Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays!

In the interest of spreading joy upon you readers of this page - some of our family snapshots past two days, including the... SNOW MONSTER!

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for today?

I still cannot believe how lucky I got this year. I'm definitely very thankful for the circumstances that lead me to transition into a full time photography business. And for all the people that made it happen for me. Even if they don't realize it, heheh.

When I think more of it, the only thing I can be thankful for is really the PEOPLE in my life. Yes, I'm grateful for my family, yes - the roof over my head and the meal in my family's stomach, but that we're all thankful for. I'm talking about all these amazing people who have been my friends for years, and those I've met these past months. Who have supported and inspired, became new friends and/or new clients, new partners in business, all of you who are reading this - you mean so much in my life, and none of this would have happened without you.

So, I'm thanking you, every single day of my life, for being you, for living your dream, and by that, making my dreams come true.

Big hugs, best wishes, and I hope you're lavished by the love and attention of those close to you, as much as I am today :).

Afraid of the camera?

I hear this a lot :). A lot "a lot"!

- "I definitely need a new head shot, but I know I won't look good on the picture"

- "My publisher says I need a photo of me in my office space for the article, but who's going to do it and what do I do on the picture?"

- "I was working on the promos for my company and I looked so fake on all my pictures"

- "My clients are big companies and I can't look that stupid on the first picture they see of me!"

- "I don't take good pictures"

- etc. etc. etc.

Sounds familiar? I'd bet...

What surprised me a lot in the beginning of my photo career was that most of the people who get in front of my lens actually think it's up to them to come out well in my photograph. And recently I was reminded of that as well, and it brought me to mention it here on the blog:

Subject can't know what the light is setup like, can't see what photographer sees through the lens, color or black and white, in studio or on location...
Subject also (most likely) doesn't have even a basic understanding of the composition, and certainly not the effect that the equipment is set to create.

In other words, when you come in to take a photograph, the only thing a photographer should expect of you is to give them a clear explanation what the picture is going to be used for, what mood/energy you need to create in it, possibly poses that you like or dislike, and may be a variety of other useful little details about yourself and what you'd like to achieve.

But when everything is setup and you get in there, you can relax and have a photographer guide you completely. The more relaxed you are the better, so the faster you get into that state - the sooner we'll start taking good pictures :).

That said.. it usually takes about an hour for a subject to wind down from the anxiety (and probably meeting a new person for the first time - me). That's why you should expect your session to be at least an hour long. Most likely much longer, especially if you're going for different looks and/or setups.
And even longer if there's more people involved - hair/make up/stylist.

It definitely helps to have a friend with you to get into the "working mode" faster. It also helps to talk to a photographer over the phone (at least) at least once before the shoot. The best is actually meeting face-to-face.

Everything that leads to feeling COMFORTABLE with the photographer will make your photo session much more enjoyable and easy.

And here are some photos from almost a whole day of shooting with a very talented singer - Natalie, it's been an honor to work with her on these concepts! We had a vintage store collaborating on this shoot (http://www.amtvintage.com) - thank you guys for fantastic clothes! Lauren Tyler-fuller (you can find her on my facebook page) was helping out with make up, hair and styling:

STAR sessions... (or how photography session changes you)

Being very interested in various aspects of personal development, I'm constantly on a look out for little things that can help see things "differently" - new angle/perspective in photography, new approach or point of view in life - the variety of things you can do to remain in balance and peace may stun you.

What I'm discovering through my clients is something that's become obvious to me only so many sittings and sessions later...

When you live your every day life, you're bound to get used to certain behavior around you, you set your expectations of people and you think you begin to know what others experience you as.

All this crashes into pieces when you get surrounded by a completely different story, new people, put on something you (almost) never wear, get that hair/make up done by professionals, create a fantasy around your self, let your imagination carry you away for a few hours...

This is not an ordinary experience anymore! This is not a headshot you need for your website, where you present your good looking self in a best way, from best angle and light, but... in a very familiar - "everyday" - way.
This isn't a portrait for the wall either. This is now a trip!
You probably hear a lot about how travel can affect your life - how it creates a more perfect, defined and deliberate YOU.

The Creative Photo Shoot is an opportunity to re-discover something very meaningful to you. Nobody can tell what it'll turn out to be - only you. This work as always unique, unusual and revealing. And the planning is the most important part of it.

It typically starts with choosing a story:
- What will it be like?
- What's the main character like?
- What are the tear sheets that could be used to illustrate the images we want to achieve?

It develops into finding:
- A location;
- Wardrobe with accessories (some can do it pretty well themselves, but a stylist is highly recommended - to let go of anything you do every day, to let someone else help you create a completely new story);
- Type of a look - hair and make up (both performed by professional artists);

The story almost always changes during planing, but what is going on behind the scenes is this: after meeting the client photographer knows their body type, eye color, hair length and all other unchangeable factors that support the whole story. It is very useful to get to know a person too - I will know what type of energy will most likely fill the frame. It's all an inspiration that we build around. There are many sources that may inspire photographer to pitch an idea or two, based on these factors. The story grows not only in your heart, but also in mine. With time it all gets surrounded by the theme, clothes and locations, photographer creates a perfect light to complete the picture. You can probably see by now that during the planning phase - that's when the story really gets created.

