These are actually post office steps! The neon in the background is real, though modified - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame left & Nikon SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame left

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I cannot say I explicitily intended for my model portfolio shoot with Alexandra to turn into a film noir style, but through editing of the images it certainly turned out that way.  We were shooting in the late evening from about 7:45pm to 8:25pm mostly around the Arcade in downtown St. Petersburg.  The Arcade is a great location offering a variety of shot opportunities, especially at that late time of day with all its shadow opportunities.  The above shot was actually the very last shot of the shoot.  The background features the neon sign of a cafe across the street with the contrast selectively turned up so that only what is illuminated by my speedlights and the neon remain visible.

Using long shadows created by a speedlight outside the gates - - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/8 power in 43" brolly to frame left & Nikon SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame leftI chose the Arcade as a shooting location because of the great, very tall, ornate, iron gates.  I knew they would make for a fantastic background and/or prop.  For the above shot I placed a speedlight outside the gates to frame left in the alley to help cast long shadows in the foreground.  I composed so to accentuate them.  Alexandra came up with a great pose taking my one small suggestion to create space between each arm and her body, something I always make sure is set otherwise the model will appear to have a lumpy body or strange attached arm.  Alexandra in fact did a great job overall allowing me to focus on creating mood and atmosphere with my lighting and composition.

The 43" brolly creates soft shadows, I love it - - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/8 power in 43" brolly to frame left & Nikon SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame leftThis shot features the same gates and lighting setup.  Without the speedlight outside the gates providing backlight, the gate on frame right would appear dull and lack the reflective light on it.  Additionally, the same speedlight provides rim light around the model, especially her hair, right arm and right side.  A photographer can do a lot with just two speedlights positioned in key spots.  I could carry all my strobist and photography gear that I used for this shoot myself, following the "lighten up and shoot" philosophy.

A single strobe setup with intentional background shadow - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4.5 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/8 power in 43" brolly to frame rightThis shot is different than all the others in that it features only one speedlight positioned to create Rembrandt lighting (nose & cheek shadows touch leaving a little light under the eye) on the model.  I wanted to include one soft feeling image in the shoot as most of the others were really strong from a posing and overall feel perspective.  

Thank you again to Alexandra.  You can follow her work on Model Mahem and Facebook.

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Isabella dancing at her first communion celebration at the Don Cesar St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 with diffuser cap @ 1/4 power to frame rightPhotographing Isabella at her First Communion Celebration at the Don Cesar in St. Petersburg, Florida was a lot of fun and allowed me to make what I am sure will be one of my ten best images of the year (above).  Last week it was my pleasure to have two returning clients within a few days of each other.  I really appreciate clients who continue to choose me as their photographer, and from a shooting standpoint, it is great to have that already existing familiarity with the client.  This time, however, instead of just shooting Vanessa during one of her professional flamenco dancing performances (dance 1, dance 2), as mentioned above I was able to photograph her daughter Isabella and the rest of her family as well.

Isabella (center) and friends with the Don Cesar in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 250 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 with diffuser cap @ 1/4 power to frame leftThe Don Cesar is a great location to shoot at, although at the time of the event (12:30pm to 1:30pm) the midday Florida sunshine was as it always is, harsh and unforgiving to photography.  Further, to keep things simple and quick for the girls in the photo I used only a single speedlight (SB-800) with a diffuser cap on a light stand to make these shots.  Can you spot the ones that were made in direct sunlight and the ones that were made in the shade?

Isabella showing off the back of her pretty first communion dress, Don Cesar in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/13 ISO 250 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 with diffuser cap @ 1/4 power to frame leftVanessa wanted a photo of the back of Isabella's pretty dress so I tried to make it a kind of model shot by having Isabelle look back at me over her shoulder.  I composed the shot to use the curb as a leading line along with the railing choosing to have more foreground than blue sky background.

Isabelle twirling her first communion dress at the Don Cesar - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 250 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 with diffuser cap @ 1/4 power to frame leftThe above shot was a rather tricky one to execute, that took quite a few takes, but I am glad we stuck with it and made the photo exactly as I previsualized.  First, Isabelle was standing in complete shade while most of the background was in strong sunlight.  I again used just my single speedlight to put light onto the subject and adjusted my shutter speed to expose the blue sky in the background.  A little Photoshop dodging helped balance out the foreground.  Then it was just a matter of capturing Isabelle spinning exactly centered between the two columns with her dress flowing in a good look.  As I mentioned, a tricky shot, but it turned out better than I thought as Isabelle appears to be still herself while her dress has the appearance of motion creating an unusually dynamic visual.

