Guided by Light
Photo taken in Anchorage, AK
Model: Megan Birchell
Oct, 2013Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in my backyard. Living in Alaska I'm lucky to have woods and mountains right in my backyard.Time
I took this photo in the middle of the day. Living in the night of the midnight sun, we have so much light to play and experiment with in the summer.Lighting
During this shoot I was having a hard time getting the light to be moody. I was able to achieve it by underexposing the shot. Megan was so natural in front of my lens and was setting the mood. Luckily I was able to get it together and create an image that matched her.Equipment
I used my canon 60D and just a stock lens to capture this image. During this shoot however I kept swapping lenses between stock and a 50mm.Inspiration
Megan and I talked about doing a moody shoot for a while before this photoshoot. We decided to play around with fire for it and a lamp that I received for a graduation gift ended up being a perfect prop.Editing
I didn't do a lot in post processing with this photo which just makes me love it even more. I adore this photo because it looks just like it did on the back of my camera. I typically use Lightroom for post processing, and for this image I just played a little bit with shadows and highlights.In my camera bag
I love taking photos of people so my camera bag has a lot of random accessories in it (hair ties, Bobby pins, safety pins, flower crowns, make up, etc.) I also carry my camera body and a handful of lenses depending on what I plan to take photos of. You can always find my stock lens and a 50 mm lens in there though. I also have a pocket sized reflector that hangs out in my bag. My "other bag" (my car) always has a tripod, a full size reflector and diffuser and a 5 foot long piece of insulation board from Lowes (the shiny side makes for a really great reflector). Sometimes I carry a flash, but in the summer I really like to play and experiment with natural light.Feedback
I learned almost everything I know about photography from Mandy Morell, she was my high school photography teacher and she encouraged me to continue in photography. If it weren't for her guidance I probably would have put down my camera a long time ago. She encouraged me to always experiment and get out of my comfort zone and those pieces of advice I carry with me every time I take out my camera. One piece of advice I have is to have a relationship with your models. Megan and I stood in this pose for a while, while I figured out my settings to create the mood we wanted. Being able to communicate effectively and have fun with your models makes it so much easier. Here in Alaska we have such an amazing community of photographers who are always helping eachother out and critiquing photos and that really helps me learn and grow my skills. Having relationships with other photographers who can give advice or critique is also a huge asset for any photographer.
