Wednesday, April 30, 2008

M & M's (Mehgan & MaKayla Johnson)


Meet Mehgan & MaKayla, (a.k.a. Bug). These dolls were the subjects of my camera a few weeks back during a session in Modesto. Actually, this is my second time shooting them as we've already had one session back during Christmas time last year. Here we are again.

So we started our session in an Orchard not too far from Modesto in a city called Delhi. How did I find the orchard? I saw one I liked, knocked on the door and asked if we could have a shoot there, and they said yes. Love this old sofa in this series. Thank you Jared for lugging it out ALL the way from Fairfield. Great friend. Check his site out, pure AWESOME!

We next went to this open field with this old Chevy sittin on blocks. How did I find an old truck? Went to the owner's house, knocked on the door and asked. You'll be surprised to find, I've NEVER been denied the privileged of shooting on someone's land. Everyone is usually very hospitable about it, especially in the country. The horse belongs to my brother-in-law's in-laws. Did you get that? Henry and Patty own a gorgeous place on a few acres in Delhi. Thanks again for lending "Buddy" to us.

I did some new stuff to this session. For one, a few of these shots have textures applied to them, (photoshop technique). I think they turned out rather nicely. Two, I'm using more and more off camera lighting. I've been frequenting a lot of strobist sites and the things you learn are incredible.

Thank you girls and thank you Sis. Johnson. I hear one of these photos will be enlarged and hung in grandpa's, (Pastor Randy Keyes) office in Hazlewood MI. Great feeling on my part. Enjoy the photos.

VIEW THEM IN A LARGE SLIDE

~Sam












Monday, April 28, 2008

Band Shoot :: Hunters Point

One of my real desires early on in my passion with photography was to shoot a band. Why? I dunno, their cool? All of us have an inner wannabe rock star, (admit it). Really, I felt is was a chance to get creative with posing and post processing in Photoshop I wouldn't normally get shooting weddings/engagements etc. A photo could be haggard looking and folks would still dig it. Correct exposers, white balance etc. get thrown out the window and just the ultimate coolness of the photo surfaces. Guess what?.. I got my chance.

I met A.J. (guy in front on the "street crossing Beatles" shot) on a flight home from Vegas. My Photographer buddy Jared and I were on our way home from a photography conference and A.J. was there being...well,......a rock star. He was in the airport playing an acoustic guitar, (again, admit it, we've all wanted to do that) waiting for his/our flight home. Had a quick chat and found out he and his band were putting together a promo album. Asked if they'd taking their promo shots and he says no...the rest is history.

In meeting for a good place to have our shoot I suggested Hunter's Point in the City. As soon as I mentioned it to A.J. he tells me their studio is in the heart of HP. Awesome. For those of you not familiar with Hunter's Point, it is noted as one of the more dangerous parts, (more hyped that way more then anything else) of the City. Matter of fact, when the 89' S.F. Quake took place, the World Series was in Candlestick, (now Monster Park). The game was cut short and the evacuation from Candlestick was diverted through Hunter's Point seeing that the Bay Bridge was collapsed. This got bad and lots of folks had their car stolen/carjacked etc. HP got a pretty tough rap as a place not to be after hours. Tell you what though, it's a smokin place to shoot a rock band.

VIEW THEM LARGE IN SLIDE

A.J., Walker, Rob 1 Rob 2. Thanks for being awesome.
Jared, thanks for the help with lighting. Real homie.
Enjoy the shots.

~Sam

BTW~ I promise to update my blog more often. Lots have you have asked and in all honesty it's my being so busy/lazy. Okay, more lazy but I promise to do better.






 
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