Archive for May 2010
Maternity Photography Session with Meriah
Of all the work I do, Maternity photography is the smallest niche. Some women love being pregnant. They love the new experience and the incredible vitality that comes with the territory. In my experience photographing expectant mothers, as well as watching my wife deal with her pregnancy, I’ve found that not all women love how they look and feel during pregnancy. That’s not exactly the best mindset for an intimate portrait session.
So why do it? To me this is like wedding photography, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. (OK, so maybe in maternity photography there’s likely to be a couple opportunities in a lifetime.) But you get my drift. I’m there to document a milestone and a very special time in a family’s life. I’m there to help create art as well as portraits for the family to look back on for years to come.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph Meriah. She’s due with her first born in late June. When we talked about the shoot our goal was to get creative and have some fun in addition to getting some portraits.
Meriah Maternity Portrait
Shooting promos for Bands and Artists
A few weeks ago I hooked up with Shayla. She’s a singer-songwriter working on updating her publicity photos to coincide with the new direction her music has taken. I haven’t had the opportunity to work with many bands or artists lately so it was a refreshing challenge.
About 5 years ago I was introduced to a music producer and shot some promo shots for one of his artists. He liked them so much he asked me back to shoot cover art for a band’s CD. It was my first attempt at shooting a CD cover and I learned an important lesson – a CD cover is square; my camera doesn’t shoot square photos. I got lucky and was able to find frames that fit the shape but the lesson I learned was invaluable.
When I talked to Shayla and listened to a sample of her new music I figured this industrial part of San Pedro would be perfect. My goal was to shoot images that will allow plenty of text while still showing a sense of the location.
Malibu swimsuit shoot with Caitlin O’Connor
The great thing about my group portrait projects is that I meet a lot of great people. Looking back at the wife beater portrait project I shot in 07, of the 49 photos in the gallery, I worked with nine of those people at least one other time. A couple have since become friends and I have worked with them numerous times.
Caitlin is one of those subjects from my latest closeup project. We started talking about photography and ideas and found that we both had the willingness to work hard and experiment in hopes of getting a great shot. A couple weeks ago we met in Malibu for a swimsuit shoot. Although it never rains in Southern California, what they don’t tell you is that those of us that live or work near the beach will often see foggy and overcast skies while the folks 3 miles inland are enjoying beautiful sunny skies. As luck would have it the day ended up chilly and foggy.
Regardless of the temps and the wind, the shoot went great.
Cailin O'Connor Swimsuit Shoot
Cailin O'Connor Swimsuit Shoot