Carol in the Woods

I'm Back!  I've been offline for a while dealing with a family crisis that is now, thankfully, mostly behind us.  Today we ventured out into the woods and did a photo shoot today with Carol.  Carol was a real trooper.  She held some painful poses leaning against tree bark, sidestepped poison ivy and traversed muddy creeks just to get the shots we wanted.  Thanks to my friend Steve Wampler for assisting on this shoot (and letting use some of his equipment).

For this shot, we used a 30" gridded Beauty Dish on an Alien Bee 800 strobe directly overhead and in front of the camera, just out of the frame.  We also set up a scrim high and camera-right to kill the direct sunlight off of Carol's head and shoulders.  

Photograph ©2012 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

I had great rapport with Carol and have already scheduled our next shoot.  

Not Freudian At All

Sometimes a train is just a train.  ;-)  I love their pose, their expresions, the way he's holding her, the chains that seem to be wrapped around them and the way the metal grate makes her look like she's wearing fishnet stockings.  

I recently had the fun opportunity to photograph my friends Jake and Ashli.  They're getting married next month and I wish the the best in their lives together.  They wanted to do a 60s era spy themed shoot at the Austin Steam Train Association.  Jake booked for us to have access to the facitilty during off hours so we could have the run of the place to set up shots and not be in the way or be in others' way.  We worked really fast and did about a half dozen different sets on about two hours time.  I could not have worked that fast without the outstanding assistance and input of fellow photographers Steve Wampler and Mike Connell--thank you guys!  

I knew when I got to the location that this was a shot I was going to have to make.  It was taken near the end of the shoot.  The sun is setting behind me as you can tell by the glow in the train's windshields.  I stood between the rails (like you're not supposed to) to get the shot.  Steve held up an Alien Bee strobe with battery pack in a "softbox umbrella" on the end of a boom way up over his head camera right. The rig was triggered remotely via PocketWizards.  

Photograph ©2012 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

Jewellianna

Dancers are some of my favorite photographic subjects.  Having attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, I gained an appreciation for dancers early in life.  You could always tell the dancers in school by the way they carried themselves when they walked into a room.  

I recently had the privilege of photographing Jewellianna.  She needed some images for an upcoming audition, so I set up an impromptu studio space in my family room using a large roll of grey seamless paper.  

Photograph ©2012 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

I used a 2400 Watt/second Speedotron pack and two heads.  I set one up in a 5' octobank softbox with a grid camera left to serve as the main light.  On the other head I used a small 7" reflector and a narrow grid placed camera right, behind the subject, to serve as an edge light (notice the side of her head and neck).  I also used a Nikon SB-600 speedlight, camera right, near the camera to serve as fill.  Both the Nikon Speedlight and the Speedotron pack were triggered wirelessly via PocketWizards.  

See other images of dancers on this blog.

National Portrait Gallery

I've been looking back over the images I created in 2011.  It was a great year of travel for me.  Here are some images from the National Portrait Gallery in London.  There were lots of "frame-within-a-frame" image opportunities here.

Love this pink in this blue room.

Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

Warm tungsten light on the left with cool daylight on the right, diagonal lines and vanishing point perspective all caught my eye.

Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

Arches inside a rectangle were interesting.  The warmth of the next room is appealing.

Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

From each room to the next is a change.  It made you want to explore.  This image was a challenge to make as no tripods were allowed.  The alignment is a bit off (I needed to move about an inch to the right).  This image is processed a little more heavily than what is usual for me.  

Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.

Maria

My first photo shoot with the lovely and very tall Maria was practically a disaster.  Not because of her, but rather me.  Between gear I couldn't find, gear that had failed and gear that I just plain forgot to bring, I had no suitable light modifiers available to me on this location shoot.  I had just a bare flash and ambient light to play with, not the optimal way to shoot a model.  I made the best of it and came up with these images--enjoy!.  I'm planning my next shoot with Maria to be in studio. 

Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.Photograph ©2011 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved. Click image to view a larger version.