Family Portrait Star

Family Portrait Star

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.

Orcatek Photography, Phoenix, Arizona


How to succeed as a Photographer – part II

Last week’s article I wrote about providing the clients what they want.  Today I am going to spend some time in this article going over another key area – working with your clients during the shoot.  If you are shy and want to hide behind your camera when around clients, then shooting people is most likely not where you should be.  But you may very well succeed photographing products, nature or architecture as area for you to specialize.

Unless you are photographing professional models, most people (and some models) need direction to create a photograph that they will love.  You will often hear your client say “I’m not very photogenic” or  “I hate having my photo taken.”   Learning what causes these thoughts will help you create the photographs desired.

I will go for the direct approach by simply asking “Why do you hate having your photo taken?” or “What makes you feel that you are not photogenic?”  So very often their answers will be easily addressed during the photography session.   Sometimes it just creative posing/ligthing and other times it is going for the less staged portrait.   The key is to understand their concern and find a way to show them you are confident that you will solve this.

To get natural smiles I have a running dialog during the shoot, telling some really bad jokes and just generally being a bit silly.  Sometimes I talk about movies or television.  You need to find an interest of theirs and talk about it.  This will take them away from thinking about their photo taken and get them relaxed enough to create some great photographs.

You have probably seen the commercial where the dad says “I know all the songs from High School Musical.”  The daughter is very embarrassed by the singing and dancing dad.  Be that singing and dancing dad.  By being aware of the world of your subject you can relax them.   Shoot younger kids know Sponge Bob and his friend Patrick.   You get the idea.

Consider shooting with background music.  Having clients bring in their mp3 player of their favorite songs to patch into the sound system.  If they don’t bring one, ask which station they want on the radio.  Music usually elevates the mood and adds a comfort level. 

And of course, getting feedback as soon as possible helps both you and the client.   Some photographers hate showing the clients the LCD.  I find that limited use can be a huge benefit.  Nothing works more to put a client at ease then showing them a great shot on the LCD.  And on the rate occassion they don’t like what they see, you can address it before you take all the shots that way

A running commentary on what you are shooting helps too.   I am always saying ““Beautiful!” or “Wow!” or “Amazing!” or “This is a great shot” etc.  Your positive chatter boosts your client.  And the best part is, you should being telling the truth.  These are great shots of the client.  Just be sure to choose your words carefully.  Using words like sexy and hot can make a client very uncomfortable very quickly.

What it really comes down to is making the client feel comfortable and relaxed.  Remove the stress and make the photography session a very fun experience.  By quickly developing a relationship with the client, you will know how to bring out their very best.  I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with a lot of very successful photographers and these thoughts are common across the group.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix


Glowing Maternity Photography

There’s something incredible about East Brunswick maternity pictures – whether you’re taking them or the one being captured. Capturing that magical look that pregnancy brings to a woman is such a rewarding type of photography. I really enjoy working with pregnant women to document this time in their lives. These photographs will become heirlooms that the family will treasure through generations.

Maternity PhotographyWhen I shoot maternity photographs I take my experience from glamour and boudoir and apply those techniques. The softness desired in glamour photography creates very beautiful maternity images. The future moms are prefect for this type of look.

Also, I find the lighting techniques from glamour and fine art come into play. Using the light and shadows to contour and hi-light the shape of her belly takes an excellent knowledge of lighting. In my fine art work I shoot what are known as bodyscapes, and pregnancy creates some amazing opportunities for this type of photography.

Often the father and/or siblings will pose with the mom to be to show the family’s newest member in their first “portrait”. And of course there are plenty of fun maternity poses such as baby blocks on the belly and hand hearts that are always fun.

As always I am looking forward to my next maternity photo shoot. I know that it will be a joy working with the pregnant mom to be.

Orcatek Maternity Photography – Phoenix


The Studio is now open

The Studio is officially open for business.  We built the Studio so that photographers could rent a studio with the features to create amazing work without paying for all the flashy stuff that doesn’t pay the bills.  With today’s tight economy, photographers need to watch their budgets very close.  The Studio is the answer to their needs.

We have four primary shooting areas available for rent.  Each bay was created to fit the varied needs of a photographer.  Why rent what you don’t need.  Of course if you need more we have that too.

The first bay is a large cyclorama which is 20×36.  Plenty big for photographing cars and large groups.  With two cove corners to allow the photographer to work with ease.

