Photo of the Week

You probably recognize this family by now. They not only appear in my portfolio on a regular basis, they're also my best clients. The image was shot at 1/1000 @ 400iso. In Photoshop I adjusted the color and levels to my liking, add a great brick wall, a cute couple and an adorable toddler... and you have the photo of the week.

Photo of the Week

I'm a slacker, I know. It's been kinda crazy at the photo lab.
For this week, the photo is one of my personal favorites. It's simple and beautiful.

Photo of the Week

I'm sorry, I haven't posted a photo for a couple of weeks now. So here is one I shot just this evening. Tonight I had the opportunity to shoot James & Karen! It always makes my job easy to shoot such fun people. I'll try to post some photos from their session a little later, so check back for that. Until then... enjoy!

Photo of the Week

Photo of the Week

Photo of the Week

Shontelle and Eric's Wedding

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to shoot one of the funnest weddings in the last little while (not to mention one of the funnest couples, too). Their wedding was at the Jordan River Temple, and to be honest I was kinda worried about shooting there. That particular location, in my opinion, isn't as fun to shoot as say.... Mt. Timpanogos Temple or the Salt Lake Temple, but I think I got some great shots! And it wasn't nearly as crowded. Actually, We were the only wedding party there. It was great!

Photo of the Week

In the above image (and in some of the below images) you'll notice I've figured out to make my images post larger on the blog. =) For that I can thank my friend Mike for the assistance. Anyway, the above image was shot the day after Independence Day and beleive it or not... that's their backyard!

State Photo Contest - I need your help!

I'm having trouble trying to decide which photo to enter in the state photo contest, under the wedding category. To the right I have a poll. Please, please take the time to vote and let me know which one you like better... the color portrait or the sepia portrait.

Photo of the Week

I know, I know... I just posted a photo of the week yesterday. Well technically today is a new week, so we get a new photo. I recently had a client request that I send a few images of their wedding via email so they can have some images to show at their 2nd wedding reception... in Singapore! Anyway, while I was going through their images, I came across a few that I nearly forgot about. It's always nice to take a trip back into a photo album and see one that makes you say "Wow!". With the above image, that's what we have. An image that I almost forgot about that's worth sharing. The image was shot at 18mm, 1/500 @ f3.5 and at 200iso. Of course in Photoshop I adjusted the levels and color to my liking, add a happy newlywed couple and you have a portrait worth sharing.

Photo of the Week

Last week, before I left for the IPI conference in Vegas, I took some portraits of one of the funnest families. It's always a fun time when there's several children under the age of five. Anyway, I won't bore you with how the image was captured or how it was adjusted. I'll just let you enjoy a nice portrait of a nice family.

Sunset

This evening I attended my family reunion. It was held at my Aunt and Uncle's house, they have a wonderful view of the west half of the valley. The sunset this eveing was especially nice, and I just so happened to have my camera gear with me... I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

Provo Canyon Fire

I took a few photos of the fire near Bridal Veil Falls. Here are a couple of them, enjoy!

Photo of the Week

This morning I had the opportunity to shoot something a little different, something that wasn't too posed, something a little more candid. The above image was shot at f4.0 @ 1/350 at 200iso. In photoshop I adjusted the color and levels to my liking. (If I remember correctly, the psd file of this image has nine or ten layers. I do all my photoshop work from scratch, I don't rely on any online purchased actions that do the work for you.) Anyway, one great exposure + a little ps work + one adorable toddler with an over sized lolly pop = The Photo of the Week

Ashlee's Bridal Session

About a week ago we shot Ashlee's bridals at Thanksgiving Point. My wonderful assistant, Lindsay, was unable to help this time... so luckily Ashlee's sister was there so I was able to put her to work =) Due to unforeseen circumstances we couldn't start shooting until about 7:30. That's about a full hour later than I would like to shoot. By the time we fired up the camera and started shooting we were in a race against the sun. We were running out of light, fast. Good thing Ashlee's a good sport, she was able so keep up and pose like a champ.

Photo of the Week

I know, I've been slacking a bit with the featured photo each week. But I've been busy shooting and catching up on photoshop work. So I think I have a good enough excuse :)

In the above image we have an oldie but a goodie. The couple are my favorite clients, the baby is one of my favorite subjects to shoot. If you snoop around http://www.devinpeircephotography.com/ you may find a few photos of them posted on there. This image was shot about one year ago in their friends backyard off of Carterville Rd.

