Darice Michelle Photography

Thank you everyone for your patience as many of you have waited for my next “photography” blog class.

Before I begin my next “blog class”, I would like to introduce you all to Amanda Amaru, a local young talented singer here in Jacksonville! ¬†I am working on getting some of Amanda’s songs to put up on my blog so you all can hear some of her work! ¬†

¬†This is Part A, Part B will be focus on lighting, style, feel & emotion through using photoshop color composition… so check back for Part B soon. ¬†Please know that although I love to help others out to achieve their goals, ambitions and dreams, these blog classes are limited, for you would learn best doing a shoot with me in person or training one-on-one in photoshop. ¬†But for those of you that have an itch to scratch, ¬†I hope you will find these blog classes of an encouragement as I share some of my knowledge here. ¬†Like all, the more you practice and play around, the more you will learn and grow in your craft! ¬†Never stop believing in whatever your photography or personal goals are in life! ¬†Each and every one of us has limitless potential to bring to reality what we dream and vision up within our hearts and minds. ¬†If there is something I don’t know or understand, my number one rule with myself is, “there is no such thing as I don’t know how to,” only, “I have yet to learn how to.” ¬†So don’t stop believing!!! ¬†: )

This Blog Segment, will focus on “where” I am when I snap the photo. ¬†This should help you to see “how” I obtained certain angles and the look I wanted to achieve from each angle. ¬†

Here I am standing to include part of the palms in the foreground of my photo.   Sometimes adding color to an image helps to enhance the interest of the image.  In addition, including an object in front of your subject gives the image dimension and framing. 

The result? ¬†…

 

In this next photo, I am leaning up against the wall shooting straight towards Amanda using the classic tilt.  Now keep in mind that in order to blur the left side wall here, I placed my lens literally up against the wall as to include the wall in part of my image.  The combination of the side wall and the classic tilt turns an ordinary image to an interesting image.  

¬†Most of my images are taken at ground level. ¬†I think too often photographers don’t get low enough to produce below eye level photos. ¬†For all you male photographers out there, I would suggest working on your inner hip flexibility abilities whenever you are at the gym so you too can get lower down : )

 

Using a fish eye…the result?

  

Again I am squatting but this time at a more “normal” level…

 

The result…

 

To offer the client a selection to choose from, I also pulled out the Lens Baby for the same shot…

  

To give you an idea of “where ” I placed Amanda, this over view photo will help you to visualize her location for these shots…

 

Now for those of you that might not be able to squat down, you can always come to a normal seated position which not only is easier on the knees and quads (gosh I sound like I am teaching yoga right now! HA HA), but it can also help to steady your hands thus reducing camera shake creating sharper images.

   

The following images were taken with me sitting comfortably on the sidewalk like you see me doing in the above photo.  

 

And here we have Kristen Cavallo practicing her own shots…

Kristen did an awesome job producing these photos…

  

This photo below is my favorite one Kristen shot!

These next two images were taken with me literally lying on the ground tummy faced down! ¬†You have to get THAT low if you want images like these…

 

If you want the inside scoop on how to produce long and thin legs (although Amanda already has thin legs)  you will do good to shoot over her using a fish eye lens.

 

In my opinion, another key aspect that photographers should ALWAYS do no matter what kind of shoot they are doing or WHO they are photographing is to periodically SHOW your clients the images you are creating. ¬†By doing so, not only are you building their own confidence in how they are “performing” in front of the camera, but you are earning their trust when they can see firsthand that you are doing a great job with them. ¬†Once they see how fantastic they look in their photos, they will relax more, let go of their inhibitions, and enjoy the whole process which results in more striking, fun, and character-filled images from your clients! ¬†And isn’t that what all photographers dream of, having a client who is animated and actually DOES something for your camera! ¬†: )

 

Ok, so I warned you the majority of my takes includes me squatting… ¬†it’s good for stretching the hip flexors and calves (LOL).

 

But for those of you that think I can’t stand.. ha ha, I do revert to the traditional photography pose every now and then…

  

 

And here we go again, back down to the ground but not fully squatting : )

 

 

These next series of photos is of my other student, Tessa. ¬†I LOVE how she changed her position rather than remaining in the same position! ¬†Take notice of the different levels of height she is at and how she goes from horizontal to vertical in the same position…

 

Love this next position, this once will certainly strengthen your ab muscles!  LOL

 

Street photos are always fun to do. ¬†But I don’t recommend doing it unless you’ve got someone watching your back! ¬†I have always been fortunate to have help in this! ¬†When taking street photos, DO INCLUDE cars in the background. ¬†Headlights always make street photos better!

 

Next Amanda wanted a PINK background so we drove around until we found a building with pink in it. ¬†Now what we found would not be what most photographers would use… yet we took our chances and used it anyway…

 

Here I used photoshop manipulation to change the pink hues to a more peachy/brown hue. ¬†Colors drastically change the “mood” and “feel” of an image. ¬†Don’t shy away from experimenting!

  

Vertical image with me standing above Amanda using the 50mm lens pointed to the right…

 

Same image with the camera now pointing the left; however, I turned the camera literally upside down to flop this the way you see it…

 

Wondering what our pink background was?

A tiny pink strip of a “wall” that truly was not easy to work with. ¬†As we arrived to take a closer look at this wall I noticed how narrow it was, the ground was not even and the sign above would bring limitations to how much space we’d have. ¬†Yet we didn’t need to get back in my car to find another wall, we worked with what we had… here is our wall….

(photos taken by Kristen and Tessa)

 

It was a MUST to shoot at a vertical angle in order to utilize the little amount of pink wall we had to work with.  My 50mm lens was my best option.

Now I like how Kristen took this next photo.  Although the pink wall does not fill up the frame, she positioned the wall to show its surrounding area.  The green grass truly adds to the pink color here and I like that she shot standing above Amanda.  Kristen used a wide angel for this shot.

I thought the sign was fun, so we decided to include it, (I did have to photoshop the wall in more to fill up the frame)…

 

I hope you enjoyed some basic angling techniques.  My Part B class will be more involved for I will get more technical and show you some dramatic ways to bring out photoshop colors in order to fit with what your client wants to achieve in his/her photos.  Part B photos will look very different from Part A, so stay tuned.