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Crown Jaguar F-Type Client Event at Dali Museum St Petersburg Florida Photography

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Guests arrive to pose in front of the new Jaguar F-Type at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg event photography - Nikon D300 tripod mounted with cable release Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 both in brolly

The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg was host to an event put on by Crown Jaguar for guests to come and see some of its cars, including the stunning new Jaguar F-Type Coupe (see above).   This was my second time working for Crown, as I photographed the Audi A3 premiere event back in April too.  This time they hired me to photograph all the guests as they arrived in front of a F-Type.  This was my first time doing this kind of arrival portrait photography actually.  The shooting began just before sunset so early arriving guests got a colorful background like in the above portrait.  Soon night came and the background became just a few distant lights.

My setup for making guest arrival portraits a speedlight in each broody and my camera tripod mounted so I got the exact same framing and background for each shot - photo made by iPhone 6

This was my setup for all the portraits.  My camera was on a tripod so every shot was in the same framing.  I advised people to stand in front of the front wheel of the Jaguar F-Type Coupe to further insure similar photo results.  I had two speedlights each in a brolly and kept the one to frame left constant, but as night fell moved the one to frame right to also light the car more.  Unfortunately, the provided lighting for the car was not very bright at all.  I compensated for that by moving one speedlight and tweaking a few camera settings.  I ended up pleased with the results of night portraits using just two speedlights with a large background object (the car).  

Some guests at the Crown Jaguar F-Type Dali Museum event arrived in costume - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/60th - tripod mounted with cable release - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 both in brolly

Some guests wore costumes as Halloween was just three days away.  It was interesting to look up and see who might appear before my lense each shot.  Many people joked asking if this photo was their opportunity to win the car or something like that.  I only ever replied simply, "umm, no."  

From dusk to night shooting guests arriving in front of the Jaguar F-Type at the Dali Museum St. Petersburg Event Photography - Nikon D300 tripod mounted with cable release Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/30th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 both in brolly

The Jaguar F-Type Coupe received universal praise for its looks by everyone.  As of the time of shooting, Crown Jaguar did have this particular F-Type for sale!  

The Jaguar F-Type coupe made for a stunning backdrop for portraits at the Crown Jaguar Dali Museum in St. Petersburg - event photography - Nikon D300 tripod mounted with cable release Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 320 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 both in brolly

It was a fun and challenging evening of photography, my favorite kind, and I got to stare at a beautiful car the whole time too.  Two Crown Jaguar employees helped make sure each guest would receive their print of the photos I made by writing down the photo number as I shot, thank you ladies!

NFL Player Professional Business Headshot Michael Clayton Tampa Florida

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Michael Clayton former NFL player creative headshot Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 in collapsed brolly to frame right

I received a phone call from a networking and St. Pete Chamber of Commerce friend I had not seen in a long time.  She is now working for former NFL player Michael Clayton.  She asked if I could come out to his private residence and make a variety of headshots, from full body standing, to three-quarters to the classic head and neck only.  While showing them some samples of past headshots, they both liked the deep shadow style seen above.  I shot in a bright room, but just used a very fast shutter speed and concentrated a single speedlight on Michael not letting any spill light bounce off walls, etc.

Full body style headshot of Michael Clayton former NFL Player Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 both in brolly

To make the full body standing headshot on a clean white digital background, I put a white cover over my expandable standing background to make it easier to "cut" Michael later out of the shot.

Three-quarter style headshot of Michael Clayton former NFL player Tampa headshot photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/80th - Strobist: SB-800 and SB-600 both in a brolly

This was the most challenging shot of the session, the three-quarters view, in particular how to place Michael's hands and arms.  The above pose was the last we came up with and I think works well.

Modern square orientation digital white background of NFL player Michael Clayton Tampa headshot photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 both in a brolly

I recommended square orientation for Michael's more traditional business headshot as that is what is used on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  I think square orientation makes a headshot look more modern as well, and the lighting is more in a modern sense too with some highlight and shadow areas.

It was a fun and challenging headshot shoot and a chance to try a variety of styles in a single session.  Thank you Michael and Janice!

Ballet Dancer Model Portfolio Shoot Wesley Chapel Florida Photography

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Ballet dancer Katie in her own home studio for this model portfolio shoot in Wesley Chapel Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 each in own 43" brollyKatie is a new friend I have made in my brief time in Wesley Chapel Florida.  For many years she was a professional dancer and on stage around the country.  Now in her Wesley Chapel home she has her own dance studio.  I went over on a Sunday evening to make some ballet dancer model portfolio shots in that studio and found out the real challenge of shooting in a room with a wall of mirrors!  It took me quite a few different setup tries to eliminate or reduce lights and myself ending up in the background of shots.  Katie also had the hard task of repeating physical ballet moves like the one above!

