Fashion photography with natural light

I wanted to post something that wasn’t football because it seems football is the biggest thing I am working on this time of year.

I have been spending some of the time between covering football games working on fashion and product photography so I thought I would post up some images for you to enjoy.

I had the opportunity to work with this very beautiful young model recently. She was a lot of fun to work with, unfortunately we picked one of the hottest days of the year to tackle this shoot.

I had some new light modifiers for my studio lights and was anxious to try then out. I couldn’t find a functioning portable power source for this shoot, so I had to resort to working with natural light and a simple Canon 580EX II without any modifiers.

I really enjoyed working with this new model, she is very attractive and has a nice wholesome look that would be perfect for catalog and print projects.

Click on the more link below to see the rest of the story of my session with this beautiful model.

Portrait/Lifestyle session with model

I’ve got some basketball and some new-to-me golf to put up as well as some travel stuff but I will start with some off-camera flash and natural light model work.

Working with models is fun and always a learning experience for me. Portrait sessions include working with the models on posing, lighting and the ability to control the lighting with either strobes or small flashes and reflectors to just working with natural lighting. Portrait sessions are a great learning experience for me, and each time I work with a model I learn something new about triggering off-camera strobes, posing models, natural lighting, my camera and lens choice, as well as post-processing techniques and ways to improve my skills with all those things.

We did this thing at the end with headphones, and maybe we should have worked on this first as it gives the model a chance to relax and act a little bit silly. The headphones aren’t really plugged into anything and I ask the model to imagine the music in their heads and groove out to it.

See more shots from the session by clicking the more link below.

Scottsdale Fashion Week 2010 a few selects

I had fun at the Scottsdale Fashion Week runway shows, I really did. At times my fun was interrupted by photographers that were being absolute jerks and couldn’t play nice with others or drunk people wandering into places they shouldn’t be, but overall I spent most of the time working on my classic runway shooting and improving my skills.

I understand that with these low-level events the promoters will credential people with a variety of skill levels and equipment, and in most cases all we photographers have to do is work together so we can all get our shots . . .

. . . but hey, come on. I have no problems standing elbow to elbow with someone with a point and shoot camera, just as I have no problem standing elbow to elbow with someone with top of the line pro-level gear. We are all there to shoot the same thing and will most likely get relativity the same shot, but who cares, I mean that is going to be the case with just about any fashion show, correct?

I’m sorry, enough of my rantings. On to some images of pretty girls, um I mean women.

The classic runway walk, I was told to wait until the model has one foot in front of the other which gives a classic hour-glass shape as their feet cross over so all you have to do is put the focus point on the models faces/eyes and watch their feet for just the precise moment to click the shutter. Oh yea, like it’s that easy.

See more beautiful people by clicking on the more link.

Scottsdale Fashion Week 2010 – Thurs.

Scottsdale Fashion Week’s Thurs. night event was titled Community Night for the emerging designers and local talent from high school fashion and college fashion designers to local accessory designers. Here are a few standouts.

I loved the makeup job on this model, outstanding work.

You know there is more to this story right? You realize that if you click the more link you can see, you guessed it more stuff (images and story).

Off-camera flash portrait practice

Some harsh shadows and bright highlights, but with just one 580EX II and no light modifiers I tried my best. I’m not very good at posing models, in fact I really suck at it so now I have something to work on. I tried my best and learned a few things that I need to work on.

Click the more link to see some more images from the meetup group.

Phoenix Fashion Week – Oct. 7-9, 2010

Phoenix Fashion Week was held at the W resort in, of all places Scottsdale rather than the city for which the event is named, but hey with that many beautiful people all around you, who cares where it is.

See more beautiful people after the jump by clicking on the more link.