by Alex Brown | Aug 1, 2017
See some of my favorite photographs from my recent engagement photography shoot with Marissa and Connor.
There is something magical about engagement photography… even in Rexburg! Engagement photography marks the beginning of the moments that will be captured to be saved for eternity. This is one of the main reasons why I love doing engagement photography.
When it comes to shooting engagement photography, my style is different from most photographers, in the fact that I believe in capturing the candid moments. While posing is important during an engagement photoshoot, the moments of natural affection and love between the couple is what I strive for.
I’ve known Connor for a while now, and we were actually roommates when he was dating Marissa long distance. After hearing many FaceTime calls and long talks, it was nice to finally meet her in person and see the love in their relationship.
Here are some of my favorite shots that I captured from our recent engagement photography shoot with Marissa and Connor:
by Alex Brown | Mar 22, 2017
How adding two simple things can take a women’s fashion photoshoot to the next level.
This post is one in a series in what I like to call Fashion Focus. I love color. Always will. Whenever I can incorporate color into a photoshoot, I jump all over the opportunity. Recently I bought a 47″ octobox light modifier for my speedlights. It’s been a great purchase and I absolutely love it! However, I wanted to see fi there was a way to create a color gel for the modifier itself. And sure enough, there is.
Go to your local Michael’s or craft store and find rolls of colored cellophane. Buy whatever color you like and at your next fashion photoshoot, tape it over the octobox, as if it were your soft box cover. On this shoot we had pink cellophane covering the octobox on the right, with a strobe light and a yellow filter to her left.
When working with color, the hardest thing to master is what I call color spill. In this photo, my model Noelle turned enough just so that the pink gel only lit her hair.
Another cool thing that you can do to make shooting with color even cooler is use bubbles! In order to get a lot of bubbles, consider buying a bubble machine on Amazon or at your local store.
Take a look at Nordstrom’s 2017 Spring Campaign, the inspiration behind this shoot.
by Alex Brown | Mar 15, 2017
COMM316 Idaho Portrait Photoshoot Workshop – Stock Photography Candidates
Back in January I went with a group of other students taking COMM316 at BYU-Idaho to Sky Mountain Lodge located in Victor, ID for a 4-day photo workshop.
On the third day of our excursion we spent a lot of time working on portraits. Being a photographer in Idaho is somewhat difficult due to the amount of competition we have here, so it’s important to learn various and different lighting techniques that allow us to differentiate ourselves from the competition and give us a competitive edge. All of these pictures were taken using the awesome and portable Rogue Flashbenders. These light modifiers are great for speedlights since they are ultra portable and super lightweight.
These photos take the normal portrait and put a complete different twist on them. All of these Idaho portraits would be excellent photos for stock photography! Stock photography is more than photos that just have a white background; they’re photos that are conceptual and tell a story behind them. As you look at these, try to imagine what was actually going on in these photos.
Take a look at some more funny stock photos here.
by Alex Brown | Mar 15, 2017
Some of my favorites from our COMM316 Idaho Portrait Photoshoot Workshop
Back in January I went with a group of other students taking COMM316 at BYU-Idaho to Sky Mountain Lodge located in Victor, ID for a 4-day photo workshop.
On the third day of our excursion we spent a lot of time working on portraits. Being a photographer in Idaho is somewhat difficult due to the amount of competition we have here, so it’s important to learn various and different lighting techniques that allow us to differentiate ourselves from the competition and give us a competitive edge. All of these pictures were taken using various forms of auxiliary lighting – whether it be the Einstein strobes, continuous lights modified with soft boxes or the wonderful speedlights with octobox modifiers.
Helaman in this picture looks like John Mayer. While I can’t remember if he actually played the guitar, I do remember this lighting was AWESOME. This is a great example of the Rembrandt lighting pattern. I love his pose, the direction of the light and the overall environment. This Idaho portrait would be the perfect cover for a country album!
I will say that this pose might seem totally unnatural, but it totally wasn’t! When I got to shoot Emily Birkmeyer’s Idaho portrait, she was doing something with her hands on her head and I absolutely love it. I think the reason why the pose works so well for this picture is the fact that it helps frame her face. In addition I love how only the brightest of colors are located between her hands — her lipstick, eyes, and the yellow in her glasses!
Meet Emily Froelich! She’s an awesome designer and a great photographer! I love all three of these Idaho portraits that I captured of her because her look is timeless and the background is different yet works! When editing Emily’s portraits I focused on evening out the lighting on her skin and sharpening her eyes!
Check out more awesome Idaho portraits by Janae Harker.
by Alex Brown | Mar 15, 2017
No matter what color backdrop you have, find out three simple ways that can make any studio photoshoot fun.
CAROUSEL
As a photographer, freezing motion is one of the easiest and simplest things you can have any model or subject do! First off, Baylie Madyson is a great photographer herself, but she is so photogenic. When freezing motion with a model, it’s important to direct your model to keep a great expression and face throughout the shot. If you think about it, when the model is moving around they are more focused about completing the action or making sure not to knock over anything – instead of their expression. When it came to this shoot, we used a Wescott Spiderlight with a huge 80″ octabox and a diffusor panel and then had a grey backdrop I love shooting on grey backdrops because the complement any work well for any skin tone, most clothing and provide a nice radial gradient behind the model. Plus, it’s awesome to go in Photoshop and adjust the color of blacks!
BUBBLE TROUBLE
I’ve always envied those people who are able to blow bubbles with their bubble gum. I’ve tried so many times but can never seem to ever get it to work. Thankfully Ashley Morin can do that! This is a great and fun way to take a boring studio portrait and make it pop. pun totally intended! According to Ashley, the best type of gum to blow bubbles with was my childhood favorite, Hubba Bubba. Even if you can’t get some Hubba Bubba, any gum should work but you might need to go in photoshop and do a selective color adjustment to increase the pinks like I did with this shot. Another thing that I must stress is to make sure the model maintains a good expression!
THE NATURAL
I love this picture of Jill Weaver because I love how she was herself in front of the camera. I believe we were actually waiting for someone to bring us something, so I was trying to make her laugh (something I love to do with models) and she was just playing around with her necklace. When it comes to portrait photography whatever is closest to the camera will look larger. When I look back at this picture, I love the expression, however, I wish I had her bring her shoulder back just a bit that way it’s in proportion with the rest of her body. THe other thing I absolutely love about this picture is the motion that is in her hair. By instructing her to tilt her head back a little bit her hair becomes something more to this fun studio shoot!
If you want to see some more ideas of fun studio shoots, take a look at this family photoshoot by Townsville Photography Studio.
by Alex Brown | Mar 15, 2017
No matter how much you hate each other, show people that you’re in love with a couples mini session.
I’m going to be flat out honest with you right now: Sam and Emma are not dating. Or married. Not only did I link to their websites to increase SEO interaction, I want you to see their awesome work!
Photographing couples, whether engaged or married, is always a fun task. Whenever I photograph engagements or do couples mini sessions I always start by telling them how I’m different from other photographers in the fact that I dont heavily believe in posing and directing. I think the best photos are those that show natural expressions and capture the goofy moments like this one below. A week or so ago, I actually watched a Lindsay Adler workshop and it was interesting to see how strongly she believes in this similar method – letting people be natural then turning a pose into that.
Just as much as these too love each other (or not), I love shooting couples! If you ever are interested in a full shoot or even a couples mini shoot, feel free to send me a message on my contact page. I would love to hear from you and even more work with you!