I won't bore you with how the image was captured, I'll just let you all enjoy a sharp looking portrait of a beautiful family.

Photo of the Week

Why is this image the photo of the week? This week I felt like displaying my take on a traditional portrait. In the above image we have a young lady I shot in the studio last week. The image was captured at f11, 1/125 and iso 200. I use my main light just to her left about 4ft away, the fill at 1/3rd power about 8ft away, a back light on the wall set at minimal power and two hair lights, one about 2ft away behind and one about 2ft above. In photoshop I adjusted the levels and color to my liking and that's it.

Photo of the Week

For the photo of the week for the last week of June, I've decided to pull out something a little different. In the above image we have a lovely field of grass/wheat. It was shot last August when I took a trip to St. Anthony, Idaho. I decided to take a drive over to Wyoming to shoot the Tetons, I was feeling a bit lazy so I shot the Tetons from the west side(not the traditional east side). Anyway, I was waiting and waiting for just the right light, when I turned around and saw a breath taking, visually pleasing view. I just love how it's a sea of grass, there's really no center of focus. You're eyes just drift into the sunset. In photoshop I adjusted the lighting and color to my liking, added the frame look (which I think helps complete the image), and there ya go! I've debated for a while if that tractor in the far right is distracting or not. Maybe you can give me some input concerning that.

New Photo of the Week

I've noticed that I'm not blogging as much as I should. So to catch up I'm going to post my favorite image from which ever photo shoot I have in the upcoming weeks... and maybe talk a bit about how the image was captured. In the above image we have Annie. Obviously we shot her bridals at Thanksgiving Point. I posed her with the back of her dress towards the camera and her arms posed behind her back. The wind was actually kicking up a bit, so it was a bit difficult at times to keep her dress in place. My assistant Lindsay was just to the bride's left with the trusty reflector and I adjusted the white balance in the camera to give the exposure a slightly warmer look. In photoshop I adjusted the color and levels to my liking. Also, I added a very small amount of sepia to the overall image to help complete the warm look I was going for.

Finally! A chance to use the spotlight!

Some time ago I purchased a 3 million candle power spot light to use in a technique I've been wanting to try for a while. Last week I finally got the chance. Now there are a few different ways to use this spotlight technique, I just used the straight on approach.

In the above image we have Jordan. The shot was taken just as the sun was going down. My assistant was standing about 30ft. back holding the spotlight. It was a fairly cold night, so Jordan appreciated the warm spotlight focused on him the whole time. In photoshop I adjusted the levels and color to my liking, and of course a little blue steel... and there you go! Hopefully sometime in the near future I'll have some more opportunities to try some different techniques with the spotlight.

Win Susan Nelson

It's time to take a break from photography and focus on a worthwhile cause. If you visit Elden Nelson's blog http://www.fatcyclist.com/ you can learn about his wife, Susan, who is battling cancer. I urge you to read that blog! And afterwards, if you feel so inclined, you can donate to help the Nelson Family at http://www.kennysphoto.com/susan
Or you can click on the Donate link below.

Something a little different.

The other day I had the opportunity to shoot a young gentleman named Fekky and his friend, Bright. They showed me some photos on P. Diddy's and Usher's websites and asked me to shoot similar photographs.

I must say, this was one of the funnest shoots I've done in a long time! Fekky and Bright were very easy to work with, they photographed well, and just made it an overall fun time. In the photograph to the right I decided to shoot using only one light (normally I use up to four lights on a white background). You can see the strobe in Bright's sunglasses. I've decided not to photoshop that light out... I kinda like it.

In the Photograph to the left we have Fekky in probably one of the greatest alleyways I've found yet.

It's rustic, dirty...but cool, great brick walls and just a lot of character. I love how this shot isn't just a shot of Fekky, it's a shot of the alleyway with Fekky in it (if that makes any sense). In photoshop I adjusted the levels and color to my liking, added a little diffused glow, just a little bit of blue steel and there you go. (FYI: I've mentioned "Blue Steel" in a few of my posts. If you don't know what that is, go rent Zoolander.)

Fekky and Bright are aspiring Hip Hop/Rap artists. You can visit myspace and just do a search for "Fekkylala" and you'll find his site. Now Hip Hop/Rap is not my favorite stuff, but Fekky really has some catchy rhymes.

