It’s called forgetful photographer disorder. It’s a thing I made up to explain why I sometimes schedule a fun shoot with people and then never share the images. (likely to do with wedding work always taking priority hehe). Here’s an image I found from a few years back that’s pretty great! I was trying to break into the product photography scene and had these cool headphones (which I still own!) and wanted to shoot photos of them. Enjoy!
Not All Shoots Go As Planned
So here’s the thing, not every shoot goes as planned. Shocking news am I right!? The day of Amanda and Steve’s shoot started out with me finding out that my car had been towed. Super fun times there. It wasn’t supposed to be towed, because I had the parking sticker, but it was the old sticker before they updated. I was told it would be fine, and there was no need to update. However, I guess the towing company had some different plans for me.
After I retrieved my car, I run back home and pack my gear. Only then do I realize that I don’t have my camera charger. It was probably lost at the wedding I had shot the weekend before, but I hadn’t realized because I have plenty of batteries and was just swapping them all out. Well, of course, every battery I owned was now completely dead. So I set out to a Best Buy to purchase a new charger. I worked at Best Buy back in the day, so I knew they carried chargers. Well I guess between when I worked at Best Buy, and now, they have gutted their camera departments. I spent two hours driving between different stores looking for any kind of camera charger. Finally, the third Best Buy in the area had one left in stock (and they’ll likely just not buy any more now).
So that struggle was out of the way, but now I was running super late and was worried about rush hour traffic, because the shoot was located about 3 hour drive away. I called Amanda, and wow she was so understanding. She had every right to be upset, yet, was very calm and encouraged me to just get there safely and we would figure everything out. So, yes, while traffic turned it into a 4 hour drive, I was determined to get some good photos with our short time together!
And, wow, did we ever! We only had time for about an hour of shooting in one location, but the photos just turned out so good. She had the excellent idea of shooting on a pedestrian bridge in Dallas. I’ll shut up and get to the photos. I was just blown away with how so many things could go wrong and yet still end up with some excellent shots!
Card 53
Some really cool dudes recently asked me to help them out with a promotional photo shoot. They are part of a group called Card53. They are a local improv group that has been touring for 7+ years and I have personally seen their show a few times. They are phenomenal.
So naturally I was very excited at the idea of shooting for these dudes. We managed to secure a shooting location at Liberty Theater. We did plan to shoot some photos outside as well, but unfortunately the weather in East Texas decided not to cooperate, so we were forced to move the entire shoot indoors. These guys were mega cool with the whole procedure and it was likely the funniest shoot I've ever participated in. Who would have thought that an improv group would be funny and able to banter properly.
Anyway, here are some of the photos from the shoot! Please also take a moment to check out Card 53 and Liberty Theater.
Still Alive!
Hello website visitor! I don't write in my blog here as often as I should, but I'm super duper still out there shooting photos with that camera thingy I own. Things in my life have been changing pretty rapidly (graduation, new relationships, possibly moving to a new city... etc) but my focus is still very much on photography! I will definitely try to write in this blog about once per week from now on if possible, even if it's just a single image or a small update or something!
Hope your life is going super awesome and I look forward to us speaking!
A photo I snapped of my girlfriend before we were even dating =D
Kittens!
Those of you who know me, also know that I'm a student of chemistry at the University of Texas at Tyler. While I love school, it does cause me to be a bit busier than most people, so things like keeping this blog up to date kind of fall on the back burner. I'm far more active on instagram though, so feel free to check that out and follow me there! But I'm going to try and be better about coming back to this blog and update. Eventually one day when I can focus on photography full time, I want this blog to also be a place for aspiring photographers to come and learn!
But anyway, I just want to show people out there I'm still active and being a photographer person!
I was out shooting engagement photos with some clients and saw a cat. I love cats. But then when I got closer, I saw KITTENS! They all ran away under a building, but one of them was brave enough to stay close to the edge of the building and let me grab a quick snap of it!
So CUTE! I love animals.... sorry not sorry.
Anyway, that's all for now!
Dallas Trip
Believe it or not, I sometimes do shoot photos that aren't wedding related! Haha! But for real, I took Emma (my SO) to Dallas to go the aquarium and to go shopping, and I figured I'd like to share those photos on here! I didn't shoot a ton of photos because I try not to get too sucked into just the photography and rather enjoy myself! ENJOY!
Emma helping to open up the Disney store!
That manatee was just eating the entire time, so the moment it stopped I snapped this quickly!
This penguin would literally not stop cleaning itself, so I just grabbed a photo anyway.
This is definitley my favorite photo of the entire day!
I didn't intend for this photo to be anything special, but for some reason it looked awesome enough to keep!
