Portraits - Jen

Last week my graphic designer friend Jen came over to hang out and take some pictures.  We actually went to high school together, and were cool, but not really friends.  Now that we're both in the arts, we talk online sometimes and share cool things we've found.  She does really amazing work (I want her to redesign my website!) so check out her stuff at www.jendorman.com.  I suggest you look under the "Projects" section, in which there is a very cool Evil Dead 2 patch.  After you do that, be jealous, because she gave me one and it is AWESOME.

So anyway.  Jen has pretty cool style, and is especially interesting in that she wears a lot of skirts and dresses.  Do girls really do that anymore?  I don't know, I wear jeans.

First off, she wanted to be in my body mod project with her back tattoo(s).  There's a photo in the album on Facebook of the bigger one, but she also showed off her semi-colon tat, explaining that she designed it herself and that the semi-colon is a favorite punctuation mark.  That's slightly random, but ok.  Semi-colons are pretty cool, yeah.  Also, I'm really aware of my punctuation now and feel the second sentence in this paragraph may require a semi-colon somewhere.....

Yay!  I love this picture.  Backlit by softbox.

Classy.

 

And classier.  In the glass, by the way, is grape gin, which is surprisingly good as I generally find gin rather foul.  Jen also is a fan.  Cheers!

2013 Senior Model Application

2013 Senior Model Application
for elena dee photography

Here’s what you need to do:

Be graduating from high school in 2013.
Be fun, friendly, have great style, and bring props!
Be comfortable in front of the camera.
Tell everyone you know about elena dee photography.
Have your parent or guardian sign a model release form.
Agree to have your senior portraits done by and represent ONLY elena dee.
Leave comments on the facebook page!

Here’s what you get:

A FREE senior portrait photo session (worth $150), that must be shot by May 1st, 2011.  You have the option to shoot again before October 1st for half off the regular session fee.
24 free wallets
a CD of 10 lo-res images with the elena dee photography logo on them to use on sites such as Facebook.
Model cards with your image on the front (your friends get 8 free wallets for turning them in!)
Free mini book of your images



Name:   __________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________

Phone: ____________________   Email: ____________________________

School:  __________________________________     GPA: _______

Facebook?  ________________________


Hobbies/Interests/Extracurriculars: 






Why do you want to be a senior model for elena dee photography?







How would your friends describe you?








How did you hear about elena dee photography?







Anything else?  Dreams?  Goals?  Fun facts?  I want to get to know you!

Seniors 2012 - Zak

I got a call earlier this week asking to do senior portraits for a kid named Zak.  Definitely psyched for it because, when I was talking to his mom she said he skateboards and shooting at a skate park would be super fun.  Of course, the weather today turned out terrible - very windy and with freezing rain.  So that part is postponed to next weekend, but today we still got some awesome studio shots!

This was my lighting set up for the day.  The hair light is an Alien Bee B400, the umbrella and softbox have B800s.  This was also my first shoot using my new background, so that was pretty exciting!  After years of saying "these paper backdrops are in terrible shape, I should buy new ones" I finally invested in black and white muslin backdrops.  MUCH nicer.

At ImagingUSA this year, I went to a lighting seminar from Oscar Lozoya, who is amazing.  He really had me excited about lighting so I was determined to make something nice today.  Quite pleased with how it turned out - you can see the separation between the background and Zak's dark hair, the highlights on his shirt aren't blown out and there's great texture.  The softbox was up higher (and not tilted down) in this photo than in the example because he's standing, but basically the same setup.

Backlit by the softbox.  It makes a great white background!

This shows the lighting set-up from the example.  Because he's a skateboarder and we couldn't go outside, we still wanted to include his favorite board in the studio shots.

There's a brick wall in The Fallout Shelter where I was shooting, so had Zak grab his board and take a few shots over there.  I showed him this on the back of the camera and he said he really liked the lighting and how the skateboard is visible in the background.  Yay, I love making the client happy!!

Is Your Kid the Cutest?

As many of you know, my charity of choice is Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  Every year, they have a fundraiser, the Charity Model Search, which is a photo contest for the Cutest Kid.  I decided to participate this year, so am looking for models!  Once you have your session, I'll post a picture to the contest and you have all your friends and families vote.  Votes cost $1 a piece, but are absolutely worth it - every penny benefits NILMDTS.  Plus you have the chance to win all kinds of prizes!

ImagingUSA 2012 - Life is To Short To Live Somebody Else's Dream

Just got home from ImagingUSA which was in New Orleans this year.  This is my fourth year at Imaging, and my first as a member of PPA (Professional Photographers of America) instead of a volunteer from SPS (Student Photographic Society).  I'm a grown-up!!  Hahahaha, yeahhh....  Anyway, I went with my ex-boyfriend and fellow photographer/former SPS and AiP kid Cryss.  We were able to meet up with our Colorado friend Sheena, which was awesome!  She and her husband used to live in Louisiana so were able to suggest all kinds of delicious places to eat (ok, seriously, Mother's?  That was one impressive sandwich).  I wish I could see my photographer friends who don't live around Pittsburgh more often, but it's nice to catch up at Imaging.


