Remembering summer

Now that things are lacking in color around here, I figured it would be nice to take a look back at an image from last summer.

This is a rose at the Lake Harriet Rose Garden.

I tend to hang out at the rose garden a lot during the summer. I've been bitten by the horticultrual bug in the last couple years and my wife and I have been adding gardens to our house the last couple years. We have a major new one in the works. That'll be a subject for next spring.

This rose illustrates the style I really strive to achieve in most of my work. The subject is isolated from the background. In this case it is both by selective focus and color. The composition is as bare bones as you can get. There is a definite focal point and then some places for the eye to wander to and linger about.

I also shoot about 85 percent of my photographs in portrait orientation (longer vertically than horizontally). Yes, I am a portrait photographer at heart, even when it comes to subjects other than people.

I have thousands of rose images. Hopefully I'll be able to share some more of them soon.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

-Todd

Window Light

Ahh, window light.

There is definitely something magical about it. I'm very lucky. The building where my studio is located has a hallway with 30 windows in it. When the weather is right, the light streaming into that hallway is amazing. I try to take advantage of it whenever I can.

Patricia K. stopped by recently for some photos. She was looking for something a little different so I decided we would get out into the hallway since the sky was overcast. The windows in the hall face south, not the ideallic north, so the light can be a bit harsh some days.

Her dark skin and her hat especially, made a nice contrast to the white walls. I placed her in front of a window and metered the light the exposure I wanted on her face. I let the rest be what it was. The light gives a nice peaceful, almost melancholy, mood to the image. Her expression and pose definitely help bring that feeling along.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

John and Kathy

I recently had a session with John and Kathy. They had not had a portrait taken together in about 20 years. Deifinitely time to rectify that!

It gave me an opportunity to use one of my new backgrounds and to work with some gels for color.

The background here is normally brown. Since they both had on clothes with a touch of purple in them I figured a purple accent on the background would fit nicely.


The setup was pretty simple. Just three lights and a flag to keep the light from the main from spilling onto the background and washing it out. Thanks to Kevin Kertz (www.kevinkertz.com) for the great lighting diagram images for Photoshop.

We shot a few and I showed them the images right on the computer as we were taking them. They loved the immediate feedback!

We tried a few different poses until we hit on one they really liked. A discrete inquiry led to some retouching to "turn back the clock" by a few years. They were very pleased. A nice 11x14 of this photo hangs in their living room.

Click on any image to see a larger version.

A couple more beauty shots

Vanessa's photo has been very well received. I have gotten several calls from others wanting to do a similar shot.

Rachel and Angie both wanted to do a session at the same time so they could coordinate the makeup with Christine M. who again did a brilliant job. A good makeup artist can really make a shoot that much more successful. Not to mention the massively reduced amount of retouching needed. :)

Well, this time, we did not have to deal with the heat since the studio is nicely air conditioned.

The setup was a little different than the shots with Vanessa. We went for a simpler, two light setup. Main light either camera right and a reflector opposite with a light boomed above.

The girls were a lot of fun to work with. They decided to have a little fun after the beauty shots so we did some impromptu posing work.

Here's a couple outtakes. Yes, they were having fun! We all were.

Click on any photo to see a larger version. Blogger really eats the images when it resizes them.

The train! The train!

OK, bad pun, I know. What do you want? I'm a photographer, not a comedian.

The 261 Steam Locomotive www.261.com was out again this weekend for their annual fall color trip. I was able to actually ride it this year! A very nice time for any train aficionado. There's nothing like a ride on a train being pulled by a coal burning locomotive.

Of course there were dozens of photographers and general train buffs with their cameras all over the place.

I have many, many photographs of the 261 so now when I go to photograph it I am looking for the "perfect" shot. It's a very difficult object to photograph because it is all black. The light has to be just right in order to make it really sing. And there are all the people hanging around when it's not in motion.

To me, a photograph of a train not in motion is pretty boring. These steam giants really show their stuff as they get going. Oh, I asked how often the slip the drive wheels and for the record, the engineer said that's just for Hollywood. No real engineer would ever do that, he said.

Click on the photo to see a larger version.

Please, no wind!

I had a wedding last weekend with Lynette and Brett. They are a great couple and so in love with each other.

It was an outdoor wedding and the weather forecast was looking good. I had scouted the location a week before and had lots of ideas for pictures.

The big day arrived and wouldn't you know it. Wind. I mean WIND! 20mph steady winds gusting to over 30mph! I haven't seen a day this windy in years.

Wind is the ONE thing that is impossible to cope with photographically. I can deal with rain and cloudy days, bright sunny days too. But the wind. That's another thing altogether. It ruins hairdos, it makes dresses misbehave, it tears at the flowers. Sure, if I had a large crew I could erect wind barriers like they do for movie sets. That takes lots of people and lots of time. There is no time on a wedding day. You gotta move.


I met them out at the park at 9:00am as they were setting up for the day. The wind was really wreaking havoc on all the decorations. Everything kept blowing down or away.

I knew that we could not get any decent photos with this wind. I had to reqroup and figure out a new plan of action.

It turns out the couple just built a new house and being large, the new stairway made a nice location for some formals. Since I had already planned to be there to capture the getting ready photos, it seemed like a perfect solution. They really liked having their new home showcased in the images since it was a house they built together.



We got the photos and we headed out to the park for the actual ceremony. It was still very windy. Wouldn't you know it, right after the ceremony, the wind started to subside. I stole the bride and groom for ten minutes and grabbed some of the shots I had wanted to do earlier in the day so they could remember the beautiful location.

I got them to the reception in plenty of time so they could make a grand entrance with all the guests assembled.

A fabulous time was had by all.

Click on any photo to see a larger image.

The reason why

I decided to start off with the session that really told me I needed a better studio space.

I had been working out of my house for several years but it was not very fun. The house had to be clean for anyone to come over and the setup often required more room than was available so I would set up in the garage.

This meant I would try to do location work as much as possible to avoid having to clean the house all the time.

I had a session scheduled with Vanessa Plourde. She's an up and coming model who had a pretty specific idea for a shot she wanted. It was a very clean beauty shot.

The setup required some overhead lighting so that meant we would be out in the garage. It turns out that on our scheduled day, it was nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It was even hotter in the garage and there was no wind at all. Did I mention the incredibly high humidity? A dewpoint near 70 for those that know about that stuff.

The makeup was done by Christine M. and I was surprised that the makeup did not run. It was brutally hot.

Vanessa stuck it out and we put together a brilliant photo. A black and white version hangs on the wall of the studio as you first enter.

Welcome

Welcome to the first post.

I just opened a new studio in Minneapolis.

I decided that since I have so many photos the folks rarely ever get to see, I'll start a little blog and showcase some of them. I'll also share some shots from the studio sessions and show variations and give a little insight into some of the post processing and retouching I do.

We'll see where this takes us...