This shot was part of the same series we did for the original shoot with Janey, a few posts down. Of the few she chose as keepers, I only ended up working on 1 (the one posted earlier), and this one was put on hold. Then she was told she was getting a spread in a magazine and wanted to use this shot as well, so I scrambled to get it done in time for the submission. I think I like this one better than the original. Just something about it seems more crisp, or right, or good, or great?! .... I like it.
Janey Brown
My friend Janey is an up and coming singer/songwriter. Actually maybe you've seen her singing and dancing for the intro to Friday Night Football on TSN...? Anyway she wanted a new promo/head shot so I said we could definitely do something!
This was definitely her favorite capture of the evening. We took many shots and narrowed it down to 3. Ive editted 2 so far, and this one is my favorite so far.
I think it was pretty lucky capture. Using the 85 1.2 lens wide open, the DOF was extremely shallow, and with it being such a slow lens to focus, I knew capturing a good hair-whip in focus would be next to impossible. So I asked her to pose in her 'ending position', focused there, then had her do the hair-whip.... and hopefully she ended up coming to rest where we had set the focus at! Forunately this one worked.
Happy Birthday
... to me! 32 today... yikes. I still feel 23 though. You might get older on paper, and your bills might get 'more adult', but as long as you don't feel old, who cares!
(Cake donations are now being accepted.)
I decided to snap a picture today... a self-portrait I guess... while Christine opted for a couch nap in the middle of the day. I figured it was a good day to get a shot, seeing as I now has this wonderful winter beard which I will be cutting off soon to allow my face to enjoy summer as well. All I have are cell phone pictures of us (me and Beardo), so a proper picture was in order.
There were some out-takes, of course. Poses that were meant to emphasize the full meaning of beard ownership...
So, I've had my fun for today. Tomorow I may treat myself to some camera gear as a
"birthday business expense", and in preparation for the summer shooting season.
Stay tuned! Stay frosty!
Dreaming Of Summer
I had had an idea of a 'dog daydream' picture for a few weeks, and I knew I wanted to shoot it in the bedroom, with the dog on the floor, with the sun streaming in as it does mid afternoon. With the weather having been rather dull lately though, or me being out, or the actual time of year (and angle of the sun) not being proper, I put it off for a while. Finally I decided to just shoot it a few days ago and get it done.
After shooting the images I needed, and getting them roughly put together, I still didnt realy know what I wanted to do theme wise, as far as a visual hook, but since I knew it was supposed to be a day dream and I wanted him to be dreaming of summer (since the idea was conceived while the weather was still cold) I knew I needed grass. This was a good opportunity to learn how to render grass, which I did. This ended up being a mix of CG grass, and a photo of grass mixed in for some finer "real life" detail. Looks pretty good to me!
Then for some reason the theme song from Reading Rainbow popped into me head one day. Those of you who are old enough to remember it, you know what song Im talking about (and you can be sure Geordi LaForge didnt get to be chief engineer without reading a few books on warp theory!) So, butterfly in the sky came to be the idea of what the dog was dreaming of: warm sun, fluffy clouds, and butterflies to chase. The clouds were actually an afterthought, once the image was "done". I thought it needed something else, and the clouds help give it that airy daydream feel.
Overall this is probably one of my favorite pics Iv ever put together, and considering I did it in rush-mentality, I'm very happy with it. Hope you enjoy it as well!