A Woman in Red

I photographed Leah last summer.  She is beautiful and gorgeous. As you see, she was wearing eye catching red dress. Since the color of her dress is intense pure red, I requested her to stand in front of old back wall. That brings good contrast between pail wall and her, and she is more standing out in the image.

Now, a photographer have to work a little bit harder on the computer.  I wanted to enhance my inner imagination of kind of Gothic, like Gotham city in Tim Burton version of Batman. So added rusty “yogoshi” weathering effect on entire image.

I would be glad if you see the mood I saw in my imagination.

Please click the idea to view larger image.

Portrait in Winter (4) – from the 2nd session.

I have being posting images of Jillian from the session in December. This time, I would like to share images from January session . The reason I wanted to repeat a photo-session with Jillian is that I could not complete all of my ideas in the previous session and also she is so beautiful, obviously.
I guess the mood of the session may have been different from the December session. Due to my mind set, the images are more casual and kind of candid feel to them. it may have been more relaxed; even Jillian brought up some photographic ideas. I LOVE to hear ideas from a clients. That excites me and I can keep shooting forever.

Next image, while I was processing, this image reminds me the famous poster of the musical, Les Miserable. I did not expect this happened.

On the other hand, I had an image of the next photo at the shooting and I specifically requested her to make a pose for this image. I also know I was going to make it B&W. I experimented some digital framing, and I chose the design of the film perforations to add classic feel. Do you like the framing?

Please click the images for larger sizes, and please check other Jillian’s images in previous posts.

Portraits in Winter (2)

In photography, we have to take some stages for completion of an image before publishing or giving it to a client. I mean shooting is an only part of photography, and post-processing is significant part of creation of images. At least for me.

When I am shooting, I occasionally have pre-vision of how the final image looks like. I also have plans for post –processing in this case. On the other hand, I sometimes just focus on lighting and a model at shooting. And my imagination progress as taking the stages. At first, I get rough idea of the final images when I see an image just after downloading the photo from a camera to a computer. Then while I am taking hours for post-processing, my imagination slowly progresses and the image is getting close to completion…I mean a layer to another layer, a filter to another filter. I usually take many errors as well before saving the final product.

Following images are the ones I took the type of the process. I focused on lighting and poses at the shooting. Then I tried to apply processing to meet the certain mood which Jillian brought to these images. I think that is why each photo below has deferent look and taste.

Please click the images for larger sizes.

Related post: Portraits in Winter (1)

Portraits in Winter (1)

I was supposed to post the images from the flood but I would like to process film first. I have to make time for it. So this time, I post images from the photo session I had in winter.

I had an opportunity to photograph beautiful Jillian in December, then I asked her another session in January since I really wanted try all photographic ideas I planned with this beautiful model. We traveled several locations from downtown to Englewood area Calgary. There was old barn with white wall in Englewood. Here are 3 photos from the white barn.

Just sunset time…it was quite warm afternoon as December. It was perfect light. I did not WANT to use any flashes.

Actually, it was not snowing. I added some effect. It looks chilly, doesn’t it? I call this image “snow white”

After the sun disappeared, temperature suddenly dropped and it became pretty cold. So I imagined a scene that a girl was waiting somebody in cold outside. Jillian responded well to my request. Don’t you feel the loneliness?

Please click the images for larger sizes.

Kinetic Portrait?? – Leya Russell on Peace Bridge

A new pedestrian bridge was  opened on March 24th last year. The bridge was designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. The bridge is definitely intriguing design.

I had a chance to photograph Leya Russell, also a photographer from Calgary, in the bridge. For the portrait in the relatively large and patterns by frames. …wide-angle lens was good to start. Please tell me what kind of adverbs, you can think of? Energetic? Dynamic? or Kinetic?

Please click the photos for the larger sizes.

 

Model shoot from the Indoor portraits workshop – Ashley Quan

Now I can share some images from the indoor workshop Janice Mayers Foreman and I presented. Ashley Quan is a very experienced and obviously beautiful model. Also she is a fashion designer and owner of Apiana Que. Please check out her website here.

Recently, I have been experimenting some different methods of post-processing. This time I tried to apply processing differently to each image to meet the moods. I hope you like them. Please click the photos for larger sizes.

Related Article: Artistic Portrait – Is a copy bad?

Obsessed photographer vs. camera geek – Janice Meyers Foreman

In my last post, I mentioned about my philosophy when I am working on portraits, “For me, you, and them”.  Actually, I was writing about “me part” in the last blog but it became too diverse and I left the part to this blog. So at the times when I started photography and switched to digital, the “me” part was huge because I had to learn so many things and no space for me to think about other people. For  experienced photographers , experiments can be the “me” part as well. I want to try different lighting technique all the times. Can I use pinhole or infrared photography for portraits? Experiments are fun and TASTY, but the quality may not meet the level to please other people.

So let me introduce the wonderful photographer and my friend, Janice Meyers Foreman. I met her at Stampede Western Photo gallery 2011 and we have been working together so often lately. Janice (and myself) are not sure to be entitled as a professional photographers, (even though both of us are the accredited photographers by Professional Photographers of Canada).  However, she set her mind to the professional level and create quality PRODUCTS. I guess it is truly important to raise the level from an amateur with an artistic eyes more than the title itself. She calls herself an obsessed photographer and I often call myself a camera geek. I am learning many things from her.

