Category: Portraiture

Grace I: Expression

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I have said before that a successful portrait/model shoot is part dance and part acting: dance skills allow for relaxed and beautiful poses, and acting ability allows for expression and emotion to flow unhindered from the subject. Grace (with whom I worked with yesterday) has both, and I think we got some good results. All I had to do was suggest a scenario and she found an inner dialog and a real expression to go with it.

Grace

 

Nikon D7100, 50mm/1.8 AF-D Nikkor lens
Post processing in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

Shout Out

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Three years ago  I worked with Amy Braun as a model, and today I want to congratulate her as a published author! Her urban fantasy story Call From the Grave has just been published on Kindle. I read it last night, and was really impressed (and I have read a lot of Fantasy and Science fiction in my time). I would highly recommend her writing. Well done Amy!

Amy and camera

 

Mamiya 645J, 80mm/2.8 lens
Tri-X at E.I. 1000 developed in Diafine 3+3

Dealing With the Sun

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Here is a photo from another photo shoot in Ottawa: a couple shoot with my photographer friend Tim and his girlfriend Janice. It was a very bright day, and being a crew of one, dealing with the sun and the shadows was a constant challenge. In this shot, I decided to go with the bright light, and had them rock the sunglasses 🙂

Tim and Janice

 

Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm/4 lens
Tmax 400 film developed in Tmax Dev 1+7 for 12 minutes @ 20 C

Maggie Act II

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Another image from my Ottawa shoot with Maggie recently. This is a film image on Kodak Portra 400. The sun had hidden for a moment behind a cloud, creating some lovely light.

Maggie on Film

 

Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 150/f3.5 Mamiya lens
Kodak Portra 400 film

Jill Act II

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Another image of Jill, taken with my Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium format camera, then scanned and post processed. Jill has a timeless elegance about her, which I tried to capture with the retro look.

Jill

 

Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 150mm/3.5 lens
Kodak TMax 400 film, developed in TMax developer 1+7 @ 20 C for 12 min.
Post-processed with Lightroom and Nik Efex

Jill

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Today’s image is from another shoot this past weekend in Ottawa with my friend Jill. Jill has been a friend of the family for many years, and it was a pleasure to collaborate with her at this photo shoot. She came armed with many ideas and a strong creative and expressive spirit that made the shoot a success.

Jill

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikkor lens
Post production: Lightroom and Nik Efex software

Maggie

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One of my shoots this past weekend in Ottawa was with Maggie Kyoko Tan. We had been friends on Facebook, but had never met until this shoot in Ottawa, and she was a delight to work with, as she understands instinctively that posing is (as I have often said) a combination of choreography and acting. We were able to get into a rhythm very quickly, and I am very happy with the (digital) results so far. (Film to come!!)

Maggie

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikkor lens
Post processed with Lightroom and Nik Efex

Maria, Act II

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Today another image from my photo shoot with my friend Maria Rozynska this past weekend. This is one of the colour film images, taken using Kodak Ektar 100 colour negative film, using my Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium format camera. I really like Maria’s expression here (this may be my favourite), as well as the slightly retro look of the colour film.

Maria

 

Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm/s.8 Mamiya lens,
Kodak Ektar 100 C-41 Film

Channeling the 1960’s

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I had the pleasure yesterday to do a film/digital shoot with my friend Maria Rozynska, who I first met as a fellow cast member in the Alexander Showcase Theatre’s production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Maria is an excellent actor and dancer, and these talents translated well for the photo shoot! The concept for the shoot was 1960’s. Maria provided a perfect wardrobe, and a pair of retro style sunglasses topped everything off. This image is one of the digital shots. Film to come!

At the Fountain

A Tale of Two Talents

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I had the pleasure of working with two very talented women recently. Katherine Matthews designs knitting patterns, and readers of my blog will recognize model/musician Jennifer Santos Bettencourt from previous posts. A lot of the photos I took for this shoot were close-up, in order to showcase the detail in the knitting pattern, and the level of detail in the shawl being showcased was quite impressive — I could learn a lot from Katherine regarding attention to detail! (Note: You can see Katherine’ pattern, and more images here.)

And of course working with Jennifer is always a pleasure — she understands that posing/modelling is like acting and choreography, and requires a lot of focus and awareness. It is certainly not a matter of just standing there waiting for the shutter to click.

It was also great to see how well the Jennifer and Katherine collaborated, and there was talk of future work together, so stay tuned!

Jennifer: custom knitted shawl

 

Nikon F2, 85mm/f1.8 Nikkor lens
Kodak Portra 400 film, post production with Lightroom and Nik Efex