Christina and Chris: Engaged!

Ok, so I'm washing out on the portrait a day deal. I've been working at home or taking care of sick kids for a week and alas have failed. I'm still excited to be carrying my camera around more often again and am excited to get back out there.
 Meanwhile I do have a lot of work from the month to start posting.
 Here are some photos from an engagement session with Christina and Chris. We were lucky and were able to get outside when we had some light and color and no rain!
 Christina and Chris were both wonderful to work with and we got along well from the get go. We did some "posed" images with some flash shot through an umbrella and then we tried to just explore and see what we could find a little more casually. We ended up spending over an hour at Kincaid Park along the forested trails and the bluff as well. I look forward to shooting their wedding next summer at Hilltop!

Portrait #8: Claire

 OK, so I'm cheating a lot by using my own kids but frankly I've either been slogging away on images from a recent trip to California or spending time with my kids. This project still has me thinking a lot about capturing more spontaneous portraits and has me carrying my camera around at all times again. It's easy, once I'm in the throws of a busy working period, to put the camera down and only touch it for work. It's been great looking out for photos just for the fun and practice of it.
 This is my daughter Claire. I was driving her to a Halloween event, the night before, and she was touching up her "make up", just like any twenty one year old six year old, in the mirror on the visor . I noticed the cool lighting and made her "pose" quickly before we got out!

Portrait #6: Jack

 This is my beautiful boy Jack. I have this "O Flash" attachment that's a poor man's ring flash that I bought for insects etc. in Costa Rica. I thought I'd test it out on a person, though some times they can "bug" me as well! Ha!
It's not too powerful since it basically attaches to my on camera flash and re-routes light through it and out the "ring" which encircles my lens. But at close range I think it could be useful, especially as a fill light. The light on Jack's hair is from a window. This is the 24-70mm at F2.8 around 1/60th sec.

Portrait #5: Susie

This is Susie. I was walking out of Kaladi Bros. on Northern Lights when I looked over and noticed her sitting next to the window. She looked interesting to me, I liked the light, the background was nice.
 I almost walked out without a word but I kept thinking "portrait for the blog!" She noticed me staring so I sat down and told her I was a photographer and I'd love to take her portrait. She was happy to pose so I ran out to the car and grabbed the camera. I have nice smiley pictures but this seemed the most genuine photo.
 We ended up talking for a few minutes. I found out she was from Scandanavia and when she visited her homeland recently she thought "my, we do all look alike!"- referring to the pale skin and very light colored hair.
 It's amazing what pleasant surprises come from being a little bold and asking to take someone's photo!
 Photo: Window light, 24-70mm at 35mm. ISO 800, F2.8 at 1/40th sec.

Portrait #4: Beanie!

 This is my wonderful daughter, Claire. I thought the lighting pattern on the floor was interesting and had her quickly jump in for a photo. This is the lobby of a building in town. I had to underexpose by two stops to keep her bright face from blowing out against the dark background. 70-200mm at F4.

Portrait #3

Somehow I've ended up with about ten preschools to photograph every fall, actually I know how- my wife got me to photograph my children's preschools and one thing led to another... After doing it for several years now I actually enjoy it. The kid's are amazingly beautiful weather they're smiling or crying their eyes out. Lucky I'm able to get most of them smiling.
 This is one of my favorites of the day!This is three lights (hair, main, background) and a reflector for fill shot against a grey backdrop.

Portrait Day #2

Same subject, different day! I have been taking images of Janie for an upcoming article in First Alaskans Magazine. The image was taken with my 100mm F2.8. I used a canon 550ex flash shot through an umbrella, triggered with my STE-2 transmitter.

Joining in on a portrait a day! Portrait#1:Janie Leask

As I was checking out some of my favorite local photographer's blogs yesterday I paid particular attention to my friend Nathaniel's at http://ngwphotography.blogspot.com/. Nathaniel, along with many of us in Anchorage, have been following Clark Mishler's blog project in which he's committed to taking a portrait a day for a year. Clark's in the home stretch now and it has been wonderful to follow. (Clark's one of my personal favorites. You can see the project here: http://clarkjamesmishler.com/.)
 Nathaniel decided he'd like to work at being a better portrait artist and committed himself to 30 days of portraits.
 The point is he inspired me to take up the challenge as well. The above portrait is of Janie Leask, CEO of the First Alaskans Institute after a women's league hockey game.
 Available light, 24-70mm F2.8 lens. The only special technique here was setting a custom white balance under the funky arena lighting.

Alaska Photo Safari Review

Here are some photos from the photo safari I lead for Alaska Wildland Adventures in July. I had a wonderful group of people that made the trip a real pleasure. We all met in Fairbanks, spent a few days in Denali National Park, explored the Seward Highway route down to Seward, spent time shooting in Kenai Fjords National Park, and ended up with a few days at the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge, deep in the heart of KFNP!