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!