Going, Going, Gone…

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No, I am not talking about this just gone August month. It’s about my $35.00 promo portrait session.

Why Oh Why? That’s what a couple of my good photog friends had to ask when I had posted my real sweet deal about a month ago. Surely they knew what it takes to do a successful outdoor portrait session and they cautioned me not to get burned with my promo sessions 😉

Ah yes; I know that, my dear friend. I am doing the month long promo all in the name of marketing my spanking new photography venture and just want to get out there and shoot/show what I have to offer..that’s what I said.kids

Surely, it took a lot of work. You see, I have a day job that pays my bills and I’m a weekend warrior when it comes to my photography business. So it did take a lot of ground work. From the time it takes

to coordinating with the client, to come with an agreeable time on the weekend and location for the shoot
to get something going for the kids when me and wifey are gone for the shoot
to get the post processing done in a reasonable amount of time
to get the marketing aspect of the business going
to continue working with the  client when the shoot is complete
….and the list goes on….

No, I’m not complaining.
I am just making a point on what a heck of a deal this sweet promotion was 😉

Some of my favs from this past 30 days or so

Mini portrait session for Sangita & family

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Having done my first promotional family mini portrait session for Sangita, I want to blog about the shoot on what worked, what didn’t work, process flow and such. Want to get this post done when things are still fresh in my mind.

 

Needless to say, the session went very well.

Family portrait sessions are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re up to until you’re onto the shoot. That’s the challenging part and having done five sessions now, I’m liking it so far.

 

Things that worked

Simplicity is the key – be it location, pose or clothing choice, keep it simple. I had requested Sangita to get her kids dressed on “less busy” looking clothes and some dark shades. That really helped. On location choice, we had picked a park close home with trees and picked a spot where there aren’t any man made distractions. That really helped to get the subject pop out.

Things that didn’t work

30 minutes is really short for a portrait session. Client is concerned about the clock running and I’m concerned about getting at least few decent shots in the stipulated time.

2 year old have a real short attention span and you’re working on a narrow window of opportunity to capture the moment. This is something I will need to practice 😉

Anyway, in the end it turned out to be a successful session. I am all ready for next mini portrait challenge or my box of “dark” chocolates 😉
Gear used:

Nikon D600
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
Nikon SB-600 on a Westcott Octa Box mounted on a Manfrotto light stand
Neewer 5 in 1 reflector – used the silver reflector to fill the shadows

Post processing:

Lightroom 5

Post processing workflow:

Import
Crop
Adjust color temperature
Tweaked exposure using local brush
Tweaked saturation on the greens
Tweaked luminosity on skin tones
Tweaked clarity and tweaked tone curve
Export

w52.32.2: Mr. Wall Street?

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Street photography – something that I haven’t explored much during my 365 project.

I got my inspiration (a lot of inspiration) from street photographer Thomas Leuthard and my photography friend Nikhil. You can checkout Thomas Leuthard’s work at 85mm.ch and Nihkil’s work at badlightgoodlight.com

Shot this as I was getting back from work. Used my new toy, Panasonic Lumix LX5 P&S camera for this shot.

Little one…

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Picture shot with D70. Minimally post processed using Picasa 3.

Motherly love

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DSC_3067-1

Picture shot with D70. Minimally post processed using Picasa 3.