Posing and Lighting

For those of you about to hire me: I salute you. Or congratulate you, or something... this past weekend spent with Bambi Cantrell at her CreativeLive workshop in Seattle was an invaluable, unbelievable step in my ability as a photographer, and I fully expect my portrait and wedding work to show a marked improvement as a result. I've always fancied myself adept at finding light and capturing expression, but I'd never had the opportunity to spend time watching and learning from someone so skilled in defining the human form with light and shadow. Bambi makes it look easy; I assure you: it is not. That said, she was able to verbalize her techniques in such a way that I really did feel like I came away from the weekend armed with both the knowledge of precisely what I'm looking for, and how best to help my subjects understand what they need to do in order to help me achieve that. The images presented below were all shot this weekend, and though they certainly benefit from the work of a talented makeup artist and wardrobe assistant, none of the people pictured are professional models. First there's Christina - dramatic shots for a dramatic face:

Then the gorgeous Trin...

Two stunning brides...

And Raven, whose body (and face!) should be in front of the camera all the time!

I hope you'll agree my trip to Seattle was worth it, if for no other reason than adding these shots to my portfolio. The experience was so much more than that, though - meeting a huge number of extremely fun, knowledgeable, and talented photographers, being pushed and inspired by one of the best in the industry, seeing light in a whole new way, and learning techniques that will last me the life of my career = priceless. If you're a photographer - professional or hobbyist - and are interested in watching the download of the workshop where I took these photos, you can purchase it here... I promise you it's money well spent. You'll also want to keep an eye on CreativeLive in general - they host amazing workshops like this one frequently, for free (if you watch them live) or extremely inexpensively (if you want them for your very own). I'm not one to plug things very often, but it's hard to keep such a good thing quiet :D

More Friday from a behind-the-scenes perspective... but for now, one final shot I love... this one not-so-posed:

xox,

annemie