Weekend Warrior

Weekends are by far my favorite time of the week. For me they are a time for adventure, exploration, and fanatical photography formulation. This weekend I was lucky enough to have the chance to visit a concrete plant for a shoot. This definitely brought me out of my comfort zone but I welcomed the challenge.

This shoot was an exciting chance to work with a whole new subject matter that I had not previously touched upon in my art. Although my day job consists of producing product photography, the inorganic shapes I worked with on this particular shoot made me pay particular attention to how they interacted with their environment.

Another thing I don't often work with is black and white. This is an area that I have been pushing myself in recently. A photo can taken a whole different mood or meaning when taken in black and white. This can be a challenge because it's not as simple as slapping a black and white filter onto your image. Anyway, here is the outcome of some of my work from this shoot. A little mix of industrial grunge with a splash of black and white practice.

 

M + J Engagement Shoot

For every shoot I do, I like to learn as much as I can about the person or people I am photographing. This is only natural of course. By understanding your subject you as a photographer are able to gain a bit of insight into their life to better capture their essence and beauty in your image.

As soon as they began to tell me about their relationship I was instantly inspired. Being an active and outdoorsy couple, I could easily relate to their appreciation of nature. When it was mentioned that the two of them loved water, my mind began to race with ideas for possible shots to do. A few locations were recommended to me but a waterfall was a must. I scouted out the different shooting locations before deciding on the perfect spot for them.

But as with all things, the shoot did not go completely as planned. When I arrived, as the sun was rising, I took a quick walk through the park once more to test the lighting in each area. Unfortunately the beautiful waterfall that I specifically picked this particular location for was not currently flowing. The water was very low that day which surprised me because of all the rain we had received that week. It was also a bit of a surprise because I had just been there a few days before when it was flowing perfectly. 

Even with this small setback we as artists must do our best to achieve our vision. I wanted this shoot to go well for this adorable couple so I went to work with what we were given. I am pleased with the outcome even if it wasn’t as I had initially intended it. I believe that this is not only an important part of being an artist but also just as human beings in general. We must learn to go with the flow (no pun intended) and tackle challenges head on.  

Click Here to see the full shoot.