Smoke Eater Portraits

Hi Friends,

Shot a few portraits our youth pastor, Goose, dressed up in firefighter’s turnout gear for a promotional piece for our church “Fireproofing Your Marriage” seminar.

I’m trying to build a portfolio of portraits of first responders (firefighters, police, paramedics), medical personnel (docs, nurses), and military, So far, I’ve got Marine Corps, and Army, and now firefighter, though I’m certainly open to additional portraits in those areas.  I’d love to shoot in situ: i.e., in a helicopter, an ambulance, a police cruiser or motorcycle, etc., to put the portraits in context.   So if you’ve got any connections, please, please, please let me know!  I’d love to talk with you.

Here are the firefighter portraits from the other night:

Update 3/9/09

I’ve had several requests to show how these portraits were setup.  If you can forgive the stick-figure style, here’s the sketch and summary.

Basically: key light in a beauty dish, centered over camera and slightly above the subject’s eyeline; 2 backlights, about shoulder height (gobo’d to prevent lens flare); and a pair of $10 smoke machines that I picked up at an after-Halloween clearance sale.

Take a lot of frames to get the smoke right.

Thanks for looking!

Jake and Lisa: The Wedding…

Hi Friends,

Last fall, I shot engagement portraits for Lisa and Jake (proofs here and here), and had an absolute blast.  Lovely couple, fun to work with, and VERY photogenic.

Well, their special day was last weekend, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Click on the video above for 4 minutes of wedding goodness, courtesy of the Gilbertsons.

I’ve posted a few more images on my gallery here.

I’ve also created a 40-page magazine, titled, “With This Ring…” that includes some of my favorites from the wedding and reception.  You can preview “With This Ring” here.

And don’t forget, my “Adobe Lightroom Traveling Roadshow” is coming to Anaheim on Saturday, February 28. Only a few spots left. Click HERE for more info.