Back in 2001 when I got “really fricken serious” about photography, I found myself trying to decide which genre of photography I should get into? Fashion? Glamour? Swim? Beauty? It was at this point that I decided a mentor was crucial and found one. The mentor I had was a glamour guy. I didn’t chose to shoot glamour strictly because he was a glamour guy, at that point in my career I had enjoyed the bluntness of glamour.
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I often reflect back on my first talk with my mentor and friend Art Ketchum and I remember specifically complaining as all I had was a cheap pair of Ebay strobes and a cheap camera and starter lens. In his book, Portfolio by Art Ketchum, Art states he had a ton of strobes and modifiers. He also stated if the reader or anyone else who wondered why he had so many, his response was simple; “Because I can”. It floored me
I’m amazed by some of the conversations I have with other professional photographers. A lot of well accomplished photographers, people I look up to, don’t make money in “model photography” This has always amazed me as I was able to make money in it! After talking to them and breaking through the unwritten rule of “Never discuss business” I found that none of them had a business plan!
I was talking to a friend and we started talking about tag lines. Now if you don’t know what a tag line is, allow me to tell you:
“Coke is it”
“You can’t beat the real thing”
“You’ve got the right one”
As I’ve stated before, when I first started getting serious about photography, I found a “mentor”. When I looked at his work, it was AMAZING! I was sure he was in major magazines. I contacted him and we talked photography. Today when I reflect on it, he really didn’t teach me much in the way of learning, but I learned a lot of what NOT to do. Anyway, after talking to him, I suggested he start teaching workshops and it was there that he told me if I put on workshops for him to teach at, he could cut me in at 50%.
I’ve been talking about the Backdrop Outlet Pro White Vinyl backdrop for some time now. I got it in about a month ago and wanted to use it several times before giving what I’d consider, an honest feedback. Before going into any ratings, I’ll tell you my experience.
I seem to go in spurts, sometimes I detest natural light, other times, it’s all I shoot.
As it works out, I’ve been shooting a ton of natural light stuff over the past few weeks and have found a really FUN way to do it! It’s using a large picture window (or sliding glass door) and getting the maximum amount of light I can and shaping it from there. I use one silver reflector and sometimes a soft gold reflector to bounce light back into the face. Simple, yet effective.
There have been times in my professional life when a situation has hit too close to home. As any normal human being would have, I let emotion act with out the benefit of intellect. This has caused me to end relationships that shouldn’t have been or change the course of relationships in either a negative or positive way. One of the relationships was with a really good model and wonderful person named Paige. Paige is a total sweetheart and absolutely beautiful.
Either way, here’s a few photos of Milly. Milly came in late 2009 and we shot. Then she came in early 2011 and we shot once more. She had grown very quite over that time and finally a few weeks ago I had a chance to catch up to her and we found time to shoot. I forgot how beautiful she was as it’s been some time since I’ve looked at her photos or her. She’s so awesome because she’s shy, but not really.
I’ve been working on an in-depth Photoshop retouching video for some time now, I’ve finally got the last two videos edited and will now start putting everything together!
One of the sample photos used is this one of Bre. I really liked how this one turned out and wanted to share.