HOOPFEST 2013

     So, I shot Hoopfest again this year. I love it. It is my favorite weekend of the year. But when the last game was played, I thought the same thing I think evey year. "I could have shot better". Then I am a little depressed. But now that I think about it, that's a good thing, right? Once we reach as great as we can be, with nothing to work towards, than what the point? We should always want to to better. I shot some great stuff this year, but next year will be even better!

Becca

     This shoot was a total collaboration between myself and Becca. We facebook chatted for about a month about clothes, make-up, hair, and shoes. She bought her clothes for the shoot online and as she waited for them to show up,  I thought about lighting and the sets. And when it al came together, I think it worked out great. It took me awhile to edit them and I felt a little guilty. I told Becca "almost done", "almost there", "sorry it's taking so long". She just said it's ok, "you can't rush art". Thank you Becca, they do look great!

JULIA II

            So, once again, Julia modeled for me. And once again, she amazed me. She's pretty, she has a great sense of style, and she is a GREAT poser. She just knows how to work the camera. She also has a very personable personality. I hope that makes sense. If it didn't, we'll just go with "she's very nice".

     I wanted to see how good at posing she was. Challenge her a bit. So, I put her in front of a white seemless background, with no props, no anything, and I told her to just do her thing. "pose". As I walked over to my camera, she started twisting and spinning around. I said " just keep doing that. She laughed and kept going. It was maybe one of the most graceful things I've ever seen.

                             

   With this shoot, I wanted to show off a little of her figure. But in a tasteful way. Show a little skin and a little "wow". Now to make this shoot a little more interesting, Julia's boyfriend came to the shoot. I have had boyfriends come to shoots before and it is never any fun. They don't get mad at me, they get mad at their girlfriend and the whole shoot goes down the drain. It didn't take me long to realize that Jace was not going to be a problem, he was a super big help to me. A second pair of eyes, if you will. Pointing thing out to me that I didn't see. So, I''d like to say "Thanks, Jace!".

    Julia alway dresses super nice and somewhat elegant at work. And she always wear stockings. Fancy stockings. I don't think she's worn the same stocking twice in a two week period. I guess their like a trademark of hers. Great legs, great stockings. That was my though for this photo.

     In closing, I'd like to thank Julia for her hard work and her commitment to helping me improve my portfolio. And in putting up with my never ending complements at work. 

 I think she called me a "peeping Tom" during this shot...lol!...she's got a sense of humor, too.

It's been awhile: Here's some of the my favorites from the past months.

 Sometimes a person just needs some quiet time. Riverfront Park can be very quiet, if you let it.

   I took these two over 4th of July weekend. The one above is old cement walls from some sort of building that was long gone. I could have spent hours there, but we had to get the fireworks to the lake, so that the photo on the right could take place. That photo is a 6 second exposure from our grand finale. It didn't go as planned. But no one was hurt, very badly. Joe burned his hand and jennifer's hair was on fire, briefly. But I had a tripod to hide behind!

   One day this spring I was at school walking to catch my bus, when I came across this sidewalk chalk drawing contest outside the library. That is where I took this photo. At the time, I didn't know how much it would affect me. I titled this photo "Love for Alice". To me, at a glance, it looks as though the artist is wiping a tear off Alice's check. That is a sign of love. Love for her art, love for what see made. This is like my own love for my art, my Photos. The difference here is after a few days, Alice will be gone, her art will be gone and only those there that day will have seen it. But I saw it and I loved it... okay, off my soapbox...



...and on to a few portraits.

    So I would like to say a little about the first one. This a a guy I work with. And he makes a lot of faces. He is a character. I am so glad he agreed to do the shoot be cause it turned out great. I'd like to thank all my models for agreeing to do a shoot and showing up and going through with it. It's not easy standing in front of a camera and let a weird guy photograph you, but you all did a great job.