Just In Case the Talent Scouts Come Back ...
I have a studio lighting set up that I have put together over the last few years that is pretty basic but decent. I have always been interested in how the great portrait photographers are able to fully manage and control light to make the wonderful portraits that they do, but I haven't really been dedicated to pushing this side of my education. I always thought that you'll never learn if you don't have the basic equipment, so I dove in ... but now I have to push that learning curve as well. I bought a couple of books by well known portrait photogrpahers and have been reading through them for ideas and techniques (in addition to long admiring the work of Leibovitz, Avedon, and others), and I set up a room with my gear so I can just pull by D800E out, turn a couple of things on and get to shooting (versus spending 30-45 minutes trying to get eveyrthing together, at which point people have lost interest). So there is the quick back story.
The other day Reilly came in with her camera (chip off the ol' ...) and with her friend asking if she could use the "studio" to shoot some headshots. She was really just looking to shoot photos with her friend in front of the maudlin cloth, so I said yes and grabbed my camera to shoot both of them as well, while Reilly was shooting and directing the goings on. I asked why there was this push for headshots and she said, "Well you know we like the Disney shows and we heard you have to have headshots to audition with them, so we want to make sure we have these if the talent scouts ever come back to town." She's planning ahead, I guess. Better safe than sorry? Anyway, a few shots I took from the girls' session ...
This is how you make a duck face ... PERFECT!
Serious ...
"I wanna be where the people are ... I wanna see, wanna see them dancing' ... Walking around on those - what do you call 'em? ... Oh - feet!"
Good times hanging out with the girls and helping them with their talent portfolio should the day come ... and maybe it's helping me figure out a little bit of this whole studio thing as well along the way. I have realized I need to get a little light thrown behind them to create separation from the background and a hair light ... Getting there ... The grand finale?