However, our styles are completely different. Please check out her photo in her blog (http://jmeyersforeman.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/taleeta-waiting-to-smile/), and my image below. We had an opportunity to photograph the same model, Taleeta, at Studio 35 in Airdrie, Alberta. You can see the difference so easily.

Taleeta 02 by Hiroaki Kobayashi. Please click the photo for the larger size.

My image is bright, lively, comical and capturing a moment of the motion. Her image is more like subtle, faded, static…if static is not a good choice of the word…timeless or eternal. The other examples are found in the links below :

• http://jmeyersforeman.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/fredau-model-shoot-studio-35-airdrie-alberta/
• https://widebrightsun.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/fredau-hoekstra-photo-session-at-studio-35/

Can you see the differences? I guess her photos are beyond talking about only photographic techniques. Even I feel they  have power to portray inside of model’s.

So back to concept of the “Me”. After the TASTY experiment process, a photographer has to digest and put the intake to bones and flesh. This is style making process. So “me” as a photographer cannot be forgotten in terms of the creation of the images . And If people appreciate my photos and say “I want to be taken pictures by you because I like your style”, that must be happiest moment more than obtaining winning ribbons.  It is like the style becomes the “brand”. By the way, Taleeta and her mom really liked both Janice’s  and my photo, and there was no winner between us.  Rivalship will be continued…but please check out her blog. She takes not only portraits but also babies. And  travel photography! They are truly fabulous.

Fashion photography – Taleeta

When working on a portrature, I often think about “me, you, and them”. “Me” is obviously myself as a photographer; “you” is a photographic subject, and “them” is other viewers. As an experienced photographer, I want to create great images. However, I believe that the desire itself is not enough. When I ask models about impression of the photos, if they replied “they are great”, these photos are just “so so” to me. If the models respond “It is cool, I love it” I achieved something. If I cannot please people in the frame, it is unsuccessful. Then if I win a contest or I get 100s of hits on my blog post, they are just bonuses.

I had an opportunity to photograph a nearly brand new model, Taleeta, last week. This session was organized by Studio 35 in Airdrie, Alberta. The photo below is the one of shots form the photo-session. Please click the image for the larger view. I hope she likes this image.

Actually, I would like to talk about “me” part a little bit more. It will be next time. Please check out  Janice Mayer Forman’s photo from the same session. She will appear in my next blog.

Related articles

• Fredau Hoekstra – Photo session at Studio 35 (widebrightsun.wordpress.com)

Jeff Cruz – instant art Exhibition

The biggest news this week among  photographers must be announcement of D800 by Nikon. Although I usually do not pay attention to new products, this time I read an article from truly beginning to the end. Now I really want this 36 megapixel camera. But wait a minute… think about what I CANNOT do with my rangefinder camera. Do I need auto focus? IF I start wedding or event  photography, I may need autofocus …or I can do a job with a rangefinder camera. I don’t know at this point. I know dynamic range of my camera is not as wide as current Nikon or Canon DSLRs. But can I overcome the limitation by some photographic techniques?…yes, I can. I use HDR, flash and grad filters even though they are really difficult to use with rangefinder cameras. Unless I become an aerial photographer or a sports photographer, the narrow dynamic range is not a problem. I found that catalog specifications tend to go out by themselves and photographers (especially male) are easily tricked by those numbers. But I believe knowing limitations of the camera comes first. When photographic expressions expand, I need  to think about new system. I guess this right way to go. (Well, still I want D800E. Used Nikon PC 85mm has been in a showcase at the Camera store…Devil’s whisper)

Actually, I am not supposed to write about such a thing. I should talk about my fellow photographer, Jeff Cruz. He will h ave one-man exhibition at Resolution Local Art Gallery in Calgary, AB from February 14th to March 4th. The special about this show is all images are taken by iPhone. “The best camera is the one in your hand”; achieving creative works with whatever camera you have now. It does not need to be D700 or 5D mark II. Jeff is going to prove it.

When I met Jeff first time was at Stampede Western Photo galeery 2011. Although he is a professional commercial and editorial photographer, he exhibited beautiful landscapes at the Stampede show. Actually, He started taking pictures with plastic toy camera from a Bazooka Joe gum wrapper, so iPhone may have been already part of his DNA. Anyway, the opening reception of Jeff Cruz’s Instant art show will be Feb 17th Thursday from 5pm. I am going to see this nice guy as well as great photographer.

Play with shadow

At a location photo-session, I found the interesting wall decorated with some English writing  Beyond the SHADOW of a doubt, I had to use the wall. As I mentioned before, I almost always set a concept before starting shooting. This time I tried to play with shadow. Well… Idea was good but it took long time to figure out the lighting set-up to create the shadow effectively. I had to ask Janet to keep posing for long time. I wish I had an assistant.

Please click on the photos for larger images

While I was post-processing, I found this image looked like a music album cover, so I cropped to squire format.

The model was fabulous Janet Tran from Calgary.