The second bay is a small cyclorama which is 18 feet wide.  The bay extends back 23 feet.  Perfect for fashion photography.

Bays three and four are what we call our standard bays.  They are 18 feet wide and 23 feet deep.  Bring your own backdrops or rent our seamless papers.

 The bays can be draped off for privacy as needed.

 Located on the Tempe / Scottsdale / Phoenix border, it is the perfect location.

It took a lot of time and effort to build The Studio, but it was worth it.  We have already had photographers come in from Los Angeles and they said it was just what they needed – affordable quality and functionality.  Exactly what we had in mind.

The Studio – Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale and the rest of Arizona


Studio Construction Continues

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?

Construction Continues

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!

Cycwall

BTW, if you need a great drywall guy in Phoenix, message me and I can hook you up.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix


Natural Light – Real or Fake

Natural light is a wondrous tool for photography. I had the opportunity yesterday to shoot in a room with a wall of north facing replacement windows alpharetta. The light coming in makes it so easy to create great images.

Natural Light

Great photographers through the years have often had studios with north facing windows and/or skylights. They knew that the light would give them amazing opportunities to create their work.

So you have two options in your studio. Option one is to have a wall of north facing windows to give you that great light. Windows on any side are still better than no windows. Other directions just are more or less effective depending on time of day. Sometimes I like windows with direct light on them to create the effect I want.

The other option is to fake a wall of north facing windows. To do this you need a good sized white wall. You then turn several strobes straight at the wall powered up a pretty good amount as they will be bouncing to create the light. A single strobe on a smaller white wall can work if you limit yourself to a smaller area. I like using the large wall as it just makes it easy for your model to move around the entire shooting area.

The faked wall is good, but not quite the same as the real thing. Sunlight just has a quality that the strobes can be made to come close to, but just miss.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix


Photography on Location

Working on location with clients on location can be both fun and challenging.  The resulting images though make it work the extra work required. 

 

One of the biggest challenges faced when shooting on location is the lighting.   Frequently these locations are outdoors so you have the sun to work with.  Then comes the supplemental light needed to make the image come to life.  Sometimes its reflectors, other times it is portable strobes.  More often than not it is a combination.  I personally like to use my speedlights as they are small and run on batteries.

© Copyright Dean Farrell, Orcatek Photography
© Copyright Dean Farrell, Orcatek Photography

 

 

 

 

The Pocket Wizard company has come up with a new version of their product that really makes this work well.  Radio Poppers has also been selling a product to provide very similar features, albeit in a very different way.  The end result is wireless control of your flashes using full ETTL in environments where the built-in IR method was difficult if not impossible to use.  Both these products really add to options for location photography.

 

Another challenge on location is permission.  Phoenix requires a permit to shoot anywhere in town that is not private property.   Private property owners control their property.  The city is actually pretty easy to work with, and the permit is not expensive if you meet the requirements.   Private property owners can be hit or miss.  Some are great, others are huge corporations that you can’t even find a person to say “yes or no”.

 

Other cities are in the Phoenix area are not so clear cut.  I have contacted most of them and they say no photographer permit for small shoots that I typically do.  However I have had police and park rangers ask for my photography permits.  I always tell them the truth; I was told I don’t need them.  If they insist, I ask them where I get them.   In any case, I still have been run off a few times, and on follow-up found that no permit was required.   Better to take walk away on your own, then in handcuffs, so I prefer not to fight it too much.

 

So check the rules in your area.  Get some portable light control.  And produce some great location images.

 

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix


Imaging USA in Phoenix

Once again it was time for the Professional Photographers Association (PPA) to have their annual conference Imagine USA. The event was held here in Phoenix this year and it gave me a chance to try out our no light rail system from Valley Metro.

The light rail was easy to use and full, but not crowded during the times I traveled. They did check my ticket on two occasions during the convention. If I had to travel to Phoenix on a daily basis I could easily see using this. Wish the voters had approved it back in the ‘80s. Now we would have a great system instead of the limited line we have now.

The convention was great as usual. For those who haven’t been before it consists of a tradeshow where you can see all the latest and greatest products. And a series of seminars/classes were you can learn from the best in the industry.

I was very impressed by many of the presentations I saw at the tradeshow, and was taken aback by some of the displays I saw. If you are looking to impress at a tradeshow with a quality display for your presentation, it may be worth checking out something like Exponents 20×20 trade show displays for more information.