Cryss and I stayed about a mile from the convention center in the French Quarter, which I love.  New Orleans in general, I love.  I wanted to stay.  Yes, last year I wanted to stay in San Antonio, but New Orleans...wow.  Traveling is definitely in my future, though I was thrilled to come home.  While I was there though, so much walking!  All around, not just to the convention center, though I spend a LOT of time there!


My goal this year was to go to a bunch of classes on business (pricing, marketing, that sort of thing) and senior portraiture.  I need some help in the business/marking aspect so that was to teach me and I love doing senior pictures so wanted inspiration there.  Literally took half a composition book full of notes!  Sunday there were four time slots for class and I went to all four which was exhausting but informative.  The problem of course, was deciding what to go to, but I mostly picked good ones.  Monday I went to two out of the three, then went exploring, and Tuesday I slacked and only went to two of four because I slept in a little and then went to the Expo where I bought a Rogue Flash Bender (goes on your speedlight, pretty nifty) and a new LensBaby Composer Pro (these are AMAZING).  I can't wait to use them!!  I especially think the LensBaby is going to be a huge hit with my senior girls this year, so am really excited.  I'm also really excited about some of the things I learned.


A couple things really stuck out.  One was a lighting class by this guy named Oscar Lozoya.  He is AMAZING.  Seriously, look him up.  Actually, I'll make it easy and just click on his name, it takes you to his website.  I was so insanely impressed by his lighting and diagrams that I bought his book and had him sign it.  The other thing that stuck out was the phrase "FEAR LESS."  A couple of the speakers I saw talked about not selling yourself short and having confidence in yourself and your work.  To be honest, I have trouble with that sometimes.  One speaker though, Kimberly Wylie, she had these phrases on her slides: "Fear less, dream more" and "Life is too short to live somebody else's dream" that really hit me.  Those are things I've been working on and am getting better at (Damien tells me similar things a lot), but sometimes you need to hear them in a setting like that.  So yeah, that was really inspirational to me and I'm going to try so hard to live MY dream.

These are all images from my last day in NOLA, when I did what I spent most the trip attempting to do and went on a photo adventure to the cemetery where the Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen is rumored to be buried.  So in love.

Up Early with Liv

I'm mentioned my model Liv many times.  We've known each other since she was in elementary school with my sister and is home from college for winter break right now so we decided to do a shoot.  Liv wanted something kind of vintage, which reminded me of a senior picture shoot I did over summer.  We decided to revisit that location with some great thrift store finds.  At sunrise.  Getting up early is not my strong point but something I really need to work on, plus the light is always beautiful.


Of course, switching between lenses made it difficult because I was using the f1.4 and the first frame or two after switching would be either too dark or completely blown out.  HOWEVER, there is this magical thing called camera RAW which allowed some saving.  Check out how awesome this before and after is!

The top is straight out of camera.  The bottom is after some tinkering around in LightRoom.  Sometimes mistakes turn out really well!!  Now for the intentional images....

I just had to edit this all old-timey.  The fall-off from the f1.4 is beautiful and I love how the necklace and lace of the dress look.  She looks straight out of the 19th century.

Love her poses!

The light and lines in this makes it a favorite.  Plus Liv has a stunning profile - having a good model can make or break a photo.


Of course, I had to go and love the vintage look in black and white which took out the lovely colors but there's an image on my facebook page from this shoot in color.  Go love it!

Sardonyx Battle of the Bands Finals

On Sunday, my friend Craig from The Pittsburgh Scene texted me saying that the Sardonyx high school Battle of the Bands at Diesel needed a photographer ASAP, could I come?  Long story short, I grabbed my camera and went over.  A couple bands had already played but I managed to catch the top three.  I had various lens - the 18-55mm kit lens, a 75-300, and my new 85mm prime f1.4 which I'm crazy about.  I used all of them throughout the night, switching as I ran around from the pit in front to all sides of the balcony to the stairs just offstage.

Shirts vs Skins.  They were pretty cool, had to be to get second place!  Also, hot pink Doc Martens are my dream shoes, so super jealous of the singer's.

M4.   I thought this was a high school battle, but 10-year-olds playing Metallica (and doing it decently) is kind of mind-blowing!

Lovely Crisis.  They got third, and had amazing energy but the most impressive part was how into them the crowd was.

Second Empire.   My personal favorite of the night and the winner of the battle.  I would definitely listen to them in my car.  I HATE when venues use all red light because it completely destroys detail but her eyes in this are phenomenal.

East Enders.  Some of the kids from M4 and some other kids.  They were really impressive - one kid was switching between lead guitar, keyboards and saxophone at age I spent most my time climbing trees and reading fantasy novels.