At the end of our trip!
Merry Margaret
Sorry it's been so long since my last post! I just recently began taking classes at UTTyler and this semester was pretty killer! After writing reports practically every week, it left me with very little energy/motivation to write blog posts!
Anyway, I recently finished a shoot with my good friend MerryMargaret and the results turned out pretty sweet! But this shoot wasn't without its challenges.
First of all, the shoot was supposed to take place during the day in the sunlight. Well unfortunately, with both of our busy schedules we have to plan way ahead of time. And the weather that day was very muggy and awful. As a result, we decided to just shoot some photos inside of the apartment.
So, during the shoot, I decided that it would be cool to incorporate some fog into the photos. Well, as you know, fog is basically the same thing as smoke, and there are certain devices located within homes that are designed to alert you when there is too much smoke in the house. And, in some apartments, these devices are linked to the entire building so everyone can be alerted that there is a problem.
Well, as you can guess, the fog in my apartment set off the alarm for the entire building and I had to contact the fire department to have them reset it. It was funny, but also super embarrassing. Luckily MerryMargaret was super cool with what was happening and we were able to finish up the shoot. I'm still working on the rest of them, but here are the first three photos!
BSCENE August 2015 Cover
Pursuing Eden
Over the past 5 months, I've had the amazing pleasure of shooting photos for BSCENE Magazine. I'm endlessly thankful for the people I've met and the experience I've gained shooting for them.
My most recent pleasure was getting to meet Kristal Childs and peeking around the inner workings of her business. Pursuing Eden is in the business of selling/renting vintage items for brides to decorate their weddings. As you probably know (and if you don't, you may want to sit down for this), but I shoot lots of weddings. So it was fun to see the inner workings of what make weddings so beautiful. I always tell brides that the only thing they get to walk away with at a wedding is the photos, and the best way to make your photos look their best is good decorating skills (aside from hiring the best photographer in town.... *cough*...)
They had rooms upon rooms full of decorations to help your dream wedding come to life. So anyway, I had a lot of fun speaking with Kristal and shooting the photos. Her business is awesome and so is she. She definitely deserves to be on the cover. Okay, enough talking and I'll get to the photos we shot that day!
BSCENE May 2015 Fashion Shoot
I'm fully aware that May is almost over, but I have been extremely busy and unable to write about the May shoot for BSCENE until recently. Busy with tons of engagement, wedding, and bridal, and senior shoots. I'm extremely grateful for each and every opportunity.
But, I had the pleasure of being asked to shoot another fashion shoot for BSCENE last month, and even though the weather wasn't perfect, we were able to make everything work! Okay, I won't say much more and I'll just get to the photos! Click here to check out the digital issue of BSCENE.
Phlearn Contest
Wow... just wow.
So there I was... I had just finished editing a wedding and was waiting for it to finish exporting. I decide to check youtube for a minute and see if any of my favorite channels uploaded anything new. I usually only do this once per week and then just binge watch everything. Well, what do you know, phlearn is one of the channels that has a new video.
For those of you who don't know, phlearn is a website that runs a youtube channel full of free photoshop tutorials. All of the videos feature a guy named Aaron Nace, and he's a crazy awesome photographer and an even better retoucher. The free tutorials he creates are usually very short, but extremely informative. I've been watching his videos for a few years now and about 99% of my photoshop knowledge has come from him.
Well the website hosts a monthly competition that is free to join and you can submit any photo you'd like that matches the theme of the competition. I've entered a few times in the past, but these contests are extremely popular (typically 1000+ photographers enter) and every month the photos that make the top 15 are jawdropping. So I never really expect to place, but I think it's fun to enter.
Well back to me checking phlearn's channel, I see the new video is the results from the contest. I always enjoy these videos because I like to view the photos and motivate myself to create work that is as good as their work. Well about 5 minutes into the video... a very familiar photo popped up onto the video.
I have never actually unintentionally passed out before, but this I think I came pretty close. Here is the guy who is pretty much my photography hero, and he is talking about a photo I shot... and he is telling me everything that he likes about it. My goodness... it still feels like a dream. *pinches self*
So yeah, out of over 1500 images, I was in the top 15 (that's the top 1% for your math geeks out there) and I couldn't be much happier (except if I had won). I just can't believe that a year and a half after I started this photography business that I'm shooting magazine covers and placing in a worldwide photography competition.
I'm super honored to have placed in this competition, and it certainly won't be the last time I enter this contest. I won't stop until I win! Check out the video below if you'd like to watch it, there are lots of great photos in there! Also if you're a photographer, be sure to check out phlearn's youtube channel and website. There is tons of good information on both of those pages for you to learn how to edit properly!
