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 (3) – please participate in an experiment.

I talked about how I progress creative vision through development of one photo last time. Contrarily to the previous post, I occasionally have fully concrete idea before clicking shutter. This image is one of this type of cases.  I found a nice shadow of a tree on the wall of barn while I was hunting locations for the session. I imagined graphic contrast between the dark spooky shadow and beautiful Jillian. Also her shoulder line is straight and squire but this si I wanted rather than typical feminine pose since I imagined strength from her in oppressive mood. But there was problem which was messy ground  with a patch of snow and nasty weeds.  So I got an idea to add some digital effectｓ on the bottom of the frame.

Before asking you a favor, here is my thought. What is a fear artists or even creators worry about? It must be a question, “Will my work be accepted?”. That is proven by many episodes left by novelists, artists, and musicians, like scandalous failure of the Premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913. Or the shortest letter by Victor Hugo.  Although spending hours or even days facing a computer monitor to process one image, there is no guarantee people will like what I have done on the photo. First of all, if client does not like the image, all efforts I made are pointless. Then nothing must be happier, as an artist, than when the image is able to communicate with many people successfully.

Now I need your favor. Please participate in an experiment. I think most of readers here are photographers, but please forget critiquing and imagine your non-photographer in following situations.

1. YOU ARE THE MODEL and my client. I phoned you and let you know your photos are ready. I presented the images below as first time.  Which photo pleases you most? Why?
2. YOU ARE VISITING THE MODEL’S HOME and found these photos hang on the wall in her dining room. Which Image would make you feel WOW? Why?

Did you pick the same photo for these different situations? Or you think your impression may be different from other viewers?

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.

Leya in her attic

Leya Russell is painting artist as well as a photographer. The main purpose of this photo session is some fellow photographers take pictures of her portraits and she can use the photos for her website or Facebook.

When I visited her place, I quickly noticed “this is artist’s home”. Her attic is full of her paintings and drawings. I wanted to do something with her interesting works. So this is the one.

My art by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Even though it is portrait session for Leya but I felt trying something interesting since I am an artist as well. After some conversation with her, I found she still used film so I got an idea using my 4×5 large format camera for portraiture. Can you figure out how this photo was taken?

Related posts:

• Leya on the Peace Bridge taken with old telephoto lens
• Kinetic Portrait?? – Leya Russell on Peace Bridge

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.

 

Couple portrait – a little spice to the photo

One more photo from the couple-portrait session which I talked in my previous blog post. This photo was taken in a little foot-tunnel in a park, and I like this location since I can try many funky photographic ideas. This time I lit the wall of the corrugated tunnel with pink gel. I believe I did not direct them to pose; the couple posed spontaneously. A client said my style was more like a movie director. Yes, I would like my clients to experience to be actors.  I love clients bring up ideas and create images together.

I think this image is completed as it is and I gave this version to them originally. She looks so strong, almost goddess-like, and he is watching over their new baby gently . But when I came back this image after months, I felt I need to spice up the entire image to enhance the impression I got in it. So this is the new version.

Please click the image for larger size. I am very sure my imagination is expanding  both at locations with my camera and at home on my computer, compared to even just one year ago. What I feel so lucky as an artist? It is when people enjoy a photo session and my art brings something to their lives (so satisfied work is not good enough to me).  In fact, I just like people.

By the way, now I am offering campagne. 15% discount for who booked portrait session and wedding by the end of January.  My contact infor is here

Related post: Couple portraits – Now I am posting because…

Couple portraits – Now I am posting because…

Here are some left over from last year. I wanted to post these photos from the photo session for the fabulous couple. I waited to post these images because I re-processed all images at the end of last year since I bought Nik Color Efex and Topaz B&W Effects. Nik Color Efex has changed my processing work flow totally. I was skeptical of using these digital filters since I felt I would alter me to just a switch pressing machine. But after some practices of using Color Efex, I became able to apply effects to meet my processing plans. Then these digital filters are really useful.

By the way, this couple just got new addition to the family. I wish their long happy life.

Please click the images for larger sizes.

Snow White, Jillian

Christmas day in Calgary this year was very cold . It was -22 degree. I had a chance to photograph beautiful Jillian in the end of October. She is not only beautiful but also so natural. Therefore, I would like to avoid edgy, conceptual images which I tend to do for portraits. It was actually challenging for me. Although the day I photographed Jillian was not that cold, I added some snow to his image since I developed this image at holy night.

Wish wonderful 2013 to Jillian, photography friends of mine and everyone.

Please click the image for larger size.