The Eyes Have It

I'm a huge fan of making the eyes the focal point of the frame.  There's so much mystery and intrigue in a person's eyes.  I prefer to highlight that whenever I can.  It's a personal preference.  One that often leaves me criticized for framing a photograph this way, because it cuts the top of the head out of the frame.  I say, show me the rule that claims a person needs the top of their head in a frame and well, I'd still frame people this way.

When you look at these portraits, the eyes of the subject should draw you in.  The lighting, shadows, and even the catch light in the eyes give the photograph a sense of depth, but it's the position of the eyes (in the top 1/3 of the frame) that give the portrait life.

Matt

Tyler

 

 Kyle

Mini Me... Well, Sort Of.

Over the weekend, I was so honored to photograph Tyler, my nephew and Matt, his friend.  It's their senior year and we had to make it special.  Anyone that really knows me, will see these photographs and think nothing is wrong, but for those that don't know my brand of humor, let me just say, I'm a firm believer in the power of laughter!  We did a lot of serious photographs, but also had to have some fun.  I want Tyler to remember the nice photographs, but I also want him to remember his goof of an uncle.  Oddly, during the session, I realized just how much Tyler is like me.  I'd say he's a mini-me, but he's kind of towers over me.  We had to shoot the photographs on our knees... yeah he's that tall! 

Thanks for putting up with me Tyler!  We love you.

A special thanks to Matt Fischer, you'll have some photographs and story here soon.

Adam and Bethany

We love to photograph people, but more importantly, we love to photograph people in love.   There's something about the connectedness of two people that draws us in.  Adam and Bethany approached us with one request.  They wanted to be themselves.  They didn't say make us unique, we're all unique, they simply said let us be who we are.  For us, that was something worth working for. 

On the day of the engagement session the wind was so strong, we had to make a great number of changes to our lighting and posing techniques. 

Amid the growing problems,  Adam and Bethany never lost faith in us to produce images they would love. 

We bounced ideas off each other, talked about what we wanted to do, and listened when Adam and Bethany had suggestions.

In the end we had a great session.  Best of all, Adam and Bethany got to be who they are, and we got to use a cool feature of one of our programs.

That's right, Adam and Bethany like comic books, so it was only fitting they get to have a page out of their own book.