Meet Henry and his little brother Winston.  These two made for some fun photography on a recent puppy portrait shoot.  Some how we were able to get through our hour shoot without getting arrested by a ranger at Squires Castle for not being on a leash.  All is well since if Henry had been on a leash I would have never have captured this shot.  Have you ever seen a happier dog!

If you are interested in a pet photo session for you favorite furry friend don’t hesitate to contact me through the form on the Portraits Page.

Exp: 1/200s @ f/4.0, ISO 200 off-camera flash E-TTL
Gear: Canon 40D, 70-200mm F4L IS @111mm, 580EXII, ST-E2

Here’s a shot of my friend Amie (check out her blog here).  I got her to pose for me to do some portraits.  I set the shot up to get this interesting bridge and fall color behind her but the shot just wasn’t working.  Luckily her boyfriend Todd came along.  So I got him doing something useful, he’s holding my reflector and 580EXII camera left.  The flash is bouncing into the white side of the reflector making for a nice soft light source on Amie.  The exposure was setup for the background and then I let the E-TTL properly expose Amie.  You’ll notice there is a lot of gear listed for this shot.  For most of my shots I try to keep gear to a minimum but without a flash this shot just doesn’t work.

Last night I helped out with the portraiture class over at CPS.  Nancy gave her lecture and we had a portrait setup using a backdrop and my DIY spyderlight.  We showed the students how to use a reflector and some posing techniques.  A few tips for better portraits:

• Get closer
• Watch  your background, try to eliminate distracting elements
• Be careful to focus on the eyes, particularly the closest one

Here are a few shots I took of students that were posing as models.

40D, 17-40@17mm, 1/60s, f/4, ISO 400

Yesterday group of photographers from the Cleveland Photographic Society got together to do some studio shooting. This was a great way to get some shooting in with our winter weather we’ve had. We had a great group of models and make-up artists. This kind of shooting is different from what I’m use to but it gave me some ideas for some other projects that I’d like to try. Well enough of my rambling check let’s check out some shots.

Before the shoot started we got a brief over view of the equipment and how to shoot and pose the models. One thing that we were told was not to use a wide angle lens. I promptly ignored that rule and put my 17-40 on my camera. My favorite shots were taken with that lens. This shot of Naomi was taken @17mm laying on the floor.

Check out some of the other images from the shoot below:

As I find out about some of the other photographer’s shots I’ll post them:

One of Varina’s shots over at her blog http://photographybyvarina.blogspot.com/2009/01/studio-shoot.html

You can also see more shots from other members on the CPS Flickr Group

Last weekend I attended the photo-shoot part of the environmental portraiture class I’m taking from the Cleveland Photographic Society.  I’ve been looking for something a little different to shoot lately and expand some of my photography.  So this was the first time I’ve shot anyone’s portrait.  Not sure why I haven’t done it before other than fear of not doing the subject justice.  So without further rambling here is my favorite.

Exp: 1/80s @ f/2.2, ISO 100
Gear: Canon 40D, 50F1.8, White Cardboard, Post in Lightroom 2

Kate was very gracious to be my model and I think I was able to do her beauty justice (brownie pts: +2).