The DecisiveDesign Blog

I know it’s been a while, again… and honestly, while I haven’t been doing a bunch of shooting, I have several things I need to post up – I just haven’t had time while finishing up my degree this summer.

But! I finished this last week and have a few pictures to share of Jess, a great model I met through ModelMayhem. I setup my new black/white backdrop & stand in the garage, borrowed a lighting kit from the school, and we shot for most of a Saturday.

The pics in the gallery below are a sampling, and I think we turned out some cool stuff! I definitely liked the black background and got to spend some time with constant lighting, which is good. My paintball gun and vest, along with my Springfield XD-9 made very cool props! We did some artistic nudes, as well, which I’ve decided should stay on my ModelMayhem profile. They turned out well, and portfolio-worthy, I think, so I’ll chalk that up as another first and a success!

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

 

Ok guys! I know it’s been a little slow lately, but I took a week off for the US MotoGP Races (pics coming soon!) at the Mazda Raceway – Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA, and am now recharged and back in Texas to get rolling again.

These pics have been a long time coming, but I really like how they turned out. If you recall the DFW Supras Dragstrip Event that I posted some pictures about a while back, these pics are from the Dyno Day at MVP Motorsports.

Unfortunately the weather was terrible, and we ended up getting rained on all day. Mel, the owner’s girlfriend, and Yoshi, stopping by on her way to Dallas from Oklahoma, graced us with their beauty for a few shots when the weather wasn’t being ridiculous and we were able to get some pretty good shots.

The black Supra is Mel’s, and I’m not 100% finished adding the MVP logo, etc to the car, but I thought the images were ready for the blog and I really need to update, so enjoy!

Also, please forgive the sort order, for some reason it’s not saving my changes!

 

It’s been tough to organize shoots as of late, with school, work, and some freelance stuff breathing down my neck, but I did manage to get out and accomplish one of the shoots i’ve been wanting to do since I stumbled across the location a few months ago.  If you recall, I found this beautiful old car pretty deep in a local park. It struck me, and from that moment I wanted to do do a shoot with a classy model in that unconventional environment.

I was fortunate enough to work with a great model. Melissa was communicative, punctual, fun to be around, and of course beautiful. We also brought out a new friend of mine, and makeup artist, Alison, to add a little extra beautification, which turned out fantastic. Alison’s husband, John, helped me out with the reflector since Mr. Hawes couldn’t make it out, so it was practically a full on production!

As you’ll see in the gallery below, the place has grown up quite a bit, so we actually had a hard time finding it again.  That was fine by me, however, because we didn’t have to worry about anyone bothering us! It was a very fun shoot; hopefully we can get together with everyone in the future and do something else – something even crazier!

 

• Yeah – you’re going to need that reflector… the big one… and pray for sunlight through those trees.
• Also… if you haven’t visited the location in a month or so… its probably grown up a bit, especially if the seasons have changed!
• You know better than this, but add at least 3 different outfits if shooting in similar locations to diversify the shoot – otherwise you’ve got a lot of images with the same clothing and you don’t really want to use more than a couple in a portfolio or profile, unfortunately

After at least two failed attempts at making a photoshoot happen near the Downtown Dallas intersection of Cockrell & Alma, also known as “Little Baghdad,” I was finally able to pull it off, with the help of a fantastic model.

Alaina, a fellow motorcycle rider and local model, is the first talent that I’ve had the pleasure of working with off ModelMayhem.  I frequently browse through the newest member profiles to see if anyone meshes well with the work I’m planning at the time, and she fit the description.  I shot her a message, and a few weeks later we put the shoot.  My choice to contact her was definitely not a poor one, and I think the shoot was my most successful yet.

Below are the twenty images she chose for retouching, let me know what you think!

 

• Cloudy days shouldn’t necessarily be avoided, great things can happen!
• Wind is as cool as you think it is, you just have to be prepared to snap a lot of pictures – and work on your timing
• Pay more attention to the colors of your surroundings when scouting for locations. The bland tan colors in this location didn’t strengthen the shots, in my opinion.
• PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR ANGLES! Some of these implied nudity shots turned out great, but admittedly they were created by accident – If I had been paying more attention, some even better shots could likely have been captured.

Seeing as Texas winters don’t exactly offer the best options for outdoor, natural light photography, I began looking for an indoor location to rent when it started getting cooler in the Fall. Randomly, I came across a craigslist add for Zofaa Photo Studios and inquired.

The studio is located in Irving, off of 183 & Beltline, charges $25/hr for use of the facilities, lights, backdrops, and a few props, and is run by a gentleman by the name of Uyi Abraham.  The price and equipment is great for someone just getting into the industry, such as myself, and Abraham let me come in an hour early to play with the gear, setup, and get a feel for the place.

My model, Samantha, whom I met while shooting my Downtown Dallas: Growing Towards the Future project, is a Hooters waitress and aspiring actress/model. She’s done a few films and is really looking to become more of a presence in that scene. This was her first real photoshoot, so we did some experimentation and had a lot of fun. She got out of her element a bit, and we took some really great pictures.  

This was my first time to really work with any external lighting equipment, so figuring out the remote flash, strobe sensitivities, angles, and distances to the subject was all handled by the exact science of “winging it.”  There are definitely several things to work on in the lighting department, including testing out some higher power instruments to see if that makes things easier, but I learned a lot (see lessons learned below) and should have much better luck in the future. 

Below are some of the best business-casual shots that were produced.  They haven’t all been edited 100% – sorry, there’s only 24hrs in the day.

 

• Don’t forget your grey card for color correction – Time Saver!
• Always take a couple of test-shots and check them out in the computer before continuing Adjust lighting distances, intensities, and other variables in the beginning to insure consistent shooting for the rest of the event
• Throw some light on the background if it’s white so you get a pure white backdrop and some more depth
• Strobes can fire remotely and trigger off of one another’s flash
• Don’t install editing software on your computer the night before a shoot that might overwrite other software you actually want to use, thus making you have to panic thinking all the images are corrupt while your subject is waiting to review images that won’t show up.