PP of A Revisited

 

 

I want to thank my friends over at Pilot Imaging for all their support while I was at PP of A.  Pilot has really helped me by providing services that are convenient, affordable, and easy to use.  Jeff Pilot has over two decades of experience in the industry and has been a crucial part of my success by providing expert printing super fast so my clients always have what they want in a timely manner. The best part of Pilot is they function as a “one-stop shop” for all things photographic, without losing that awesome customer service experience that you’re looking for. The personal relationship we’ve developed with the staff at Pilot has been so important to us as we order prints, album designs, and almost every product Pilot offers.  The staff has come to know our personal tastes and calls us when they see something different selected.  What large printing company do you know that remembers your name and preferences like that? They’re also expanding with even more finishes and services so we can’t wait to be the first in line to try those out.  I can’t say enough about these guys!

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I was at PP of A. Time goes by so fast and we’ve been super busy here at the studio. I really wanted to share some images so here’s one of my favorites from the day.

When I love the sky, as I did in this image, I expose for it.  I usually know the exposure without a meter…1/250th @ f 11.   This image shows the exposure is perfect for the sky, however Simone has no light added to her face and is in total shadow.  Using my Q flash, I have memorized the output to gain any given exposure.  1/2 power at 10 feet for f 11 will be the number, every time.  We learned this in a dark room with a sekonic meter and this comes in super handy, knowing your output for any given situation.  Once everything came together, I lifted Simone on top of the the trash receptacle and isolated her against the gorgeous sky.  We moved the light to profile position giving me the perfect loop shadow under her nose.  You can see the reflector in the foreground to not only open the details on the shadow side of her face, it also acts as a GOBO ( go-between,) to shade my lens from the burst of light.  I used my Canon EOS Mark 4 with a 24-70 lens, working with a Manfrotto tripod and my trusty Quantum Q Flash.

I was at the Canon booth teaching and we had over 100 people come for my class and with such a great turn out I just wanted to say a big thank you! I will be going to WPPI in Phoenix next week, stop on by the Canon booth and say hi!

Seasons of the Soul

Susan Swartz

One glance at the link above and you will see that Susan Swartz is a very special person.  Susan is one of the most talented artists in the country, with her abstract landscape paintings gaining praise from some of the most admired critiques in the business.  Her work is in museums across the country and abroad.  Susan’s new work is simple, pure, and makes powerful statements of a spiritual nature.

This portrait is one of my favorites from our session.  It is a one light high key technique that I have perfected, with an accent light added to camera left giving me the edge I needed.  This technique is usually reserved for fashion or editorial images but towards the end of our session I knew it was the perfect one to use.   I know this was a move from the Holy Spirit.  Susan and I have always had a spiritual connection and this portrait speaks volumes of that connection.  Susan signs every painting with GTG just under her name..Glory to God.

I was the chosen photographer for Susan’s beautiful daughter’s Karen and Kristin’s wedding nuptials, the first in Princeton, N.J. and the second on the mountain top in Upper Deer Valley, Park City Utah. We have crossed paths with our trips to Utah, so we were thrilled to get the call when Susan had her solo exhibition, Seasons of the Soul,  at the Metropolitan Museum of the Women in the Arts,  Washington D.C.

A Night at the Museum

Susan and her biggest fan and husband Jim Swartz.

These are a few of the featured paintings from the Seasons of the Soul event in Washington, D.C.  Susan paints from studios in Park City, Utah and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Her exhibition BREATH OF NATURE at Belgravia Gallery in Mayfair, London ran from October 22 to November 24, 2012. She will be showing  for the third year in Palm Beach at the American International Fine Arts Fair, February 6-10, 2013. Her other great passion is to spend time with her husband, their three children and nine grandchildren.

GTG!