Portraits
Just finished up editing my first shoot of 2018. This is another fashion shoot for a friend of mine. We set out to make a few images of three different outfits. The weather was not the best but overcast days usually provide the most flattering light!
We shot in one of the arts district of Louisville, Nulu.
All these images were shot on a Canon 5D Mark III and Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art lens. Color grading was done in Capture One Pro. Below is a gallery of my top picks.
Fashion photography has always been that genre that has always intrigued me but never one I followed or pursued. My main focus right now in my career has been storytelling through images. My friend Jesse texted me the other day about wanting to get into male modeling and creating a little portfolio/lookbook of images to shop around to different agencies. I took this as an opportunity to dive in and push my photography.
We shot in downtown Louisville on a parking garage roof and then down on Main street. I used all natural light and we started right around the beginning of golden hour
We went through several outfits that played very nicely with the light and textures around the city. All these images were shot on a Canon 5D Mark III and Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art lens. Color grading was done in Photoshop. Below is the rest of the images.
Liz Richter along with her best friend Bri Bowers, and local artists Michelle Montgomery, and Zara Goldbrg just finished this beautiful mural down in the Nulu District of Louisville on the corner of Market and Clay St. Louisville Visual Arts (LVA) coordinated the project for the new implementation of Google Fiber into the city. The project is being sponsored by Google Fiber.
"The mural is all Kentucky wildflowers that grow in this region. Each one was chosen not just for the shapes but with symbolic meanings as well. Woven throughout the mural are the themes of independent business and free thinking. Mint represents hospitality, Goldenrod is the state flower and represents good fortune. It is also a nod to Thomas Edison, who experimented with goldenrod (his historic home in Louisville is only blocks away). The blue at the bottom (bluegrass) represents connectivity and is Google Fiber blue. The largest plant is milkweed, which I chose as a symbol for Nulu. Milkweed is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. All milkweeds are perennials, meaning they survive for more than two years. They can grow in harsh conditions and have far-reaching impact through the scattered seeds. Technically a weed, their beauty is strange and exotic. A few more plants: Black-eyed Susan's represent encouragement/motivation; the purple coneflower represents strength. The wildflower design was partially inspired by the lyrics to Tom Petty's song, You Belong Among the Wildflowers/You Belong Somewhere You Feel Free. Ironically I was listening to it while painting my proposal the night before he died (I had no idea)! So it's kind of become my tribute to him as well" - Liz Richter
Myself and other creatives are very excited about Google Fiber bringing faster and more affordable internet speeds to the city. After hearing about this project for Google Fiber and seeing some images on Liz's Instagram page I knew I wanted to include her in my project. With the vibrant colors of her mural as a backdrop, we did a couple portraits of her and then several "in-action" shots as she put some final touches and lettering on the piece. Below are all the photos in a slideshow, please enjoy and see all of Liz's work here: lizrichterart.com
For photo nerds, like myself, all images were taken with:
This one is definitely a little late, but each month this year I'm going to try and give a brief update as to some of the projects I've done each month. January was a crazy one. I was coming out of a slow month of work (the holiday's always slow things down). The month started out with an instagram connection to local filmaker, Mike Vance (Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/mikevance).
Next, was a shoot I did of one of my wife's friends. Her name is Neema, and she is a refugee from the Congo. You can read her story here: Neema. I did this and Mike's shoot right after I got my first canvas backdrop. I loved the tones and feel of it.
This next shoot was one for TOPs Magazine. This is a portrait of Renee Murphy. She is a news anchor here in Louisville for WHAS news. She was as nice in person as she is on TV!
Next up was a concept shoot I did with my friends new Subaru STI. We wanted to capture some images that look like they could have been used in an advertisement. I love the look and feel of this image. This one shot took about 1 hour to shoot and 2+ hours to edit. I light painted with a Phottix Indra strobe and stacked the photos in Photoshop. I think the PSD (Photoshop file type) was over 3GBs.
This was another shoot I did for TOPs. It is of "Super Mom" Chesson Hazelwood. Read the story here: http://www.topslouisville.com/Read/8939/Supermom%3A+Chesson+Hazelwood
This next shoot is for my friend's new company, Spartan. He is making awesome lid organizers and lid organizer mounting plates for Pelican 1510 and 1535 cases. I couldn't just have one photo because this product is awesome and I give it my highest recommendation. Seriously check it out!
This was one of my favorite shoots. I wanted to challenge myself with lighting and I normally shoot with artificial light. This was all natural window light. I had a scrim up on camera right to diffuse the light even more. This was shot for the Voice Tribune's food issue. The restaurant featured here was the 502 Bar and Bistro.
Close to the end of the month now, I connected with local artist Mallory Mesiner. She makes lots of awesome drawings and paintings and does custom portraits! We did a few photos and a short promo video!
Last, but not least, we did a part 2 of my friends Subaru STI. This time the focus was one the car's details. I had to include a couple photos here cause this thing was a beast.
Last week I had an opportunity to photograph Mike Vance. Mike is a cinematographer based out of Louisville. You can check out his work here. We did three different looks. My setup was pretty simple:
One Phottix Indra500 through a Photek 47in Softlighter v2 (camera right) with a reflector on the left.
Camera Gear:
All retouching and color grading for this shoot was done in Capture One. Here were my favorite photos from the session.
