Portrait
Candid Senior Portrait Package Features:
High School Senior Maria posing with a jacaranda flower in downtown St. PetersburgA large jacaranda tree resides in downtown St. Petersburg next to the Museum of Fine Arts. Its bright red blossoms fall to the ground still in full possession of their dignity, making for prize souvenirs for passersby, or the random senior portrait shot. As you can see the tree has been defiled with carvings. Someone declared their love in a large heart upon the poor trees vast trunk. Perhaps now in hindsight I did a dishonor to the tree for using the carving in my portrait. I will make it up to the jacaranda tree the next time I see it.
How I made this shot:
Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/320th Nikon SB-600 Speedlight on light stand above & to the left
Photographing a portrait session on a beach, even at sunset, can lead to quite a few similar looking shots. How can you add a little spice to some of the shots? Topaz Adjust 3 makes it quite easy actually, as it has a "spicify" filter right in it. I used that filter among others to process the above candid portrait of two brothers who added their own kind of spice to every shot I took of them with their great energy and playfulness.
Steps for making the above shot:
Below is the non-spicified version:
only basic adjustments were made to the RAW file in Aperture 3 for this shot taken at Honeymoon Island State Park
So what do you think of the spicify filter in Topaz Adjust 3? Did it help or hurt the portrait? Or did it simply offer an alternative version of a shot? Please let me know what you think and why in the comments below.
Finally, a kind of photographer's stereotype headshot for me.
I have few photographs of myself, at least not many "headshot" or "portfolio" type shots of myself. I have shots of me jumping across a canyon, hanging out in the French Quarter, hanging out with some kids in Cambodia, jumping off boulder in New Mexico, hanging out in Chinatown in San Francisco, crossing half-tree bridges, jumping off more boulders in Korea, hanging out with hipsters in Korea, and even me skimboarding in Japan. The above is my first stereotypical photographer's headshot, i.e. some dude holding a camera.
This was just a quick attempt made on my back patio with some help from f8 Consortium colleague and friend Marc, who took the shot.
Which era Jason do you like best? Let me know in the comments below.
Tanya volunteered for a street portrait on the University of Tampa campus - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 1/320th Nikon SB-600 handheld to frame left
This is more a part 2 to the first entry in the Street Portrait Series, as these shots were made on the same day. This series is about asking people you just see on the street if you can make their portrait. Tanya, pictured above, was just hanging out on the University of Tampa campus. I asked her (and Stephanie) if she would not mind letting me take a few photos of her. She said sure. So the hard part in street portraits is just getting the nerve up to ask someone. In my experience so far it seems many people are willing to let you photograph them. They just want to know what you will do with the photos, so I tell them it is part of a street portrait series I am doing and that I will use them on my website. That is usually good enough explanation for them and they agree to let me photograph them.
Downtown Tampa provides the backdrop for this shot - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/250th Nikon SB-600 handheld off camera
Both of these shots were done with my "quick and dirty" method of off camera flash, which just holding the strobe outstretched in my left hand while holding my Nikon D300 in just my right hand.
How I processed these photographs:
Candid Family Vacation Portrait at sunset on Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin FloridaAnother great Florida sunset set the backdrop for a very fun candid family Florida Vacation Portrait session at Honeymoon Island State Park. Robert and Bonnie, and their two boys Alex and Aiden were visiting Florida from Kentucky, and picked a great time for a vacation here as the colder than normal winter weather just finished, and the full on heat and humidity has not yet arrived.
The boys had a great time setting each other up with rabbit ears during our candid portrait session
The boys were real characters making my job easy as they loved to play around and were not shy at all. We found this small hole in the beach and turned it into a prop for this natural light (Nikon D300, Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 1/1600th) candid portrait. They were both good sports about everything.
It was peace out for this candid family beach portrait
I really enjoyed all the personality the whole family had and it is a lot of fun to be able to make candid family portraits like the one above. I just set up my strobe on a light stand to frame left, dialed in the settings on my D300, and shot away as they had fun with the portrait session. I gave no directions at all. I did not need to, which is fine by me. This let's me focus on composition and timing and making the best shots I can.
Trying to touch the sky in this candid father and son beach portraitThe above was another natural light portrait. Just 30 minutes before sunset on a day like this makes for great light, and the Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D lens at f/4 produces great results. The 80-200mm remains a good budget alternative to the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G VR lens, especially for outdoor portrait work.
Thank you to Robert, Bonnie and the boys for a great candid portrait session.
Street Portrait of Candid Coeds Chatting -- f/11 ISO 200 1/125th SB-600 handheld off cameraWant to get new ideas? Go to a photography workshop, even a free one. My newest photo series, "Street Portraits," was inspired by a workshop by the Lighten Up and Shoot crew who talked about just approaching people on the street and asking if you can make their portrait, or even have them be your model for a little while. Their workshop was free.
Combine the inspiration from that workshop with the experience I had during my 2nd DSLR Photography lesson with student Kelley in downtown Tampa, and boom, the Street Portrait Series was born. All these shots were actually made during Kelley's 4th DSLR photography lesson. See our setup for the bench shots here, though I only used a single off camera strobe for mine. He used the dual-strobe setup.
These dudes were all business -- f/11 ISO 200 1/125th SB-600 handheld off cameraThe basic concept of the street portrait is to setup your lighting gear, then anyone you see walking by, ask them politely if they would like to have their portrait made. If they say no, just say thanks. If they say yes, say thanks too! I always offer to send the person(s) the photograph as well. Basically you combine street photography with candid portrait photography with off camera flash, with a good amount of being able to be outgoing and brave enough to just ask a stranger to let you photograph them. I will admit, it certainly helped to have Kelley there, as he is not shy about asking people to let us make their portrait.
People on the UT campus were very open to be photographed -- f/11 ISO 200 1/250th SB-600 handheld off cameraHowever, I approached the girl (and her friend) above to join in our street portrait experiment. I would have to say things went very well and several more people (not pictured) let us make their portrait. Now, all these people were on the University of Tampa campus, no doubt a more likely crowd to let themselves be photographed. It will be interesting to see how different areas of the city prove to be for street portraits. I am excited to continue this series and just hope my nerve holds up, especially if I try it alone!
How I processed these photographs:
