Test Shoot Brooke

Brooke and I experimented a while back. I did makeup that I'd wanted to try for some time and she was patient enough to sit through the many changes,,. We brainstormed and between the two of us, had fun and got some shots that I really love!

Kayla Deconstructed

Today was a really beautiful day! The temperature was great, the lighting perfect on my front porch so I decided to take advantage of it. I had my hubby help me drag my background outside, and we did the entire shoot out there. I wanted simple shots, something reminiscent of old Calvin Klein ads. I went into the shoot planning to change everything in black and white. One look at Kayla in that lighting though and I totally reneged. LOL. The lighting was soft and really gorgeous. As always at the end of the shoot, we took the wardrobe down to the bare minimal and did the last frames super simple. Here are my fav shots.

Abbey-Deconstructed

Recently I had another shoot with Abbey Leblanc from Emerge, and we did a wide range of shots. We tried different looks, some different lighting, and it was great. For Abbey's deconstructed shots, we did them in between looks. She was playing around the bunny ears while we decided what the next look would be and I decided to shoot. These are fun shots, those who know me and have shot with me know I'm not much for smiley shots, but these were about showing Abbey's silly side. I left the retouching alone, only changing the pics to black and white and adding a little noise. Love these shots.

Ari-Deconstructed

So lately I've been making a concentrated effort to get my work published. Small magazine, online magazine, and everything in between. While that's a great personal goal and certainly helps you get your photography out there, it makes posting your work and sneak peeks impossible. I know I have a short attention span, and people on the internet even shorter. What that means for photographers like myself who're just beginning and trying to build a following is that you're easily forgotten. Curiosity seekers move on to the next big thing, no one is discussing your work and new fans are harder to acquire. Social media requires constant effort and lots of shiny objects to gain attention. :) Not to mention I, as a rule, am super impatient, and I always want to show my work immediately so as to say, look, look what I've done today. Recently on my shoots, I've taken the model out of our 'set-up', taken down  their hair, softened or removed the make-up and shot some really simple black and whites portraits. This does two things, it gets simple headshots for the model, and allows me to get simple shots for myself. Well, I wanted to take it a little further with this recent shoot. The word deconstructed rang in my head, and the concept of literally deconstructing what we've done on the shoot intrigued me. No strobes or fancy lighting, no overt posing, no touch ups on the make-up, I wanted the model exactly as she would be after a long shoot. More than anything I just want to see if I can get any real type of emotion or feeling if the model is tired and ready to go home. lol.  Once you say you're taking pictures, the model's going to pose tired or not, lol, so it should be interesting to see what I'll get. Ari's my first experiment with this.
  
This Sunday I shot with Ari, where we did a crazy beauty editorial. (Stay tuned for that behind the scenes.) Afterward I took her hair down out of the last style, and had her change into a simple shirt. Right on my front stoop, we did natural lighting and a blank wall. (Prepare to see a lot of that wall.) I'm going to make an effort to get portraits of the models I use in my shoots, after the shoot is done and will call these portraits  'models Deconstructed'. So check my facebook page, www.facebook.com/OhSnapStudiosTampa, and here for 'models Deconstructed.' Here are my fav shots from Ari.

Family Treasures

Ahh, the pleasures of family treasures. When my family realized I was serious about photography, the random, unusual and mostly awesome little presents started. A hat here, a piece of jewelry they found at a thrift store, or little small nonsenses that you find at garage sales. I got them. I loved them, and much to my husband's chagrin, I've kept the majority of them. My dad is great about finding small treasures while he's out 'garaging' (his term for going to garage sales) and giving them to me when I go to Georgia to visit. They've been featured in a many of my photoshoots. But, my all time favorite gift or treasure my dad has found, is definitely a camcorder he found at a garage sale that has to be from the seventies. LMAO, ok, maybe not the seventies, I'm not even sure when they started making hand held cameras. As a matter of fact this thing is so huge, I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been hand held. I love it! Recently I posted on my facebook that I was in the mood to shoot and Shelby graciously answered and said she was down. Well, I absolutely love last minute, out of the blue shoots. It gives me a chance to be creative and a little whimsical. Sometimes I see something during the day that inspires me, and this was one of those days. Any who, she came over and I finally had an idea for the camera my dad gave me. The resulting shoot is called 'Live Feed'. Here are some of the images from that shoot, as well as some of the other treasures I've received from my family.

Here are some other images of the various things my dad bought for me 'garaging'. :)

The veil in the front, is one of my family treasures.

The round glass dome was from a light fixture my dad found. Loved it. Probably will have other uses for it as well.

Project Red Light

Last year I decided to work on a personal project. Something that explored the concept of sexy without necessarily being overt. Project Red light came from that. It's my take on sexy, whether it be hard, soft or sensual. there are different sides to Sexy. More importantly what I wanted to show was the gut reaction most people have to the 'red light'. It immediately sets the mood to sexy and regardless of what the model is wearing or lack thereof, the red light will signify sex. So project red light is my take on 'sexy'. I took both beauty shots as well as fashion shots. Here are my favorite shots from the project.