First communion dress & veil at the Don Cesar St. Petersburg, Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/8 ISO 250 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 with diffuser cap @ 1/4 power to frame leftThis photograph is one of my favorite kind to make incorporating a veil in the wind (actually held up by her mom out of frame, shh!) and the subject looking into the distance with a contemplative look.  I asked Isabelle to look to her right and think of her future.  The result is the above image.  This photograph paired with the top image in this post cover a wide range of emotion that I hope Isabelle and Vanessa and the rest of her family will find valuable when they look back at these photos in 10, 20 years from now.  I want Isabelle to wonder what she was thinking at that moment.  I wonder if she will be able to remember . . .  

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Business headshot done on location in Bayprint - St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 42" brolly to frame left

This morning I had a very fun business headshot shoot with Al of Bayprint.  I have known Al for sometime now first meeting him through the Third Tuesday networking event he hosts every month.  Nowadays I also see him once a month as he hosts a small business roundtable discussion.  As you can see, Al is very generous with his time and is a great networker.  

I went to his print shop in St. Petersburg and used the blank wall right in the breakroom for the background for the above shot.  The goal for that particular shot was to include the Bayprint logo on his shirt in the frame and overall have the headshot not look too corporate, which is why Al is not looking straightahead nor directly into the camera lens.

A fun headshot Al will use on his blog - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 42" brolly to frame left - gray background added digitallyFor the last shot of the headshot session, Al wanted one with his arms crossed kind of looking intimidating to use as a fun image for his blog, etc.  I used the Quick Select tool in Photoshop and then the Refine Edge function to cut Al out of the background you see in the top image and placed him on an empty background.  I then added a new layer under the cut-out image of Al, painted it black, then added a single gradient diagonally to create the new background in the above shot.  This is how I am able to make shots on location right in an office and still offer the client any choice of background.  

Thanks Al and I will see you at future networking events!

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Vivid family sunset beach portraits on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/250th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightIt was great to see the Martineau Family again, who I first photographed back in the summer of 2010.  They were once again visiting from Pennsylvania with their three children.  We met at the same beach on Treasure Island, Sunset Beach, my favorite beach in all of Florida.  This is a great place for family beach portraits, and also skimboarding!

Pulling light from the sky long after the sun went down - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 640 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 to left & SB-600 to rightI was looking forward to seeing how much the children had grown in the past two years.  The most noticable growth was of course with their youngest, and the fact that he could now talk and his favorite words appear to be "alligator golf."

Cartwheel sunset beach skills! - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightBeing a Thursday evening in late April Sunset Beach was mostly free of tourists and locals as well so we pretty much had the entire half-mile strip of beach to ourselves.  The only passersby were some water birds.

Family running on the beach having fun - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 500 1/500th natural lightLast time we made a very similar shot to the one above with the family running and laughing down the shoreline.  The biggest difrerence this year was that it was a cloudless sky, whereas two years ago a storm was just upon to fall on the beach providing a dramatic cloudy sky for a background.

Siblings having fun on the beach - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/80th Strobist: SB-800 to left & SB-600 to rightThe cloudless sky helped me be able to make shots well after the sun went below the horizon and still pull some color out of the twilight sky.

Family beach portrait watching the sunset - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 to left SB-600 to rightI was very glad to be able to continue to be the Martineaus family photographer on their Florida visits and I look forward to their next visit!

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Kiki's mouth opens too wide when yawning to even fit in the frame! - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/8 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in brolly to frame rightI have been doing quite a few in-apartment photo shoots featuring white backgrounds added digitally lately of various subjects and inevitably when I finish them before I put my photography and strobist gear away I make a few photographs of beloved puppy, Kiki.  I cannot say she is always thrilled about this.  Her expression is usually pretty neutral.  This time I interrupted her naptime resulting first in a yawn then the look she gave me (see below).  

Kiki looking very nonplussed as she usually does for photos - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/8 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in brolly to frame rightSince these photographs were made in the close confines of my living room, and even though the great Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G macro lens makes great bokeh, the backgrounds were still a distraction, which is why I chose to do a Quick Select of just Kiki in Photoshop CS5 and then refine the edges and send that image onto a new layer (done automatically if you choose the right output).  I added a layer below Kiki, painted it white, and voila, a studio looking image of Kiki done right in my own living room, no mess, no fuss.

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