Katie on her ballet bar in her home studio during our model portfolio shoot in Wesley Chapel Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 each in their own 43" brollyIn this shot Katie takes a break from jumps and relaxes with a leg up.  I tried out the bar myself and took two tries before I could swing my leg up on its own (no hand help) even though I am three inches taller than Katie!  Range of motion is something I know I need to keep working on.  

Katie on point during our ballet model portfolio shoot in Wesley Chapel Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 each in their own 43" brollyNot suprisingly, being on tip toes is not the most comfortable thing to do in the world.  I realized quickly that my usual lens I like to use for model shoots, my Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D was not going to be practical in such a space, and switched to my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens which was used for all the shots seen here.

Katie showing the flexibility of a ballet dancer during our model portfolio shoot in Wesley Chapel - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 each in their own 43" brolly - background added digitally

Katie also uses her dance studio as a fitness and workout center.  It was not possible to remove all things from the room, and they were too hard to remove digitally on their own, so in the above shot I just cut out Katie herself and put her on that digital background, which is actually a portion of a photograph I made at a car event (see the second photo from the bottom) that had cool red lighting.  

Katie touching the sky during our ballet model portfolio shoot in Wesley Chapel Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 each in their own 43" brollyWe shot for quite sometime and Katie was great about repeating each jump & pose as long as needed to get just the right shot in terms of lighting, limb placement and composition.  I got to learn just how challenging it is to shoot in a hall of mirrors and to be a ballet dancer!

Global Investor Attorney Professional Business Headshot in St. Petersburg Florida with Sarah

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Attorney headshot for a global investor in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly to frame leftThe third attorney in as many weeks visited my home photography studio in St. Petersburg Florida for a professional business headshot.  Sarah was starting a new job and all the employees for the global investor company that hired her have their own profile page on the company's website.  There were guidelines to follow for the type of shot so that it would have a consistent look with the other headshots made previously for the rest of the staff.

The shot you see above is not the one following those guidelines of course, it is one we did for our own creative look.  After making the needed corporate headshot, I turned off one of my speedlights to introduce more dramatic shadowing and then in editing adding a digital background.  I tried the usual white and black first, but then decided to try orange.  Thankfully Sarah liked my bold orange choice as well!

Executive Professional Business Headshot in St. Petersburg Florida with Elwood

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An executive came to my home studio in St. Petersburg Florida for a professional business headshot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/80th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power in 43" brolly to frame rightAnother business professional visited my home photography studio in St. Petersburg Florida this week for a professional business headshot.  Elwood needed a headshot to be used on the corporate website and had guidelines from the home office for lighting, pose, etc.  The above headshot is not the result of following those guidelines that were rather bland.  Instead, this is a headshot I made just for his own personal use in a more modern and creative style.  I used only one speedlight to frame right in a 43" brolly to create the shadow and light falloff on the right side of his face.  Having shadow defines the look of the person in the headshot much more for a modern look that is still professional.

Elwood was seated for this shot with his right forearm on his right thigh to create depth in his posture.  To avoid glare in his glasses, I positioned the speedlight higher on the light stand than I normally do.  I also had him look just about one centimeter lower too.  Poof, glare and reflection in his glasses was gone.  The background was a white sheet, and in Photoshop I removed that and replaced it with a pure white digital background for the final look.

Lawyer Professional Business Headshot in St. Petersburg Florida with Jason

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Insurance lawyer in St. Petersburg professional business headshot on white background - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/125th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power & SB-600 @ 1/16th power both in 43" brollyOn a rainy Florida afternoon it was a good time to have an indoor professional business headshot shoot.  Jason is a Florida insurance attorney (website) and wanted a headshot for use on his website's profile page.  He came over to my home studio in St. Petersburg and after a little greeting from Kiki, it was down to the business of making a headshot well suited for his site and for his image as an attorney.  

Attorney professional business headshot make in St. Petersburg Florida - for setup see aboveJason decided on a traditioinal vertical style headshot (above) and a square-style headshot (top image) that is being used more and more on sites like Linkedin and really all social media.  I think the former looks good on web pages and the latter looks best as profile photos on other websites.  

Lawyer Headshot in St. Petersburg Florida with Katie

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Business headshot done for a lawyer in her office on location in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly & SB-600 in shoot through umbrellaI came to make headshots for Katie in St. Petersburg Florida because she works with a past photo lesson student, Bill.  He has been working out of state, but is back in St. Pete and asked me to come in to photograph his colleague.  It is always nice to see past clients and catch up.

Natural setting business headshot in St. Petersburg Florida - see photo above for setupKatie was a natural in front of the camera so for me it was just a matter of squeezing my lights into her office so they did not cast shadows on the background walls.  Bill had some of his own headshots made out of state which showed him in more of a 3/4 view in a working environment, so he asked me to make similar images of Katie instead of the typical neck high only business headshot.  That was fine with me I am always glad to be able to create something a little different than usual.