Commercial Photography

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!

Business Casual Headshot in Clearwater Florida with Brian

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I went to Brian's office in Clearwater to make a creative business casual headshot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/125th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 in 43" shoot-through-umbrella to frame left rearI went over to Clearwater, Florida on a recent afternoon to meet Brian and make a creative business casual headshot for him right in his office.  It was a nice long office with plenty of space to setup my portable studio equipment.  He wanted a white background for his headshot, so I put the white cover over my collapsible background so that I could easier cut him out and place him on a digital white background as seen above in the final image.  

During the headshot I learned that Brian was about to run his first Iron Man and had been running triathlons.  I told him how I have photographed the St. Anthony's Triathlon a few times and we also talked about fitness in general.  He was a natural in front of the camera so it was only a very brief hello, make the headshot, and good-bye, which is my goal to not take up much more than 15 minutes of the client's time.

Creative Professional Headshot in Wesley Chapel Florida Home Studio with Austin and son

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Creative business headshot made in Wesley Chapel home studio - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 in a snoot to frame rightIt was a bit of a long time in the making setting up this creative headshot shoot with Austin in my home photography study currently in the Wesley Chapel area.  We first discussed it in April.  Often times as a professional photographer persistent following up is required if a client does not have immediate availablity.  

A wardrobe and background change for this creative headshot in Wesley Chapel Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB600 to frame left & rightAustin wanted a more creative look to his headshots, and liked some of the ones I did in the past with just one speedlight creating a lot of deep shadows and a black background.  After a wardrobe change I added a second speedlight and placed each one more on the side of him, rather than front and back.  That created the lighting look in the shot above with the white background.

Austin brought his son with him, so after the headshots I suggested we make a quick father & son portrait in my Wesley Chapel home photography studioHe had brought his son with him, so after Austin's two headshots were finished, I asked if he would like to get a quick portrait with his son while all the lighting was still setup.  His son joined him and I sent the portrait above as a free bonus along with his two headshots.  

Professional Business Headshot done in office in Tampa Dale Mabry Florida with John

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Business Headshot made on location in the Dale Mabry area of Tampa - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrellaI packed up my portable photography studio equipment and headed to the north Dale Mabry area of Tampa to make an on location headshot of John in the lobby of his office building.  I was sent examples of headshots other staff members already had made and was told to make his headshot as close to that as possible.  The examples were not shot on a photography background of any type, just using existing walls or areas.  So we went out into the large atrium/lobby in his office building and I arranged my lights and produced a headshot very similar in look to all the others already on the employee page of the company website.  For the shot above, I cut out the darker background and placed the subject onto a digital white background to compliment the modern style of the over headshot.

Professional Business Headshot done on site in Tanglewood St. Petersburg Florida with Bill & cat!

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Professional Business Headshot made right in this client's home in Tanglewood St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 in 43" brolly each

I went over to the nearby Tanglewood area of St. Petersburg, Florida to make a professional business headshot for a client right in his own home.  My portable studio setup requires little space and sets up in just a few minutes.  Even my collapsible background can simply be balanced against the edge of a couch as it was this time!  The client wanted to change ties between shots and in that time there was a visitor to my portable photography studio setup . . . the family cat!

This cat snuck into my headshot setup between takes!

The client was actually sitting on that ottoman the cat is peering over.  She was curious about the big 43" brolly just to frame right.  I grabbed my camera and took a photo as quickly as I could not knowing how long the cat's curiousity would last.

This cat was a good stand-in until the client changed ties for his second shot!

Then the cat noticed me and I got the above shot with her looking right at me.  For a few minutes, I got to feel what it must be like to work at Cat Fancy!

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!

Attorney Professional Business Headshot in St. Petersburg Florida with Christine

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In my home studio I made this photograph of St. Petersburg Attorney Christne - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 & SB-600 in 43" brolly - digital background Another attorney visited my home studio this month for a professional business headshot.  Maybe it is the season for lawyer's to get a new headshot?  Even though a headshot shoot is relatively straight forward I find there is still quite a bit of room for variations and creativity.  There is the lighting style, the aspect ratio of the headshot, the kind of background and more.  So even though I use the same spot in my apartment for each headshot I do, there is always something I end up changing (or improving) from the previous shoot.  It is my practice to always try and out do the previous shoot I do of any kind.

Christine liked the blue-gray gradient background I used in another portrait, so I photographed her on a white background then in Photoshop "removed" her from that photo and placed her onto a digitally created background, as seen above.