Alien Bees and Zombie Pinups

About a week and a half ago I finally achieved a major photographic goal of mine and purchased an Alien Bee B800 along with a softbox, umbrella, and heavy duty light stand. It's great stuff - the softbox is SO easy to assemble and light works wonderfully. Such a great purchase. I did some test portraits for the first couple days, using my sister and friend Erich as models. This is one of my best shots of Erich. There are more test shots to be seen on my (fairly new) facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/elenadeephoto




Over the past month, my buddy Kevin and I have been practicing our zombie makeup, which finally was used for a zombie pinup session featuring my sister/model Christiana yesterday. Kevin and I made wounds using liquid latex, while my fellow photographer Cassandra Grzybowski helped apply bruise makeup. She did a beautiful job on the face and shoulders, I must say. And Kevin's knee wound and the one I did on her thigh look especially decayed in the classic legs crossed pinup pose, as you can see below. I've never tried pinup before, but have wanted to for awhile. Personally, I think they turned out quite well for a first attempt. Christy is a great model, and if anyone is interested in shooting her, she can be reached on Model Mayhem - http://www.modelmayhem.com/christianacdd

NILMDTS

Today I got accepted as a volunteer for the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. NILMDTS is a group of volunteer photographers who can be called in to photograph, free of charge, stillborn or dying babies. The infants can be photographed while still alive, after death, or, if the mother knows her child has little to no chance of survival, while still in utero. Or all of the above. Whatever the family wants. It's to provide people with lasting, professional images of their child.

It's a beautiful idea and when I was took History of Photography in school, we talked about post-mortem photography in the Victorian age (often done of deceased children) and how no one really does that anymore. It seemed like a cool idea then and still does now. I'm very pleased to have my application to NILMDTS accepted and, even though I'm sure I'll cry, because it is terribly distressing and sad, I am glad that whenever I get called in to do this, I will be able to help someone's grieving process.

To read more about NILMDTS, you can go to their website: http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

ImagingUSA 2010

Just got in last night in from a week in Nashville for the ImagingUSA 2010 photo conference, where, for the second year, I was a student volunteer with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh's SPS (Student Photographic Society) chapter. I attended some lectures and checked out the Expo, where I bought an Interfit Strobies Portrait kit. It's freaking awesome - an accessory kit for my speedlight containing a mini softbox, a snoot, a beauty dish, barndoors, a 20 degree honeycomb grid and, my new favorite, a globe diffuser. Useful stuff for location shooting and will wonderfully complement the Alien Bees strobe I plan on buying in the next week or so.

There was also a portfolio review at ImagingUSA for the students and I got some input. Too much nitpicking and enough general tips, but my work was generally well received which was nice. I also made a couple contacts, including a man who runs a studio in Swissvale about 45 minutes from me and the president of the Professional Photographers of Pennsylvania. I've been invited to the first conference of the year, which is like a mini ImagingUSA for PA photographers and will be in 3 weeks or so. Might have to go check it out - only a two hour drive. There was also a woman taking photographs at the end of the conference party and I gave her my card (she was taking some of me and my friends) and then her whole group wanted my card as well! I have a couple different designs and they seemed to be comparing, which was entertaining.

Overall, Imaging this year was great, I learned a bit and made a great purchase. Hung out with photo students from other schools, which was great fun. I also got free subscriptions to a couple magazines - RangeFinder and my favorite photo magazine AfterCapture. Grabbed a copy of The Knot to do research for a wedding I'll be photographing in May. It was a productive trip!

Seniors and the Sunroom

This is Janelle. I did her senior pictures today. She's my 7th - 2nd referred - and I should have another soon. Today was pretty gloomy and rainy, but we still definitely got some good shots. My "studio" at the moment is wonderfully ghetto - my white paper backdrop is getting a bit dirty and torn and the sunroom where I shoot is jam packed with boxes of my dad's. There's barely enough room, but it's great.

It might not look too pretty, but I really am so thankful for my sunroom - the light there is absolutely phenomenal and I don't know how I'd get by without it. It's completely unnecessary to use any lights at all in there, though occasionally (such as in this photo) I'll use my speedlight. Once I get my Alien Bees and softbox (Christmas presents, hopefully!), I'll be able to set up in either the room adjoining the sunroom or the furnace room as well and that way both the white and black backgrounds can be used without having to tear down between sets. I can't wait!

iMac

Today I got a 27 inch iMac!! I've been saving for it since graduation in June, so I'm very excited to finally make the purchase. It's an amazing machine, very fast and powerful. I should be able to do some great editing on this.

I also just sold my first senior picture prints this week, which was very exciting! Dani came and picked up her prints and Janet's should be here in a day or two. Very exciting.

What I've been working on lately

It's been awhile since I last updated. I graduated in June and have been doing some freelance work including something a little different from my usual style lately: SENIOR PICTURES! Dun dun DUN! The one to the left here is my lovely cousin Meghan. Some moms are a little worried that I'm too edgy to do senior portrait, but I do a decent job. Yes, some of my images may be interesting looking than your average portrait studio senior portraits, but who's to say that's a bad thing?! Not all kids want the cookie-cutter photos that so many of the major studios in the area offer.


I've also been doing some promos for local bands such as Sunday Morning (a No Doubt tribute band) and Ohio metal band Resistance 13. Photographing bands is very, very different than photographing high schoolers, but the variety keeps my perspective fresh. Sunday Morning especially was a challenge because we were attempting to keep with the No Doubt aesthetic. Mimicking their style was definitely fun and the singer, Courtney, is a graphic designer so I provided her with images that she then made into a flier, seen below.

Preparing for Graduation

Graduation is in less than a month and so of course I've needed to shoot for that. Band promo pics were my goal this quarter and I had two shoots this week - Downfall (www.myspace.com/witnessdownfall) and Ozo Remedy (www.myspace.com/ozoremedy). I'll be photographing Tripshod, New Shores Burn, and Dethlehem within the next couple of weeks. Bands are a little more difficult to schedule than models because of the number of people. It's definitely worth it though - these shoots were very different and very fun.

Downfall's shoot was at this burned out shell of a hut in the back woods of Ambridge. I used almost entirely natural light, though supplemented with flash occasionally when were funky shadows. Ozo Remedy's was more formal and we shot in a video studio one of the band members works at. It made me really want a studio of my own, so if I don't get a job right out of school, I think there's a very good chance that the old storefront will be rennovated.




I also recently redesigned my webpage - www.elena-dee.com. Today I'm going to order some promo pieces for graduation - buttons! They're going to be awesome, I can't wait!