I'm planning on updating my website soon, so I'll include a few more shots from the sitting with Fekky and Bright. Or when Fekky releases his next album you can check out some of my photos on the album cover. =)

Rediscovering old negatives.

My older sister, Tawni, asked me to print off some of my temple prints for her to hand out. While compiling my old temple prints, I came accross an old negative of the Timpanogos temple I shot in November of 2004. I've been so caught up with digital photography, digitally archiving my images and what not... that I've almost forgot about some of my old negatives. ahh... do you remember film? I kinda miss it. I feel I've lost some patience when shooting because of the digital revolution. With digital you can shoot whatever, photoshop it, and boom... there you go! With film you had to be patient with what you were shooting, wait for just the right surroundings, process your film and what you got is what you got. With digital cameras every soccor mom is a photographer, but with film... it was an art. You had to spend time with it and you had to know what you're doing. So I thought I'd share one of my old temple portraits shot on good old fashioned Fuji Reala 100iso.

A Portion of my Portfolio! Enjoy!

Taking advantage of Photoshop

I think it's only fair that I share a before and after example from photoshop. In this portrait I shot Cindy. Cindy has got to be one of the funnest people I've ever taken a portrait for! She's extremely photogenic, has a great smile, and was just comfortable in front of the camera.

I'll let you view for yourselves and see if you can spot all the photoshop enhancements. One of my favorite tools in photoshop is curves. If you haven't played with curves at all, I recommend you play around with it. I believe there is no right or wrong way to play with curves, or photoshop for example. To me, photoshop is an artists' tool. Anyway, if you're working on a pc, curves can be found by clicking "Image", "Adjustments", and "Curves". Or just by pressing ctrl-m. In the above portrait of Cindy I used curves to adjust levels and add contrast. Of course I cloned out the reflector my assistant Lindsay was holding. You can see it poking into the frame on the original image. I used the healing brush tool and the clone tool to take care of some stray hairs and a couple unwanted items in the background. Also I created a separate levels layer and brightened her eyes, teeth and hair. To be honest, their are so many little photoshop tricks used in this shot that to explain them all will make this blog even more boring than it already is. So if there are any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Shooting in the shade

This is titled "Shooting in the shade", what I mean by that is shooting in low sunlight. There is a difference between shooting in a shaded area surrounded by sunlight and shooting in an area that is completely in the shade. i.e. shooting in alley-ways, in front of big buildings, or right before the sun rises in the morning. (you get the idea, right?) Both of these shots were shot on May 12, 2007 at about 6:45pm. The exposures used were both about f5.6 @ 60th and at ISO 400. Both shots I had my assistant, Lindsay. Lindsay's main job is to help eliminate shadows by using a 42" Pink/Silver reflector (my choice for fill light when shooting outdoors). I try to refrain from using a fill flash, in my opinion it just doesn't look natural. In the shot to the right I have the subject posed with her left heel resting on her right foot. That gives a nice sassy pop to here legs and hips. I always enjoy having the subject hang their hands or thumb on their pocket or belt loop. Sometimes resting the hand on a hip doesn't quite do it. Then I had her tilt her head just a touch and a little blue steel, and there you go. The shot to the left I had Lindsay hold the reflector only about 2 ft. away. I had the subject, Katie, pose herself. It is always so fun to find someone to shoot that reacts well to the camera. I loved shooting Katie because she has a New York model look to her, and she poses like one.
In photoshop I adjusted to levels and color to my liking, and there you go! If there are any questions or any requests for future posts, please let me know.

Portrait in Black

This Portrait was shot at f11 @ 125th and ISO 200 (My standard setting in the studio). I began with the main light about 5ft off of her left shoulder, and the fill light way back about 8-10ft away.

There is also a back light set on a minimal setting about 3ft high and about 4ft behind her. That helps separate her from the black void. Also, there is a hair light up above her about 3ft set on a minimal setting. She is posed with her right foot away from me and her left foot pointed to my left. I had her twist at the waist and stretched her right shoulder forward just a touch, and a little tilt of the head and a little bit of blue steel... and there you go.

In photoshop I began with adjusting the levels to my liking, a little diffused glow to give that "dreamy" look, and a touch of vignette to help complete the black/dark look, and that's it.

I will try to add photos to my blog as I shoot them and explain how it was shot in the future. But for now I'll just add some photos that were shot over the course of last year.