Modeling Portfolio Shoot With Leon

The goal of this photo session was to capture three distinct looks…

1. Business

2. Dressed Down casual

3. Urban

Here is one of several images that was shot within the business look category. One thing that I can say about Leon is that he came well prepared with several changes of clothes.

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This was one of the shots that just speaks classy. Working with Leon was stress free because he had some of his own ideas as to different styles of shots to try.

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Once we had captured our fair share of images at this location we decided that it was time to get out of the suit and switch to the casual dressed down session. Of course this warranted that we change location. We hopped in the van and rode the downtown area looking for potential sites on which to shoot. For this session we found a location that had several architectural features that we could use.

All of the elements came together for this series of shots.. The sky, the aged brick, the metal walkway as well as an abandoned railroad all helped to create the atmosphere that I was looking for.

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In this shot Leon is just laid back and relaxed while checking out some of the scenery that was beyond my left shoulder. He nailed the pose and it works well with the settings.

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This is one of those classic shots.

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You will probably remember that I mentioned that this particular location had interesting features. One of those features was that on the face of one wall was a single room with yellow lights inside. This caught my attention because Leon was sporting a casual blue shirt. If you know the smallest bit about color theory then you know that blue and yellow/gold work well together. This was some what of a tricky shot to pull off. First we had to measure the amount of light coming from the yellow room as well as the brick wall. If the camera was set to let in too little light then the light on the brick would have been too dark. Once those were figured out then we set the amount of light falling on his shirt to be about twice as bright (1 stop) than the light coming from the room. Here is one of several photos that came from the brain exercise and what I call photography math.

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(Just in case you’re wondering) I will share with you why I shared so much detail about the thought process that went into the photograph above. My intent was to educate (some of my family and friends) and to teach them that a good deal of thought goes into taking a photograph. Notice that I didn’t say “picture”. I’ll never forget the time that one of my instructors got offended when I mistakenly messed up and called a portrait a picture (at the time I thought.. well it’s a picture what is the big deal). He then went on to explain that a picture is where you just point the camera and shoot without much thought.. a “snapshot” if you will. A photograph is a carefully crafted image that is created once you’ve analyed and adjusted the light sources, the angle of light that falls on the subject to create the shadows (which affects texure and detail) , the camera angle in relation to the subject, the background, the posing of the subject etc…

Now I have a deeper appreciation and respect for the people that have invested many years of their lives toward learning and becoming masters of this craft.

Enough of that rant.. let’s get back to the subject at hand.

Once we got our fair share of dressed down casual shots then Leon was then ready to take it to the streets. He ditched all the dressy clothes and went completely Urban. We lucked up and found an almost empty parking deck that overlooked the American Tobbacco Courtyard located near the Durham Bulls Baseball Stadium.

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And of course if you’re going to shoot urban.. you have to include at least one shot for the ladies.

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By the time all three sessions were over we were pleased with the images that had been captured. I’m looking forward to my next shoot now.

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