Oriana

Oriana, originally uploaded by austinspace.

I'm lucky to have met a great model and more importantly person named Oriana, who seemingly does it all--model, actress, makeup artist and more. We shot at a nearby wildlife refuge (the only wildlife we saw were some bugs) on Columbus Day and more than two weeks later I'm still going through the 735 photos we took that day!

This shot represents more processing than I'm used to, but the effect was good enough to reach Flickr's Explore pages. It's actually two exposures combined in layers--the horizon and sky are one layer, and the rest is another layer on top of that. Since I don't have portable lighting, I had to cheat since I'm facing the sun here.

Oriana was in fact wearing underwear, too, but I cloned it out because it disrupted the lines and looks more natural without it, based on a suggestion by my wife.

Oriana's pose here is what really makes the shot for me. She gives great poses that are interesting without looking forced. We've shot again since but those pix won't see the light of day for at least another week! I'm so far behind...

More of the ever-expanding set of Oriana pix can be found here.

Crystal

Crystal, originally uploaded by austinspace.

This is part of a set on Flickr that Crystal and I did a couple of weeks ago outside of Davenport, Washington.

Because of her amazing makeup and clothing I chose to post them in black and white (I'm also going to give her a set in color) to really make her stand out. These are also more Photoshopped than I usually do in that I'm using the Black and White Image Adjustment in CS3 to intensify the yellows (her hair, the fields) and turn the blues to almost black (the sky). The cool thing is I saved these settings so basically I just have to apply them to each image--sometimes with some minor tweaking--and they're ready to go.

There is winter wheat sprouting at the bottom of those rows, by the way; just not that easy to see.

EWU Women's Track team

EWU Women's Track team, originally uploaded by austinspace.

This was a fun shoot in less than ideal conditions (cool, cloudy, rain off and on) at Manito Park in Spokane, Washington. I'm always wary of shooting groups, as it's hard to get everyone on the same page, but Amber helped wrangle everyone and we had a great time.

Alina and Nicole

Alina and Nicole, originally uploaded by austinspace.

I had a fun shoot with Alina and her friend Nicole a few days ago at Manito Park. Their friend Sarha applied the makeup and the location applied the great light. Of all the shots in their set this one is my favorite. The light is perfect, the gazes are appropriately far-off, and the crop is tight. It was a productive evening.

Lindsi

Lindsi, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Lindsi is a local clothing designer and I've agreed to help her by shooting models wearing her designs. We went out last night to find some ideal locations for our shoot and I told her I'd agree to that IF I could photograph her. I love her very unique look.

This is a car junkyard on Trent Avenue in Spokane, Washington. Its fence, as you can see, is entirely composed of wheel rims. I've shot there before and thought it would be a perfect location for her ideas, and she agreed.

More photos of Lindsi here.

Kirsten

062508, originally uploaded by austinspace.

This is possibly the best shot from a weekday shoot at Amber Lake, a small lake outside Cheney, Washington. There were two boats on the lake total, and it was sunny and warm (though not warm enough water; Kirsten sports goosebumps in many of the pix). The idea was a "lady of the lake" sort of look, and Kirsten did the best she could to keep her dress spread out around her despite the light current and the various air bubbles that would get underneath the garment.

These are shot with my new Canon 40d, which adds megapixels, better and more ISO settings and a huge LCD screen on the back. Oh, and it's quieter, too.

Nicole

Nicole, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Nicole came over in April and helped me break in my studio lights. I have two Alien Bees B800s and our room that's converted into my studio has red walls.

Nicole always comes prepared. She had several changes of clothing with her (you can count them if you want by going to her set page on Flickr and starting in row 6.

We had a blast moving the lights around and experimenting with backlighting, side lighting, one light setups and more. I've since incorporated what I quickly learned with other models and it's been a blast to shoot even with our lousy weather so far this spring.

Now that the weather is improving (well, not today, but lately) I'll be shooting outside again much more, which I prefer. Nicole and I plan a shoot downtown soon, when our schedules sync up again.