Nothing is any more or less important here in this type of session. Badly implemented element can spoil the entire thing, so the photographer is making sure everything is taken care of.

On the day of the shoot a lot of things happen. Subject is dressed and groomed, light is set up, you might think the rest is easy, that's when the hardest work begin both for the client and photographer. They now work on creating the energy. Photographer guides the subject in poses, expressions, and the open heart/mind is very important.

When you look at your choices deciding what you should do, consider that it is a lot of work to put together something like this. A lot of people get involved:
- Photographer;
- Photo assistant;
- Hair stylist;
- Make up artist;
- Wardrobe stylist;
- You (and may be your friend), etc.
Everyone works hard, including you! So you can't be tired on the day of shooting - lots of energy, water, and sleep are an absolute MUST.

The results will speak for themselves. Start collecting those tear sheets, cut pages out of magazines, copy stuff from the internet where you see yourself in - your own unique story is about to unfold!

You can create the photo story around your engagement session, proposal, wedding, anniversary, Valentine's day, or any other occasion that you would like to remember - even if it's for a birthday!

Water.

Probably the most exciting element - Water. Soothing in many different ways - the sound of it, the taste of it, the nature of it.



Model - Teisha Coleman
MUA - Lauren Tyler

Good Morning, mommy

While I was driving my son to school this morning - he zipped up his jacket over the seat belt and couldn't get out of the car right away. The teacher opened the door, he tried to get out and couldn't! I was unable to figure what's going on until he unzipped and I got to see a perfectly tight seat belt under *lol*

What was the moment when you woke up this morning?

Renaissance Fair - NY 2009

I think this one deserves a post and a few comments. I took my son to see the last day of this magnificent action in the town with a seemingly unlikely name "Tuxedo" (unless that's where the tuxes came from, which I'm going to look into the moment I finish writing this) - Renaissance Faire. "Welcome to Shire, milady! Welcome to Shire, milord!" was how they greeted us with a very cool accent. Energy, costumes, treats, artists, full sun, camera with all the lenses I had to take with me (ended up using only one of them, but that's always been my problem - I don't want to miss something just because I didn't have the right equipment with me *lol*), my lovely little son's company (who wore a cowboy hat by the way - totally unfitting, but nevertheless looking very cute!)... should I say any more than that?

Photos are below, some with comments, some without :)

Not that I enjoy people fighting, but photographing these actors was certainly fun:







Then there were bridges where to cross it you had to hug a person, or kiss a person. This though I caught on one of the streets. She ran to him raising clouds of dust :)



Mmm...



The loudest girl on the fair! She can do lots of things too:



A beautiful admirer of my camera :)



The loudest girl's partner - the smile never left her face:



She was complaining about her shoes a little:



I think this guy was scaring young and single ladies with whatever he was pretending to hold as a baby in that thing:



Rawrrrr - I could hold his stare *lol*



He actually lost in that battle, but all my photos are dusty so I only have this one:



There's lots more, I'll post them somewhere else and share a link here. My particular interest was raised by the beer mugs everyone was carrying on their belts. So, look out for that one soon!

Have a magical day my friends~

new things...

Arthur gets a kick out of this one - Two Mommies!



And I actually just wanted to show off my new table, in my hubby's garden, with the only one sunflower growing among all that glory. Oh, and there's actually a bee on it...

Like it? :)

New bedside table and another shot of Tracey

... happily clicking away on my new bedside table that my husband made (I have only seen some evidence of the progress as mess in the garage which I'm not supposed to mention *lol* - it being not my territory) and "dedicated" to me today :).

One more shot of the beautiful Tracey - nice thing about having a comfortable studio of my own (I still can't get enough of it!) - you can do whatever you and your team like, as long as you like and jump as high as she can - ceilings won't be seen in the shot (unlike my first studio in our low ceiling basement).

Thanks to Jason for his efforts with hair, and thanks to Tracey for being such a delightful person!

Selecting photos is tough!

A short while ago I read a small article written by an aspiring model where she expressed her frustration with photographers who don't let her pick the best photos for her portfolio and only give her what they think is best. It led me to some thinking... I always try to give model the widest selection possible, because I think she needs and has a right to have all those copies, but that list is always narrowed down a certain amount - all blurry photos, or bad expressions, or any other kind of a "Bad" mistake - they are all removed from their view without hesitation. I don't delete them, just in case I can use some parts of them - to replace bad looking parts in "good" photos, or what not...

But for a portfolio? For a book that possibly will be seen by people? By people who are going to ask - who took this photo? Does this photo represent my best efforts????

Sometimes it is hard even for me - to select the best image. And a model usually judges from her own perspective, being critical to only her own looks, and sometimes those criticisms are not even fair to herself (come on, we've all been there! :) I do it too)

So what would I take into a consideration when picking a best photo from the shooting session?

First I look at the expression and energy. Does image look empty to me? Expressionless? Having a pretty model in it isn't enough, there's got to be the vibe.

