Professional Phoenix Photographer
I had the chance to week to photograph a very fun young lady. We had a lot of fun creating different looks during her time in the studio. She is very interested in fashion, so we did some shots that you might find in a models portfolio.
As a photographer, I always love it when my clients aren’t afraid to be a bit silly as it often yields some amazing photography. Irena was one of the those girls who just had fun with it. Come back next week for some surprises.
I found Kaidynce at a pageant a few weeks ago, and she was just full of personality. So I brought her into the studio to get some shots of her to see if it carried through on camera. As you can see from these few samples, it did.
Kaidynce was a real pleasure to work with. I asked her to show me some different expressions, are these are a few of what I got.
Category : photography Portraits
Busy, busy, busy, busy! It is the holiday season and everyone wants to get some new photographs. One evening this week I had a really fun family come down to the studio for their family portrait. Everyone was in town for the holiday season, so it was the perfect time to get them all together for a portrait.
Whenever I photograph a family, there always seems to be someone who just stands out from the rest. Never takes a bad picture at all. Always becomes the main focal point of the portrait. They have the “star” quality.
As you can see here, she stole the show! I am sure that the family totally agrees.
Category : catalog photography products
This week the most fun I had was as the photographer of product shots for Sassy Sarongs. A great company which produces an amazing variety of sarongs. Lisa is always great fun to work with on her projects. Each time she gets a new batch of sarongs in, she calls her favorite photographer – me.
We started the day with some photography of Lisa for her marketing materials. Her sarongs made for some very colorful and interesting shots. She was a great sport about trying various things to get a large variety of photographs to work. As usual, my photographers eye saw some great opportunites to create some amazing photographs.
After the headshots were done, we moved on to the product photographs. The shots were targeted for her website catalog along with some printed materials. Once again there was a large variety of sarongs to shoot. The colors and quality of these sarongs is amazing.
We ended the day by shooting the full body promotional materials. These photographs will featured a beautiful model posing in a gentle breeze. Getting the sarongs to behave in the breeze to was a challenge, but as a photographer I’ve learned a few tricks to get it to work. The final photographs will be used in magazine, posters and other marketing materials.
I look forward to working with Lisa and Sassy Sarongs again on their next project.
Category : Equipment photography
Studio construction continues as we race towards a May 1 completion. Painting is scheduled to begin Wednesday on the main studio. The lobby is scheduled for paint today. We could, of course, have opted for some peel and stick wallpaper to cover the walls, but for what we plan to use the space for the paint makes a little more sense. Still, something for a future project, perhaps?
So many things to get done, power, internet, alarms, audio systems, new locks, moving equipment, new furniture, permits, etc. We also need to get in touch with a welder to finish off some of the metalwork in our new studio. A friend of ours is a welder and has just purchased some weldpro multi process welders for his welding company, so I might have to give him a call to see if he could help us. I cannot wait to see how everything comes together. This has been our most audacious construction project to date, truth be told. That being said, our construction project was made a lot easier through the use of construction project management software. Keeping on top of all the different tasks involved in a construction project is not always simple, but using software can make a big difference, as well as implementing the right safety practices during the construction stage. This is incredibly important in cases like these, we need to make sure that everyone involved is safe, that is why checking out a safety sign supplier in the UK/US was on our to do list, we needed to label everything just so we could hopefully avoid any injury, and we still hope we can. Slowly but surely it moves on. We have our first scheduled shoot for May 2, sure hope we are ready!
BTW, if you need a great drywall guy in Phoenix, message me and I can hook you up.
Category : boudoir glamour headshots photography Portraits
Professional make-up for your photo shoot has many benefits for both the client and the photographer. I include make-up services in a lot of my packages and in others I let the client decide.
There are several benefits to the photographer. First is the reduction in the amount of time spent retouching. A good make-up artist (MUA) can make their skin look almost perfect. With wedding makeup, flamboyant isn’t really a word that comes to mind, but it’s still very rewarding for the bride to see the pictures afterwards, knowing that she looked her best – here is an elopement wedding photographer to look at for some examples. This is a golden example of a time to hire a professional. Additionally they keep the shine off the skin that some people get on their faces (both men and women). I hate retouching the shine off skin.
Now even if a client knows how to do their make-up (many are quite good), a professional MUA will be able to do things beyond this. Airbrushing the skin is one technique that yields awesome results that they provide. Additionally a MUA will be able to create specialized looks that fall outside the range of normal make-up. Classic pin-up is an example; another would be fashion make-up for model portfolios.
One of the benefits to my clients is how easy it is to just come to the studio and have everything handled for them. Many find it very relaxing to have their make-up done for them. We chat and joke around and get to know each other before the shoot. This puts the client at ease prior to the shoot, settling some of those pre-shoot jitters.
