One thing I really love doing is personal photo shoots for friends. The themes run the gamut from just wandering the city and see what we can create to business head shots and music photos.
In this most recent photo shoot with my friend Rachel, we explored a few different aspects of her life. First we focused on getting a few shots for her gardening classes and landscaping business – Handmade Gardens
She wanted outdoor, natural-looking photos that had a bit of her personality showing through.
Of course, we needed to start off with getting a good head shot:
Next, we did some full-body shots out in the garden like the one below:
Next, we moved on to Rachel as a musician. Rachel plays mostly protest movement songs and folk music in both English and Spanish and it had been a number of years since I’d photographed her playing. I have much better gear now – including lighting gear. That gave us so many more options.
Lighting gear really does make a big difference.
The north side of Rachel’s house is pretty shaded. In the past, I always had to brighten things in post. Now I can get the right exposure in camera.
Using an off-camera speedlight also allowed us to do some indoor work, getting photos like the one below.
We then went for some creative shots, seeing what we could create.
Here I was also trying out some new gear, this time a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 lens. I’m actually really happy with this little lens. It does great work at a fraction of the price of many of my other lenses.
Interested in scheduling your own personal photo shoot? Maybe you’ve been needing some lifestyle shots for your business or maybe you’d just to be creative and see what we can create?