Project 52: Week 5 {Personal Photography Project}

This week's Project 52 theme is "Self".  While checking out Pinterest this morning, I found a blog that had some really soft and pretty hairstyles.  Styles that I've not ever done before as I'm more of a ponytail kinda gal.  But I decided that since this week's theme was "self", then perhaps I should spend a little bit of time working on myself and then take a self-portrait.  Of course this soft hairstyle really needed a gentler approach to the lighting than my typical bold colored studio work.  So I embraced some of the west-facing light that barely comes into the studio at this time of day.

For those interested in settings, I used the Canon 24-70L lens at 30mm, ISO 160, 1/25, F2.8, tripod, natural light w/two reflectors.  The focus is a tad soft on this as I'm wide open with a very slow shutter speed.  It's hard to get oneself into the perfect position in 10 seconds and still get it tack sharp.  But overall, I'm pretty pleased with it.

Are you doing your own Project 52 or Project 365/66?  If so, please post a link to your images in the comments below.   :)

     

 

 

Project 52: Week 4 {Personal photography project}

This week's Project 52 theme is "Animal".  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm pretty literal in my way of thinking.  So what better way to show this week's theme than with our very own animal, Ellie.  She is our yellow lab who is almost 4 years old.  The last time I took a studio photo of her, she was about 10 months old and nervous as can be.  Today she was much less nervous and eager to sit for me as I held a treat on my head.  :)

For those interested in settings, I used the Canon 24-70L lens at 33mm, ISO 50, 1/250, F5.6, hand-held, and 3 studio lights and a white reflector. I only took one full body shot and then cropped it to just her face.

Are you doing your own Project 52 or Project 365/66?  If so, please post a link to your images in the comments below.   :)

     

 

 

Project 52: Week 3 {Personal Photography Project}

This week's Project 52 theme is "Inspire".  I wasn't really sure what to do for this week - partially cuz I'm feeling rather uninspired and also because my arthritis is flaring so badly that it's too painful to really delve into an involved photo assignment.  So I kept it fairly simple and placed my camera on a tripod (since it's too heavy for me to hold at the moment) and decided to do a self-portrait.  But of course, I can't do my hair or makeup as I my right hand is curled up as if I have palsy (I'm right-handed).  In an effort not to totally scare you, I did crop the image tremendously and did some digital eye makeup with my Wacom tablet and pen using my left hand.  After all of that, I think it may actually have been easier to do REAL makeup with my left hand.  LOL

For those interested in settings, I used the Canon 135L lens at ISO 800, 1/40, F5.6, tripod, and natural light.

And now I'm off to take more ibuprofen with a Tylenol chaser.  :)  Oh and if you want to follow along, please post your own Project 52 link in the comments below. 

     

 

 

The Ice Queen {Fashion Photographer, Kim Hill}

A few weeks ago, I received a message from one of the local models (Gabriella Siciliano) I've worked with in the past asking if I was interested in doing a wintery glamour shoot.  Since January is generally my slowest time of the year, of course I was eager to shoot.  :)  We invited make-up artist, Michelle Maw, to join us as both of us have enjoyed working with her in the past.  We all had a general idea of what we wanted the finished image to look like, and set out to create a winter scene in the studio.  Good thing we opted for the studio, too, cuz up until the last few days we've had no real snow outside.  LOL 

Here's Gabby when she first arrived and with Michelle applying makeup.  Michelle first did Gabby's hair, teasing and lifting, then poking floral picks here and there.  She then added a gray base makeup all over Gabby's upper body in order to make her skin more pale.  Then the Ice Queen look started to come to life as the snowflakes and glittery makeup was applied.

The lighting was challenging in that a mixture of ambient light, along with white holiday lights and studio strobes had to be balanced just right.  Without one aspect being done properly, the entire winter scene would take on a warm glow which we did not want.  About 10 shots in, one of the strobes died.  But I have several and simply pulled out another so we could keep on shooting. In the end, we had a handful of images that all 3 of us really liked.  This one being my personal favorite.  If you like it, I'd love for you to vote for it in The World Open photography contest.  Voting runs through the end of March.



Special thanks to both Michelle and Gabby for a fun shoot!  Looking forward to doing more collaborative projects with both of them.  :)

     

 

Project 52: Week 2 {Personal Photography Project}

This week's Project 52 theme is "Perfect".  As I was walking through the grocery store today, I saw these colorful daisies and couldn't help but think that they would be a great subject for this week.  It was the one white petal that struck me - perfectly imperfect.  :)

For those interested in settings, I used the Canon 135L lens at ISO 100, 1/160, F2.5, hand held, studio strobe at lowest power feathered in front of subject with a white reflector opposite.

As in life, even a beautiful thing isn't truly perfect.  I hope you'll join me and share links to your own P52 in the comments below.

     

 

 

Project 52 {personal photography project}

Once again, I'm starting another personal photo project.  Some of the past years' projects never were finished, most were never even posted online.  But I'm going to try to do better this time.  **yeah, really I am**

This year, I'm going to do one photo a week with a different theme.  First theme is "new".  And seeing as this is a new year, I snapped a shot of my calendar.  For those interested in settings:  ISO 1250, 1/60, F2.8, hand held, no flash.

I'm open to ideas for other weekly themes.  So if you have one, message me.  :)