The MUA’s that I work with also travel to my location shoots. My clients love it when everything comes to them to make their shoot special. We’ve gone to client’s homes, hotels and even the middle of the desert. Every time the results were worth it.
Many MUA’s work in salons in addition to working with photographers. I have a team of MUA’s that I have used that provide incredible work. Having several on my team allows me to always have proven talent available when needed.
Category : headshots photography Portraits
Headshots can be a challenge. They are not merely a portrait as they rely on the person and not the environment to make the image. A portrait often takes liberties in presenting a person as the want to be seen, whereas a headshot needs to portray the person as they actually are. Nothing is worse for a performer than not looking like the headshot that got them the call in the first place.
Hence the reason why headshot are often frequently updated. If the performer changes their look they will need return to the photographer for an updated headshot. The photograph used for the headshot shows the performers age, style, look, etc. Any major changes in these will require an update.
Headshots are currently shot very tight. Seldom do you see a head and shoulders headshot anymore. Crop is typically 8×10 just below the chin and into the top of the head. The performer often faces slightly off to one side, but not in profile. A straight on shot is also used for headshots, much more than in portraits.
Both high key and low key are used for headshots. The low key shots tend to be the serious, non-smiling shots and the high key shots tend to be the warm, smiling shots. Models often go for a more glamorized photograph for their headshots, more along the lines of a beauty shot.
The goal of the headshot photographer to produce the series of headshots the performer needs. The minimum that a performer will need is a smiling and not smiling shot. The photographer needs to make sure that the eyes in the shot are alive and bring you into the shot, smiling or serious.
A great headshot does not take a fancy set-up. Some of the best headshot photographers work with a single light source and a reflector or two. The key is knowing how to use those simple tools create the look that gets them noticed.
A headshot is often seen by a casting director for a few seconds before in moves to pile A or pile B. Great headshots will get into pile A much more often than a poor one. The rest is up to the performer.
Category : headshots photography Portraits
With almost everything being in color in photography today, the fine art of a great black and white headshot is slipping away. It seems that photographers are usually reserving it for fine art photographs. Whereas I include it in my glamour and boudoir work, black and white also has a place in portraits and headshots. Particularly when it comes to business portraits, black and white offers a sense of traditionalism and as trends come and go, a black and white headshot is sure to remain timeless without looking out of place among the most trendy business web pages. Headshots like this can bring an air of professionalism and may get you to stand out more from the crowd. Using a Booth for Professional Headshots to get you the right pictures for your portfolio, is a smart choice and will set you apart from those who take it themselves.
The tonality of a black and white image adds a special depth to the images that just can’t be done with a traditional color photograph. It is even more important that the photographer control the light with black and white to create those moods. Photographer Olga Topchii (you can see her work at olgatopchii.com), for example, understands the importance of tonality in her photography. She has black and white images that focus on composition to generate the appropriate mood. Not enough photographers focus on in this day and age. Often many photographers try to boost their colors too much.
Color has become a crutch for some photographers, so worried about the perfect red that they overlook the other key elements to photography. Black and white, with the constraints it poses, forces the use of all a photographer’s skills to get a great image.
Digital photographers have it even tougher. A portrait / headshot shot in black and white digitally does not have the same available range as film. Some of the typical techniques to work around this in landscapes such as HDR, do not work practically with a person whose expression and eyes are key and move just the slightest bit between the frames.
There are other techniques that a skilled digital photographer can use to work around this, but it is a skill that takes time to learn.
Orcatek Headshot and Portrait Photography – Phoenix, Arizona
Category : catalog photography products
This week, the most fun I had was as the photographer of product shots for Sassy Sarongs. A great company which produces an amazing variety of sarongs. Lisa is always great fun to work with on her projects. Each time she gets a new batch of sarongs in, she calls her favorite photographer – me.
We started the day with some photography of Lisa for her marketing materials. She’s doing a big push at the moment, with new photos, keyword research and other means to promote her products around the world being employed. Her sarongs made for some very colorful and interesting shots. She was a great sport about trying various things to get a large variety of photographs to work. As usual, my photographer’s eye saw some great opportunities to create some amazing photographs.
After the headshots were done, we moved on to the product photographs. The shots were targeted for her website catalog along with some printed materials. Once again there was a large variety of sarongs to shoot. The colors and quality of these sarongs is amazing.
We ended the day by shooting the full-body promotional materials. These photographs will feature a beautiful model posing in a gentle breeze. Getting the sarongs to behave in the breeze was a challenge, but as a photographer, I’ve learned a few tricks to get it to work. The final photographs will be used in a magazine, posters, and other marketing materials. Promotional materials such as this can really help a business thrive and grow in a climate where consumption from digital to real life is very important for growth. More and more companies are looking at branded materials such as custom t shirts to promote their business, alongside other forms of promotion.
I look forward to working with Lisa and Sassy Sarongs again on their next project.