It's always nice when your clients have access to something cool, say... a firehouse!? We got some really cool shots, including Anthony taking Jamie away on his shoulder! We took the second half of the shoot out to the forest and climbed some trees. What cracks me up about this shoot is that it was getting dark when I was shooting the ring. So we needed a light source and ended up using the flashlight from an iPhone! :)

I had become pretty good at using flash in a controlled studio setting, but I wanted to get better at other types of situations. I knew it would be overcast in the morning for a few days so I wanted to practice strobes in overcast lighting. People say overcast is the best, but sometimes it's flat and you get no pop in the eyes. The challenge was to use the strobe to carve out features and create both a natural portrait and punchy portrait. My model was Shannon who I had met on another shoot. She had never modeled before and did an amazing job. Great length on her body, and good facial structure for the shots I wanted. The funny thing about this shoot is we got a variety of shots within a 20 yard radius space.

This was a fun shoot with Diana! She has a lot of character and knows how to convey it on camera! We shot just before sunset in Camel Valley. Diana has a collection of dresses, but the one she chose for our shoot perfectly complimented the greenery in the forest. While I mostly use natural light for this shoot, I decided to use a little flash work also. I dropped in the light directly over head with the beauty dish and I also splashed it on the left and right to create a little more drama in the photos later on in the shoot.