magazines, dissecting setups from catalog magazines, working with other photographers, going through feedback and constant critique have inched me up on the scale day by day. I realized very quickly that simply picking up a camera and going out for the day with it will not make me a better photographer. But looking at my previous work myself and with the help of others and saying “How can I improve on this?” is what the key has been.

So I personally do not believe in that “eye” for photography being a natural thing. Some people are more creative than others, some might get certain things faster than others. But I believe we all start with the basics and move on from their to develop our own style. It’s so easy for me to look at someone who’s already made it on any pro level…Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Madonna, Gary Kasparov, Annie Leibovitz and simply think “Man what a natural talent they must have.”, and completely overlook the fact that each one of those people and countless others has spent so many years devoted to practicing and improving their skills at what they do that there aren’t enough hours in a year to account for it.

What I see and what many of us see is the final product. When we think of Michael Jordan, we think of him floating from the free throw line and landing a superb dunk. We don’t think about back in the day when he was rejected from his high school basketball team and then dug a hole in his back yard and would practice every day jumping out of it to improve his ability, or the thousands upon thousands of hours he would dribble, shoot, weight train, sprint, jump, etc…all to improve himself. What we see is the fast forwarded results because most of us are not there when someone is ‘in the making’. People ask me “How can I create that shot which you did?” To which my only real response is ‘practice’.

Yes, even in photography it’s all about the work that you put into it and the desire behind that work. I believe that if you truly want to be a great photographer, then you can be. The greatness does not need to be that you’re ever published in a magazine or even sell an image. It can be something as simple as bringing a smile to someones face or a tear to their eye. The only ‘eye’ for photography that I have is the one that I work almost every day to improve on and push to the next level. When someone hires me for a job, even if they love the results…I look at every image and say “Great, they liked them…now how can I improve them even more next time?” On top of that I surround myself with people who provide positive support. As a photographer I don’t need people around me who say words such as “can’t” or “won’t”. Instead I look up to the people who say “This was ok/good and here’s where I think you can improve and why.” There’s a lot more to say on a topic such as this. Part of my inspiration in writing this came from Craig Tanner, Bryan Allen, Jessi Ringer, many other friends and family, and of course all of the people who come up to me and say “Hey that’s a nice shot, you have a good eye…how do I make that exact shot?”

Location People – 18 Karat Modeling

As some of you may know I went down to good ole’ Knoxville, TN for a photography workshop. My assignment along with five others was to shoot a large variety of models for 18 Karat Model and Talent Management. And before I leap into the whole writeup, in case you’d like to skip it (gasp) and just get to the images you can see a SLIDE SHOW HERE or the rest of the IMAGES HERE!

Upon arriving in Knoxville we met up with Bryan Allen and we jumped right away into discussing various studio and lighting setups. All but a few of the images posted below and in my slide show uses anywhere from one to five lights in the setup. This includes the outdoor shots as well. On day one our assignment was fairly basic. Using no more than one light, get some basic portfolio shots of the models. On the following days we expanded and began using all sorts of lights, modifiers, diffusers, light boxes, etc…

The hair and makeup girls arrived (Kelsey and Sarah) followed by the models. As my assigned models were being prepped I took some time to introduce myself, get to know their personality and see if there was a look they were going for and request any special changes to the hair and makeup girls. First up was Doug, who said he never had any formal business style shots, so I went straight for a head shot and was going to work my way out from there but we had very little time to work with each model. I ran into even more of a time crunch with Phil since another photographer was shooting with him, but still managed to setup a shot. And finally, last but not least was Vincent who is also a USA Masters Track & Field athlete.

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On day 2 we worked with adults in the morning and then kids in the afternoon!

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Bob
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Bert
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Jarret and Hunter
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Pardees and Hunter
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Day 3 was a full on studio shoot with lot’s of space for cars, motorcycles, and track athletes to sprint through the different sets! Here we had a limited time again with the different models and the outfits and styles were picked out and assigned to us by Cindy Swicegood, the president of 18 Karat. The shots ranged from athletic to catalog. All of the poses and lighting had to be designed by the photographers as we saw fit based on their outfits. At night we headed out for a quick bite at a coffee shop for dinner followed by another night shoot. Shooting people in action at the coffee shop (poets) took me back to a very familiar place of shooting people in their natural environment and capturing them rather than directing a model how to pose.

Vincent
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David and Doug
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Sarah
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Kinley
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Poets that know it
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Sarah
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Ryann and Cesar
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And the final day of shooting was near Bryan’s home where we ended up afterwords for the most amazing celebratory dinner! Here I shot with Ryann who was very easy to work with. The first shot below you’ll see of her I used a three light setup with my Nikon speedlights.

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And I even got the hair and makeup girls, Kelsey and Sarah in a few of the shots just for funsies!
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Lenses lenses lenses!

So you you read my post on WHICH CAMERA SHOULD I BUY? And now it’s time to pick out some lenses for that camera body. After all I did mention that more important than the camera body is the lens that you get, so now it’s time to figure out what lens to get.

Now when you shop for an SLR camera, you have to understand that you’re not just buying a camera body…the features of an entry level SLR are pretty much the same. You’re just getting into the game so forget all the nifty features since none of them will make you a better photographer. Instead take a look at what lenses are available from each manufacturer along with which third party manufacturers such as Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina are just a few names who make lenses for some of the big name camera manufacturers. So when you look at available lenses direct from the manufacturer of your camera, don’t forget to look at some of these other vendors.

Now on to the more exciting part. Asking the question “Which lens should I buy?” Well if you were unsatisfied with my camera body writeup since I had no definitive answer, then perhaps the lens suggestions could be more helpful. Lenses hold their value much better than camera bodies do. They are also updated much less frequently than camera bodies. It’s not uncommon to see a lens on the market for 10 years before a replacement comes out for it. So with that in mind, you can buy a lens that suits your needs and then sell it later for little or no loss, especially if you bought a used lens where the depreciation (if any) has already taken its hit.