The tradeshow was very helpful for me as I was looking for some new providers for some of the products I use. I was able see the products to make educated decisions on which vendors to choose. Sometimes it was a very difficult choice as several vendors had very high quality products at similar price points. In this case I am going to order studio samples from each to see how their service performs. Some of the companies were giving out free bottled water made by Custom Water which I thought was a lovely idea. I don’t know much about marketing but I saw lots of people walking round with custom water bottles!

I also saw several products I had wondered about after seeing them in magazines. Some were better than I expected, and others were good but had something I found that kept me from buying. I’d like to maybe have my own stall here one day, when I’m more established. I’ve already been looking for things like a trade show banner supplier and planning how I would present my work; quite an exciting prospect!

The seminars and classes were overall pretty good, but there were a few that were bad and I left part way through and switch subjects. The classes covered business, techniques, Photoshop and trends. Several of the speakers I wish I could see in a smaller venue to really pick their brains as their knowledge was so incredible on the topics they discussed.

I ran into lots of other photographers that I know and it was good to get caught up on what each of them was doing. Since it was here in Phoenix I skipped the parties where a lot of the networking takes place.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix


The quest for the perfect camera to make you great

Every few months a new camera hits the market. Whether its a DSLR or even a home security camera for sale, cameras are very popular. The Canon fans are all going on about how the new super duper camera is the best thing. Then Nikon comes out with their new camera and “one ups” Canon. Back and forth it goes. The wonders of the digital age create new “must have” cameras constantly. You can purchase new camera equipment over at the Edmund Optics website.

More pixels, gotta have more pixels, at least 50 megapixels. No you fool, the only thing that counts is sensor size. Must be full frame. Are you kidding, noise is what counts. You have to have no visible noise at ISO 53200. Wrong again, its dynamic range that counts, you have to have 24-bits. You know your eyes can’t see that well, but it helps it post processing.

Hey wait, let us do video too. Video at full resolution, not this crappy HD stuff they are pushing now. You must have 30fps at full resolution and you will have the ultimate sports camera. You will never miss a shot and leave your competition in the dust.

The cure for bad photographer is a better camera. The reason you don’t get those great shots is your camera. It must be the problem. If you had a better camera you could have gotten that shot, but your camera just couldn’t cut it. Next year you will get a new camera and your photographs will get so good. It doesn’t have to cost you the earth to keep yourself up to date either, as you can wait a little while then just buy them secondhand from places like https://www.shoppok.com. So many people forget that this is an option, and it can save you a lot of money.

Ultimately, there is no denying that there is so much choice out there that deciding which camera is best for your needs can seem overwhelming. That being said, it is important to remember that there are some fantastic online review websites like Buyersimpact.co.uk that can make deciding which camera to buy a little easier. Whenever I need any new camera equipment I always like to read through plenty of reviews first to make sure that I am making the right choice. It is no secret that camera equipment can be expensive and so reading reviews about the products that interest you can help you to decide how to spend your money.

But what about those other photographers using their 4+ year old camera bodies that keep winning awards. How do they do it? I’ve even seen award winning photographs taken with a camera phone. It must all be Photoshop. They are using all kinds of expensive plug-ins and fancy techniques that take thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to create those photographs. You know, you’ve seen them in magazines. They do magic.

So do you really need a new camera to be a better photographer? Is that the solution? Nikon, Canon, Sony and the rest want you to think so. After all, that’s how they make their money. How do you make yours? I make mine taking photographs.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix


Giving Back – Portraits for those in need

It is the time of year when so many enjoy so much, but there are those who struggle to even put food on the table.  For those families a professional photograph is something they can never even consider.  So I am reaching out to photographers to find charities and services in your area that help the needy. 

 

Work with them to set-up a free portrait session for these families and give them a gift that will be able to treasure.  I’ve done this in the past and the families are so very happy to get the photographs.   A print package can be created that will not be too expensive for you to create. 

 

In the past I have approached local labs and have gotten them to help with the actual printing costs for some of these charities.

 

Another option is to give discounts to your clients for bringing in donations for a local food bank.  Your clients will tend to be very generous.  With the need be even higher than usual this year, every little bit that people can do will help.

 

There are plenty of other ways you can use your photography business to help others.  Be creative and find a way to do something extra this year for someone who needs a little extra.

 

We are all very lucky to have this amazing career as photographers.  In today’s economy more and more people are facing very grim futures.  So be sure to find a way to give to others through any way you can. 

 

 

Orcatek Portrait Photography – Phoenix