Then I check the quality of the selected photos and filter out all subtle mistakes that I haven't noticed during preview.

And then, usually after some time, I sit down and analyze - how's the flow going? Is the eye traveling in the right direction? Are the shapes helping the flow or throwing me around all over the place? Colors? What can be improved? Can I make those changes in post-production? And that's how I land on very few really good ones that will stand the test of time. Meaning - I will like them for years to come and they represent my skill the best.

This one is from a recent shoot with a lovely girl named Tracey. She was very sweet and easy to direct during the shoot - she trusted my judgment and followed my lead, landing with a pack of fantastic images which I'm still to go through to select THE BEST :).



As usual, I hope this was fun, and come back again!

From the recent session...

And this is a poster I created for her afterwards:



She is such a sweet girl - Marion - she's from Quebec. Enjoyed shooting with her tremendously!

Little puppy has all grown up

Our friends got this thing... they wanted a puppy, and they've got one!
Months ago... here she is on their son's hands:





Then some time passed and she turned into a little lady. Meet... Lyssa!




She spent some time with us last week. Therefore the trip downstairs - into the studio:



Got some news by the way - I'm moving into a new studio space! Wonderful convenient location, easy to find, close to home, everything is working out *excited*.

Sunday is slow, it's a habit really..

For my online friends - sharing a few more images that people have been asking for a print of:





There's nothing more pleasant than having people express their interest in actually HANGING something I created - on their wall!

Something clients order for their promotions, something they will print in a magazine or on a brochure - is one thing. And when they actually order for their homes - that's special to me.

Jocelyn and David's wedding photography video

It was a pleasure working with Jocy again. She has an amazing smile and a wonderful new husband! Congratulations, you guys!

Fireworks fun

Even after years of taking pictures of fireworks I still get excited when I end up there with a good tripod and a zoom lens:







This time our son got really cranky - bed time was way overdue, but when they started the show, even I held my breath. Montville NJ, I'm proud to be your resident :) - good work everyone!!

Welcome to this world!

Last weekend I had an honor to meet and greet this wonderful little person:



I noticed all babies are born with this incredible little manicure - boys and girls alike:



And yes - she's the third girl in the family! This is all her though :)

Father's Day :)

I remember my Dad - we never celebrated Father's or Mother's Day, haven't had a clue such thing existed. I see my Dad picking me up from horseback riding, teaching me how to fix my little stereo, how to polish rocks, and all the other wonderful things that I haven't learned on my own.

I see my son with his Dad now and I cannot help them form these memories - they are between the two of them. Wonderful, unforgettable, happy memories. But I can help preserve the little details :)





And there're memories that my son shares only with me, too. Like testing the studio setup for the upcoming shoot:



Happy memories to all of us~~~

A few things

First of all I wanted to share this story with you: do you know Twitter? An application that so many people seem to use, but nobody so far was able to tell me the exact purpose of using it?

I use it too, but I'm still quite a bit unsure as to what to do with it :). So one day, I sat down and started browsing through profiles of people here in NJ, just to see if I can "meet" someone interesting and friend them, and I came across many interesting profiles, most of which were promoting something they do, or sell... *sigh*. And I added them, and kept on going about my social networking profiles, writing updates, responding to emails and messages, when BANG! Or, should I say - RING!

My cell phone rings, number unknown - I pick up and hear this: "Hi, my name is Drew, you just friended me on Twitter!". Imagine my shock :).

Long story short, we had a very nice conversation, I am having lunch with that person today - he's a local artist whose work inspires me. I'm very much looking forward to that. But the fact remains - I never expected to receive a real down to earth phone call from a real person, who I JUST friended on Twitter! I'm so glad there're people out there, who think outside the "what we ought to be doing", you know?

Summer seems to seep through the rainy moist sticky weather - here's a little peek into it:



And also - let this day or week bring miracles to you - life is full of opportunities and pleasant surprises!

More studio work...

You know how it always seems that your "trying to make it big" is harder than everyone else's? I guess I mostly mean it profession-wise. Photography field is pretty competitive, but it's nothing comparing to lives of new musicians. This is probably why it is such an honor for me to photograph for them.

These are old friends of mine 's band members - Bill and Jaime.

We worked in a private studio in Manhattan to achieve the looks they all needed for their promotion. There were (counts in her mind) one... two... three... omg!.. about ten people I had to photograph that night!

Everyone came out nicely, and these I post here with their permission to display one of the most fun and challenging shoots I had to do this spring:

Week's updates

Once again - nice and busy last week led to an even nicer weekend.

This time I had an honor to assist Bruce Smith (Britain fashion photographer) in his amazing master class and today I flew TWO (!!!) times :). First time in the morning with instructor - had a lesson, and second time - with a friend. He controlled, I photographed. And here's what came out!

Subtle and not so subtle colors under ground

A little something I brought back from Pennsylvania last weekend - besides chocolate and a bunch of new crystals to add to the collection :)...

Flash photography in these caves wasn't prohibited, but it'd kill the colors and the spatial feel:



Here they had black lights on and some mineral on the wall went glowing mysteriously :)