BSCENE Fashion Shoot
This is going to be a really short blog entry, because I'm about to run out of the door as soon as I'm done typing this (I also won't be proofreading, so I apologize in advance for any grammar/spelling mistakes). But I really wanted to show off these photos badly.
If you talk to anyone I know, they will tell you that my dream one day is to shoot fashion for magazines and do more commercial work. Well I got a small taste of it for the last issue of BSCENE and it was AWESOME.
The only problem was that my model, Kelsi Orms, was as equally as inexperienced as I was! So you had a photographer trying to figure out the best way to take fashion photos, and a model trying to figure out how to be a fashion model. So knowing that, you may be able to see how the first few photos are a bit awkward.
But as the shoot went on, everything got 1000% easier and we both loosened up and got some great shots. She was a delight to work with and we may be shooting some senior photos pretty soon, so stay tuned for that! Okay, enjoy the photos! And be sure to check out the digital issue of this BSCENE magazine here!
BSCENE Cover
About three months after I started this photography business, I shot some photos for a local play that ended up in a local magazine called BSCENE. I was so excited that photos I shot were being printed in a magazine that I went straight to my website, created a blog section, and immediately wrote about it (though that website is no longer with us, so that particular blog entry is gone!). Even though the two photos that ended up in the magazine were only about the size of a wallet photo, I was so very proud.
Back then, if you had told me that I'd be shooting the cover of the same magazine about a year later, I would have declared you the mayor of crazy town. But this month I shot the cover story and a fashion shoot (I will write about the fashion shoot in a future blog entry, but if you can't wait to see them, check them out in the BSCENE digital issue).
It may not be the best photo I've ever shot, but shooting this month's cover of BSCENE is an honor for more than just having my photo on the cover. It's an achievement. It is one step closer to the photographers who I look up to the most. It is one step closer to being the photographer I want to be one day. I'm excited for what lies ahead.
So instead of talking about myself the entire time, I feel like I should tell you to read the article and support these two people on their journey. The work they do with these puppies is super important! Until next time everyone!
Jade Mayfield
The Levitation Photo
If you know me, then you definitely know that I'm a major show off. I like to think I don't just immediately start talking about my photography, but whenever someone else mentions it, then I can't shut up.
Well, when I show off my work, everyone always stops me on the levitation photos and asks "WHOA, how'd you do that?" Well, it's been asked enough times that I feel that it's time to write a blog post about it!
The Shoot
Okay, so the first step was to pick a location. I had only shot at this location once before, like 7 years before. So Jade had to deal with me trying to remember where it was the day of the shoot (bless her for her patience), but eventually we found it and made out way back there.
After we found the location, then it was time to set up the shot. I picked an angle and placed the chair and then asked Jade to lay back on the chair.
No, I was not playing with my phone while on this shoot. I was triggering the camera shutter with my phone (yay technology), and that's why I look all silly in the above photo! In the photos below, you can see how I was flipping up the dress and shooting the photo at the same time. I didn't care that I was going to be in the shot, as it would be very easy to remove myself in post.
Okay, so the dress had been flipped up, but that wasn't enough. Her hair needed to be flipped up to complete the illusion that she was floating. The reason I knew this was that I have shot a levitation photo before, and forgetting to flip the hair up always bothered me.
There's one for the bloopers
It looks like she's trying to take a really uncomfortable nap and that I'm trying to sneak up on her
So we finished taking the photos we needed, which only took about 10 minutes. Then I needed to grab a quick photo with nothing at all, to help me remove things in post. I shoot this photo last, because I want the lighting to match the rest of the photos. If I shot this photo before all of the rest, then more time would have passed between them because I spent about 20 minutes setting everything else up and practicing... if that even makes sense.
Photoshop
Finally, the editing. To me, editing is the second most important part of photography, second only to proper lighting. Coincidentally, it is also where photographers spend 97% of their time... so when you question why they charge so much... now you know. Anyway, I'll explain each step.
First time, was importing all of the different photos and aligning the layers, because the camera moved every so slightly during the shoot.
Next step was to combine the images that I liked, the hand, the hair, and the dress flip, into one photo.
Then, I removed any traces of me and my shadows, and then the chair.
Here I raised the tree-line in the back (you probably didn't even notice did you?) and then I added a lens flare.
Finally some curves, levels adjustments, sharpening and voila!
The Result
So there you have it! Now you all know exactly how I shot this photo, and I can link someone to this blog entry if they ask me in the future! Anyway, a huge thanks to Jade for being patient with me while I flipped her hair and clothes all over the place! Here is her facebook page, be sure to check it out and hit the like button!