Nicole and Jessica

Nicole and Jessica, originally uploaded by austinspace.

I've really slowed down in the quantity of photoshoots I've done lately. The combination of cold weather, new responsibilities at work and the desire to catch up has resulted in only two or three shoots the last month. This shoot with perennial favorite Jessica and her friend Nicole wass absolutely fun and so many good shots resulted from it that now, two weeks later, I'm still working on them.

This shoot was a day or two after I finally received a replacement for my 17-85mm lens that I took to a shop four months ago (long dull story, but I'm never going to that shop again) and was finally told couldn't be fixed. However this particular shot was done with the 10-22mm wide angle lens, which is why Nicole is so...lengthy in this shot.

The light on this one is interesting. If you look at colors, you'll notice how on the left side of the photo it's orange and yellow, and on the right it's white and blue. The models are laying on a futon and I'm using my two Alien Bees lights on the left, hence the more yellowy cast. On the right just off screen is a window, letting in grey/white/blue late afternoon light.

Adrienne

Adrienne, originally uploaded by austinspace.

With the weather getting better I'm not shooting in studio much, and I'm very happy about it. Mind you I like the control of studio lights, and the interesting light you can get on someone that would be hard to replicate outdoors, but nothing beats natural light.

Here we have the best of both worlds. We're in my studio, and Adrienne is looking out the window so natural light is flooding in on her. In many of my pix I up the saturation just a tiny bit to get the photo back to what I saw when I shot, but in this case I dialed it down to give it a different feel.

Adrienne is such a natural beauty that little other work needed to be done on this photo, except cropping it tightly so the Flickr police wouldn't flag it.

More Adrienne photos here.

Nicole

Nicole, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Nicole is a fellow photographer (Flickr: blush-response) and amazingly fun to photograph, which we've done twice now (here's her set on my Flickr stream) with great results. Here we're shooting at a small park on Spokane's south side that gets filled with wildflowers in May but we were a bit too early for that.

This shot was taken at the bottom of a huge rock/outcropping where we went to escape the wind. Whereas it was howling throughout the park, here we were protected by the rock and it was very peaceful there. Nothing special in processing here; nothing needed.

Alex

Alex, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Alex is a coworker who's dabbling in the modeling world. I helped her out by agreeing to a shoot at our most photogenic local park. Very little technical work needed for this shoot and postproduction is minimal. Alex is a natural and her athleticism makes for great definition in her poses (check out those calves!).

Amber

Amber, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Amber's standing in the freezing Spokane River in this photo (which was her idea, I must say in defense). This was a great shoot that started above the river at a local winery that has an amazing location and interesting features. The weather was perfect (finally!) and we got a number of cool shots. I chose this one because I really like the textures the branches creates, but there are a number of other pix from this shoot in Amber's set on Flickr that might be better.

Equipment-wise I don't have much to report except I'm happy I didn't use my flash at all during the entire shoot. That makes me extremely happy after a long winter of dark dreary days.

Stephanie

Stephanie, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Our endless winter does yield some different looks on campus and beyond. Stephanie is a student I've wanted to shoot with since last year and circumstances brought us together at a dance I was invited to shoot a couple of week ago.

What's cool is she obviously thought very carefully about what she wanted to wear, and where she wanted to shoot. We first shot here, on campus, in a grassy spot that's frozen over and now is melting so had a couple of inches of water covering it. I fired my flash above her head to get the light on her face, and using the 10-22mm wideangle lens forces the narrow view as you look down.

What we've shot so far is here. I hope we get another chance to shoot soon! She's fun to be around.

Shannon

Shannon, originally uploaded by austinspace.

More studio work. Shannon and I have shot together twice, once at Manito Park in the snow and once in my studio.

Simple lighting--one light above her and to her left.

The rest is all her. She's very expressive. More photos here.

Kaeti

Kaeti, originally uploaded by austinspace.

The endless cold weather and snow has forced more studio shoots, and while fun I'm going a little stir crazy! Fortunately Kaeti was in town on school break. This was shot on my black-covered futon holding the camera above her (and not looking through the viewfinder) with the 10-22mm wide angle lens.

In Photoshop I merely blacked out the non-black areas around her and then darkened her leotard so that it essentially disappeared. So, while it may look like she's dancing, she's merely lying on her side. There are two Alien Bee b800 lights situated at her head and at her feet, too, along with some natural light coming in from our right.

What Kaeti does so well is pose with poetry. She knows how to use her hands and work her body in organic ways that seem natural and unforced. She's a joy to photograph and now I can't wait for her next break from school! More shots of Kaeti are here.