There are basically three levels of lenses. Entry, mid level, and pro quality. When you purchase a camera and it comes with a lens. Most of the time it’s an entry level kit lens, so let’s begin there. A kit lens is great to get your feet wet and tinker around with, but I personally do not like using them for much more than just figuring out your camera. In fact I typically suggest that most people begin right away with a mid level lens. What’s the difference between the two? Well your mid level lens usually superior focusing performance, better quality of glass (often yielding better image quality on photos), better and more reliable build quality. Kit lenses like the 18-55mm which both Nikon and Canon offer has plastic mounts to lock into your cameras metal bracket which over time can lead to some warping of the plastic mounts. Personally I have seen a significant change in image quality when moving up from a kit lens.

When going from a mid lens to a pro quality one there is some change in image quality as well, but on top of that most of your pro lenses have not only even better build quality, but also the ability to shoot at a wider aperture such as f/2.8 (allowing more light to get in through the lens) through the entire zoom range of the lens. Entry and mid lenses might shoot at an aperture of f/3.5 when they are at their widest zoom angles, but then the aperture will automatically decrease to something like f/4.5 or f/5.6 as you zoom in. The more you zoom, the less light can make it into the lens. The other nice thing about being able to shoot at low apertures is that you get the ‘bokeh’ effect where you get a nice clear subject with the beautiful blurred background giving you very nice separation. Pro lenses focus fast and well. In low light it might take a long time and several attempts to get a kit lens to finally get a focus lock while a pro lens can handle low light situations much better.

With lenses you do indeed get what you pay for. And if you buy a cheap kit lens and slap it on that fancy new SLR camera body then it’s like putting cheap Toyota Prius tires on a Ferrari. You limit the performance of your camera with a cheap lens. Yes it’s true that I would rather have a pro photographer shoot my wedding with cheaper equipment than a novice with the most sophisticated and state of the art camera gear…but in equal hands there is no question that a pro lens will always outshine a mid one and the same goes for a mid over a kit lens. So now on to some samples below. Since I shoot Nikon I’m going to list Nikon lenses, but many of these and plenty of others are available for Canon and other makers:

Entry:
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 $120
70-300mm f/4-5.6G $150

Mid:
16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR $550
70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR (different than the one listed above) $500

Pro:
17-55mm f/2.8 or 24-70mm f/2.8 (17-55 is more for DX and 24-70 is for FX sensors) $1100/$1800
70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR $1900 (new version coming soon for approx $2300)

Gracie and Hudson – Take me out to the ball game.

I had an old friend get in touch with me who was looking to get some portrait shots of her kids. She mentioned that she would normally bring them to a studio every year or so and have your basic shots taken in studio. A while back I realized that while I enjoy doing studio work, much of that work is the photographer posing the subject to get the look they desire. And it was back on my SAVANNAH trip that I realized just how much can be done out in the field rather than just a studio. Now I don’t think anything bad of studio shots with all the lights and equipment, in fact I tend to do a mix of both outdoor and studio shots myself. But I have noticed that when I go out for the day with a family, couple, or a model…that their personality, creativity, and comfort seems to really come out. So with kids especially, my preference has become to go and meet with the parents, then simply head out for a while and just let them be while capturing the essence of who they are. Not to mention it’s much easier to simply run around behind a kid with a camera than to try to get them to sit still and pose for a studio shot! To see all of the shots of Gracie and Hudson go HERE!

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Irene and Chaim – Puttin’ on the hitch.

I met Irene years ago when she worked for my dads company and we’ve kept in touch ever since. About two years ago she decided to move to Israel and work/spend some time there. She seemed to enjoy her stay in Israel quite a bit and it came as no big surprise when she told me that she had met Chaim and that they were getting married! The part that was a surprise was that here wedding would be here in Chicago! She asked me to shoot her wedding and we got to planning it right away. The biggest conundrum was to convey the idea to Irene as to just how much time was needed during the day to do the photos. Her idea was “Well, the ceremony is at 2, so if we meet at 1 or 1:30 for photos, that should be plenty of time, right?” No…photos take a much longer time than that. And we began by meeting early in the day at the hair salon and going from there. The flow was actually quite smooth. My assistant Sam and I started at the salon, then got some dress/getting ready shots in Irene and Chaim’s wedding suite, then picked Irene up from her makeup appointment in order to head off to the Adler Planetarium to get some posed shots with the Chicago skyline behind them. Finally the ceremony was right by Millennium Park in the Cancer Survivors Park and the reception at Tizi Melloul. Overall great time…until the police showed up! The rest of their photos HERE!

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Snezhana – If looks could kill

Beautiful girl with a beautiful name. This was Snezhana’s first time in front of the camera in a shoot like this. And after a number of shots she not only became very comfortable but began coming up with good ideas of her own to try. This was my first time where someone asked me if they should straighten their hair or leave it wavy. It was a tough call so I figured why not go for both! One of the most interesting things in terms of working with her is that she’s generally a very happy person, constantly smiling, and would ask to see how the shots are coming out more than anyone else I’ve ever worked with But when we did a number of shots with a serious look…she had a look in which her eyes can pierce right through you. So it became a battle of me wanting more serious shots and her wanting more smiling shots. In the outdoor shoot I got a chance to experiment with two new gadgets…a Nikon SB-900 on a light stand through an umbrella for the shots which are above the water and a Custom Brackets – Flash Bracket for the shots you see in the water, beach, and tunnel. Would love to get any feedback that anyone has! You can see the rest of her shots HERE!

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