Terrible Drawing of What I saw the day before
I don’t know what you are thinking, but I can guess it’s not, “This guy should be in art school!”.
My line drawing form is out of practice, but the point of my scribbles is that I drew this on printer paper the day before I went on to shoot this:
Katha plays music anywhere
This is my favorite shot of the day, and it is one of three images that I knew I wanted before I left my house.
For those of you just starting out, or wondering how good or great images are produced, I think the notion of pre-visualization can be a deciding factor.
The second factor is the guts and determination to not leave the set until you get what you wanted.
In my younger, more dreamy years, I thought the idea of a photographer was to be on-the-spot, in-the-moment, take what you can get. And while I still believe that concept has its place, I realize now that the decision of which spot, in what moments and how to take what you can is just as crucial to the overall impact.
The photographers role is decisions, decisions, decisions. Just don’t wait until you get to the set to begin making yours.
Keep on clicking,
–JB
Greta
Coming soon to a stable near you!
This Spring I will be doing Horse Portrait Mini-Sessions at some local stables. Ramaker Stables for sure and Rolling Ridge because I have some fans out there too. Are there any blog readers that ride at a different barn/stable that would like AzulOx Mini-Sessions to appear?
Oh, time to answer what exactly a mini-session is.
* 75$ to book your 20 minute time slot (versus 250 for the hour)
* Online Gallery for viewing and print orders
* Facebook Favorites – facebook friendly sizes to share with your network.
Dates and Time slots will be announced soon. Sunday afternoon’s are the preferred time/date combo.
Ok, Mr AzulOx, words are nice, but lets see some pictures!
done and done.
Steph and Grace
Chelsey and Bentley
Emily at Woodlawn Park
Emily’s Bridal Portraits went awesome Sunday’s in San Antonio. I was assisted by my longest-time friend, Russ. Emily brought along Kate.
First off, the sky was beautiful, some wispy clouds, but otherwise blue. The wind continued my streak of Lubbock-like breeze patterns, hard and often. Undaunted, we set off on to the Deco District in San Antonio near Woodlawn Park. We roamed up and down the streets utilizing the funky architecture to fit Emily’s personality and wedding style.
Second, Emily is fantastic to work with. She claims to be shy, but I never saw that. Continuing another streak, she learned her model moves from America’s Next Top Model. That is a streak of 4 clients in a row for me, I had to confess again to watching it for the photography/modeling as well. Doesn’t help with the man card, but it helps with the photo card.
Em has a neo-funky dress which fit her awesomely, can’t show the dress yet, don’t want the groom peaking too much. Some traditions still hold and this is one I like.
Our favorite background is the one that Russ is modeling here.
Monroe Wall with Russ the Model
We went with an Orbis Ring Flash as the single light here. When Emily was in the frame, we used a white sheet as a scrim to block the sunlight and bring the ambient down some so that we could carry an aperture and get that ringflash look. If this makes no sense, head over to strobist.com .
Once the wedding happens in May, I will give it the full blog treatment with lots of pretty pictures!
– JB
Chelsey and I met up again at Ramaker Stables in Leader, Texas. We had about an hour to knock out some different looks and get a 17 hand horse named Bentley involved. No problem.
We started in the Small Barn, not as new as the Big Barn, but more colorful and possessing more character. I was thinking something along the lines of images out of Dover Saddlery, but prettier.
Tried working with some backlit/Ezybox combo’s, but they weren’t working for me. Ended up with an over/under lighting scheme to bring some beauty and contrast to Chelsey.
Over Under Contrast
This image has a Lastolie 24 inch Ezybox (my favorite) on top, with a big reversible umbrella on the bottom, both are off to one side slightly.
Remember in part one, when I said there were no clouds. That changed for the better.
The barn was fun, but then the sky did me a favor and went wild with clouds and color. Let’s ditch inside the barn and go crazy with the sky’s.
Fun with Skies
What is more fun that a senior and great skies? A senior, her horse and great skies!
Bentley and Chelsey
Thanks again to Chelsey for being a wonderful model.
–JB
Chelsey in the Wind
Started working with Chelsey after I talked to her from the Sunsets and Horses photos from last week. Said she might be interested in some Senior Portraits. I said, “Let’s do it!”
We started at Cianfrani’s in the square at Georgetown, my favorite coffee shop. Met up with Chelsey and her mother and went over the plan I had set out for us. Our plan was to use the niche’s and vignettes that make the Georgetown square one of my favorite shooting area’s. Thanks to my buddy Geoff Hammond to turning me onto a couple of them.
First, we hit up a doorway on the backside of the square to show off the angles and lines of Chelsey’s 6’2” frame. I used my orbis ringflash on these to give it a high fashion look. Had to make sure the the first location was in the shade because the sun was out with no clouds, although that would change later, because the Orbis eats up a lot of power from my 430′s.
Chelsey in the Doorway
Our second location was at the Rough and Ready Antique Store, a great location for vignettes. The sunlight was hard still with no clouds and about 12:45 in the day. I found a non-wet chair with good color and told Chelsey to “get slinky”. this location produced 2 of my favorites from the day.
Chelsey in the Movies
Movie Star
The 2 images above seem like they could be from a 1970′s movie set, one starring Farrah Fawcett, or maybe Barbarella.
Then off to the classic alley way in between Rough and Ready Antiques and The Framer’s Gallery. I have used the back drop before. Still love it.
Backlit Chelsey
From there, we moved around the corner to a little white table and chair, with the Antique Sign in the background. The last 3 locations are within 30 feet of each other, but each gives such a different vibe. Thanks again to the local merchants of Georgetown fro keeping your stores awesome. Almost Mediterranean in feel, Chelsey is rocking the casual look in these.
At the Cafe
And it wouldn’t be a good blog post with out some bodily injury to me, the photographer. We were setting up right on the corner of 7th and Main, watching the cops roll by, when my forehead fell in love with a dowel rod on a lamp post. 3 days later, and I still have a bump, bruise and scab…. Love hurts.
I knew this would be a good location because it really says Georgetown to me, well, not just me, the sign in the back actually reads, “Discover Georgetown”. Figured it would be a good graphic element to work with, and I ran with it as my adrenaline was coursing due to head trauma.
Discover Georgetown
The last location at Georgetown is my wife’s favorite, I like it too. My buddy David helped us out here, the wind blew him to our corner of the street and I used the gift.
He is holding the 24 inch Ezybox while Chelsey get her posin’ on.
Rock Wall, Red Head
We finished up at the Square in a robust 90 minutes of shooting, full of antiques, vignettes, green tea, and battle wounds.
The gallery of Georgetown images is here.
In Part Two we travel to Ramaker Stables
– JB
Some friends of mine got married this weekend.
These are the photos.
The event was held at Shoreline Grill in Austin, Texas on Saturday, Feb 13th.
Small Wedding, Big Emotions. More than one tear of happiness was shed.
Enjoy.
Geoff “Ham” Hammond and I are now podcasting a 2x monthly show about photography in Austin. Our first episode is up at oxandham.com. In it, we talk about Cedar Allergies, When is the right time to hire a pro photographer?, and the World’s Greatest Dad T-shirts.
I would tell you more, but then you wouldn’t listen, so give it a spin and let me know what you think.
We are still figuring out all the niceties of producing a podcast, so if you have any experience in it, let us know in the comments.
–JB
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