Morning walkabout in Baltimore
Just a few images from Maria and Andrew’s beautiful wedding yesterday, such a sweet couple. My congratulations again, enjoy your honeymoon!
I promised I’d try to post one of the final images from my shoot with Kelly Lane Design a couple weeks back. Normally I hold them for about six months because Kelly doesn’t want to show her designs until they are released to the public. Understandable. However she’s cool enough to let me post one image and show you fine people just what we were doing that day.
Simple, clean, inky black background. As often happens, this was the last frame of the day for Irina, and one of my favs. I love how the skirt balloons out as she twirls.
I blogged about Keith Loutit’s use of tilt-shift/time lapse photography back in October of 2008. He’s made some really cool, very unique videos. I still urge you to check them out.
In that post I also made a small (and by small I mean obvious and almost inconsequential) prediction about this technique seeing common use in the “commercial” world in the near future. Well here you go. And here. And here. And uh…here. Whether it was done optically or digitally – the result is the same. The still/motion line is blurring almost to the point of disappearing. A result that I’m personally very excited for.
Much has been made about the move from still to motion when it comes to digital photography. It’s certainly the most talked about photographic trend of the last 2-3 years. It’s almost impossible to buy a DSLR today that doesn’t have some video capability and many of them shoot hi-def. Check out forerunner Vincent Laforet’s gorgeous use of the Canon 5D MkII and 1D Mk IV here and here. Ironically he’s one of the industry’s best known practitioner’s of tilt-shift work as well. He’s nothing if not prolific and his blog demands to be on your reading list.
I’m pleased to see that the melding of these technologies has also resulted in film/commercial directors taking a page from the still playbook and using tilt-shift techniques to produce work meant for mass consumption. It serves as a great reminder for those video-hesitant still photographers, that we’re all essentially playing the same game – it’s up to you to determine what rules you’re going to play by.
2am Eutaw St. Baltimore, MD
I guess I could start a “Redirect Friday” tradition here. I think it’s really important for these two blog posts, by Nicole Z and Rob Haggart respectively, to be as widely disseminated as possible. Like so many of my peers, I straddle both the home consumer and commercial sides of the photography business. The conversations that I have most often, revolve around both of these topics:
Why does this cost so much?
&
What do these contract terms mean?
Nicole, in an older post, has done as good a job as anyone explaining just what goes into your 2 hour portrait session. So well in fact that’s there’s no reason to paraphrase, so just go read it : “Why Does Custom Photography Cost More?”
Rob Haggart @ A Photo Editor has compiled a well explained list of photography terms – that serves as a great primer for both agency rep and photog alike. In fact, I’d venture that this is more useful as a reminder to photogs that your usage is dictated by the terms of your contract, not what you and your buddy at the agency agreed to over cocktails. Get it in writing and get it signed!
Thanks to John Harrington for bringing Nicole’s post to the fore.
I want to thank the crew for making yesterday come off so smoothly. It was a long day – almost 16 hours for me – and despite a slow start, we made some great images.
My thanks to Irina and Denise (seen below) for setting aside their inhibitions and bringing these images to life. Denise stepped up huge yesterday. She’s not a professional model, nor had she ever attempted to do any modeling before, but she knocked it dead.
Irina is one of the best models in Pittsburgh, and my favorite to work with. Always a pleasure to be around, she busted my stones relentlessly after I told her how much I’ve learned about posing from her. 
This was our 3rd collaboration and I can’t wait for the next.
My thanks also to Reema Anbari, our brilliant makeup/hair artist, for really bringing her A game. She created 16 different and beautiful looks in just under 10 hours and did it with both a smile and a great attitude, despite not getting much of a break. There are few other makeup artists in Pittsburgh that I’d recommend in the same breath.
Kelly, my eternal thanks for continuing to bring at all together. I wish I got to see your face when you see the images we made.
Denise:
Irina:
More to come….
Stay tuned for more to come….
…and the lovely Reema on makeup & hair.
